Don’t be scared (hat tip to Greg, the original lawn gangsta)
Get my tips in your box:
https://thelawncarenut.com/pages/lcn-newsletter
(no) Stress Blend
https://thelawncarenut.com/collections/granular-fertilizer/products/7-0-20-stress-blend-with-bio-nite%E2%84%A2
RGS Root Growth Stimmy
https://thelawncarenut.com/collections/n-ext/products/rgs-root-growth-liquid-biostimulant
Prodiamine:
https://thelawncarenut.com/collections/pre-emergents/products/prodiamine-65-wdg-pre-emergent-herbicide
[Music] Followers What's up y'all I'm Alan Hayne the lawn Care nut thanks for coming back for yet Another week now today we're going to Talk about Zoysia and also to an extent Bermuda and how to get it prepared for The spring especially when it comes to The all-scary scalp that's right these Grass types they need to be scalped Before things get going in the spring as Like a little bit of a reset button but Before I get there I need to go ahead And clean up the edges just a little bit Because as you can see this has been Overgrown for quite a while and then We'll get back into the rest of it Foreign [Music] [Applause] I feel a lot better now just getting Those edges cleaned up but now let's get To the rest of this and you can see here The way mine looks it's actually a Little bit overgrown it hasn't been Mowed in over six weeks it kind of was In this weird dormant semi dormant stage Because of where I'm at here in Florida Wherever you are probably a little bit Further north your lawn might look like This it might be completely dormant Might be somewhere in the middle but the Process is still going to be the same You're going to want to get started when
Your lawn is about two to three four Weeks away from starting to grow and the Way that you know when it's ready to Start moving is by the day length of 12 And a half hours so right now the days Are a little bit shorter you know in Winter the days are you know 10 11 hours Long right now we're just over 11. once We get into a little bit further forward Here in the year they'll be at 12 12 and A half hours when you get to 12 to 12 And a half hours of day length that's When you know it's time to do this Process I'll give you a link in the Description below to a website that will Show you the day length where you live With that let's get going on to step one All right now for this first cut because My lawn is overgrown I'm not actually Going to scalp it quite yet I just want To kind of get an idea of what it looks Like On a normal cut for right now so I'm Gonna go ahead and side discharge too Just to go ahead and get the clippings Cleared out real easy then we'll go from There as far as height goes I'm gonna Have to guess I I typically like this at Two inches but it's way over that now Because it's been sitting and I've been Well kind of ignoring it so we're gonna I guess we're just gonna guess and hope For the best Do uh yeah that feels good let's see how
She does Okay so that's not taking anything off So I'm gonna go ahead and take it down a Little bit lower because I do want to Get a cut out of this like I said I just Don't want to scalp it quite yet mainly Because I'm scared to scalp it and you Will be too uh it's just one of those Things that like goes against your Nature but anyway let's do this again [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] All right y'all real quick just wanted To jump in here I want to save you some Frustration that I gave to myself and That is I want to encourage you to have Patience here you saw that when I first Started I wasn't taking off much well I Slammed it down a couple two three Notches and that took it way too down Low into the meat and I was left with a Mess so the advice here is don't make That mistake just be patient as you're Going one step at a time it'll Eventually all come off yeah I'm gonna Just clean it up with a mulching Plug here now and then then we'll get Down and we'll mow it actually I'm going To go a little bit lower now I'm not Quite to what I would call the scalp Stage yet so I'm going to flip this Around and I'm gonna go one notch lower
And we'll just we'll just mulch it see What we get [Music] All right so that mode was different I Went on mulch mode that time went down One notch one thing I will say to be Fair with that side discharge clumping Like that I mean I was going from Overgrown down to like a middle setting Whatever like a couple inches so that That probably contributed to it we'll do More reviews on this in the future and See but for now one thing I wanted to Show you with the mulching was I was on Regular mode and it was having a little Bit of trouble getting through and I Realized it has a turbo mode and once I Put it on the turbo mode then it didn't Have hardly any problems so that's kind Of cool there I mean we are stretching This to the limits I mean no mower is Made to take Zoysia down from overgrown Thick four inches down to scalp so we're Definitely testing it that way but that Turbo mode definitely made a difference All right so before we do this next mow I want to kind of show you what we're Trying to accomplish here you can see That we still have quite a bit of green Here and we're trying to get below that And when I open the lawn up you'll be Able to see it's brown underneath I call Those the legs let me pull some up here So when I hold up
