Can you scarify / dethatch a Sir Walter Buffalo / St Augustine lawn? 

Hahaha Now you know how I feel when you throw in the occasional Afrikaans word 😂😂😂

That’s an Aussie battla, true legend.

@@Snicklefritz10 😎🤙

Haha thanks Alicia stay tuned for the updates

Haha thanks Leighton, Pedro is a bloody legend such a nice guy 😎

@@theaussielawn - absolutely seems like a top bloke for sure

No doubt it does mate. This lawn has since responded beautifully and is back to being green. Update in very near future

Thanks Jase, Yeah I reckon there would be a heap of buff lawns on the coast. A lot of hard work if you ask me... Yeah I cant wait for it to come back and for Pedro to be able to mow it easily once more.

Hi George, You will have quite the task ahead of you mate I wish you all the best with it. There will be an update so stay tuned

Thanks for tuning in mate, Have a great weekend and good luck with the verticut

I bet its jumping outta the ground up there haha, Glad you liked the vid mate

Cheers Ben hope you enjoyed it mate

Cheers CK I will def do a follow up

Sounds like you had a great response mate well done. Im sure Pedro is keen as anything to getting a nice lush easy to mow lawn once more

Gotta show it who's boss 😜

Thanks Trav, I’ve not been back yet to see it but Pedro was saying it’s already shooting back

I will give up dates for sure mate

I’m not sure Pedro had lots of fun haha but he sweat a bit 😆

I will do some follow up vids mate for sure

hahahaha surely not mate 😂

@@theaussielawn ever been to Whyalla? Anyone with a single stalk of lawn there is paying big water bills

@@dylanzrim3635 wow no Ive not been there. Thats a shame really but I guess if water is extra scarce there I guess I can understand it

@@theaussielawn I’m not much of a lawn guy myself, takes up all the room for veggies

Thanks, will def do an update in a few weeks

Thanks for the message mate, Really appreciated we are usually a drier climate but this summer its been much more tropical 😩😂😎

Happy New Year Lawndingo thanks for tuning in hope you are keeping warm over there

I’m planning to film the update this Friday mate 🤙

Yeah the 196 is a much more versatile mower. I’m glad you are happy with the recommendation

Hi LuCo thanks and Happy New Year to you as well. I love that Honda its so good. I dont use it all the time but its always nice when I do. I have no doubt your kik will come back better than ever. Nice feed and water in and it will be lush and green in no time

welcome back mate, Yeah scarifying can definitely be done in the right situation

Thank you mate glad you found it helpful

I will be for sure

Cheers mate, The pile out the back of clippings was huge

Thank you Ando 😎

Thanks mate, glad to hear your lawn has bounced back better than before. Interesting about the kennards units mate

Thanks for the info on the Kennards scarifier, will definitely do more research on what’s available to hire when I get to do mine. 👍

I think Pedro is too 😂 Na will do a follow up on it

Sure will 🤙

Stay tuned mate I will be doing updates in a few weeks

Cheers Mitchell stay tuned for updates and be sure to leave some stolons on the ground 😜

Thanks Brenton! Can’t wait to see the end result 👌

Cheers Mick glad to be back too

Had??? Did you replace it with something else ?

Only do what you feel comfortable with mate ☺️

It was a beautiful lawn , and it will be once more. Unfortunately the lawn reached a point where mowing was verging on impossible and was no longer an enjoyable experience

Happy New year bloke. Thanks for tuning in 😎

Yeah I cant wait to show you guys how it comes back

You just reminded me about that he did ask me for another one so I will get onto it 😂😂 It will be back to the best lawn in his street in no time flat and will be easier to mow too

Thanks mate glad to be back

Ohh sweet as mate hope you found it helpful

Ill do an update vid in a few weeks mate

Hey mate glad the vid hit the spot for you. I’m not exactly sure where Pedro got it from but it’s a shindaiwa brand

You could indeed aerate if you wanted . In this instance there was no need

Hi mate, No defs not too late, what did you fertilise with? Make sure the lawn is getting adequate water either rainfall or Irrigation (aim for 25mm a week over two waterings e.g 12.5mm monday and 12.5mm friday.) Start mowing 2 weeks post your heavy scalp renovation. Its a good opportunity to change heights if you wanted also. (the tip is once you scalp it down to a height your happy with. Bring your mower height up at least one notch above that if not two.)

