Sapphire Buffalo / St Augustine grass Spring renovation 2020 inc SCARIFYING 

Cheers Johnny much appreciated. Im sure a lot of Aussie blokes won't want to keep their buff quite as long as mine but apart from that most of the other stuff I cover will be relevant information

@@theaussielawn looking forward to results on the buffalo!!

@@tristanvale1008 G’day Tristan thanks for the message there will be an update next week mate 🤙

Thanks Dan it went down so good!

will be an update next week 🤟

Yeah I’m not a dead man bar fan either mate, guess that’s a sign of the times though . Just keep your buffalo well watered and not allow it to dry out . In time it should go ok

I used a little bit of left over 70/30 (details in last weeks video) Fertiliser was 2spec elevate and the insecticide was Acelepryn GR also I used some hydrolink advance soil wetting agent Cheers Brenton

Thats cool mate your allowed to take issue with my choice to use the Acelepryn GR. Im not too sure if you guys get African Black Beetle over there (heteronychus arator) but we do here and they love maintained turf area obviously we do get a range of other turf pests too. There is an update to the renovation next week if you are interested.

@@theaussielawn I'm hooked, so yes, very interested. We don't get that beetle but we do get two other scarabs, Japanese beetle and June bug. We don't always get them, in fact we scarcely get them. It is their grubs we worry about. Usually we can predict a grub infestation, because the beetles will swarm porch lights in late spring. If they don't swarm, then you likely won't have a grub problem later in mid summer. If they do swarm, then, IF you think you might have them in mid summer, we suggest digging a square foot of turf and counting the grubs. If you have a dozen or fewer grubs in a square foot, no problem. If you have an uncountable mass of them, then go ahead and treat for the grubs. So IF you have a real grub problem, then do something, but don't anticipate having a grub problem and spray willy nilly. Also, most of the folks I hang with are organic, so birds are attracted to feeders and bird baths. If you have a few birds now and then, they will pick up the slack eating the visible insects in the yard. If you drop insecticide, the birds seem to know to stay away from the sick or poisoned insects. Another problem with having grubs is that the skunks, armadillos, and possums will sniff them out and dig the lawn to get them.

It seemed that way to me too!

I wouldn’t be rushing into scalping buffalo if it’s only new mate. We are also about to head into the cooler part of the year so your new lawn will potentially go into dormancy depending on your location.

Thanks mate, Aussie buffalo content is a little light on the ground hey. Next week there is a bit of an update 🤟

Thanks mate, its 70/30 have a look at the previous vid there's a little bit of info there at the beginning

Hi Robbie welcome and thanks for tuning in. I'm sure the LCN is an awesome guy and his doing a fine job with his lawn, However its important to understand there are many ways to skin a cat if you follow what I'm saying. It's worth noting that I hold a trade certificate in greenkeeping and completed it with credits and distinctions, so I sorta know my way around grass etc. I've experimented with my buffalo (St Aug) at many heights and here in Aus once you reach 4" it appears to become less drought tolerant. Most Australians mow their buffalo lawns at about 1 - 2" I prefer it a little longer at 2 1/2 - 3". Another interesting fact is most Aussie designed mowers will not even cut as high as 3" So I'm sure by now you are starting to get the picture that you are not going to kill your St Aug by dropping below 3". The concept behind the scalp is to thin out the canopy and avoid the spongy feeling you get when all the stolons / runners intertwine to a point that its no longer a pleasant lawn to mow or spend time on. This could be done annually or every 2-3 years it really depends on the situation. If you are curious to try scalping or scarifying but are not sure you wish to take the full plunge why not select a patch of your lawn even if it is only one or 2 mower widths wide and try for your self this spring. Keep it short for the season and see if its right for you. (side note if your lawn is in heavy shade id not go lower than 2") I have done quite a few buffalo related renovations on the channel, the latest being a scarify (which actually caught the attention of LCN ) Id be rather curious to hear your thoughts if you do decide to try it yourself. Feel free to email me or send me a PVT message on the facebook page or instagram. Cheers Brenton

