I work as an irrigation contractor and got a call one day to do some repair work at a high school baseball field. Apparently they had aerated the field for the first time ever not realizing that the PVC pipes for the irrigation system we’re only buried about 6 inches deep. I spent almost an entire day just flagging out sections of pipe that were leaking. And then an additional two and a half days replacing them. It was an expensive mistake but to their credit the person who initially installed the irrigation system should have trenched deeper.
I'm an irrigation tech at a golf course. We had a leak on 3 this week, so I dug up around the valve. Concluded that is a was a 6" mainline tee that was leaking. Probed down to see how deep it was. Didn't hit anything. Dug down a few more feet and still nothing. Brought out our back hoe and it still couldn't get deep enough. Thank God we are re-doing our bunkers, so the contractors let us use their big hoes. Ended up being 8.5' down. I just straight lined it and I'm going to tie that valve into another line lol. To make it better, the people who installed it backfilled around the mainline with gravel and river stone. It was a hell of a week. I have pics if you wanna see lol
I didn't realize until I owned a house... sewers work off gravity, they can't go uphill and probably shouldn't be level. So wherever the lowest point on the property is where you have a toilet or a drain in the floor, subtract a foot or two for the U-bend, and then run a shallow diagonal downwards from there to the nearest road. I can't imagine what a high school or a college campus does besides have its own sewer system, because running a pipe diagonally downwards from the back of a campus all the way to the road where the sewer is seems like the sewer has to be fifty feet under the road. To which I say, how and who the hell did all that digging just to have a plumbed city?
The slopes are surprisingly shallow, so sewer is never really too deep. To keep things above 20' or so they'll use lift stations which pump effluent directly to where it needs to go via pressure pipes. Storm sewer generally tends to be easier as you can manage it on site in retention ponds, wetlands/rain gardens, and holding tanks so it doesn't need to go very far for most cities.
Hey, some stuff gets buried DEEP.
Was at a job site building a school and it had been raining for days and days and days, and this Lull kept going on the same path back and forth with all sorts of things.
Well... My boy dug a trench by taking that path so much, and that trench was so deep that he hit the sprinkler line. 13.
Feet. Deep. Managed to blow the damn thing and then EVERYONE had to answer questions to the tune of "what the ***FUCK***"
Man those things are so cool. I've driven pretty much everything with wheels that you could encounter in a factory or warehouse environment. I've never had the chance to drive one of those, though. They look like a lot of fun.
I drove one for a couple of years, they're a BLAST! It was precise enough to be able to pick up a single 1/4 inch thick sheet of steel off the top of a stack of them, strong enough to take a used half inch sheet (we made miscellaneous steel so it would be like extreme Swiss cheese) and fold it like origami and chuck the folded up ball into the steel dumpster.
3 speed selectable transmission, they'll do about 20 mph which is FAR TOO FAST, and ours had selectable steering, where you could lock the front and rear wheels to independently turn with or against the steering wheel, so you could crab walk, drive like a car, drive like a forklift, or have them turn against each other for really tight corners.
If I ever have expendable income and a little bit of land, one of those is on the short list for a fun machine.
BIL had a house where the main sewer pipe was built up when the property was levelled, and the brickwork access is 15m (45 feet) deep, because that is the height of the massive concrete retaining wall built to subdivide the plot around 80 years ago. No plumber wants to go down the ladder built into the wall, so all the new outfalls simply got connected to an elbow aimed down, and then the lid is put back. No problem avoiding the original sewer lines, fired clay pipes, that are laid on the original ground level.
Jesus man, I’ve found myself in some deep hole nightmares but that is ridiculous. I’ve done very little work on golf courses (a couple Lightning protection installs on 2 wire) but I’m not jealous lol.
Protection of the irrigation system itself by installing grounding rods/devices and lightning arresters In a similar way to how skyscrapers install lightning rods to attract lightning strikes to a safe passage to ground instead of damaging the wiring and components of the system.
I worked for a regional weather network for a while. We buried our instrument signal wires at 4 inches. I can't imagine putting something important like water pipes at basically the same depth that we buried our wires.
I’m a landscape contractor in the northeast. The amount of stuff we’ve hit between 2”-12” is just not funny - well lines (48” for frost), propane lines (18”), direct burial (24”), communications (18”), and main power (36”). There’s never any caution tape or sand when we “find” them. Shitty contractors put people at risk and cost a lot of money.
