# New Reel Mower-First Scalp Questions



## Murfandturf (Mar 13, 2020)

Hey TLF peeps

Moved into our new construction home this pat July that has Bermuda. Went from a lawn service-to a manual reel. And after getting the lawn as good as I thought it could be with a manual, I took the plunge into a California Trimmer.

My question for the group is-my first now was at an inch setting which basically scalped it half the lawn due to how uneven it is. I am getting the lawn leveled in a couple weeks but am confused on how to handle next steps.

Should I continue to mow at an inch until it gets leveled? Should I let the brown stems green up? Will it green up on its own or should I pump it with nitrogen?

Thanks all in advance


----------



## ChiTX2015 (Mar 2, 2020)

@Murfandturf What part of TX are you in? I am 25 miles north of Dallas.

Regardless, the lawn will green up by itself. I think most pros would agree that you shouldn't push your lawn too much this early. This time of the year I normally scalp and put down some more pre emergent and 10-10-10. Early to late April I would start putting down some PGR and spray fertilizer but probably not sooner.

And most importantly, don't forget to mow often to keep it looking that neat.


----------



## SGrabs33 (Feb 13, 2017)

I think keeping it at an inch should be fine. Just make sure that you are maintaining the turf a notch or two above where you scalped. That way the sections that were brown when you scalped come back green.


----------



## Murfandturf (Mar 13, 2020)

ChiTX2015 said:


> @Murfandturf What part of TX are you in? I am 25 miles north of Dallas.
> 
> Regardless, the lawn will green up by itself. I think most pros would agree that you shouldn't push your lawn too much this early. This time of the year I normally scalp and put down some more pre emergent and 10-10-10. Early to late April I would start putting down some PGR and spray fertilizer but probably not sooner.
> 
> And most importantly, don't forget to mow often to keep it looking that neat.


I'm in North Houston-in the Woodlands. About 75% of the lawn is shooting up nice and green while the brown spots from the scalp have not-yet. I guess I will need to be more patient!


----------



## Redtenchu (Jan 28, 2017)

SGrabs33 said:


> Just make sure that you are maintaining the turf a notch or two above where you scalped.


+1


----------



## Murfandturf (Mar 13, 2020)

Do you think I should have gone lower so I can have a lower maintenance height? Or wait until I level to re-establish a lower cut?


----------



## MrMeaner (Feb 21, 2017)

Scalp as low as you can before leveling. I just got done verticutting the whole yard and ran the rotary over to pick up the huge mess it made. I have my reels set to 3/8" so gonna scalp, aerate and sand level over the course of the next couple weeks. I have my other reels set to 5/8" to start off the year and will end up at around 3/4" at the end of the year.


----------



## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

I personally scalp as low as I can go without hitting dirt.


----------



## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

Redtwin said:


> I personally scalp as low as I can go without hitting dirt.


This^^^


----------



## Meximusprime (Jun 21, 2019)

Great responses to your questions already fellow Texan. For me and I have a rotary (Honda HRX217) the game plan is scalp to 3/4 and then maintain at 1.25. I completed this last week and getting some good green up with our warmer temps.

This process we will be repeated for my summer reset as well.


----------



## Murfandturf (Mar 13, 2020)

Awesome info gents. Thank you very much!!


----------



## cha5e (Mar 17, 2020)

Op, congrats on the powered reel. I've been down this road before and here is some advice...

Leveling your lawn will make all the difference in the world for using your reel. It will seem as if you're still rolling it on the driveway. I recommend to delay leveling until after your turf has greened up 100%. I'm assuming your using river sand to level? Leveling is going to make your turf go into recovery mode and right now it is using its strength waking up. You want the turf in its prime so it can swallow the sand asap.

If you wait to level until sometime around mid May your back to cutting in 2 weeks and the majority of the sand is gone. Also the longer the sand is there it's going to dull your bedknife and reel in a hurry. May want to wait and schedule a reel sharpening until after the level. (Everyone does it after they scalp)

It may seem scary to cut your lawn lower than 1" but your lawn will look much better cut at 1/2" to 3/4". Whether or not you scalp now is up to you. I've scalped to the dirt as well as not scalping and beginning the season cutting at whatever height I'm going to be cutting at... both ways work. 
But scalping to let's say 3/8" the day before leveling will make the leveling job much smoother and gives more exposure to the holes/lower areas in your lawn.

