If you’ve hung out here with us, you already know how excellent aeration is for your lawn — pulling out plugs of soil so more air and water can reach the roots.
Lawns love aeration, but transporting the big, heavy aerator and maneuvering it across your lawn is a big deal.
Meet liquid aeration. It's the same goal, easier to accomplish.
What is liquid aeration? Instead of using machinery to create those helpful holes, an organic mix of chemicals is applied to your lawn that breaks down the thatch layer and allows the lawn’s roots to breathe.
While core aeration uses a machine to pull out soil plugs, liquid aeration for lawns applies a liquid solution through a sprayer.
Keep reading to learn more about liquid aeration for Boise and Idaho Falls lawns.
While both liquid aeration for lawns and core aeration improve soil health by increasing the air and water that can get through, liquid aeration uses a liquid solution sprayed onto the lawn to gradually loosen compacted soil.
What’s in the solution? One of the main ingredients is humic acid, which sounds bad but is a naturally occurring organic compound formed from decomposed plant matter. It plays an important role in soil health by improving water retention, nutrient availability, and overall plant growth.
Liquid aeration also contains surfactants, ingredients added to a liquid to reduce surface tension. This allows the liquid to spread out and wet surfaces more easily and helps the aeration liquid soak into the ground.
Additional nutrients are often in the mix, like seaweed or yucca extract.
All that good stuff penetrates the soil and breaks down compacted areas, creating pathways for water, oxygen, and nutrients to reach the roots more effectively.
Liquid aeration loosens the soil from within without physically removing soil plugs like traditional core aeration.
Yes! At Lawn Buddies, we use both core aeration and liquid aeration, but we often prefer the liquid method over traditional core aeration.
“I prefer it when the soil isn't overly compacted, and there aren't super thick layers of thatch,” says Dillon Beardall, head of fertilizer operations for Lawn Buddies. “I think its long-term benefits are greater than core aeration because the nutrients will build up over time.”
Beardall says the beneficial ingredients in liquid aeration seep deep into the soil, conditioning it over time and encouraging deeper roots for a healthier lawn.
Meanwhile, core aeration only reaches down into the soil about 2-3 inches, Beardall says.
“I think core aeration is still great, but it has its strengths and weaknesses just as liquid does,” he says. “But for long-term benefits, I think liquid is superior."
There’s a good reason lawn care services in Boise and Idaho Falls offer lawn aeration.
Maybe your lawn started with loose, fluffy soil, but over time it gets packed down and compacted.
Or maybe your soil started compacted, if it contains a lot of clay.
When the soil gets compacted, the lawn can't breathe, its roots can't take in water or nutrients, and it struggles and becomes susceptible to weeds and diseases.
Aeration fixes that. It does more than help air and water reach your lawn’s roots.
Whether you choose core or liquid aeration, both greatly benefit your lawn. How? Happy you asked:
When your lawn’s soil is looser and airier, your fertilizer can easily reach the roots and boost the lawn’s health.
Thatch is great as the roof on a charming cottage in the English countryside. But you don’t want too much of it in your lawn.
Thatch is a layer of dead grass and stems between your grass blades and the soil.
When core aeration removes plugs from the thatch, it helps it decompose, allowing oxygen, nutrients, and moisture to reach the roots.
Weeds are the worst, right?
Guess what weeds hate? A healthy lawn.
If you use aeration and seeding as part of comprehensive lawn care services in Boise and Idaho Falls, you should see fewer dandelions, clover and that dreaded crabgrass.
A healthy, thick lawn crowds them out.
Who cares about soil health? You should. That’s where it all starts.
The health of your grass depends on healthy soil. It’s where your lawn gets the nutrients it needs to grow. And aeration improves your soil.
When your soil is healthy, it’s full of stuff that sounds gross, but your lawn loves, from wiggly worms to fungi to nutrient-rich microbes that provide nourishment.
None of these can thrive in compacted soil, so your poor lawn will struggle to get the nutrients it needs.
Aeration loosens it up.
Pair core aeration with seeding, as people often do, and you get the bonus of new grass to help rejuvenate your lawn.
