Dethatching Turf and Grass: Advantages & Equipment

One of the most important aspects of growing healthy grass is guaranteeing that rainwater and fertilizer make it to the roots. That’s why removing thatch (mostly dead organic material) ensures that the grass seeds are getting all of the benefits of your hard work and care. Dethatching turf and grass is an essential strategy for professional ground care and it can transform suburban lawns as well.

At TurfTime Equipment, we build a wide range of elite grounds maintenance equipment primarily for groundskeepers at professional sports stadiums, golf courses, and more. However, dedicated homeowners with significant estates also turn to us for top-tier equipment. Learn more about why dethatching turf is necessary, how to do it, and see our specialized solution!

Benefits of Dethatching Your Lawn or Grounds

Unless you actively dethatch your grass, there is almost surely a thick layer of thatch choking it out. Thatch becomes clumped around the blades of grass as a result of dead grass not decomposing quickly enough, but instead getting pressed into a thick layer. Look closely at your grass and you’ll likely be able to see the dried clumps of brown, dead grass that compose thatch. While it may look fairly harmless, there are too many benefits of dethatching your lawn to ignore.

Experienced groundskeepers and horticultural scientists agree: the benefits of dethatching your turf can make a huge impact:

Leads to Healthier Grass — One of the key benefits of dethatching your lawn, the grass will grow healthier and look far more vibrant. Learn more about growing the perfect lawn.
Creates a Stronger Root System — Not only will the grass grow better, but the underlying root system will be stronger, which makes the lawn more resilient. This is particularly important for heavily used professional fields.
Prevents Invasive Weeds — By dethatching turf you make the grass plant itself stronger and better able to stand up to the invasive weeds that can thrive when grass isn’t sufficiently fed and watered.
Make Your Grounds Maintenance More Efficient — By dethatching your grounds, you strip away the excess material that gets in the way of what your grass needs. By doing this, more fertilizer and other nutrients reach the roots where they are needed. Simply put, if you’re going to take the time to fertilize, you need to dethatch as the first step.

Dethatching your grass is a fairly simple process. Essentially, you need to drag a series of blades or spokes along the ground to pull up the loose but matted thatch. This should be done whenever you see the thatch forming around the base of the grass. For home lawns, dethatching your grass needs to be done about twice per year — whereas professional fields will require it more often.

If you have a very small amount of grass to dethatch, you can use a rake with metal spokes to do the job with reasonable efficiency. However, for any large area, that is going to take far too long to be practical. That’s why for homeowners and professionals looking to get the benefits of dethatching their lawn or turf, a dedicated verticutter meant for dethatching is key.

See our professional year-round turf care tips!

TurfTime’s Verticutter — The Elite Dethatching Solution

Our verticutters are a piece of power equipment hauled behind a lawn tractor, designed specifically to provide extremely efficient dethatching. While almost ANY verticutter is better than trying to use a rake by hand, these are the traits that make our line the premier choice among professionals:

Carbide Tips Come Standard

All of our verticutters come with carbide tips on the blades. This means that they’ll be more efficient on day one and stay sharper for much longer.

Heavy-Duty Chain for the Rotor

When you’re shopping around for a verticutter and are comparing features, this is something you won’t want to overlook. All of our units come with a heavy-duty chain that drives the rotor for maximum durability. Other units often use a cheaper belt to drive the rotor, which then has the tendency to snap.

Welded Frame for Maximum Longevity

This is an advantage for all of our turf machinery — everything we build comes with a heavy-duty welded frame. Compared to bolted together frames that have the tendency to break apart after a few short years on the job, our equipment stays tough for decades.

Simple and Easy to Use

We know that securing the benefits of dethatching your lawn or grounds is just one of the many duties you undertake to keep your grounds healthy. That’s why our verticutters are designed to be easy and simple to use.

Shop Verticutters — Starting at $6,400 >

Start Dethatching Turf Today — Order Here

If you aren’t currently dethatching turf as part of your maintenance plan, we recommend you start today. This simple strategy will lead to better looking grounds this season and every season after. If you don’t have a verticutter or are looking to upgrade your current one, TurfTime is the brand to trust.

Reach out right now to learn more about our products and place your order!