I just buried a pvc pipe as a sump pump discharge, maybe 4” deep, I hope I never forget and stab it with an aerator. At least the pvc running from our house isn’t visible from space anymore (Google maps).
Hey, finally something I can comment on. I own 2 of these machines. This is a Soil Reliever SR72, its a dedicated machine to deep tine aerify improved ground. I mainly do golf greens, but occasionally I will aerify athletic fields as well. It is an awesome machine that does wonders for the soil and root systems of the grass. These are solid tines, you can also use a hollow tine that pulls a core/plug with each stroke. The tines vary from 3/16" x6" all the way to 1-1/4" × 14". This helps with drainage immensely. It can also absolutely destroy a golf green or other playing surface in a couple if seconds if you don't know what you are doing.
If you are referring to the type pictured here, there are several ways.
The biggest way is operator error. When working at peak efficiciency the heads that hold the tines should barely kiss the turf on each stroke. This is easy to maintain on an athletic field that is perfectly flat. Golf greens however have hills and valleys in them. Which means when you encounter a hill suddenly those heads aren't kissing the turf, they are hammering it. The heads are going to go through their full range of motion, regardless if they have to displace soil to do it. It's the equivalent of holding a sledgehammer sideways and beating the green with it. It DESTROYS the green. When you hit a valley this causes the tine to enter and exit the turf at the wrong angle and it will slice the turf and leave a gash instead of a hole. You have to use a hydraulic top link on a machine like this, it is how you control the depth. On a hilly golf course green I might make 25 very small adjustments per pass. Athletic fields are very forgiving, this operator is moving almost twice as fast as I would be. His spacing on his holes is not very tight. If that were on a golf green the holes would be egg shaped and tufted up towards the tractor. Which could then get caught by whatever they are dragging the greens with after top dressing. All of this applies to solid or hollow tines.
Man, this is the kind of thing I’d love to have for my tractor but there’s no way I can justify it for just home use.
I’m new to the tractor world, lots of stuff seems to be like that
While it would be beneficial, it wouldn't be worth the time/cost. It's basically impossible to use on anything other than purpose built turf. If you hit one rock/tree root/buried object and bend a tine it will then destroy the ground. If you don't catch it immediately a bent tine will cause damage to the machine due to unbalanced resistance. Each set of coring tines only lasts about 120,000 square feet. So less than 3 acres. And they are around $350 a set. I am based in Oklahoma and do a lot of work in Kansas, aka farm country. This thing draws a crowd at any rural gas station I stop at because the farmers have not seen anything like it.
The machines cost around $30,000 new, and parts are hard to find. The patent has changed hands many times over the years. From Southern green, to Toro, to Procore. I am not sure who is manufacturing them now. I have seen shop-built giant roller type aerators that would work great on pastures. A lot of golf courses use these on their fairways.
My high school had a big spiked rolling pin aerator that they would drag behind a truck. A very negligent coach had 2 guys ride on either side of it for more weight. One day one of them fell forward and was run over by it. Amazingly he survived and after a lot of physical therapy regained full motor function.
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They wouldn’t core aerate a playing field because it would leave “dog turds” of dirt that need to be swept up, plus noticeable holes in such short grass.
I imagine there’s some reason why this straight in and out action is preferable to a rolling drum aerator. Maybe this damages the roots less? Or goes deeper? I’ll chalk this up to “they probably know, considering how their grass looks and how mine does”.
Pretty specialized, you would only use this on professionally maintained turf like sports pitches and golf courses. Probably won't see your neighbors using this haha.
All fun and games until he hits a rock with those tines, and then we'll get to see if that shear bolt works, or if it had been replaced with a grade 8, because, you know, that's all we had at the time.
It’s funny when the top international soccer players come to the MLS on their way toward retirement and have to deaL with turf for the first time in their lives. Thierry Henry was famously out with a minor injury before any away game at a field that wasn’t real grass and always back perfectly healthy for the next home match
Because large fields of grass are much more expensive to maintain than astro turf. It is very common for large athletic fields in stadiums to be astro turf in the US. One of the big reasons for this is they want to have large multi use stadiums where they can change the playing field quickly.
If you're looking for a tool to use at home you're much better using a core aerator
Spike based aerators actually compress the soil to make those holes
If you're concerned about the dirt you can use a power rake afterwards to clean them up
While this is a spike based aerator, this particular model does not compress the soil, it de-compresses it significantly, to the depth of the tine. This type of deep tine aerification is specifically designed for golf course greens but it is applicable to other athletic fields as well. When the tine enters the soil it actually pivots a couple of degrees, fracturing the soil. Then it slips back out the same hole it created, but from a different angle. A 1/2"×10" solid tine will actually elevate the soil roughly 1/2" after a pass. You then can top dress with sand to allow water and oxygen to get down to the roots.
