how long will it take to aerate 1 acre?

How far is the rental place from your acre? -----

- gpsman

The rental place should be able to give you a ballpark figure for square feet per hour. An acre is around 45,000 sq ft.

If the aerator covers a 2ft width then you'll walk about 4 miles to cover an acre. A normal walking pace is 2-3mph, so 4 hours should give you enough time.

Frozen ground areates itself upon thawing, worms do it all summer. I say a waste of money, its just a way for landscapers to sucker out extra bucks.

Or maybe just a good raking to remove old thatch.

Lou

how wide is it? is it a pull behind (your lawn tractor) or a self propelled walkbehind? Either way, 4 hours should be more than plenty. However, you won't get a good "do" unless your soil is somewhat moist at the time. If it's hard and dry, you'll only pull about 1" plugs out.

To do one acre will take exactly 4 hours and 1 minute including travel time.

keep in mind you don't aerate like you mow. meandering, overlapping, general directional sloppiness, all which increase speed, are acceptable when aerating.

Apparently you've never tried growing grass in Illinois clay at low elevation, or in areas where the developer stripped to clay then applied little topsoil. I agree that it's a waste if you have decent soil, but with compacted clay soil aeration works wonders.

My strategy on rentals is to pick it up at the end of their workday, giving me a little slack time for half the travel time.

my local joint only charges one day if picked up after noon on saturday. Due in by 9am monday.

oh, about 7 minutes.

No never clay thats true, but Illinois yes. The thing is where I am everyone has good dirt, and lawn services still push areation just for extra money, not because its needed. Muching grass and fall leaves will over years amend clay to a better top soil.