Gotta have a roller! Definitely wouldn't look as good without it. Are you mowing with a reel?

Only when I scalp, first & last mow of the season

Why not all season? You can't beat the quality of cut in my opinion, but it definitely is more maintenance keeping up with backlapping when needed and the reel to bedknife adjustments.

I have many reasons for using the rotary mower 90% of the year, but you keep living that dream as long as possible. I've had plenty over the years & I still use a 7-blade McLane pusher on my golf pad weekly. I've had Fiskars momentum, Scott's classic, 2 gas powered McLanes & an American brand 7-blade built by the Amish or some such nonsense. My cheapo troybilt rotary works great & my McLane just got repowered with a brand new lifan Chinese 6.5HP motor from HD. Thanks to my neighbor for all his engineering expertise! I'm actually digging on the masport rotarola right now--it's a rotary from New Zealand that uses a roller drive on the back & cuts down to 1/2", but my wife says 3 mowers is already too many. Plus it's $$$ & spare parts are very far away. My troybilt just needs a $20 blade every season & a couple passes with a Dremel sharpening wheel every few mows.

Nothing wrong with that, I'm definitely trying to keep the dream going! Wow you have had quite a few. I currently have two reels, an American lawn mower co. seven blade and my primary mower is a seven blade McLane. I used to mow with a rotary, I have an old '78 snapper hi-vac (that thing is like a vacuum for the lawn) that did a pretty good job. Even when I mowed with the rotary though I got so ocd about not having any scalp marks after each mow that I mowed my bermuda every other day from mid May until mid September. I figured if I was mowing that frequently I might as well be using a reel and a lower hoc plus I really wanted the cleaner, low cut ability of a reel.

I just checked out that masport rotarola you are talking about, man that thing looks really awesome for a rotary. This made me think of one thing I will never understand, why power reel mowers sold in US don't have rear rollers (except golf course mowers) I have seen some European models on the internet and most have rear roller. That is probably my biggest complaint with the McLane, the wheel lines it leaves from lack of rear roller.

Well you hit the mark there, I can't cut that often so I was emptying the grass catcher after each stripe with the reel & that got old quick. With the rotary I can bag easier, I can mulch if I want which is pretty rare, or I can side discharge after I come back from vacation & do a vacuum pass to clean up the mess--all with the same machine. When scalping, I usually side discharge, then run the bagger, then follow with the reel & collect the clip down to about 1/2". 3 steps with 2 machines is actually faster than stopping every few feet to empty the catcher on the reel. Plus it gives me a chance to grab any rocks or sticks that may be hiding. You may have seen I have a lot of rock going on.

The only reel I've seen for sale in the US with roller drive (besides used golf course mowers) is the Allett brand & only super sod imports those. They're made in England I think. Also high dollar, but you can get all kinds of attachments too. $1600 without any extras is a bit out of my budget for a 4th mower!

High maintenance is the only maintenance!

There are plenty of hours in the day to mow, and if it gets dark, put the lights on..

I agree! Awesome turf and mower simon_r! Is that a greensmaster 1000?

Hi Turflife, it sure is. Awesome machine but not really meant for small spaces. Hence why I have cut an actual green. The low cut area is 0.125" and the rest is 0.25" which I cut with a local Aussie reel mower. I have had it higher and progressed down over the past few years, but it doesn't stripe or have the color like your bermuda when cut this low.

I thought it was greensmaster! I really want to move up to one of those mowers, mainly for the rear roller drive but also for ability to have small incremental height adjustments. What is the max height of cut on your machine? Yea my grass is pretty long in comparison. I love the short cut but I love the color and striping of a higher cut so I feel good in the 0.5"-0.75" range. It's 1.125" now which isn't exactly where I wanted to be but it is the shortest I have been near seasons end. I do want to be able to start in the spring at 0.25" which would probably help me stay lower by the end of the season, but I have to level before I can push it that low. From season to season as you progressively went shorter with it did it take a more horizontal growth habit and become easier to keep it low? I've been keeping mine shorter and shorter each season over the last 4 years and I feel like this is the case with my turf. Gotta get it trained!

Reeljake that is a lot for a mower, way more than I'd want to spend at once. I do plan to obtain a golf course mower eventually, but it will be a used one that's for sure. I'm really interested in a toro greensmaster 1000 like the one in the pic simon_r posted.

I like the idea behind your scalping technique, efficient!

Y'all might be able to replicate SimonR's success with your turf, but he has a special sports blend of bermuda...if I recall correctly.