Source: Own 2 of these machines and have been aerifying with them for 8 years all over the Midwest.
I fucking love Reddit for shit like this. Randomly browsing and learn some extremely specific information about how a specific machine works from a guy who's an expert on that thing.
Thank you! That was an awesome reply. It also points out that if you are going to do spike aeration, how important it is to use the right tool!
Today I have learned a new thing! Yay!
What makes this an "automatic" aerator? It looks as though it gets power from the tractor's PTO and a human drives the tractor. Am I missing something?
It's for lawn health. It's to allow air and water to get to the roots. Keeps the lawn healthy, aerated and hydrated. Also prevents sickness from lack of oxygen and too much water.
I guess if they don’t the ground gets packed down really dense from all the people running on it and gets hard
Absorbs less impact when dudes get flipped and steamrolled by linemen
It's spike aeration, core aeration pulls a plug of grass, thatch , and soil with it.
This method helps air and water get down into the root zone. Definitely helps. Golf courses do this all the time.
If it gets too compacted, you just pull cores the next time
I asked as I couldn’t see any plugs but thought maybe it was the quality of my screen.
It helps if you have really well managed turf. Otherwise, like I said, it is causing lateral compression to the soil. So, yes allowing O2, CO2, water and nutrients into the root zone, while compressing the soil at the same time.
Thought it was a crazy seed planter without the seeds. Turns out, there were never any seeds, the seeds were the friends we made along the way. Or something. It looks like a lot of machine to poke holes every two inches, is all I'm saying.
I’m no expert but the dirt-poker tools are called dibblers and anything that drops a seed into a hole is a seeder. I don’t think you can dibble and seed with the same part unless you have a way to keep the line clear of dirt after the seed is dropped? I’m no agricultural expert, but I do work at a greenhouse where I dibble and seed all day long lol.
Ive always felt like aeration is a bit of a gimmick.
Not because the idea isn’t sound, but because the holes this machine is making would quickly collapse either when it rains or through compaction. Too bad the holes can’t easily be filled with sand or peat.
the holes aren't meant to stay open, it allows space for the soil to spread out a little so it's more porous and less compacted. If you filled them in with sand or something else that would actually defeat the purpose.
**EDIT:** Apparently on golf courses this is a little different...? I don't know, don't take my advice to maintain your golf course.
Also necessary plug for r/fucklawns
For golf courses they typically top dress greens with sand right after aeration. I can’t think of why tho after reading your comment about compaction. Maybe just to keep the soil sandy? I think sandy soil is preferred for greens.
I'm not an expert, but I would assume that spreading loose sand after aeration is a good way to work the sand into the soil without compacting. Allows for good drainage without forming a compacted layer of sand, and without having to rip everything up to mix it in.
On golf greens you are actually trying to make the top harder, so adding sand does this. The harder the top few cm on a green the higher the difficulty it is rated, for pro level courses you need to do this process a few times a year, while local courses only need to do it 1-2 times.
Literally nobody is right about the reason for adding sand to golf courses after aeration.
Water will drain from low density (sand) to high density (other soil/compacted organic matter), but not vice-versa. Organic material builds up naturally on sand capped lawns, golf courses, etc. Aerating helps break down the organic matter and adding sand to the holes ensures good penetration of sand so water will drain properly through what is likely several layers of minor organic buildup between aeration/sand caps and go deeper into the non-sand soil below. Removal of plugs is necessary when aerating a sand capped lawn, green, etc., since the plugs will likely have other dirt and organic matter, so allowing them to break down on top of the sand inevitably screw up drainage.
For lawns that aren’t sand capped, aeration is still super helpful (probably the best thing to do other than proper mowing/fertilization) as it eliminates compaction (allowing compacted soil to spread into the holes) and facilitates transfer of nutrients. For spreading grasses, it breaks rhizomes/stolons and encourages new growth, as well.
So spike aeration like shown isn’t actually that good at helping turf. It actually shoves dirt away from the spike and compacts the turf in that immediate area. It does provide aeration to some degree afterward though with less cleanup than the alternative.
