# Frequency of reel mowing Bermuda



## Passat774 (Oct 9, 2018)

I am going into my second year of reel mowing and something that I was unable to master was the frequency of cut. This year I scalped at .40 at have been mowing at .60 and the Greensmaster 1600 is leaving great strips and the yard looks great. I am currently mowing at 2 per week.

How are you able to determine the frequency of cut? Or do I just give up and mow every day? Spray PGR? I am used to being able to see that my tall fescue was tall and would cut it every 5-7 days.

What I am trying to master is not over-fertilizing and understanding temperature and how it directly affects the growth rate.

With the 1/3 rule and mowing at .60 can you really see that the grass has grown .20 of an inch?

Does anyone have any other suggestions...


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## cglarsen (Dec 28, 2018)

Excellent topic. I'm eager to hear advice on this as well.


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## CarolinaCuttin (Sep 6, 2019)

I think with a proper PGR and fertility program you can definitely get it down to 2x per week. I can't imagine getting away with 2x per week at 0.600" in the summer, it's just going to grow too fast.

The great thing about a PGR program is that you can also use it as an opportunity to spoon feed your turf. I think you should always mix in some N and iron with PGRs on bermuda. PGRs can improve color, drought tolerance, shade tolerance, and stress tolerance on top of allowing you to mow less. Read up on the growing degree day (GDD) model for PGR application. It will allow you to predict the proper timing of your PGR apps so you don't pop out of regulation and end up with a mess.

Also, I think if you start walking the lawn daily you'll get a good sense after a while of when it needs to be cut and anything else it is lacking.


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## thesouthernreelmower (Aug 28, 2018)

Bermuda needs only a very slight amount removed to maintain its green color. And reel mower are only designed to remove a small amount of growth each time. I can tell when mine needs to be mowed because it starts to look "shaggy". When it's freshly mowed all the blades are smooth and cut the same height. It almost looks bumpy to me because different areas of the lawn grow at different rates. I don't think there is a hard fast rule of when to mow because every lawn, turf type etc are going to effect growth rates. Even with pgr, you'll need to mow 1-2 times per week. I think it's best to get out on the lawn and walk around. If you keep the mower height of cut the same, and it's not taking any growth off, you can wait a little longer. If you wait to long, it's taking way to much off and it's starts scalping, you waited to long. Sometimes even week to week it changes because of rain, fertilizer, heat etc.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

I do not catch my clippings so I have to watch as it is cutting to see how much is getting cut off. When you hit a particularly nice looking spot, stop and look at the clippings to see how much you are taking off. If you catch clippings, it's much easier to see but then you are not returning nutrients to the turf. As mentioned above, without PGR you will be mowing every other day when the summer kicks off.

My motto has always been, "If your wife isn't asking 'Didn't you JUST cut the grass?', you are not mowing often enough."


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## BubbaGrumpus (Jun 17, 2019)

Twice a week is in my mind.. the baseline.

Some folks mow every other day. Some mow on a 3-4-4-3 schedule.

I mean you could go down the rabbit hole and make it way more complicated then it needs to be.. or..

Mow twice a week... especially if you're saying it already looks great.


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## Tellycoleman (May 10, 2017)

I think you need to get more in tune with your lawn. I mowed at 0.10 last year and I can tell at that height that difference in growth that happened from a morning cut to the afternoon. Mow every other time with the grass catcher on until you get used to the amount of clippings and growth.


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## cglarsen (Dec 28, 2018)

Redtwin said:


> My motto has always been, "If your wife isn't asking 'Didn't you JUST cut the grass?', you are not mowing often enough."


LOL - Every time I say I gotta mow this happens.


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## Rooster (Aug 19, 2019)

cglarsen said:


> Redtwin said:
> 
> 
> > My motto has always been, "If your wife isn't asking 'Didn't you JUST cut the grass?', you are not mowing often enough."
> ...