I'll just do this one little piece here You can see how there's green right up In here and then this is brown this is The legs we want to get this green out Of here now yours might be brown Actually dormant we want to get Underneath that we want to get down into Here and cut into these legs and as low As we can because what that'll do is It'll stimulate it to shoot up brand new Growth and kind of give you this reset Point because as you can see this is Pretty well High grown I'd rather this Be way down here and that's what these Grass types like zoysium Bermuda they Like to be cut low so I've let it get Away from me all the greens way up there On the top I need to get way down into Here my thing is I have this fear right So you can see my first cut I still have Some green left so I need to go just a Little bit lower and keep on going down Okay now for this Final Cut we're going To take it down to the lowest setting And because we're really getting in There I'm going to go ahead and go back To side discharge now because I need to Let the deck clear out as much as Possible So here we go back to side discharge And we are on the lowest setting and I Do have that turbo mode on because That's definitely making a difference With helping me get through this I mean
There's really no residential mower made For this but with that turbo mode inside Discharge I think we're going to be good Here we go [Music] So while you're watching me finish up The work here I guess I'll give you a Little bit more context here the first Thing is the reason we're doing this is We want to open the canopy up and get it Down so heat from the Sun can get down Into the soil which will stimulate these Alpha grasses against zoysian Bermuda to Start growing fast another thing some of You might be asking is why are you not Bagging these clippings because this is Pretty messy and that would have been a Lot easier but for me you know I just Don't like to get rid of my nitrogen all Of these clippings contain nitrogen it's Free organic material why would I take That organic material away when I spend So much time trying to get it down into The soil so I like to just take the time To go over it time and time again and Then clean it up with a blower and just Get it all kind of melted back in and You'll see it'll all melts in it all Kind of go away if you go over it enough Times and that way we keep all of that Good organic material that we've earned We keep that in our own soil okay so There is what I'm calling a scalp now I Really can't get it any lower that's as
Low as my mowers will go you might find People that don't consider this to be a Scalp them right around that one inch Mark but that's as low as I can go and That's as low as most of you will be Able to go with DIY type equipment this Is fine this gets you where you need to Be we can see we're mostly down into the Legs that's why everything is brown now It's time for us to do a little Spreading and dreading and a little Spraying and praying to get things Kicked up and protected all at the same Time [Music] All right now for this application that We're doing I'm going to be using stress Blend and that's because it's high in Potassium to help with stress and let me Tell you what we just did for the lawn Was pretty stressful it's also got some Micronutrients in it chelated iron nice Stuff like that but we're just trying to Get this in just to stimulate a little Bit of growth and again to support it During this stressful time I got 2 000 Square feet here and this Hopper holds Exactly 2 000 square feet worth of Products All right Okay so the next thing we're going to do Now is we're going to put down some RGS RGS stands for root growth stimulant This has got sea kelp in it as well as
Humic and phobic but it's the sea kelp We're really concerned with because this Is what's going to stimulate roots and Shoots and you can see we want to get That going we want to blast it off so That's what RGS is I have 2 000 square Feet we're just going to go with the low Rate of 3 ounces per thousand so we're Going to put six ounces into two gallons And then I also have prodiamine for Diamine is a pre-emergent this is the WG Formulation which is the powder-ish We'll put that in it's 5.2 grams per Gallon per thousand so we're going to Put 10.4 grams in there we're going to Mix it all together because yes you can Mix these and then we're going to go Spray and then we're going to pray if You want a little bit of more Information about how to use a backpack Sprayer I just completed a comprehensive Video on how to test it bucket testing How to know how much comes out how fast To walk everything you want to know but For now just know these are the two Things we're putting down to kick that Zoysia and if you have Bermuda you're Doing the same thing we want to kick Them in gear let's do it [Music] Foreign [Music] Is to get your irrigation going and Water this in a good quarter inch a half
Inch would even be better we want all of This to get down into the soil and again That's going to help waken everything up Now how long is it going to take for This to come back well that's going to Be determined on where you live and what Your weather patterns are but typically Four weeks maybe five and this should be Nice and green you can see what mine Looks like four to five weeks after a Scalp and while I know that this might Be a little bit scary it's one of those Things that you kind of need to do with These Alpha grasses Zoysia and Bermuda To get them going with that I'm Alan Hayne the lawn care nut thank you so Much for watching if you have any Questions leave those in the comments Below and I'll see you [Music]