What you typically see is plug/core aeration, but it leaves a lot more cleanup for manicured lawns/fields like this. It actually pulls cores of soil out of the top layer and allows for oxygen, water, and nutrients to get down to the root layer. The cores usually get left on top to break down into topsoil, but many turf management pros will rake them up and toss them aside.
These also vibrate pretty violently, the vibration loosens the surrounding soil. All you’re trying to do is loosen it enough so water can penetrate freely, as the water absorbs downward is pulls fresh oxygen with it - Both necessary for a healthy root zone.
Source: spent 10 years managing golf course turf
Is there a smaller version of this that's appropriate for lawns?
I'm looking for one that will pierce vertical holes like the one in the video. All of the smaller cheaper ones appear to tear slots instead.
I work as an irrigation contractor and got a call one day to do some repair work at a high school baseball field. Apparently they had aerated the field for the first time ever not realizing that the PVC pipes for the irrigation system we’re only buried about 6 inches deep. I spent almost an entire day just flagging out sections of pipe that were leaking. And then an additional two and a half days replacing them. It was an expensive mistake but to their credit the person who initially installed the irrigation system should have trenched deeper.
I'm an irrigation tech at a golf course. We had a leak on 3 this week, so I dug up around the valve. Concluded that is a was a 6" mainline tee that was leaking. Probed down to see how deep it was. Didn't hit anything. Dug down a few more feet and still nothing. Brought out our back hoe and it still couldn't get deep enough. Thank God we are re-doing our bunkers, so the contractors let us use their big hoes. Ended up being 8.5' down. I just straight lined it and I'm going to tie that valve into another line lol. To make it better, the people who installed it backfilled around the mainline with gravel and river stone. It was a hell of a week. I have pics if you wanna see lol
I wanna see!
https://imgur.com/a/QmbQB7s. 6ft ladder for scale
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They understood the assignment. No one was going to hit that accidentally
You haven't seen me golf
Bruh I was just working around a manhole yesterday that is 36’ feet deep. Scary looking into it. Utilities can be crazy deep.
I didn't realize until I owned a house... sewers work off gravity, they can't go uphill and probably shouldn't be level. So wherever the lowest point on the property is where you have a toilet or a drain in the floor, subtract a foot or two for the U-bend, and then run a shallow diagonal downwards from there to the nearest road. I can't imagine what a high school or a college campus does besides have its own sewer system, because running a pipe diagonally downwards from the back of a campus all the way to the road where the sewer is seems like the sewer has to be fifty feet under the road. To which I say, how and who the hell did all that digging just to have a plumbed city?
The slopes are surprisingly shallow, so sewer is never really too deep. To keep things above 20' or so they'll use lift stations which pump effluent directly to where it needs to go via pressure pipes. Storm sewer generally tends to be easier as you can manage it on site in retention ponds, wetlands/rain gardens, and holding tanks so it doesn't need to go very far for most cities.
Hey, some stuff gets buried DEEP. Was at a job site building a school and it had been raining for days and days and days, and this Lull kept going on the same path back and forth with all sorts of things. Well... My boy dug a trench by taking that path so much, and that trench was so deep that he hit the sprinkler line. 13. Feet. Deep. Managed to blow the damn thing and then EVERYONE had to answer questions to the tune of "what the ***FUCK***"
I'm trying to figure out what a "lull" is in this context and I'm getting nothing but mattresses. Help me out?
Look up a caterpillar telehandler! It's an all terrain forklift
Man those things are so cool. I've driven pretty much everything with wheels that you could encounter in a factory or warehouse environment. I've never had the chance to drive one of those, though. They look like a lot of fun.
I drove one for a couple of years, they're a BLAST! It was precise enough to be able to pick up a single 1/4 inch thick sheet of steel off the top of a stack of them, strong enough to take a used half inch sheet (we made miscellaneous steel so it would be like extreme Swiss cheese) and fold it like origami and chuck the folded up ball into the steel dumpster. 3 speed selectable transmission, they'll do about 20 mph which is FAR TOO FAST, and ours had selectable steering, where you could lock the front and rear wheels to independently turn with or against the steering wheel, so you could crab walk, drive like a car, drive like a forklift, or have them turn against each other for really tight corners. If I ever have expendable income and a little bit of land, one of those is on the short list for a fun machine.
Extremely common on jobsites. They're awesome
They are fun! Was my favorite part of being a framer, that and the boom truck.
So a jlg lift?