Now is an ideal time to tackle it mate

It can do mate but I’d start with a scalp in late spring (buffalo needs to be actively growing when doing these sorts of procedures)

Thank you 😎

Hi Phillip anything that contains DSMA will cover the grasses you are trying to control in your couch lawn buffalo will be the easiest to deal with too

Have you done it yet mate?

@@theaussielawn not yet. I’m so time poor atm. Hopefully I’ll get it done in a few weeks 🤞

He will mate his gunna help roll out a few rolls of turf later this month 😎

Pedro has a huge pile of green out the back waste by the time we finished it was massive

Hi Dave My machine uses circular saw style blades I would suggest you use the knives not the rake style ones Cheers Brenton

Are you running warm or cool season turf in your part of the US mate?

@@theaussielawn here in British Columbia, Canada the most common grass is Kentucky Bluegrass when seeding an area. It handles the 25 to 30 C dry summers and the below freezing winters well.

@@theaussielawn More on Cool season tall fescue grass. Only cause I have More shade during the afternoon time before Temps get to its peak (4pm is when Temp is at its Highest before it starts to drop back down)

Correct mate

If you follow my rules you will be fine mate

There was so many clippings we could have planted a whole paddock with it LOL

Ill be doing an update in a few weeks Nellie, Yeah If im being honest I wouldnt suggest buffalo unless the area is shaded by houses, trees etc, I too would have suggested a blue or green couch for you being in QLD or if you wanted the fatter leaf even broad leaf carpet grass.

@@theaussielawn it gets mostly sun all day with only one little spot where it’s shady, we’re really disappointed in how it’s performed when our contractor told us it would be great for all year round, it basically grows overnight Lol 😂 and I’m forever mowing it and pulling out the runners all the time, I can’t go any higher with my mower blades, I mowed it today finally after all the rain and had to up the blades to #8 on my mower settings 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️ but it looks great for today anywhos Lol 😂

@@-nellie-m3711 hey mate My sir Walter grows super crazy this time of year in mackay QLD, Get your self a bottle of PGR to tame that buffalo, Makes a massive difference if applied correctly. Brenton has some awesome content on applying PGR. Good luck✌️

@@WOODZY_ I think my hubby has already done that from watching Brenton’s previous videos, but with the weather the way it is at the moment, it’s growing like crazy, plus he gave it a fertiliser when we had the rain, if we had our time over I’d never have the stuff, I get a lot of runners coming through it and it makes it look ugly and I pull them out or cut them out whichever is easier, I’ve upped my mower blades that I’m only taking the tips off the grass, we’ve got a mixture of grass growing on our footpath which we had all new SW Laid, in one little shady spot the grass is just non existent and just dirt 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️, we were told it was the best for our climate but when we had couch it was way better than this stuff, both of us are sorry we listened to our contractor when he talked us into having the SW, should of gone with our first choice and that’s on us for not listening to ourselves, this always happens to us. It looked beautiful when it was first laid but now after a few years down it’s a nightmare to look after, especially when purchasing products, some you can’t use on SW. We live just outside of Brisbane, so we get some hot days during Summer which again we were told it could handle the heat and our winter weather that doesn’t get as cold as some places in Australia 🇦🇺, but no use complaining about it because we’re too old now to be starting all over again plus the cost 💲 to have someone do it for us, it’s beyond us to do ourselves now we’re getting older, we just want something easy and simple without all the hassles of keeping it looking pristine and that’s something I enjoy doing, it’s my only exercise due to health issues for both of us, plus we keep the paddock next to us nicely mowed, it actually looks better than our yard lawn Lol 😂, I think council should give us a discount on our rates for all the work we put into maintaining it. Thanks for your advice, it’s always appreciated from someone that has the same grass as us. Cheers 🥂 to a better New Year. 😎😎

@@WOODZY_ what PGR do you use on your lawn to keep it under control during these months of growing like a hairy legged woman in Winter Lol 😂🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

It can help to thin out mate. So if it’s super thick then just follow what I did in the video.

@@theaussielawn appreciate the reply mate! I’ll need to find a scarifier then!

Yeah it can be disastrous if you get too carried away with a scarifier on buffalo but yeah done correctly it will be fine. I had a bag of 2spec accelerate that I used for the fert

G'day Troy yeah I can get one if needed. This lawn doesn't really have compaction issues otherwise I would have definitely cored it. You need to be a little careful with buffalo that you don't over do it with scarifying since it only grows via stolons and not rhizomes. Glad to hear you loved the vid mate 😎 Thanks for tuning in .

