scalping it down

andyhou – posted 31 March 2004 19:54

I just had my lawn fertilized and was wondering when and how i should scalp my lawn. I really would like to know how low to set my deck. I am using a standard rotary mower, i was told to mow twice every time(side to side and top to bottom). Is there an advantage to mowing like that or am i just wasting time?

thank you andy

cohiba – posted 01 April 2004 20:25

Andy,Why do you want to scalp it down? The best thing that all homeowners should know is their grasses limitations. Bentgrass and some types of Bermuda no lower than 1/8″, Rye no lower than 7/16″, blues are different still. Scalping harms the turf if you aren’t careful.

ted – posted 03 April 2004 11:35

let’s clarify if it’s a homeowner lawn – needs to be alot higher in my opinion.

Dchall_San_Antonio – posted 04 April 2004 12:09

My opinion is that all grasses except bermuda, centipede, and bent should be mowed at the highest setting on the mower. Bermuda, centipede, and bent should be mowed with reel mowers at the lowest setting. For grasses like St Augustine which has no seed, there is never any reason to scalp it (unless you are installing a winter rye seed in the fall).

IF YOU ARE RESEEDING (like fescue or rye in the fall), then you could scalp the grass down to expose the new grass seed to the sun. Otherwise there is no need to scalp. Scalping exposes whatever seed there is on/in the soil to the sunlight. If that is weed seed, then you germinate the weeds. If you leave the grass long, you will shade out the surface of the soil and the seeds there will not germinate.

andyhou – posted 05 April 2004 18:28

Hello to all,just wanted to thank everyone for there input, instead of scalping it down i mowed my lawn pretty short and watered it immediatly after. I will keep veryone posted with the results. I hope this will do it.

Thanks to all