Nice to see you back SimonR. Did you ever need to relevel your lawn after sprigging it?

Yes, my lawn was started from seed because I could not source sod. Now I have a source and he is going out of his way (by a couple hundred miles) to help me out. Per his suggestion, I need to wait til next year when all the overseeded stock is gone.

He also "gifted" me a nice mower, I just need to get it running and backlap the reel. I highly suggest all yall set-up craigslist for 200+ miles away from your homes to deliver reel or greens mower posts. I have had so much success that way.

Saturday I got aGreens King 522 with groomer attachments and grooved roller. It was too much mower for his yard and he wanted to downgrade to a McLane. I'm in the middle of tuning and rebuilding the motor now. Hopefully can get it done by Sunday.

Here is Simon's lawn & mower for those interested.

I am thrilled to have this much Bermuda activity this year! I was a lone patriot for a while there...

Hawksster, good find on that greensking. I know exactly what you mean about searching Craigslist, that's where I found my current McLane. I'm seeing a few greensmaster 1000's listed right now that I'd love to jump on but I've already spent my lawn budget for the season so I'm eyeing these machines in agony.

Wow now that's a nice sod guy you've got there! What kind of bermuda sod are you going to get?

Celebration, I have a couple areas that get too much shade and are not doing so well.

Finally getting my Bermuda lawn where I want it to be, a constant battle between too much water or too little. In the St. Petersburg FL area, the shaded areas grow better than the full sun areas, the edges by the flowers and driveway also seems to dry the soil out too fast and cause problems.

Wow crazy that your bermuda is growing better in the shade then full sun. Looks nice. What type of Bermuda do you have? What kind of mower do you use?

When I bought the house it was a mix of all kinds of stuff, after some spectracide and low mowing this kind of hybrid Bermuda is all that remains, unsure if celebration or 419. I got a Great States 7 blade 16" reel mower I set around 5/8" it is a workout!

I thought it looked reel mowed! I know what you mean about those manual mowers though, I have one just like yours that I used to mow around 5k square feet with every 2-3 days, workout for sure! Good choice on letting the bermuda over take, probably would've been a harder battle trying to remove the bermuda lol.

Man I kind of wish I was in a climate that bermuda stayed green year around although I do enjoy the "winter break" to an extent. That's neat seeing green bermuda with Christmas decor!

Last year my bermuda was green until Thanksgiving, hoping for another repeat this season!

Yeah winter would be nice, my friends and family mocked me for making the pit and having a fire going when it was 78 degrees. It's illegal to fertilize in the summer, but the spring is so early and fall runs until after Christmas so I can still put down 3 pounds of N each season, phosphorus is apparently native to Florida so no issues there and Potassium has never shown up as a need in the UF soil test results. The grass stays green, but almost stops growing from December to February, so it is a nice 3 month break. We have not had a frost here in 6 or 7 years. Excited to move, especially the prospects of having acres instead of a 80'x80' square, that will be some BIG maintenance and likely expense too...

Man, that Florida is like a whole other country! It's the only place in the US where Bermuda actually has fungus issues & has years where it doesn't go dormant. That is weird that it grows better in the shade...There is an outside chance it could be a shade tolerant version like celebration or tifgrand if it was planted in the last few years.

Nice to see you back SimonR. Did you ever need to relevel your lawn after sprigging it?

I have done some smoothing but no need for substantial 'leveling'. I usually dust over some dried sand after verticutting 3-4 times per season and brush the sand down into the canopy.

From season to season as you progressively went shorter with it did it take a more horizontal growth habit and become easier to keep it low?

It is a balancing act as ideally you don't want the stem and leaves laying over. If that happens too much you end up with graining and eventually scalping. I have a verticutter which I use once per week to lightly thin out the canopy so it doesn't choke it self out and get spongey. I also sweep dried sand into the canopy with a broom to help stand the leaf up.

Verticut;

That's awesome, a whole new level of commitment to have your own verticutter!

Finally getting that time of year again! Reeljakes scalp-o-thon 2017 post totally inspired me to add a little info regarding the scalping of my high maintenance bermuda lawn. Scalping my turf has always been such a big job! In the past it has taken me around 8hrs of mowing and I end up with about 25-30 39gal trash bags of clippings from 4,700 sq ft of turf. I could probably help myself out by doing a mid season scalp to reduce the amount of material that has to be removed during the spring scalp. So that may be something I start this year. It's been very warm here in the midlands of SC, actually seeing some green up which is pretty crazy for February. Since the winter has been so mild I've decided to begin my scalp early but only mowing a layer off each week. This should put me finished by mid March which is when I normally scalp. The current height of my turf is probably about 1". My target scalp height is 1/4", but I may have to stop at 7/16" as I do have some concerns trying to go down to 1/4" because my terrain isn't perfect level but not real bad either. Definitely need to level my lawn so I can push that hoc down without a problem. Here's a pic of my first mow last week, only took a small bit off the top. Also sent off soil samples. Man I'm ready to rock and roll!