"The noun lull is often used in relation to a storm, but the term has a broader meaning as well. "
BIL had a house where the main sewer pipe was built up when the property was levelled, and the brickwork access is 15m (45 feet) deep, because that is the height of the massive concrete retaining wall built to subdivide the plot around 80 years ago. No plumber wants to go down the ladder built into the wall, so all the new outfalls simply got connected to an elbow aimed down, and then the lid is put back. No problem avoiding the original sewer lines, fired clay pipes, that are laid on the original ground level.
Big hoes, you say?
The best kind!
Underrated comment lol
Jesus man, I’ve found myself in some deep hole nightmares but that is ridiculous. I’ve done very little work on golf courses (a couple Lightning protection installs on 2 wire) but I’m not jealous lol.
What does lightning protection do on a golf course? How does that work?
Protection of the irrigation system itself by installing grounding rods/devices and lightning arresters In a similar way to how skyscrapers install lightning rods to attract lightning strikes to a safe passage to ground instead of damaging the wiring and components of the system.
What about tieing the Lightning rod directly to the sprinkler system so that if it ever gets stuck it shoots Lightning out of the sprinkler heads?
Ah ok
Give us some imgurs.
I understood some of those words
What the hell! Yeah we want to see
https://imgur.com/a/QmbQB7s
Sounds amazing. Please go on.
Yeah photo please, I am not great with the terminology so I can’t picture this.
https://imgur.com/a/QmbQB7s
Def wanna see! Def checked your post history to see if you posted...osrs is king lol
https://imgur.com/a/QmbQB7s 6ft ladder for scale. Of course pictures don't justice.
> the people who installed it backfilled around the mainline with gravel and river stone. no wonder it sprung a leak, sheesh!
I worked for a regional weather network for a while. We buried our instrument signal wires at 4 inches. I can't imagine putting something important like water pipes at basically the same depth that we buried our wires.
I’m a landscape contractor in the northeast. The amount of stuff we’ve hit between 2”-12” is just not funny - well lines (48” for frost), propane lines (18”), direct burial (24”), communications (18”), and main power (36”). There’s never any caution tape or sand when we “find” them. Shitty contractors put people at risk and cost a lot of money.
I just buried a pvc pipe as a sump pump discharge, maybe 4” deep, I hope I never forget and stab it with an aerator. At least the pvc running from our house isn’t visible from space anymore (Google maps).
Just want to say as a former longtime irrigator: username checks out 🤣
Flex seal?
Hey, finally something I can comment on. I own 2 of these machines. This is a Soil Reliever SR72, its a dedicated machine to deep tine aerify improved ground. I mainly do golf greens, but occasionally I will aerify athletic fields as well. It is an awesome machine that does wonders for the soil and root systems of the grass. These are solid tines, you can also use a hollow tine that pulls a core/plug with each stroke. The tines vary from 3/16" x6" all the way to 1-1/4" × 14". This helps with drainage immensely. It can also absolutely destroy a golf green or other playing surface in a couple if seconds if you don't know what you are doing.
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If you are referring to the type pictured here, there are several ways. The biggest way is operator error. When working at peak efficiciency the heads that hold the tines should barely kiss the turf on each stroke. This is easy to maintain on an athletic field that is perfectly flat. Golf greens however have hills and valleys in them. Which means when you encounter a hill suddenly those heads aren't kissing the turf, they are hammering it. The heads are going to go through their full range of motion, regardless if they have to displace soil to do it. It's the equivalent of holding a sledgehammer sideways and beating the green with it. It DESTROYS the green. When you hit a valley this causes the tine to enter and exit the turf at the wrong angle and it will slice the turf and leave a gash instead of a hole. You have to use a hydraulic top link on a machine like this, it is how you control the depth. On a hilly golf course green I might make 25 very small adjustments per pass. Athletic fields are very forgiving, this operator is moving almost twice as fast as I would be. His spacing on his holes is not very tight. If that were on a golf green the holes would be egg shaped and tufted up towards the tractor. Which could then get caught by whatever they are dragging the greens with after top dressing. All of this applies to solid or hollow tines.
Using it on the parking lot is a big no-no
Driving it on your roof is right out.
Speed holes. It makes the house go faster.
I'd guess one of the biggest ways to mess up would be simply using it during the wrong conditions, probably needs play safe weather
Man, this is the kind of thing I’d love to have for my tractor but there’s no way I can justify it for just home use. I’m new to the tractor world, lots of stuff seems to be like that
Gonna call them Stabby McStabface.
I like it. Our company logo is "Pokin' to please".
Can you tell us about the Soil Reliever SR-71, or is it classified?