My wife has said "you're only going to be mowing once a week" at least half a dozen times since we moved into this house. I may have to invest in a good quality headlamp and sneak out in the middle of the night to mow.


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## Awar (Feb 25, 2019)

My wife wanted me to mow once every two weeks because that's what some neighbors did! I was rotary mowing once a week at a HOC of 1.5 to 2 inches in the past (and I was taking off too much when mowing). Now that I have a reel mower and will go down to 1 inch or less, PGR is the only way I may be able to get away with mowing once a week. We'll see how that goes.

But my general advice is to mow twice a week with a catcher and see what it looks like. Then adjust from there. That's what I'll do before starting PGR.


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## Passat774 (Oct 9, 2018)

Thanks, I am just trying to learn how to read the growth visually. I just need assistance learning what makes Bermuda grow at a much faster rate, what temperature range, in addition to rain/watering.

I even went out in the rain yesterday and cut!!


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## LoCutt (Jul 29, 2019)

Bermuda grows vertically relatively slowly, but horizontally it is the fastest growing grass. (There are cultivars where this is not true.) It will not gather light as efficiently as other grasses if it is mowed high, and reels are limited in their ability to cut the grass once the grass blades are a certain length. Imagine trying to mow a wheat field with your reel. You'd just push the wheat over and not cut anything. A reel mower will only cut grass blades that are 1/2 the distance between the blades in the reels or less. If the grass is longer, it starts missing some of the grass. Once it gets to being longer than the distance between the blades, it just pushes it over and doesn't cut at all.

When you use a reel, you get a much finer cut but the price you pay is flexibility in the HOC. So you have limits as to how much you can cut off, but most people who are using reels probably cut more often than they have to cut (compelled by the limits of the reel).

I was gone about ten days once and couldn't mow my lawn when I returned. I had to use a rotary to cut it down where my reel could cut (and it looked awful). The 1/3 rule is not very forgiving.


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## Passat774 (Oct 9, 2018)

Here's a picture from today more rain

Used my 16" Hudson Star yesterday so I would not tear anything up instead of the GM 1600

.60


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## BubbaGrumpus (Jun 17, 2019)

That's a way nicer yard then mine! You should be telling us when to mow!

Awesome job!


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## j2dna (Apr 1, 2020)

Yard looks great!

To the point above, what is the frequency you catch clippings? Since switching to a reel I catch every time. Reason being is the reel catcher doesn't really catch everything and I'm working to clear the soil for better growth. Is there a best practice on this? This is for a .5" HOC on Bermuda.


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## Guest (May 21, 2020)

I catch the clippings in the spring time due to cooler weather, less microbial action, and if it rains a lot you will get "clipping waves" in your lawn.

During the summer I don't since clippings decompose quickly and it seems to help during drought plus it does help with fertilizing.


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## ENC_Lawn (Sep 9, 2018)

Tellycoleman said:


> I think you need to get more in tune with your lawn. I mowed at 0.10 last year and I can tell at that height that difference in growth that happened from a morning cut to the afternoon. Mow every other time with the grass catcher on until you get used to the amount of clippings and growth.


@Tellycoleman Thats an awesome HOC any pics you can share?


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## Passat774 (Oct 9, 2018)

Thank you for the compliments, thanks to the forums I have been given a lot of great guidance.

I have stopped catching my clippings my golf course superintendents buddies both said that it's better to return the clippings back to the ground.


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## cglarsen (Dec 28, 2018)

Passat774 said:


> Thanks, I am just trying to learn how to read the growth visually. I just need assistance learning what makes Bermuda grow at a much faster rate, what temperature range, in addition to rain/watering.
> 
> I even went out in the rain yesterday and cut!!


My lawn is now out of control with this wet pattern in place. I was considering a wet mow myself! 1/3 rule is out the window either way so I'll need to reset it Saturday.


