Home | Contacts | Historical Info | Dealer Locator | Showcase
Products
Manuals
Have you ever wondered why the infield and outfield of your favorite ballpark look so good? With the eye-catching stripes, patterns and precision lines, they are an example of professional turf manicuring. While the look is professional, it’s not one that’s limited to professional turf managers. With the right combination of equipment and turf, any individual can achieve the same professional look on their lawn. When manicuring a lawn is preferred, instead of “just” mowing, there are three factors that contribute to an outstanding lawn; equipment, maintenance practices and type of turfgrass.This article will discuss the types of equipment and the required maintenance to achieve high-quality results. The following information will provide insight to rotary and reel type mowers.
Cutting grass is best described as simply reducing the height of the grass blades. One of the earliest methods used to cut grass (or forages) was with a scythe. One of the first mechanical means of cutting grass was a power-driven, rotating scythe. Today, the equipment used to cut grass includes rotary, flail and reel mowers. (Figure 1) The common link to these three types of grass cutters are the two elements required by each mower; the speed of the blade (tip speed) and a sharp cutting edge. The quality of cut is directly related to the sharpened blade edge and the blade’s rotating speed.
Rotary mowers are available in a variety of cutting widths. The deck design of the rotary mower generates an upward airflow creating a vacuum effect pulling the grass blades into a vertical position, optimizing the potential for a more effective cut. The airflow generated by the blades also aid in discharging the clippings. However, the rotary blade cuts the grass-blade on impact, which may cause a degree of injury to the leaf blade at the point of impact. Rotary mowers can damage the grass blades at low heights of cut (HOC). Different varieties of grasses are affected more than others, so the amount of grass-blade damage varies with the type of turfgrass. Some blades have multiple ribs, such as ryegrass, that are susceptible to shredding instead of cutting. When using a rotary-type mower the lawn must be mowed at higher settings to compensate for this repeated disturbance, which will produce less leaf-tip damage, but may create a “yellowing” appearance to your lawn. Most lawn care professionals agree that rotary mowers provide a good quality cut when the lawn is cut at 1.5 inches and above. Again, this depends on the type of turfgrass. Bermuda and Zoysia, along with some ryes, are more susceptible to blade-tip damage than Bluegrass or Centipede.
Maintenance on rotary blades is less complicated than reel maintenance, but rotary blades need frequent sharpening to reduce grass-blade damage. Most rotary blades can be re-sharpened with methods ranging from hand-held files, bench grinders and specialized equipment. It’s important to take care when re-sharpening to maintain blade balance. Special tools are available to determine blade balanced before placing your mower back in service.
The reel mower made its debut in England more than 200 years ago and is used extensively around the world to manicure grass. In North America, the most common uses for reel mowers are manicuring golf course greens, tees and fairways; sports fields, both amateur and professional, and high-end commercial properties.\
Manicuring turf (as opposed to “just” mowing it) describes the action of clipping a small section of the grass blades. As a general rule, not more than one-third of the grass height should be removed at any one mowing. An example of this would be maintaining a lawn at 1.5 inches; mow the lawn when it reaches approximately 2.25 inches in height.
To-date, the best method used to manicure turf is a reel mower, where the reel, in conjunction with a bedknife, creates a shearing action, as compared to an impact with a rotary blade (see Figure 2). The shearing action is one that duplicates a pair of scissors (see Figure 3).
The reel must be maintained extremely close to the bottom-blade or bed-knife to produce an effective cut. Unlike the action described earlier for cutting grass, the element of blade-tip speed is not required to gain a high quality of cut. The two essential elements for reels are sharp blades and a relationship between the reel blade and bed-knife (see Figure 4). Just like a pair of scissors, the reel blades should be acting with the bedknife with very little (preferably zero) clearance between the two components.
One of the immediate benefits of changing to a reel mower to manicure a lawn is the lower height of cut. Mowing lower is possible because of the minimal damage to the grass blade. The grass blade is cut cleanly with no ragged edge on the blade-tip. This procedure reduces “yellowing” and gives the lawn a better-looking, healthier appearance (See Figure 2). Typically, horizontal-spreading grasses may be cut and maintained at shorter heights than upright-growing, bunch-type grasses. Also, grasses with narrow blades can be manicured at lower heights than wide-blade grasses.
When manicuring a lawn with a reel mower, there are some options to look for when selecting the equipment. Check to ensure the mower’s cutting head is “free-floating”. “Free-floating” cutting heads are attached to the main drive unit; however they are independently supported by solid rollers or wheels. A reel mower with a “free-floating” cutting head is less likely to scalp the grass in the high or low spots, producing a better-looking and healthier turf. The mowing height with reel mowers is directly related to blade configurations, specifically the numbers of blades on a reel. There can be as few as five and up to fourteen blades welded onto cylindrical disk or “spiders”. The lower the number of blades, the higher you can mow the turf; and the more blades, the lower you are able to maintain the turf. The addition of a front, grooved-type roller will produce a higher quality appearance. The roller should be used when maintaining turfgrass at 1.5 inches and less. The front roller also minimizes the effects of scalping when mowing at low heights of cut.
The striping effects visible on golf greens, fairways, baseball fields or even home lawns, is accomplished with a rear roller on the cutting unit. Striping effects with a reel mower are nearly impossible without the use of a rear roller.