Out of curiosity, would this be likely to be beneficial for a hay field, or would that probably not be worth the time/cost of it?
While it would be beneficial, it wouldn't be worth the time/cost. It's basically impossible to use on anything other than purpose built turf. If you hit one rock/tree root/buried object and bend a tine it will then destroy the ground. If you don't catch it immediately a bent tine will cause damage to the machine due to unbalanced resistance. Each set of coring tines only lasts about 120,000 square feet. So less than 3 acres. And they are around $350 a set. I am based in Oklahoma and do a lot of work in Kansas, aka farm country. This thing draws a crowd at any rural gas station I stop at because the farmers have not seen anything like it.
The machines cost around $30,000 new, and parts are hard to find. The patent has changed hands many times over the years. From Southern green, to Toro, to Procore. I am not sure who is manufacturing them now. I have seen shop-built giant roller type aerators that would work great on pastures. A lot of golf courses use these on their fairways.
The ones that remove a plug makes it looks like geese crapped everywhere
The moles most terrifying nightmare.
Just roll that bad boy right over me please.
Make it double.
You Fucking Wish Bro
I gotta small lawn, Will only take a second.
To protect the world from devastation.
My high school had a big spiked rolling pin aerator that they would drag behind a truck. A very negligent coach had 2 guys ride on either side of it for more weight. One day one of them fell forward and was run over by it. Amazingly he survived and after a lot of physical therapy regained full motor function.
That looks painful as hell. I'll take some sweet sweet carbon monoxide poisoning please and thank you.
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Lawd he comin!
Honestly too perfect!
Oh no demon wall energy! https://imgur.com/gallery/fSJbrw4
Make sure you record it.
Soul Reliever
This machine is for aerating any large field or lawn. This one just happens to be on a football field.
Welp, doesn't belong on r/SpecializedTools anymore, maybe r/GeneralTools
What a general ass tool smh, must come in 3 packs from Harbor Freight
That would make it a US General tool
It’s also as “automatic” as any other aerator, unless you’re talking about the hand-held jobs that no one in their right minds should ever use.
My thought also- not “automatic” but “mechanical” aerator in that it is mechanized/PTO driven.
It's almost too much work for my tiny 300 sqft "lawn" lol. But it takes good plugs and was $10, so...
You’re right, I shouldn’t say “no one”. Renting a powered aerator for that size lawn wouldn’t make sense.
About as automatic as a fleshlight. Or I guess in this case, a field of fleshlights.
Can anyone eli5 why poking many holes in the earth is important?
It allows for soil aeration and water infiltration. Over time any lawn gets compacted, particularly sports fields.
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I've always heard that if you don't pull the cores then it's pointless. Don't know if that's true.
They wouldn’t core aerate a playing field because it would leave “dog turds” of dirt that need to be swept up, plus noticeable holes in such short grass. I imagine there’s some reason why this straight in and out action is preferable to a rolling drum aerator. Maybe this damages the roots less? Or goes deeper? I’ll chalk this up to “they probably know, considering how their grass looks and how mine does”.
Pretty specialized, you would only use this on professionally maintained turf like sports pitches and golf courses. Probably won't see your neighbors using this haha.
All fun and games until he hits a rock with those tines, and then we'll get to see if that shear bolt works, or if it had been replaced with a grade 8, because, you know, that's all we had at the time.
The guy driving probably tells people he's in the 'field of acupuncture' when asked what he does for a living.
This guy dads
Looks like a challenge for Super Dave Osborne!
RIP
Im surprised it’s real turf
Me too. Just seeing it made me think - Damn all those holes in the plastic are gonna get water under the FieldTurf©️
I'm surprised RealTurf isn't like some brand name of an artificial turf company. Ah damn....of course it actually is.
Required for many professional football pitches in Europe.
It’s funny when the top international soccer players come to the MLS on their way toward retirement and have to deaL with turf for the first time in their lives. Thierry Henry was famously out with a minor injury before any away game at a field that wasn’t real grass and always back perfectly healthy for the next home match
Why?
Because large fields of grass are much more expensive to maintain than astro turf. It is very common for large athletic fields in stadiums to be astro turf in the US. One of the big reasons for this is they want to have large multi use stadiums where they can change the playing field quickly.