Maybe you’re frustrated by thin or bare spots where your lawn is struggling or recovering from a fungus or disease.
Perfect timing for a batch of fresh grass seed.
Maybe your lawn is compacted after years of neglect. You could have significant thatch buildup out there.
In that case, core aeration is probably a better choice, as it physically removes soil cores, creating larger channels for air, water, and nutrients to penetrate better.
Or maybe you’re in a hurry for results. Daughter’s wedding in your backyard? Your sister-in-law volunteered you to host the family reunion?
Core aeration offers faster visible results than liquid aeration, which takes longer to work.
“The price is going to be similar,” Beardall says, “but liquid aeration will typically be a bit cheaper on a smaller property because we aren't sending out an additional truck with the aerator.”
Yes. Most liquid aeration solutions are made with natural, non-toxic ingredients and natural extracts that aren't harmful to pets or the environment when used as directed.
However, it’s still recommended that pets be allowed to access the treated area a few hours after application to ensure the liquid has fully absorbed into the soil.
Check out a few key differences between the two methods:
While both liquid aeration for lawns and core aeration improve soil health by increasing the air and water that can get through, the main difference is that liquid aeration uses a liquid solution sprayed onto the lawn to gradually loosen compacted soil.
In contrast, core aeration physically removes small plugs of soil with a machine.
Liquid aeration is often better for moderate soil compaction, while core aeration is preferred for heavily compacted soil or significant thatch buildup.
Liquid aeration doesn’t work right away. The chemical reaction may take two weeks to a month, so you have to be patient for the results.
But the holes created by core aeration start reducing soil compaction right away.
Those holes also prepare your soil for further treatments, like seeding, fertilizing or topdressing.
You can buy aeration liquid at the home and garden store for about $35 for 32 ounces, which covers 8,000 square feet.
This method is easier for the average homeowner than attempting DIY core aeration, Beardall says.
“People often don’t have a trailer, or even a truck to go grab a core aerator to do their own lawn,” he says. “With liquid treatment, they can use a hand-held sprayer or a backpack sprayer and spray their lawn much easier.
"It's a lot less physically demanding to spray a lawn than doing a core aeration if you're a homeowner.”
Here at Lawn Buddies we apply liquid aeration in split applications.
“Once in the spring and once in the fall,” Beardall says, “but we only bill for it once.”
Beardall says the application doesn’t have to be split into two treatments. However, the humic acid in liquid aeration is dark and can stain hardscapes like pavers and concrete. Using less of the liquid at one time reduces the chance of staining.
Lawn care services in Boise and Idaho Falls typically target fall as the perfect time for core aeration, in part because core aeration is ideally followed by overseeding with grass seed.
Fall offers cool temperatures, free watering from rain showers, and enough time for new grass to get going before winter sets in.
Combined with overseeding, core aeration gives your lawn a much-needed one-two punch. The aeration loosens your compacted soil, letting in crucial air and water.
Then, all those perfectly spaced holes the aerator leaves behind are perfect homes for a fresh batch of grass seed, helping fill in bare spots and making your lawn thicker and healthier.
You can get aeration and overseeding from Lawn Buddies through mid to late October.
Both core aeration and liquid aeration for lawns can have a big positive impact on your compacted lawn.
But a healthy lawn takes more than that. It involves a lot of work, and the right knowledge. You have better things to do than toil in your yard every weekend.
If you want simple, hassle-free lawn care in Idaho Falls or Boise, ID that offers quality core lawn care services for a healthy, impressive lawn, it doesn’t get easier than Lawn Buddies.
No stressing about which complicated combination of lawn care services will get you beautiful, healthy grass.
You don’t have time to fuss with all that. Give yourself a break.
Welcome to one premium, six-visit lawn care program that includes everything your lawn needs to grow healthy and green.
Fertilizer, weed treatments, and grub control, all wrapped up in six visits, each perfectly timed throughout the season, so your grass is green and strong and resists weeds. Add on regular lawn aeration to keep your lawn thriving.
Got a few minutes? That’s all you need to get started. Just fill out the form on this page, call us at (208) 656-9131 or read more about our services. Then you can kick back and relax in your healthy, thriving yard.