Hope this helps.


----------



## LoCutt (Jul 29, 2019)

Green-up is greatly influenced by soil temperature, so my grass near the asphalt street greens up first. As the soil warms up, the green spreads. The existing brown grass will never turn green; new leaves will grow and they will be green. I try to scalp my lawn just before it starts to green-up, but this is definitely a guess and I was a few days late this year. The removal of the debris helps with the green-up. Right after a scalp is a good time to top dress as well. The smoother the surface, the more uniform your color can be.

Good luck!


----------



## Murfandturf (Mar 13, 2020)

cha5e said:


> Op, congrats on the powered reel. I've been down this road before and here is some advice...
> 
> Leveling your lawn will make all the difference in the world for using your reel. It will seem as if you're still rolling it on the driveway. I recommend to delay leveling until after your turf has greened up 100%. I'm assuming your using river sand to level? Leveling is going to make your turf go into recovery mode and right now it is using its strength waking up. You want the turf in its prime so it can swallow the sand asap.
> 
> ...


I can only imagine how great it will be once leveled. It is insane how much new construction homes don't take any time whatsoever to make sure they are laying down new sod on a level surface-its mind-boggling!! I was planning on using masonry sand or bank sand- what are your thoughts?

Do you load the lawn post scalp with Nitrogen or would that cause to much stress? I plan on going as low as I can go with the Cali Trimmer and aerating before they come with the sand for level. Thanks for the help!


----------



## Murfandturf (Mar 13, 2020)

LoCutt said:


> Green-up is greatly influenced by soil temperature, so my grass near the asphalt street greens up first. As the soil warms up, the green spreads. The existing brown grass will never turn green; new leaves will grow and they will be green. I try to scalp my lawn just before it starts to green-up, but this is definitely a guess and I was a few days late this year. The removal of the debris helps with the green-up. Right after a scalp is a good time to top dress as well. The smoother the surface, the more uniform your color can be.
> 
> Good luck!


I kept a green lawn all fall with a manual reel so it is killing me to now be in Spring and have the leopard spot marks going on. Its crazy, the more level spots-I cant cut the green fast enough. But the spots that were scalped are very very slow. Do you practice any particular fertilizer treatment after your scalp?


----------



## LoCutt (Jul 29, 2019)

Murfandturf said:


> Do you practice any particular fertilizer treatment after your scalp?


I admit to being lazy as I've had a chem service for the past couple of years. I was expecting to transition back to doing it myself this year, but with the issues we have now, this may be delayed. My cultivar and my shade simply don't mix.

There are many people on this forum who are much better qualified at fertilization practices, but a general rule of thumb is that more frequent mowing at a lower HOC increases the turf's fertilizer requirements. Bagging increases fertilizer requirements; many cultural practices reduce the applicability of common advice.

I used to fertilize with ammonium nitrate (34-0-0) before greenup... several weeks before, in the hope that it would help get me going. 419-II also greens up before 419, and I regularly had the greenest lawn in the area for a few weeks. I think the OKC bombing eliminated ammonium nitrate from the market.


----------



## Murfandturf (Mar 13, 2020)

Thanks for the reply man! I have been playing with PGF Complete (over priced), GreenTrx and Nitro Phos. It's starting to thicken and green up pretty quickly.


----------



## BubbaGrumpus (Jun 17, 2019)

I mean if it works.. that 2ft of grass looks amazing.


----------



## Murfandturf (Mar 13, 2020)

BubbaGrumpus said:


> I mean if it works.. that 2ft of grass looks amazing.


haha I know right- I suppose the price is subjective. Thanks, man, it's really looking healthy right now. Recovered from scalping and aeration. The only reason I say overpriced is that the other two brands I'm trying is almost double the product for roughly half the cost. We shall see how it goes.


----------



## Chocolate Lab (Jun 8, 2019)

Yeah, that looks great! :thumbup:


----------



## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

Murfandturf said:


> Thanks for the reply man! I have been playing with PGF Complete (over priced), GreenTrx and Nitro Phos. It's starting to thicken and green up pretty quickly.


