# Scalping Centipede



## revitup (Sep 19, 2020)

I see many posts regarding scalping Bermuda and zoysia. I assume that has benefits for those grass types. Does scalping centipede offer the same benefit? Centipede's very slow recovery rate would make me very hesitant. It seems to do well at the 1 3/4" HOC I'm doing now. Is there any benefit to cutting it shorter (not that I could cut it much shorter without scalping some areas, maybe another 1/8"). What HOC are others using for their centipede lawns? Assuming there are a few here also with '2nd class' lazy man's grass. Lol.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

I would not scalp centipede. I also think it does better in the mid-range of HOC so you are good there as well. Judging from your photos, I think you are doing everything correctly.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

That looks about as good as I've seen centipede ever look. That garden bed though...


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## revitup (Sep 19, 2020)

SCGrassMan said:


> That looks about as good as I've seen centipede ever look. That garden bed though...


Yeah that could use some weeding. My plan is to take that out and put in a raised bed vegetable garden so I haven't been able to work up the enthusiasm to put any effort into it.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

revitup said:


> SCGrassMan said:
> 
> 
> > That looks about as good as I've seen centipede ever look. That garden bed though...
> ...


I 100% understand trust me. There's a reason theres no pics of my garden beds LOL.

Seriously though, the grass looks great.


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## Herring (Sep 19, 2020)

I experimented this year with scalping and dethatching my front centipede lawn. Here's a before and after.



Here's three days later. I applied a 20-20-20 water soluble after dethatching. This will be renovated this fall so this is a trial and error test run to see how it responds.


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## SC Grass Loon (Jun 7, 2019)

My front yard is centipede. A few weeks ago I ran a sunjoe dethatcher over mine and then I scalped it for the second year in a row at with the mower set at .25". Of course this is on top of the stolons so in reality the true HOC is actually higher. I cut it during season at .625". I cut with a rotary mower prior to this. I can say decisively that it looks better and healthier than ever. I had earlier green up than all of my neighbors this year as well. During the peak of the season I use PGR and Feature and can mow it once a week very comfortably. I find with spraying the Feature I get a darker green which is what I personally like.

Your grass looks pretty healthy to me.


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## HungrySoutherner (May 29, 2018)

Herring said:


> I experimented this year with scalping and dethatching my front centipede lawn. Here's a before and after.
> 
> 
> 
> Here's three days later. I applied a 20-20-20 water soluble after dethatching. This will be renovated this fall so this is a trial and error test run to see how it responds.


For the record centipede doesn't like P so probably wouldn't go nuts with the triple 20, it could have the opposite effect you are looking for. You can kill centipede by applying to much phos. Like the lower you can keep phos the better.


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## Herring (Sep 19, 2020)

HungrySoutherner said:


> Herring said:
> 
> 
> > I experimented this year with scalping and dethatching my front centipede lawn. Here's a before and after.
> ...


Yes, I applied that at .20lbs because my soil test showed critically low across the board. I'm hoping to renovate this to bermuda so am trying to work on the soil the best I can before renovating.


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## mre_man_76 (Aug 4, 2018)

Scalped mine on lowest setting of the trucut which is about .5 on 28 March

Here it is 2 days after a blanket app on 4 April of medium rate Celsius and Certainty, and max rate of bifen and T-Nex. Also through in the last of my RGS, Air8, and D-Thatch from last year into the mix. Moving forward this season I will only be spraying AS and SOP, spoon feeding at a bi weekly rate of .10 lb of N and .20 lb of K. Will get my micros down using Main Event every time I spray T-Nex.





Last year I kept it between .75 and 1 while regulated. This year I plan on keeping it at or just under .75


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## bp2878 (Feb 13, 2019)

My centipede maintained at 5/8 a few years back. I've since nuked it and went to tifgrand but centipede can look great too.


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## mre_man_76 (Aug 4, 2018)

bp2878 said:


> My centipede maintained at 5/8 a few years back. I've since nuked it and went to tifgrand but centipede can look great too.


Agreed.

It was actually you and @Brodgers88 before he converted his centipede as well that got me into reel mowing my centipede in the first place.


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## SC Grass Loon (Jun 7, 2019)

mre_man_76 said:


> bp2878 said:
> 
> 
> > My centipede maintained at 5/8 a few years back. I've since nuked it and went to tifgrand but centipede can look great too.
> ...


I will second the above on inspiration. Here is mine last night after a trim. Still early in the season so the color is coming along.


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## Herring (Sep 19, 2020)

Following up post scalp and dethatch, I'm very surprised with how the centipede responded. It's not perfect and has a long way to go, hopefully it continues. Warmer temperatures have helped.


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## revitup (Sep 19, 2020)

Herring said:


> Following up post scalp and dethatch, I'm very surprised with how the centipede responded. It's not perfect and has a long way to go, hopefully it continues. Warmer temperatures have helped.


What did you do for dethatch? Scarify or true dethatch? How far were the tines/blades apart? Where did you set the depth? Didn't it rip out a large amount of the surface growing stolons? I'm sorry if you covered this info earlier in the thread.


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## Herring (Sep 19, 2020)

@revitup I used the Greenworks electric dethatcher set to the highest setting with the tines. I think this was important otherwise it may take all of the centipede. I set my Honda rotary mower as low as it would go afterwards. I think it just pulled up dead material. Here's what it looked like halfway through.


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## mre_man_76 (Aug 4, 2018)

Herring said:


> @revitup I used the Greenworks electric dethatcher set to the highest setting with the tines. I think this was important otherwise it may take all of the centipede. I set my Honda rotary mower as low as it would go afterwards. I think it just pulled up dead material. Here's what it looked like halfway through.


