are those brown areas higher than the surrounding green areas?

 

A couple are, but most aren't. Most all of the brown spots weren't appearing when I was mowing a notch lower.

 

I think it’s scalping.. the crown has shifted up more into the canopy and you will start to see more.
What is your HOC?

doesn’t look very fungus like to me, but you can check around for that. Bugs? Not sure of your insecticide program, might look at that, but just looking, I’d say scalping.

 

HOC is 2 inches right now. That's of course not where I want it long term, but I don't have much room to go down right now due to some bad humps and bumps all around the lawn. Have done one leveling but need much more. Going to a reel is a goal.

What does crown shifting into the canopy mean?

 

I agree with all above that it's starting to scalp and needs a reset. FWIW, a reel actually handles humps and bumps better than a rotary. Any reel will but especially the reels with drums and rollers (no wheels).

 

I'm actually really excited to hear that. I deleted it, but in my post I was originally going to make a comment that all the scalp marks from the rotary make we want to reel mow even more, but not sure if I'm "ready." Is there any reason not to?

 

Switching to a reel mower will take the lawn to a whole new level. Look at the different models for one that will allow you to keep the HOC a little higher until you are able to work it down through leveling. The GM1000 goes just over an inch but the Flex21 won't go much over 1/2". I'm a Toro fan; I like Jacobsen too; John Deere are OK but haven't been too impressed with their user controls and cut quality. If going new, look into the Revolution thread in the Equipment section.

 

Ok, I see what's going on here. This forum is obviously a front for you Big Reel plants to hang out and push your "golf course lawn" agenda.

It's exciting - looks like reel mowing isn't as far off as I may have thought. So as far as keeping the HOC higher at first like you mentioned - is around an inch considered high as far as reel mowers are concerned?

 

It's all relative but in my opinion, 1" is high but not too high. I would not go over 1.5" for bermuda and 2" in zoysia but that is all opinion. There are some great looking bermuda lawns on this site that are maintained over 2" with a rotary mower. My neighbor keeps his Empire Zoysia at 3". It looks excellent but he deals with weed pressure more than I do; the mower leaves permanent wheel marks, and he is more susceptible to Anthracnose.

 

I was mowing at 2” with Bermuda once per week. This summer I’ve been mowing at 1.25” at least 2-3x week, and my Bermuda has never looked better. I’m buying a reel mower in Spring 2025. Next year it's gonna be a whole diff sport.

 

I just scalped 2 days ago and I miss the dark green, but I had some spots where the crown was too high because I hadn't cut in a while and we got a lot of rain. So I scalped and fertilized and drop humic because we are going into another heat bubble soon.

 

You are not alone with your rotary mower! I have waited 2 years to make the switch from rotary to reel, and will probably pull the trigger next year. I’m always leveling with sand or trying to get the grass to fill in bare spots. I’m actually pretty happy with the results as-is, but the reel opens up a whole lot of options.

 

Its really the humps and bumps in my lawn that are making me want to get away from rotary. I'm sure if my lawn were more level, I wouldn't have as many problems. I had a preconceived notion in my head that I would have to have a super level lawn before thinking about a reel, but in this forum all I see are comments to the contrary. Figured I'll start figuring out which reel mower to get and work on leveling - no matter which comes first, I suppose.

 

For warm-season turf, you just scalp it down to your lowest setting and then start maintaining with more regular mowing.

 

Haha Big Reel over here backing down after being called out. Before you know it you’ll be mowing at 4am in the dark and buying your second reel mower.

I got my first reel mower in June. An 18” wide Amish-made, human-powered 6 blade reel mower to cut really nice at 3/4”. Now this forum and Big Reel forced me to convince myself to pay almost twice the price to ship myself another human-powered reel mower from overseas. A super necessary one that has a whopping 12” cutting width. Because reel mowing is dumb and doest’t completely change your life. Stay away from Bermuda too