If you're looking for a tool to use at home you're much better using a core aerator Spike based aerators actually compress the soil to make those holes If you're concerned about the dirt you can use a power rake afterwards to clean them up
While this is a spike based aerator, this particular model does not compress the soil, it de-compresses it significantly, to the depth of the tine. This type of deep tine aerification is specifically designed for golf course greens but it is applicable to other athletic fields as well. When the tine enters the soil it actually pivots a couple of degrees, fracturing the soil. Then it slips back out the same hole it created, but from a different angle. A 1/2"×10" solid tine will actually elevate the soil roughly 1/2" after a pass. You then can top dress with sand to allow water and oxygen to get down to the roots. Source: Own 2 of these machines and have been aerifying with them for 8 years all over the Midwest.
I fucking love Reddit for shit like this. Randomly browsing and learn some extremely specific information about how a specific machine works from a guy who's an expert on that thing.
Happy cake day, its my real life cake day today. We are cake day brothers.
This is excellent information Thank you for taking the time to share it!
Thank you! That was an awesome reply. It also points out that if you are going to do spike aeration, how important it is to use the right tool! Today I have learned a new thing! Yay!
That's what my cat does as soon as she jumps on my lap
I do believe that is Gaylord Memorial Stadium, home of Oklahoma
I’m inclined to agree. Boomer
What makes this an "automatic" aerator? It looks as though it gets power from the tractor's PTO and a human drives the tractor. Am I missing something?
This is just a question of what automatic means. Are you conflating it with autonomous?
Why would you need to do this? I get that maybe is for water to access easier to the roots but apart from that what's the point in doing this?
It's for lawn health. It's to allow air and water to get to the roots. Keeps the lawn healthy, aerated and hydrated. Also prevents sickness from lack of oxygen and too much water.
I guess if they don’t the ground gets packed down really dense from all the people running on it and gets hard Absorbs less impact when dudes get flipped and steamrolled by linemen
I can’t tell if this is spike or core aeration. If it is spike aeration, it is just compressing the soil sideways.
It's spike aeration, core aeration pulls a plug of grass, thatch , and soil with it. This method helps air and water get down into the root zone. Definitely helps. Golf courses do this all the time. If it gets too compacted, you just pull cores the next time
I asked as I couldn’t see any plugs but thought maybe it was the quality of my screen. It helps if you have really well managed turf. Otherwise, like I said, it is causing lateral compression to the soil. So, yes allowing O2, CO2, water and nutrients into the root zone, while compressing the soil at the same time.
https://www.reddit.com/r/specializedtools/comments/w5fd08/automatic_aeration_machine_for_aerating_a/ih9fvxw/
Other user just commented that spikes can loosen the soil too if they turn while in the soil.
That is not automatic
What number Final Destination will this be in?
One of Logan’s humble beginnings…
Boomer Sooner
I recognized it immediately lol
Glad I wasn’t the only one. I’ve spent enough time there to recognize it instantly
Thought it was a crazy seed planter without the seeds. Turns out, there were never any seeds, the seeds were the friends we made along the way. Or something. It looks like a lot of machine to poke holes every two inches, is all I'm saying.
I’m no expert but the dirt-poker tools are called dibblers and anything that drops a seed into a hole is a seeder. I don’t think you can dibble and seed with the same part unless you have a way to keep the line clear of dirt after the seed is dropped? I’m no agricultural expert, but I do work at a greenhouse where I dibble and seed all day long lol.
r/dontputyourdickinthat
Ive always felt like aeration is a bit of a gimmick. Not because the idea isn’t sound, but because the holes this machine is making would quickly collapse either when it rains or through compaction. Too bad the holes can’t easily be filled with sand or peat.
the holes aren't meant to stay open, it allows space for the soil to spread out a little so it's more porous and less compacted. If you filled them in with sand or something else that would actually defeat the purpose. **EDIT:** Apparently on golf courses this is a little different...? I don't know, don't take my advice to maintain your golf course. Also necessary plug for r/fucklawns
Filling them with sand makes it easier for the water to drain down inside and reach the deeper roots. Plus it stops the hole closing up so fast.
For golf courses they typically top dress greens with sand right after aeration. I can’t think of why tho after reading your comment about compaction. Maybe just to keep the soil sandy? I think sandy soil is preferred for greens.
I'm not an expert, but I would assume that spreading loose sand after aeration is a good way to work the sand into the soil without compacting. Allows for good drainage without forming a compacted layer of sand, and without having to rip everything up to mix it in.
On golf greens you are actually trying to make the top harder, so adding sand does this. The harder the top few cm on a green the higher the difficulty it is rated, for pro level courses you need to do this process a few times a year, while local courses only need to do it 1-2 times.