Iknowright?! My wife is a Christmas junkie, but to me THIS IS THE MOST WONDERFUL TIIIIME OF THE YEAR!

Similarly to turflife, I've been meaning to join this site for some time now and finally did (today actually). I've become a turf fanatic over the last few years. I started with just a rotary and wanted to take it to the next level. I lucked out when I found out they laid down TifGrand at the house. So, I went out and bought a push reel mower to try and get it lower - about 0.75" was the lowest it would go. After about 2 months of use, the plastic gears failed (it was American something I found on Amazon). This gave me an excuse to go buy something better. I found a great deal on a Toro Greensmaster in the upstate of SC (I'm in the midlands as well). With a lot of advice from one of my friends (who is a super at a course in south Florida), I've managed to turn my lawn into a fairway lawn. I probably have the tendency to push the limits a bit with the height of cut and such - and especially this past winter when I convinced myself to overseed with Rye.... very bad choice. This pic below was last year in May - 3 weeks after I aerated I believe. The HOC is 0.400".

This last one was last summer with the HOC of 0.500". Don't pay attention to the pee spot. I have to water after my dogs and one apparently did it behind my back.

That is pretty amazing. What is your maintenance schedule?

Very nice!

I think I found the Allstars of Lawn maintenance all in one place. Amazing pics.

j4c11 - I mow 3 times a week during peak season with the Toro and twice a week with the rotary. I have a fence and cannot get close enough with the Toro due to the transport tire shafts, so I have a "rough" around the outside. With the sandy soils, I typically fertilize with approx. 5lbs per 1000 of a balanced 20-0-25 once a month. My soils are fairly rich in phosphorus, so I leave that out. I typically don't use any herbicides other than a shot of Barricade in the early summer to keep the nutsedge at bay - after that, I pick what I don't like. I do throw out some Heritage fungicide once a year as a precaution around the middle of July when the humidity goes through the roof.

Turflife419 - check out Carolina Turfgrass on Augusta Highway near Lexington County Library. They sell Lebanon fertilizer and you'll be able to get your balanced N and K as well as other blends.

simon_r - do you convert your Greensmaster to a verticutter or did you buy something separate? Do you have groomers on your mower?

Nice pics by all.

An issue I have been having every year is my Bermuda grows seed heads right about now. It will last for a few weeks and then all is well. I have a push reel mower I use but have to use a rotary to get rid of the seed heads. I can then go back to my reel. Not a major issue but a little annoying. Any ideas?

How often are u all checking blade sharpness and sharpening your reels?

I sharpen them annually and I check them about once a month. They won't cut a single piece of paper but they will cut a folded piece of paper. However, it will not cut the seed heads (too thin) which is why I have to use my rotary.

Yeah a push reel won't spin fast enough to clip those seed heads.

Do seed beads even grow at under .5 inch hoc? I just Google it and saw pics and I see that in other people's yards which are high and when they let it grow. Not so much the grass grows high, the seed head looking things grow above the hoc everywhere... unless I'm mistaking them for weeds ....maybe I need to research seed beads more....

I found that my reel was not cutting paper so I resharpened and this time tied bolts as right as possible to make sure no travel.

They shouldn't grow at .5 hoc. My grass is about that height but like you mentioned, they grow above the hoc. Just part of the life cycle of the grass I guess.

I have a feeling the sharpness of the blade has something to do with ability to cut thin organic matter. I will need to test my theory on a neighbor's yard. Either reel sharpness and or extreme height imo might be the reason. If extreme height then solution is more frequent mowing? To where an extension does not exceed the hoc by more than an inch or two? My great states is set at 0.5 now but I can raise it to one inch. I haven't used it since I sharpened it weeks ago and its paper cutting Sharp. If it doesn't rain I'll go have some fun on a neighbors yard who doesn't care about grass. Or HOA. Or self respect :) corner lot on our street they have weeds about 3 ft high.