Think i will try this next season.


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## LawnDrummer (Jan 16, 2019)

mre_man_76 said:


> Moving forward this season I will only be spraying AS and SOP, spoon feeding at a bi weekly rate of .10 lb of N and .20 lb of K. Will get my micros down using Main Event every time I spray T-Nex.


I purchased AS and SOP about a month or so ago to use this season. Are you spreading your AS or dissolving it and spraying through a sprayer? I tested a small area of my backyard by tossing just a little AS on a spot and watered it in really well. A few weeks later, and the spot is thick and dark green! If doing granular AS, how many #'s per thousand will you use each time to get the .10N?


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## Murk09 (Aug 27, 2019)

I definitely feel that scalping has helped my centipede. I also believe I could have went lower with the scalp. I used a honda rotary on its lowest setting of a supposed 1". Then I used the reel mower at .75 ish. Possibly could have went lower after that, but I had an aerator rented for the day and wanted to knock it on out. No pictures of the aeration process but the yard looked decent for March centipede in my neck of the woods. I can only imagine how helping mowing low can be during a sand level. Raking cores up in 1" grass nearly kicked my butt as it was.


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## mre_man_76 (Aug 4, 2018)

LawnDrummer said:


> mre_man_76 said:
> 
> 
> > Moving forward this season I will only be spraying AS and SOP, spoon feeding at a bi weekly rate of .10 lb of N and .20 lb of K. Will get my micros down using Main Event every time I spray T-Nex.
> ...


I will be dissolving and spraying the AS and all other inputs this season. @Mightyquinn was gracious and enough to build me a custom push sprayer over the winter. All I did was purchase the parts he sourced.

You didn't ask this but reason the reason why I'm using the .10 lbs rate is because my goal is 1 lbs of N and 2 lbs of K total for the season, which would put me around mid to late September. My first round of fert input for this season will be this weekend, which is about 1 week before my 2nd app of pgr should be due.

I know you asked in reference to spreading, not sure if the principles are the same as spraying. Main advantage of spraying is the efficiency at which the grass can absorb the Nitrogen through the leaf tissue. Usually within 4 hours. Only issue spreading at .10 lb N rate would be evenly spreading the very little amount of product to give you the .10 lbs N rate but the math is the same.

As for the rates, someone please chime in on this if the math is wrong but here it goes:

.10 lbs N per 1,000 M = target rate
.10 lbs N x 10,000 M = 1 lb total N required for my sq footage per app
21-0-0 AS = 21% total N in my 4 lb bag
1/.21 = 4.76

4.76 lbs of dissolved product is required in my 10 gal solution to give me the .10 N lbs per rate.

4.76/10 = .48 
.48 lbs of 21-0-0 dissolved is required for .10 N per 1000 M rate.


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## LawnDrummer (Jan 16, 2019)

@mre_man_76 Thank you! I've got a 50lbs bag of AS and a 5lbs bag of SOP. These should last me a while! I'm waiting on Comcast to bury a new cable line through my front yard by the road and into my neighbors yard as well before I put anything down. I've got so many flags and spray painted arrows in the yard now I can't even mow without removing them all. Not really a big deal, but would rather wait until that is all done before moving forward.


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## mre_man_76 (Aug 4, 2018)

Curious, makes sense about the AS lasting awhile having 50 lbs but you only have 5 lbs of POS. Do you plan on skipping apps?


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## Twangin (Jun 8, 2021)

bp2878 said:


> My centipede maintained at 5/8 a few years back. I've since nuked it and went to tifgrand but centipede can look great too.


Just curious, what was your process for converting your centipede to Bermuda? Regardless, that centipede looks good! Can't believe the HOC of 5/8. Wish my front was level enough to get that low!


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## bp2878 (Feb 13, 2019)

Twangin said:


> bp2878 said:
> 
> 
> > My centipede maintained at 5/8 a few years back. I've since nuked it and went to tifgrand but centipede can look great too.
> ...


Fairly simple process: 
-3 rounds of gly 15 days apart 
-Burnt the dead stuff, this help minimize the amount I had to rake up, plus was fun. Lots of questions from the neighbors on this
-rented harley rake, sucked at using it(ground was too wet I think, and I had no clue what I was doing)
-rented small tractor and smoothed out the grades and move allot of dirt around. Main goal for the renovation other than obviously getting the turf I wanted was to have the top of the lawn level with the curb and driveway, had to move allot of dirt to accomplish this
-laid sod

I completed in august last year and it looks great. Ready to aerate and level. It's a long process but fairly simple. You'll save allot of money by picking up the sod yourself if you have the means to do so. Delivery for mine was more than the actual price of the sod, but the only farm that sold grand was 2hours away so that didn't help. Made 4 trips, suckiest part of the whole ordeal.


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## mre_man_76 (Aug 4, 2018)

bp2878 said:


> Twangin said:
> 
> 
> > bp2878 said:
> ...


Thinking of converting my centipede to common Bermuda since I have a 3 small spots of common that get bigger every year. Other than wanting to level your yard with the curb, what was your main reason for getting rid of the centipede?


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## bp2878 (Feb 13, 2019)

@mre_man_76 main reason-I wanted to putt on my lawn. Also liked the deeper, darker green color. Nothing wrong with centipede, had it at my old house and kept it nice, just wanted something different here.


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## Batsonbe (May 9, 2019)

I have mostly bermuda. My neighbor has centipede, so my side yard is naturally all centipede. I just nuked all of it with msma. You guys centipede looks a heck of a lot better than mine did. Kinda hate killing mine off now


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