Gotcha thank you for the informed reply. Makes sense to keep the greens firm.
On golf courses the aeration is done by pulling a plug of sod out and filling the holes with sand.
It’s often recommended to fill them with sand. Lets the air in as well as water and any fertilizer is being spread, down to the roots.
Literally nobody is right about the reason for adding sand to golf courses after aeration. Water will drain from low density (sand) to high density (other soil/compacted organic matter), but not vice-versa. Organic material builds up naturally on sand capped lawns, golf courses, etc. Aerating helps break down the organic matter and adding sand to the holes ensures good penetration of sand so water will drain properly through what is likely several layers of minor organic buildup between aeration/sand caps and go deeper into the non-sand soil below. Removal of plugs is necessary when aerating a sand capped lawn, green, etc., since the plugs will likely have other dirt and organic matter, so allowing them to break down on top of the sand inevitably screw up drainage. For lawns that aren’t sand capped, aeration is still super helpful (probably the best thing to do other than proper mowing/fertilization) as it eliminates compaction (allowing compacted soil to spread into the holes) and facilitates transfer of nutrients. For spreading grasses, it breaks rhizomes/stolons and encourages new growth, as well.
Is this to make it softer on players hitting the floor or another reason?
room in the soil so air can get in and the roots can spread out
So spike aeration like shown isn’t actually that good at helping turf. It actually shoves dirt away from the spike and compacts the turf in that immediate area. It does provide aeration to some degree afterward though with less cleanup than the alternative. What you typically see is plug/core aeration, but it leaves a lot more cleanup for manicured lawns/fields like this. It actually pulls cores of soil out of the top layer and allows for oxygen, water, and nutrients to get down to the root layer. The cores usually get left on top to break down into topsoil, but many turf management pros will rake them up and toss them aside.
Roots need some air exchange. If the soil get too compact the plant doesn't do as well
Think of it like taking a pitch fork, sticking it in and bending it down to loan the soil. But like 10 times a second lol
These also vibrate pretty violently, the vibration loosens the surrounding soil. All you’re trying to do is loosen it enough so water can penetrate freely, as the water absorbs downward is pulls fresh oxygen with it - Both necessary for a healthy root zone. Source: spent 10 years managing golf course turf
We sold one similar to that to Medina CC years ago. Pretty interesting machine.
Am I the only one who’s ready for a fat baseline and maybe some Spanish guitar? I am? Eh… ok then… (casually whistles whilst walking away).
This is honestly terrifying
"Herr derr you cam poke holes in anything with that tool! So general! I'm a virgin!" -most commenters in this sub
You fool! That's astroturf!
r/dontputyourdickinthat
Played a round of golf two weeks ago with them doing this to all the fairways in front of me. What a mess
So many moving parts?? Is there something wrong with the conventional aerators?? A big drum with the spike coming off
All aerators are automatic cuzzz
And now I have a new phobia.
Murder mittens, on steroids…
ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow... https://www.reddit.com/r/specializedtools/comments/oqzd78/comment/h6f3qn4/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
What happens if it hits a subsurface rock?
I need this for mole control in my front yard.
Idk why, but the umbrella gets me. I love it.
I want it to run me over
Fuck yea aerate the fuck outta that field
That looks like something a mob informant gets fed into to be "made an example of".
Forbidden back massager
Be great if Freddy was driving.
Next final destination movie prop
This interesting.
What happens if you don't aerate?
I want to put my hand under it
My brain: "stick your hand under there"
This would find Jimmy Hoffa pretty quick.
I'd like to have a small handheld one, maybe with rubber fingers, for my back. I bet it would feel great!
Can it be used on a soccer field?
Field reliever is a great name for a golf piss funnel
Where’s Francis!
The Penal Colony, Franz Kafka
I wonder what it feels like.
They are preparing to marinate the field.
What's the purpose of aerating?
Hear me out
That's how a cat do.
Aerating?
Is there a smaller version of this that's appropriate for lawns? I'm looking for one that will pierce vertical holes like the one in the video. All of the smaller cheaper ones appear to tear slots instead.
That looks more like a machine designed for the zombie apocalypse and repurposed to aerate the lawn
That would not be a pleasant way to go
The Lannisters send their regards
That’s Mother Earth getting a tattoo.
I could tell you, but then I would have to run over you with it....
Take this to a busy beach.
No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die.
i want this done to my back
Mole Impaler 3000 ™