Drew awesome looking turf you got there! It's pretty cool to meet another turf fanatic from the midlands of SC. Thanks for the tip on Carolina turf grass by the way. That's only a few miles from me so I'm definitely gonna check them out next time I need fertilizer. Have you considered using a pgr on your turf? I'm able to go about 4 days between mowing with pgr. My current hoc is 7/16" using a McLane reel. I know you're loving that gm1000. I want one of those someday.

Drew, the dog pee spot is caused by an abundance of fast release organic fertilizer (urine). The way to fix that is to increase the population of bacteria to process the oversupply. For individual spots, try dropping a heaping handful of table sugar on the spot and watering it down. The sugar will cause the bacteria to stop trying to process the urine and repopulate. Once the sugar is all gone (a few days max), they will return to clear up the urine issue.

For a longer term solution, apply an organic fertilizer at least once a year. You can do that instead of, or in addition to, your normal monthly fertilizer applications. You'll get the biggest bang for your organic buck from soybean meal or corn GLUTEN meal. If you cannot find they, then use alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow). These materials will help keep your microbial population up and hopefully you won't have to follow your dog around all the time. You can find the organics at your local feed store.

Turf life which is the model Mclane u have and how often do u sharpen. Or work on it...apply oil . . . etc.?

Dchall nice tip . My dogs pee all the time and they like to pee on the same spot I didn't realize that they can cause brown spots. I think I had something maybe a year ago which looked like brown yellow circle and I thought it was dollar Spot....they are tiny dogs so maybe they are not capable of causing too much or a problem.

There is more of a problem with female dogs because some of them, not mine, will go all in one place, while males will go a little bit on 50 different places. I've had two female chow dogs and they also like to go in 50 different places.

ChampTX it's a 20" 7 blade. I think it's like a '98 model (bought used from Craigslist). I had the reel and bedknife ground by a golf course mechanic when I first got the mower last year. Since then I've backlapped the reel about 3 or 4 times through the season to maintain sharpness and after spring scalping. I usually check reel to bedknife setting every other mow. Change the oil once a year in the spring after I scalp.

When I realized reel wasn't cutting paper last week I assumed sharpness was lost, and also felt bed to feel knife placement was off a nudge , in future I will adjust bed knife just a hair if I can't cut paper. A back lap may not be necessary . Thanks. I have the 10 blade push greens mower.

Because we have 3 trees , 2 small and one large, im prone to lots of debris and even with blowing yard first and a quick visual inspection it's ez to mow through various unintended artifacts. Which might cause premature dulling of the reels in our case.

Champ - I check mine every 2 weeks. Toro recommends using newspaper to check the sharpness. However, I use typical computer paper as suggested by several golf maintenance guys. If it doesn't cut it, I'll backlap it. I typically backlap 2-3 times a year - at most. I usually take it in for a grind every year or whenever backlapping doesn't cut it (no pun intended). I always pick up debris with my rotary and bag it before I use my reel. The worst part comes after I topdress the lawn. That is what causes me to get a grind - backlapping does nothing at that point.

Champ/Sherm - I get seed heads every now and then, but that is the nature of the beast. They pop up quickly. My grass is said to be sterile since it is a hybrid, so I collect the clippings when they are up to reduce the thatch build up - plus, it makes the lawn look ugly when they are laying all over.

turflife419 - I need to put down some PGR next week. I'll be out of the country for two weeks - so it will look like a jungle when I get back. It will probably be two weeks of constant mowing to ease the grass down to where I want it. The PGR will hopefully help if we don't get too much rain (like recently). I don't trust anyone else to mow my lawn or use my equipment for that matter. I'm in the process of getting it to 0.325" before I leave so I have some sort of a head start.

dchall - I use milorganite twice a year. I've tried the alfalfa pellets before, but then the dogs end up eating it (and sometimes they eat the milorganite or just roll around in it). I'm sure if I used corn gluten meal, soybean meal, or sugar, they will be snacking that up. I have 3 dogs - one lab and two mixes. They are pretty good about peeing once outside (per trip), so I just use pin flags to mark the location and heavily water the area. Every now and then, one will do it behind my back. I don't think they like it when I stand there staring at them until they finish.

Hey Drew do you have someone in the midlands grinding your reel and bedknife? I've had to take mine to a guy near Greenville cause I couldn't find anyone near Lexington or Columbia.

Check the ingredients in your dog food and you'll find similar ingredients as the grains we use to fertilize. Back in the early 2000s there were a lot of organic skeptics who were more than willing to argue about it but refused to try it. I used to talk about dropping a handful of dry dog or cat food on the lawn and see what happens. I think that got a lot of them to stop the arguing.