Do I spy a Casioaks?

I'm maintaining my new yard with a rotary and cutting at 1.75", I'm getting some scalping on my yard (Tiff 419). We moved into the house July 2020, and I'm a little shocked how bumpy a newly sodded yard can be.


----------



## Murfandturf (Mar 13, 2020)

jspearm1983 said:


> Murfandturf said:
> 
> 
> > Thanks for the reply man! I have been playing with PGF Complete (over priced), GreenTrx and Nitro Phos. It's starting to thicken and green up pretty quickly.
> ...


Man don't be surprised at all. We bought our home and are always walking the dog and riding our bikes so we watch the other homes go up around us. It's honestly sad. They go from straight bumpy clay mixed with trash/debris/stone/brick to sod. A quick "level" with a front loader and sod is thrown on. Then the home owner is left with years of hard work to fix it. I have been working on the lawn for about 6 months-finally enjoying my hard work. But I have a running list of things I have pulled out of the soil from beer cans, brick, concrete, wood, rebar-etc. Crazyness!


----------



## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

So far I've dug up stone, concrete, and plastic water bottles from my yard.

Nice watch. I've been waiting for the black version to be in stock, but they sell out immediately.


----------



## Murfandturf (Mar 13, 2020)

jspearm1983 said:


> So far I've dug up stone, concrete, and plastic water bottles from my yard.
> 
> Nice watch. I've been waiting for the black version to be in stock, but they sell out immediately.


Thanks brother-this is my dedicated outdoors activity watch. Super light and can beat it up.


----------



## Murfandturf (Mar 13, 2020)

Here's an update:


----------



## MrMeaner (Feb 21, 2017)

Murfandturf said:


> Here's an update:


Wow..looks fantiastic!!


----------



## tcorbitt20 (Aug 31, 2018)

Great color! I'm jealous


----------



## radarksu (Oct 11, 2018)

Your lawn looks awesome. I'm up in DFW waiting for it to get hot, jealous! But you should take care of the "mulch volcanoes" around your trees. It not healthy for the tree and could ultimately lead to it choking itself out and dying. Look up "girdling roots". Looks like new build, it's not your fault any more then the chunk of concrete under the sod is your fault (also new build struggler) but you can fix the mulch issue easily.

Cheers!


----------



## Murfandturf (Mar 13, 2020)

radarksu said:


> Your lawn looks awesome. I'm up in DFW waiting for it to get hot, jealous! But you should take care of the "mulch volcanoes" around your trees. It not healthy for the tree and could ultimately lead to it choking itself out and dying. Look up "girdling roots". Looks like new build, it's not your fault any more then the chunk of concrete under the sod is your fault (also new build struggler) but you can fix the mulch issue easily.
> 
> Cheers!


I've read that as well but I'm trying to get rid of the trees haha! Currently fighting HOA on it. Why they planted two oak trees over Bermuda is beyond me!


----------



## Txmx583 (Jun 8, 2017)

Yard looks killer man!! I'm in a fairly new home also (2013) and it came with two ceded elma in the front yard and a live oak in the back yard. At least my yard is a decent size, a lot of my neighbors have about 500sqft front lawns with two oak trees lol. I don't know what these builders think sometimes.


----------



## DuncanMcDonuts (May 5, 2019)

My builder told me the city requires 3 trees planted per lot. Whether it's true or not, let's just say there were other lies. They gave me a red oak and a cedar elm in front where I get full sunlight, and a live oak in the back. I'm fine with the live oak in the back near my patio to create shade when I eventually have a deck installed.

I'm trying to convince my wife to let me replace the red oak in front with an ornamental tree. My trees were planted 4 years ago, but I know the red oak will eventually create too much shade for grass and I'm not looking forward to the acorns, either.


----------



## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

Maybe one (or two) of those trees could have an "untimely" passing...

just saying...


----------



## burnhagw (Oct 17, 2019)

jspearm1983 said:


> So far I've dug up stone, concrete, and plastic water bottles from my yard.
> 
> Nice watch. I've been waiting for the black version to be in stock, but they sell out immediately.


my new construction lawn, i've also dug up massive concrete chunks, fence matterial, saws aw blade, nails, boulders, bottles, cans, etc. It's insane!


----------

