# I went from 4" to 0.5" late October



## kbob11 (Oct 11, 2019)

Title explains the experiment. I got a greens mower and cut my thick turf from 4" to 0.5" in 1 go. I dethatched and raked after scalping with timemaster then gave it a triple cut with the greens. This is probably way too late in season to try this but I had the itch and only scalped a small section of the lawn. I have mowed 3 times since the first cut on Tuesday 10/19 and it mostly looks awful. I will upload pictures first thing in morning but haven't seen any threads for late season scalp jobs.


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## Thejarrod (Aug 5, 2018)

oh boy. 
can't wait to see it.


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## thecutter64 (Oct 5, 2021)

Why? :shock:


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## kbob11 (Oct 11, 2019)

Sorry for the low quality photos. We currently have heavy downpours through the next couple of days.

What 0.5" looks like after cutting yesterday for 3rd time.





Here is the grass right next to it



Front on a sunnier day


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## WyGuy (May 5, 2019)

Looks better than when I went from about 3'' to .5'' in August, took about 1.5 months to fully bounce back.


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## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

That will benefit from spoon feeding. It will be a race between recovery and frost for the grass.


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## kbob11 (Oct 11, 2019)

I am spraying 0.25lb of N weekly on the yard. This section will get that as soon as the 5" of rain passes tomorrow. Question, how much does frost effect grass growth? Last year I was mowing until December and we were in and out of frosts at night. Is it worse for short turf?


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## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

Grass growth and spreading will slow as temps and solar radiation drops. Frost doesn't seem to have a huge impact for me until night time temps drop below 24 degrees. It seems to be average temp more than absolute lows.


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## ABC123 (Jul 14, 2017)

Don't worry. Just foliar feed N weekly in the spring and it will love you


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## KoopHawk (May 28, 2019)

This is the funny thing when people refer to 'thickness' of their turf. Turf might look lush at 4 inches but if you bring it down to under an inch and it isn't very thick at all. The grass adapts to its conditions.


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## kbob11 (Oct 11, 2019)

Mowed again. Might not mow again this season but we will see what the temps do. Let's hope something comes back in the spring.


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

thecutter64 said:


> Why? :shock:


This is what I would like to know. Are you trying to make a putting green?


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## stevehollx (Apr 8, 2020)

HAHA, my gosh. Will be interesting to compare the results late spring to the unscalped patch.


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

What happened to the one third rule?


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## ABC123 (Jul 14, 2017)

Deadlawn said:


> What happened to the one third rule?


That's just for best practice. I've done this before on a old yard. I'll also be doing this here soon at the end of the month when I close on my next house.


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## thin_concrete (Sep 11, 2020)

Deadlawn said:


> What happened to the one third rule?


The 1/3 rule isn't absolute. It's guidance - good guidance - but guidance nonetheless. Doing it this late in the season certainly has its own risks as seen here.


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## kbob11 (Oct 11, 2019)

I have always been interested in reel mowing and seeing as I just purchased this mower I wanted to try it out. I only cut a small area and worst case I over seed in the spring. My local golf course was selling it for $175 so I couldn't pass that up. However, the max HOC is 0.5" this might be a problem down the road. I might go for something more home owner oriented later on when I have a spare $2k…


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## Delmarva Keith (May 12, 2018)

Years ago, I've done what you did (almost - not quite so extreme). The turf will very likely bounce back in Spring but stock up on a good 3-way - weeds were fierce when I did that. My recollection is everything turned out fine but it took a lot of keeping after the weeds until it started growing thick again. Good luck!


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## jimmythegreek (Aug 7, 2020)

List that thing amd make a few bucks off it. Then let your nice lawn bounce back and keep at it like usual.


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

ABC123 said:


> Deadlawn said:
> 
> 
> > What happened to the one third rule?
> ...


But why? Why would you scalp a lawn unless you are planning on seeding new grass? It just puts stress on the grass - unless it's right before winter and the grass is dormant anyway - then it just looks ugly. Granted we know long grass in the winter just attracts unwanted visitors like rodents, but cutting height should be reduced gradually.


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## kbob11 (Oct 11, 2019)

@Deadlawn I just want to see what happens. This is only a small section of my yard. If it comes in decent in the spring I might extend it a little around my fireplace area.


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## Kallgren (Nov 10, 2018)

I like the play. With the leaves falling off the trees, let the wind blow them off the short cut grass. When it is longer, the leaves get stuck so more raking. In any event, it is going to go dormant at this time of year.


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## Colinwjholding (Apr 6, 2020)

kbob11 said:


> I have always been interested in reel mowing and seeing as I just purchased this mower I wanted to try it out. I only cut a small area and worst case I over seed in the spring. My local golf course was selling it for $175 so I couldn't pass that up. However, the max HOC is 0.5" this might be a problem down the road. I might go for something more home owner oriented later on when I have a spare $2k…


You can buy higher height of cut brackets for jacobsens. I cut at half inch now. But used to cut at .75". Just do some more research about your mower. Also that will fill in with an overseed. Enjoy reel mowing. Its the best.


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## kbob11 (Oct 11, 2019)

Took these bracket adjusters off that were limiting me to 0.5" I'm up around 1" now and the grass is liking it a lot more. It does look a little scalped in this photo but nothing like before. I'm going to leave it here and dethatch next spring. I'll post an end of the year pic.


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## kbob11 (Oct 11, 2019)

4/10 Update

The grass is coming in! It is still early in the season and most lawns around here are just starting to turn green. Last October I scalped down a small section from 4" to 0.5. That section is the picture of the golf ball. I got the bug and scalped a larger section of the back yard this morning. I may put in a bent grass green this August. I mowed around 0.5" and I think I will shoot for 0.7" and some pgr once it heals up a bit.


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## Colinwjholding (Apr 6, 2020)

Looking so much better.

Another big key to reel mowing is a sand top dress. 
Looks great though. What type of grass is this tttf?


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## kbob11 (Oct 11, 2019)

@Colinwjholding As far as I know it is kbg / rye mix that was here when I moved in. I overseeded with TTTF on the side and front of my yard but haven't gone anywhere near 1" with that.


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## Colinwjholding (Apr 6, 2020)

kbob11 said:


> @Colinwjholding As far as I know it is kbg / rye mix that was here when I moved in. I overseeded with TTTF on the side and front of my yard but haven't gone anywhere near 1" with that.


Perfect that mix will be great for reel mowing.


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## confused_boner (Apr 5, 2021)

Why &#128557;

Oh man what a ride. What did you cut it all at once rather than gradually?


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## togabrennan (9 mo ago)

I'd love updates on this now that we're hitting spring growth.


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## lbb091919 (Apr 26, 2020)

confused_boner said:


> Why 😭
> 
> Oh man what a ride. What did you cut it all at once rather than gradually?


For funsies! I'd love to do this in my backyard if it was safe for a reel. Always gotta keep it interesting


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## kbob11 (Oct 11, 2019)

So its 5 days later and I am going for my 3rd mow of this section. I am leaving for a 1 week vacation and was planning on putting out some PGR, urea & Iron at a half rate. Would the PGR have a negative effect with sections of the grass only being cut this low for a week? The places I mowed last year I am not too worried about.


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## kbob11 (Oct 11, 2019)

Update, should prob have created a journal.


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