Reel Mower to Rotary Throughout the Summertime Heat

After years of the same results with drought restrictions and dry spots in the heat of summer I had an idea. Based on rotary mowed 3” bermudagrass lawns in my neighborhood, I had an idea that I believed would work. Rather than starting my season off with my reel mower golf course look, why not raise it up when it gets hot?

It seems like a perfectly good move to go from short carpet to gradually raising up right before the real heat and drought of August and September hit.

The lawn was established, and honestly the cut I made in mid July after an abundance of rain in June and early July, it was looking SWEET. Thickest, greenest, TALLEST, grass that I’ve ever had my front lawn at. I kick myself for missing out on setting a video camera up for a perfect zero turn mow cutting 1/2” tops off of my perfectly green lush grass. It was like I was cutting hair and so so satisfying.

But in the weeks that passed afterwards, water restrictions in my area limited me to my weekly water day. No problem, I thought. I’m prepared for this. I had put down wetting agents that were watered in nicely, proactive to the heat that was coming. I had my irrigation set to water an inch of water on my day of the week and would handle dry spots with hand watering in the evening.

Before I knew it, it was drying out quickly. In fact, by the curb at the street, it almost looked like a chemical spill or something cooked the grass to a crisp.

Knowing bermudagrass, I know it goes into drought stress dormancy, which it always does. The risk is having no water and really cooking the roots in severe drought. Hot spots or dry spots in the lawn will show before other parts, but what I really noticed is that the entire lawn was immediately suffering looking worse than my neighbors and quickly.

There is no substitute for water in a drought, but I couldn’t explain the burn near the street. Finally, I just decided to scalp it down to see what would happen if I hand watered that scalped area. And it bounced back! water was the key, but what else I discovered that surprised me was that the patchy looking canopy that I scalped off, still had a dense dry carpet underneath. After cutting 2 inches of top off of the lawn, the 3/4” set reel mower that I stopped using in June revealed the same grass I had in June (density wise). This had to be playing into why my grass strugged. You can’t just leave a carpet underneath your shag carpet top layer, this is organic after all.

The roots underneath have struggled to get air and water to the soil resulting in a struggling lawn without good nutrient uptake, impossibility of fertilizer getting all the way to the soil, and a huge spongy layer for water to get trapped in. Not to mention insulation of the heat of the soil.

I learned that water is key to my previous difficulty, but my practices were good.

The process of Bermuda requires resetting when you’re making the golf course type of lawn. A scalp to dirt is necessary to grow the grass you want. You can’t switch your process to a normal rotary mow program expecting it to look like your neighbors because your yard is already too thick.

I believe scalping to dirt, water, fertilizer and letting it grow up to 3 inches would be fine, and prepared to match my neighbors fight for water or lack of water through the summer evenly.

But having a carpet, woven together over months of fertilizer, mowing, plant growth regulators, and real golf course look should not be given up on. It still requires work to keep it’s health. Water is the only remedy for drought, the practices to keep your lawn healthy need to stay on track.

So don’t be like me, if you think raising your height of cut to rotary is harmless, it comes with a different set of planning. Address the air infiltration and water infiltration issue by aerating or verticutting. Water. Thin it out. Or just plain scalp that puppy down to the dirt to thin it out and let it grow freely. Manage your nutrients, and pay the water bill.