I use a lawn sweeper on the lowest setting. Works great.

Thank you. Can I ask what kind of sweeper you use? Manual ones are cheaper but not great reviews, tow behind are pricey but seem to work much better...

Why do you want to dethatch? Most lawns never need to be dethatched. If yours does then there are other issues to discuss.

What kind of grass do you have? Some grasses will be wiped out by dethatching. Need to know what you have.

Where do you live? This helps to understand your timelines.

If a lawn has a large layer of thatch build up, then water is not getting into the soil, the grasses roots are not growing, much of the grass is weak and susceptible to disease, etc.

Seems to me dethatching if necessary is a good thing.

Unless you are using it for seeding preparation, dethatching is a waste of time IMHO. You are better off using organic fertilizers regularly or core aerating heavily once a year. Thatch is totally normal. Excessive thatch is more an indication of poor management practices.

mish,

I struggle with my fescue blend lawn.

I live in central Massachusetts.

If you don't mind; could you share your management practices? i.e. fertilization schedule, watering schedule, mower setting, and any other tips you may have.

Do you have a cool season grass; and if so what is the blend?

Thanks

fescue is not even a heavy thatch producer like KBG. However if you are talking fine fescue, ugggh! I have different grasses for the 4 different conditions I see in my yard. KBG is the heaviest thatch producer that I have.

It all boils down to finding out why you are producing excessive thatch and/or why thatch breakdown is slowed. Don't fertilize heavily when you are not supposed to (ie. spring summer). Avoid frequent shallow watering. Don't apply toxic pesticides unless there's a problem!! Fungicides and insecticides are known to kill earthworms and microbiology that break down thatch. If you've needed to use any, I'd plan on heavy core aeration in the fall unless your lawn is new.

When you do have excessive thatch, dethatching is nothing more than a bandaid. You are better off heavily core aerating. the soil cores you leave on the surface are full of microbes that break down thatch and you are also opening up the turf to water and nutrients. The commercial outfits that do core aeration in my neighborhood just do not do enough cores. I forget the number but off the top of my head, you want something like 25 cores per sq.ft. I'd do more if you are overseeding. Tow behind units don't pull quality cores in my opinion. Dethatching is a lot of work without enough gain--just skip it and do core aeration.

Let me throw my two cents in and say that I do at least 3 applications of milorganite a year and don't seem to have thatch problems. I also haven't used any toxic pesticides or core aerated in several years. Works for me.

Some thatch is normal. Heavy thatch is a problem.

Fescue and rye are at the bottom of the list for thatch problems. In order to create thatch you would have to water very lightly every day and fertilize with a liquid spray once a week. This regimen would keep the grass growing too fast with short roots. Are you doing either of those things?

Following up on this, I'll be power raking on Saturday as part of a lawn reno project I'm undertaking. Since I don't think the original question was answered, what's the best way to clean up? The section of lawn I'm reno-ing is about 7k sq ft. Just rake everything up and bag it? That'll be fun as I'm also scalping and bagging too.

I've always run my mower over the thatch piles & bagged them. Even on my tiny yard, I'm not raking all that crap. Just suck it up with the mower

Can you just mulch it with a good mulching mower back into the ground to help it decompose? Anyone have pictures of heavy thatch vs light thatch?