For those of you who have been paying attention, there is a trend coming called “liquid aeration.” I am actually very excited about this shift. Now, I know that we all love aerating lawns. Everyone loves to buy expensive equipment that breaks down often, repairing sprinklers, wrestling with a bouncing machine, knocking teeth out… you know, having fun.

In Lawncology® 21, I wrote about surface area and the power of the soils ability to fracture. This is going to go a bit deeper into understanding exactly what “liquid aeration” is. This is not a sales pitch on one way being better than the other, or saying that you should sell your aerators, rather a greater understanding of the tools that we have and the best use for them.

First the basics:  Mechanical aeration is or was intended to be the lawn care industry’s version of tillage. Initial concepts were that if we poked holes in the ground, we could move more water and air into root zones. While that does happen, it doesn’t relieve the surface tension of soil in any way, shape, or form. The process increases the soils overall surface area; which will lead to some water percolation and some more nutrient uptake; but it also exposes the thatch layer (in some cases) to the air and carbon loss takes place. The tines on an aerator don’t reach deeply enough to bring any low-lying nutrients to the surface via plugging, rather they are designed around the very under performing root structures that our industry now expects. This method is very good during over seeding time as you do create somewhat of a “seed bed” in the lawn that gets an aeration service. This is, I believe, the best use for mechanical aeration.

It is vitally important to acknowledge and understand that aeration by definition MUST be about AIR. The beauty of aeration is; wherever air goes, water can go too. As explained in the earlier article, creating surfaces rather than “holes” is the solution to both relieving surface tension and bringing more air and water down through the soil. This would be a good time to explain how liquid aeration works or at least the concepts behind it. Once understood, it will be up to you to see if this is a fit for you service company as an offering.

Any of you who are currently using Bio Green® or Greene County products in part or whole in their programs are already getting all of the benefits of what is about to be described here. Those of you reading this for the first time are going to see that there are more tools available to you to increase productivity of the soil.

Liquid aeration products are built on different modes of action to accomplish a similar goal. Some are designed to increase biological activity via microbes or bacteria to digest OM and create pockets through which air and water can travel. Others use an acid based technique to break certain soil bonds and facilitate the formation of others while leaving an O2 driver behind.  (see Lawncology 16: wizard of 02 for more on that) Both of these methods work, it just depends on what other imbalances may be created with the use or over use of these products. Firstly, many of you have seen or heard about the long-term effects of adding active or live bacterium to soil. We end up mining the soil of its vitality in an effort to keep over colonization of bacteria alive. Over use of these types of products will end up creating more compaction rather than relieving it.

Acid types of aeration are a better option than the aforementioned products due to their ability to work with what’s already there in the soil can quickly reducing tightly bound systems by making tight bonds break with the addition of oxygen on the molecule. It is important to note that this technique can have some issues because it can cause some level of exothermic release, which creates increased soil temperatures which are very small yet still have the ability to change some surface level soil interactions, which can burn plant tissue.

The method that we use relies more on the same techniques that we use to create our humic acid liquid (humic12) in our Greensboro facility. Our products are designed to infuse more O2 into the root zone via key nutrients and weak acids. This same principal works to release some of the soil’s Humus into humic acids as well. This method is a microscopic alkali extractive technique that removes salts and creates bonds that are oxygen centric. These microscopic soil interactions create billions of fractures and encourage greater rooting. The rooting becomes the macroscopic aerator and now we have greater pathways for air and water. Cool, huh?

Starting off the 2017 growing season with the addition of N-Ext Humic12™, N-Ext RGS™ or N-Ext Air-8™ will begin to work the soil while temps are cooler, setting you up for a more effective first fertility round this spring. The best time of year for these types of products will always be spring and fall. We want to start loosening soils right away, as the early development of deeper roots will aid in the summer time with heat stress relief.