Cheers woodzy I’ll see what I can come up with re a pic of the clippings pile

Hey Daniel, Thanks for tuning in mate, I have not personally used the Ryobi unit but have heard nothing but praise for it. I feel it would be ok to use in your situation

Is this the Ryobi Battery scarifier?

@@gooble69 yes

Hi Rod unfortunately not. In a nut shell since buffalo is really only bred for use in domestic situations there is not alot of money spent developing selective herbicides for it. Where as couch is widely used in sporting applications there is more money there to develop chemicals to control unwanted grasses from it..

Hi Daniel, You only need to go up to the edge not over it. The judging of distance between path and blade all comes from years of experience. As you say you dont want to hit the concrete and risk damage to either concrete or blade

Either way really mate, What I potentially missed explaining in the vid was when we used the mowers to collect the scarifyings we where also cutting into the exisiting buffalo lawn too. Kinda two birds one stone. The other benefit to using the mower is it cuts up all the clippings much smaller so smaller waste pile too. But there is no reason you couldn't rake the stuff up first then mow.

@@theaussielawn the other option would be for future use you could keep the clippings as stolons or rhizomes dependant on lawn but you would know that and use a rotary cultivator and shallow cultivate them into a lawn of the same variety that is in need of a reno. obviously theres the chance to lose some of the stolons/rhizomes to weather but no harm in repurposing it instead of putting it in green waste.

No need to aerate or top dress in this instance. We where only looking to thin out the jungle and do a height reset

Good friends are worth more than money any day hey mate 😎

@@theaussielawn definitely mate

Na mate it will be fine to do it

@@theaussielawn cheers mate 👍

Thank you 😎

Ohh bugger mate 😩

No mate not too late at all.

@@theaussielawn Thanks for the quick reply! Tomorrow afternoon i'll be straight onto it 👍🏻

Hey Barry, Im a big fan of Toro and John Deere Ride-on mowers. That being said a lot of contractors are also using the stand on style mowers like the Toro Grandstand

Hi Bill I just used a bag of 2spec accelerate its a more rapid release style product great for post renovation but it does contain some controlled release fert too

@@theaussielawnsorry meant the fertiliser your mate used to get the lawn so green

Hi Brendan, In my opinion its best to get the thatch dealt with first then you have better access to the soil profile and you will have more success in levelling your lawn.

@@theaussielawn perfect will do, thanks mate!

Hey Ratty, Based on a summer climate ideally we aim for 25-30mm of Irrigation each week over 2 applications. So for me at home I water Monday and Friday morning. Good luck with your buffalo mate its an ideal time to give it a renovation. Cheers for tuning in

You could absolutely rake up if you preferred I just rather mow it up, plus it also chops it up smaller too

@@theaussielawn cheers for the reply mate 👍 yeh I thought that'd be the case but wasn't sure. Cheers mate

Yeah this is so true mate and not to forget the HRU is significantly cheaper to buy than the HRX217. I still strongly recommend the HRU hands down followed by the HRN

You mean the Scarifier? Thats my Scott Bonnar 46. Rare as hens teeth and does an amazing job

@@theaussielawn yeah mate the scarifier. Looks like a great machine. I'll have a look around for one. Thanks for the reply.

I went with the engine brake mate. It’s cheaper and less stuff to worry about. My petrol toro is blade brake and there are extra bearing and stuff under the deck to worry about and I just wanted simple and reliable… I may or may not use a little bit of tie wire when I’m using it .

@@theaussielawn awesome, good to know. Thanks for the quick response!

Haha

Its bouncing back well mate, I think it will be my next vid 😎

Top dressing can slow up the recovery of buffalo. I only recommend it when there is surface level issues. Re aeration most hire machine are more trouble than they are worth, You slog ya guts out behind it only to get down an inch its just not always worth the stress especially for buffalo and taller cut lawns

Thanks. Appreciate the reply. Can't wait to tackle it next weekend

Na I always prefer the mower to a rake esp the HRU. This way not only does it collect and chop up the scarafyings I can also take a little bit of the exisiting grass with it in the first pass

Scalping will not help you unfortunately

Yup send a message to old time parts they have a website and a facebook page. They sell one by predator Ive not seen it personally but its a petrol powered machine

Hey there Luke I probably wouldn’t scarify it so soon but you could do a mild scalp if you wanted and now Is a good time to do it

@@theaussielawn thanks heaps mate, so just cut it as low as my mower will go?