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## Tellycoleman (May 10, 2017)

it is better to catch the clippings. If you dont you need to fertilize more. Thats why i said catch clippings every other time you mow until you get comfortable with when you need to cut again. But i would absolutely NOT catch the clipping all the time.
I only catch clippings in the path that i walk my dog out. That way im not hearing the wife fuss that im tracking in wet clippings.


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## Jimefam (Jun 22, 2018)

I am at .60 right now and cut twice a week and am on PGR. I hardly take anything off and my wife insists i am insane that the grass hasnt grown in weeks. I dont catch since #1 i dont have a catcher and #2 its so little that its a moot point. However i scalped late this year and the clipping left on the grass was a huge pain in the *** and made the yard look horrible for weeks.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

Use a rotary with a bagger to pick up the clippings when you scalp. If you don't have one, borrow a neighbors.


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## Passat774 (Oct 9, 2018)

I have decided to mow every day or maybe every other

I also decided that it's no big deal after watching this other local guy doing the same thing.

Marc Leishman's backyard putting green obsession


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## Wfrobinette (Feb 3, 2019)

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## burnhagw (Oct 17, 2019)

Wfrobinette said:


> Every 2 to3 days for me at 0.75 with Tnex. I am going to add paclo(here on Monday) to see it I can get down that to once a week.
> 
> Though my reel mower(electra) is broken(Lightning struck near house and fried everything plugged into 1 outlet in the garage, lost sprinkler controller too) and will take 2 to 3 weeks for repair. So I am about to learn about resetting a cut. Rotary for me for a while.


Dang, that is some bad luck. We have been getting crazy storms in Charlotte lately. I'm manual reel mowing, and I let it go 4 days and thought I was gonna die in the heat this morning, lol. Optimal is 2-3 days for me, and I think I'm going to need to get T-NEX, I'm cutting at 3/4".


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## Tmank87 (Feb 13, 2019)

Man, @burnhagw you're manually cutting 8k ft?


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## burnhagw (Oct 17, 2019)

Tmank87 said:


> Man, @burnhagw you're manually cutting 8k ft?


Pretty close, front is 3500 sqft, and back is just shy of 4000 sqft.

I want a swordsman, but they are $$$$, it will be my goal though.


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## Tmank87 (Feb 13, 2019)

burnhagw said:


> Tmank87 said:
> 
> 
> > Man, @burnhagw you're manually cutting 8k ft?
> ...


Ha, I feel for you there. That's a lot of walking. I mow my 9K with my Baroness and with this heat, that's a chore. :bandit: :thumbup:


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## Wfrobinette (Feb 3, 2019)

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## adgattoni (Oct 3, 2017)

I've been thinking about using @Greendoc's dual PGR method. 16oz/a T-NEX and 16oz/a Paclo for several weeks of near complete suppression. I'll still mow week to week to keep on top of it but there will be a less likely chance I get behind. Usually happens when I skip a mow and a week-long rain storm suddenly comes along.


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## Wfrobinette (Feb 3, 2019)

adgattoni said:


> I've been thinking about using @Greendoc's dual PGR method. 16oz/a T-NEX and 16oz/a Paclo for several weeks of near complete suppression. I'll still mow week to week to keep on top of it but there will be a less likely chance I get behind. Usually happens when I skip a mow and a week-long rain storm suddenly comes along.


As soon as I get my real back I am going to try the same thing.

about 10ml of each per 1k


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## alistairfang (May 4, 2020)

burnhagw said:


> Tmank87 said:
> 
> 
> > Man, @burnhagw you're manually cutting 8k ft?
> ...


I should feel blessed I only need to manual reel for 5000 sqft. 1/2 area is still trying coming back from previous owner and very thin and grow slowly.

sand will come in next week an hopefully it can fix bare/thin spot issue


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## burnhagw (Oct 17, 2019)

alistairfang said:


> burnhagw said:
> 
> 
> > Tmank87 said:
> ...


I put down 4 yards of sand in start of spring. Just put down PGR 3 days ago and I already can see the difference in slowing down.


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## Wfrobinette (Feb 3, 2019)

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