Nature's Biological Dethatcher Biological Dethatcher is a liquid solution that has been formulated to generate and accelerate the decomposition of thatch in lawns. To fuel this process, this product contains high levels of thatch digesting Bacteria and Enzymes. These, along with naturally occurring soil organisms, will break down thatch and turn it into valuable humus. Thatch is a tightly woven mat of both dead and living grass parts -roots, stems, blades, runners and clippings -that forms on top of the soil. Thatch soaks up water like a sponge and prevents the water from getting into the ground. The grass roots are found to be more in the thatch layer than in the soil, which means the lawn is more susceptible to heat and drought damage. A thatch condition means a weak, insect and disease prone lawn. The photo below is an excellent illustration of thatch in a bluegrass lawn in a clay soil. If your lawn has a true thatch condition, you cannot alleviate it with hand raking, power raking or so-called "dethatching" machines. These will only skim the surface of the thatch layer. If you dig in any deeper, you will tear out the grass. The best way to reduce thatch is to get it to decompose. For this to occur, you need to create a healthy soil. That is well aerated and bioactive. Biological Dethatcher makes sure that the specific microbes necessary for thatch decomposition are present in your soil. 4 Steps to Handling a Thatch Condition: Improve soil aeration if the soil is compacted or claylike. Beneficial soil microbes cannot survive without air in the soil. Use Aerify! to open up your soil if necessary. Cleanse and detoxify your soil if needed. Conventional fertilizers and pesticides, as well as snow salts can kill off beneficial soil life. Chlorinated water can also affect soil quality. Balance the soil pH. Very acidic or alkaline conditions can affect bioactivity. Increase thatch-degrading bioactivity with our Biological Dethatcher. Nature's Best Aerify Eliminates the need for mechanical aeration Reduces soil compaction Breaks up clay deeply Improves soil structure and humus formation Can be applied any time during the growing season Increases earthworm activity Helps bioactivate all soils Safe to use around sprinklers Improves rooting by loosening soil Improves air and water penetration An IONIZED Soil Conditioner Completely biodegradable Helps save water & reduce plant stress and disease Improves drainage & prevents erosion Saves time and money "For 1/2 the price of getting my yard aerated with a machine, I was able to put on 4 applications of the Aerify to my yard (Georgia red clay). By the end of the fall the soil was definitley looser and there were finally earthworms too. The grass had deeper roots and it was much thicker." W. Read, Marietta Organic gardeners and horticultural professionals know that one of the secrets to having great lawns and gardens is having great soil. And that means a porous, well aerated soil where roots can grow deeply and where biolife can thrive.   Compacted soils cause unhealthy plants, lawns and trees. They stay soggy when wet, and turn rock hard when they dry out in the summer. When soils are "tight", necessary air, water and nutrients can not move through the soil. Disease occurs. Roots are stunted. Beneficial micro-organisms can't survive. Plants are stressed and weakened. When you are doing everything else right, soil compaction will ruin all your efforts. AERIFY! is a soil penetrant that breaks apart tightly bonded clay particles. This creates "space" in the soil, allowing roots, water and oxygen to permeate. Once you get oxygen into a clay soil, beneficial microbes will be able to survive. These microbes are needed to turn old roots and organic matter into all-important humus. Once you have humus, you'll have much better soil quality and structure. Aerify! relieves compaction, helps create humus, and brings about the aerated, living soil that all gardeners love to have. If your organic fertilizers, composts, teas, humates, enzymes and other soil improvement products are not working as well as you think they should, it is probably because these products require a minimal amount of soil aeration in order to do their job. Get some AERIFY! in the soil and see the difference it makes. "My clay garden soil improved right away with Aerify. I actually enjoy digging in it now." B. Butler San Diego, Cal Aerify! is economical and easy to use. What can you expect? If you have decent topsoil that has become compacted, Aerify! should be able to give some immediate relief in terms of aeration and drainage. Follow up applications will keep the soil opened up and allow the natural microbial processes to restructure the soil. Each succeeding application should give deeper penetration. Adding our Nature's Magic to the Aerify will help speed up the soil bioactivation. For poorer topsoils with more clay content (normally hard when dry and somewhat sticky when wet), do another application 1-2 weeks after the initial application is watered in. We suggest applying Aerify! every 1-2 months after that. When you soil has improved, 1 or 2 applications a year should be sufficient. If you are dealing with mostly pure clay or subsoil, Aerify will still work, but it is not an overnight miracle product. You will need more patience and more frequent applications. (see application rates below) Dense clays have very tightly bonded microscopic soil particles, no airspace and often, no organic matter. Each application of Aerify will loosen some of these bonds and create small pores. Eventually there will be enough airspace in the soil to support soil microbes and allow deeper rooting. Then the soil starts to crumble and improvement becomes more rapid. It can take 6 months to a year before improvement is obvious. Again, using our Nature's Magic will help speed up the soil's improvement, but heavy organic fertilizing, mulching beds and leaving clippings on lawns will also help a lot. Mechanical Aeration vs. Aerify (or Aerify PLUS) The Choice is yours with Oakridge Yard Care Aerating machines penetrate 2-3 inches into the root zone and much less on bumpy or thatchy lawns. This is where the soil is already pretty good on a lot of lawns. You want to get into the tougher, more claylike soil 3-8 inches deep to encourage rooting and improve drainage. Aerify! will penetrate beyone the existing root zone and additional applications will penetrate even deeper. Aerating machines expose weed seeds to light and can cause them to germinate. If you do not have a thick lawn then removing plugs of grass and roots with a machine will result in thinning out the lawn. Aerating machines poke holes about 6 inches apart. They do not structurally change the soil. Aerify! covers 100% of the soil and it actually breaks up the bonds that hold clay particles together. Aerating machines can harm tree roots, sprinklers and hidden pipes or wires under the lawn. Aerify! is completely safe to use over all lawn areas. And because it penetrates deeper, it will help trees too. Aerating machines are only used in the spring and fall when conditions are just right. Aerify! can be used any time of the year. Aerating machines leave messy plugs on top of the lawn. Aerify! leaves no mess at all.