Americans Scalp Their Lawns
davidrt28 (zone 7)
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
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davidrt28 (zone 7)
3 years agoRelated Discussions
Zoysia scalping near beginning of lawn mowing season
Comments (2)Just a couple sidenotes that recently occurred to me: By kitty-corner, of course, I mean wheels that are diagonal to each other, so Front Left and Rear Right. Also, obviously this won't work with single-lever deck-height control. You know, that's the feature some mowers have that lets you change the deck's height with a single lever, instead of forcing you to change the deck's height by having to individually adjust each of 4 wheels. Last year I thought single-lever deck mowers were the cat's meow, but now that I stumbled upon mower wheel interpolating, give me 4 individually adjustable wheels anyday! So many more cutting heights to choose from! Lovez it! In my book, single-lever control is not a benefit (and high-end feature) anymore since it robs you of interpolating. Would you believe even Walmart this year has a mower with single-lever deck control. Saw it tonight. It's called the Brute (that's its brandname) and it has a Briggs And Stratton engine with rear-wheel transmission for $217. Also has a wide 22-inch cutting diameter. Didn't see the horsepower printed on the box, though. Last year, single-lever deck control cost you big bucks and was found only in high-end models, but like I said, single-lever deprives you of many height options. I'm not interested in it anymore. Lawn newbies may be wondering what the excitement is about a change in cutting height of 0.15 inches or 0.25 inches. It's counter-intuitive, but when it comes to grass, a small change in cutting height makes a big difference, even a quarter-inch (0.25). You can visibly see the difference between a lawn cut at 2 inches and the same lawn cut 0.25 inches lower or higher. The eye definitely picks up on the small quarter-inch change in cutting height, and even a 0.15 inch change....See MoreWhen should I scalp my lawn - when should I 2nd application?
Comments (4)I would wait until it is 95% dead before mowing. Reason - the dead stuff will mow up pretty easy. When you come to a still-live patch, that mower will bog like there is no tomorrow. Ran into this Tuesday. I think you can do the second ap of Roundup as soon as you can tell what is died or is on its way to being dead and what you missed. I could have done my second ap 5 days after the first once I saw what I had missed but I waited until 7 days after due to time conflicts. And for a second ap, you only need to hit the areas you missed, not the whole yard again....See MoreHelp! Scalped my lawn...
Comments (13)Dchall was responding to your question about the lawn now being more susceptible to weeds. He was kidding you to say if you want weeds, then water every day. He was not suggesting you do it, and he would not suggest doing it under any circumstances. What your refer to as being more susceptible to weeds is simply that the lawn is now cut to such a short length that it no longer shades the soil, thereby exposing weeds/weed seeds to air and sunlight. Every plant needs those, but taller grass helps to prevent weeds by depriving them. I was suggesting that because it could be in shock from mowing so much off at once, it could be more susceptible to disease it may have been vulnerable to in the first place. In its shocked condition, it is in a somewhat weakened state and not able to keep fighting off something it is already open to. So, just keep an eye on it. I think we're all trying to say you really don't have to worry or do anything in particular right now except water it, which I'm sure you've done by now. I know you are concerned but don't have to be, and basically you cannot help it recover. It will do that quite on its own. If I were to suggest adding anything right now, it would be corn meal for its anti-fungal properties to help fight disease. But then, I would suggest that anyway. I'm kinda wondering if you know what we mean by "water deeply" or "water 1 inch" or "water infrequently." Please understand no one wants you to water your grass every day. That absolutely cannot help it to recover from being mowed too low. It can only cause very awful problems. We want you to water it just 1 inch all at once, and then not again until the next week. Deerslayer is explaining you must take rainfall into consideration. Your grass needs 1 inch of water each week. With 3 or 4 tuna cans placed in various places for your sprinkler to reach evenly, time how long it takes for the cans to get just 1 inch of water in them. That is how long it will take to provide 1 inch of water to your lawn. It might be 45 minutes. It might take an hour or more. It just depends on your sprinkler system, but you want to water for that amount of time. You want your whole lawn to receive 1 inch of water, so if there are areas that do not get any water, then position the sprinkler to irrigate 1 inch in one area, and then move the sprinkler to irrigate 1 inch in the other area. Hope I explained things a little better....See MoreWhen to scalp Bermuda lawn
Comments (10)For bermuda the first fert app goes down after the 2nd time you mow real grass, not weeds. That ensures the roots are awake and ready for fertilizer. Otherwise you're wasting it. The fall app of preem should go down when you get a late summer or early fall rainstorm. If you get rain off and on through August and September, that makes it harder to figure. Waiting until Thanksgiving regardless of the rain is, again, wasting the preem. The fall app of preem is there to take care of the weeds that germinate in the fall and immediately go dormant until spring. I took some pictures this past season. We got about 3 inches of rain over a week the last week of Sept 2017. This pic was taken Oct 5th. Note the tiny dots of green. Those sprouted after that rain. By the way this is not my lawn. This is the park where walk our dogs every day. Here is a picture from Jan 29, 2018.Note that the tiny dots have expanded, but they have not exactly taken off. Then in Feb we had nothing but mist with the occasional inch of rain (dreary month). That was enough for these plants to bolt. Here's a pic from yesterday. I plucked this one, obviously. I don't know what the plant is, but there are millions of them in the park. Hope to see a flower in the next week or so. So the point of the digression into weeds is that the preem in the fall has to be timed to the rain, not the calendar....See Morerifis (zone 6b-7a NJ)
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