@@luke1517 Yeah but remember you need to have some runners (stolons) left in place and you may also need to do a few passes dropping the mower height each time so you dont bog the mower too much

Hi Joel, Wow thats hard work by hand! I would be surprised if you had a need for phosphorus especially considering it doesn't wash out of the soil easily I'd only recommend Phosphorus if a soil test dictates it. Increase your watering for a week or two post the renovation we have placed the lawn under increased stress and duress. Is your Honda an American model.? They are great mowers just not ideal for renovations

@@theaussielawn I did test the soil a couple weeks ago and put down some dolomite lime to try raise the ph, but that’s all unfortunately. I had some let over from the back yard, hopefully it doesn’t do any harm. I will pick up the watering, the first few days have had 10-20 minutes mostly for watering in fertilisers and fixing the mp rotator that won’t rotate! That’s two in the same spot in the same month now, something is up. Oh and the Honda I have is the HRN216 with the self propelled engine brake, not sure if it’s an American, but it would spin the wheels and get stuck on height #2 which does about 40mm cut, but it runs well at 50mm if I cut it more than once a week (out back with new lawn), just super easy to use and I love the mulching, time will tell if it helps the grass or builds thatch! Anyway thanks for the advice I’ll keep the water up during the week, it should be 30 degree and sunny each day until after the weekend, so far I am seeing a nice amount of green come up from the sand, so far so good!

@@misterezekiel I know of someone who has had the exact same experience with Mp rotators. Only thing i can think of is its to do with the pipe install and where that sprinkler is on the line. Yup you have an American Honda same cutting system as my mates Pedro. If you have not yet done it make sure you fertilise with something fast release and reasonably high in N (nitrogen) the phosphorus will be ok if you have already used it. What was your pH level ?

@@theaussielawn Hmm, it was hortico and a slow release, fairly low in nitrogen but has some iron, I did fertilise the front a month ago after I found the dried out patches, so I didn’t want to over do it, should I hit it with some fast acting now to keep it going until the slow acting kicks in or see how it goes? As for the PH, I only have a colour matching kit, it looked like it was dipping under 6, I spread about as much on as you would for raising .5. It’s probably about time for another test to see how it went, I also forgot to test the top dressing, I might do that tonight! That’s something I was advised to do with the quality around here being questionable at times. As for the MP rotators, I’ve only had issues with the blue top ones, the one I pulled out this time seemed to have something crunching around in it, I’m wondering if it’s just a grain of sand in the wrong spot! The last time I just replaced them. 🤷‍♂️ I’ll try this one again in the future and see if I cleared it.

@@misterezekiel Hi mate I would recommend finding something fast release to kick it along. As for 6 that pH is fine and wouldn't worry bout trying to adjust it too much it wont show adjustments that quick plus if you had fertilised before the test it will be false too.

Hey mate just got your pics will have a look at them

@@theaussielawn thanks so much

Thanks for tuning in Jase. I would suggest a broad spectrum fungicide like chief aqua flow.

Jason I am just up the road and exactly the same as you. My buffalo got absolutely hammered by leaf spot fungus. Could not fix it until, I just hammered it with Mancozeb. Once every 3 days for about a fortnight and then once a week for about 2 months and it finally turned around. Good luck I feel your pain mate.

@@Chris-tc7gk can you buy mancozeb in bulk 😆 I've used it once so far.

@@jasonormsby3826 you absolutely can. The CRT in Gatton will have it for sure. I went halves in a 20kg bag.

@@Chris-tc7gk I bought a small container from Bunnings. Might have to go for a drive

Hi Scott, I had an old bag of 2spec Accelerate that we used. Re rates Add the correct quantity of fert into your spreader and start on a low setting maybe 1/4 open see how many times it takes you to cover the lawn till its empty then next time you fert open it up a littler more until you start to get close to a setting that gets you comfortably over your lawn once or twice. Then you have the correct setting, Some professional ferts and spreaders will have setting on the bag. My JD spreader is a spyker spreader rebranded so I just look for spyker settings on the fert bag.

@@theaussielawn cheers mate. I’m trying to encourage the buffalo in my mixed up lawn to spread. The huge amounts of rain we have had in Sydney seem to really be encouraging it, especially when I put the mower over with the mulch plug in. I’m guessing it’s been chopping up the odd stolen and spreading it around.