@@theaussielawn thank you sir for sharing your knowledge. I have a Honda, toro and craftsman so I'll give it a go in the back with the Honda as it seemed your toro struggled with it

@@robbiegolding1831 yeah the toro is a great mower for mowing but not wonderful for scalping 🤟 keep me posted mate 😎

G'day Greg So Australia is a very dry country and we do have water restrictions from time to time (As my part of the country does atm) Some homes use tanks for everything and have no access to town water and rely on rainfall or some might have a well. My tanks collect rain water and its connected to toilets washing machine and the like, but we still have town water here too.

Oh thats right, I do really enjoy using it for mowing. its fast and very comfy to use but not for renovation stuff

Definitely Don , gotta be cruel to be kind 🤣 well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it

G'day Peter firstly thanks for tuning in. Given the toro can struggle when it comes to scalping I would do it in a few passes dropping the height each pass, (maybe even consider side discharge and go back with the bag on to collect that then go again. It will be very slow going but it will be worth it, If you have a super recycler (the alloy base mower like mine) they only go down to 3cm where as the standard recycler (like my battery one goes down to 25mm) either way you can safely take your buff down to the lowest setting on a toro. If your south of QLD I would hold out until October, As for insecticide I run with Acelepryn GR in fact that was todays video. Once its scalped back be sure to give it a good drink some soil wetter and good feed with a good quality lawn fertiliser Hope this helps Cheers Brenton

@@theaussielawn Thanks mate. We're in Nowra and it's the exact same mower with 3cm on lowest level. So mid-late Oct on 3cm, then fertilise, insecticide and solid water?

With gradual cuts to get down to 3cm

@@peterlowe4462 if you can get your acelepryn down asap that will be the go apart from that everything else is correct

Hi mate pretty sure in that video I used a now discontinued product called Agriboost Turf lifter it was a mix of organic and synthetic fertilisers and was a really good product that got forgotten about to the point of it being discontinued I believe. I'm using a lot of plant doctor products these days and find the mini prill greens grade product pretty good. Plus they have offered me a discount coupon 'brenton10' to gives viewers 10% discounts. www.plantdoctor.com.au/champion-mineral-low-cut-lawn-fertiliser-new cheers Brenton 🤟

I run all my stuff on 95 mate 🤙

Cool mate use 98

Without actually seeing pics of your lawn it’s hard to advise you on what’s happening with your specific situation. But if your lawn is anything like either of the last 2 buffalo lawns on my channel you should be ok to do what you saw me do

Hi Damo its sorta hard to always do that, Often it can take all day just to edit one video plus I have to fit in family work and off camera yard care. But when time permits I do try

Its prob more an angle of "its always been that way" for both You guys and us down here haha

Thanks for that mate 🤟 and I hope you enjoy your new sapphire stripes 😎

hahah then slurped it like a pig 🤦‍♂️😂

Hi mate fert goes on last, as mentioned in the video the insecticide I used here was Acelepryn GR as for fertilisers you could use something like 2spec accelerate or Incitec Nitrophoska special. But don't be trying any of this until mid / late spring time 😎

Exactly mate I like it as a mower too. Def not as a renovation tool. also strongly agree its primarily a mulching mower first then a side discharge machine with bagging being more a token gesture.

ahh good to know that there is hope, did you prefer yours long or short?

@@theaussielawn 100% long. Have to care for it so much when it’s short and it still looked trash 🤣.

@@pyra6517 haha copy that 😂

@@theaussielawn I have also found with SWB it really likes shady areas. I have a boat in front corner of yard after only week it’s soo much longer than the rest of the yard

G'day mate, It may not have come through clearly in my delivery but it was actually done in 2 stages. The toro is a good mower for mowing not renovating. It was to illustrate that not all mowers are created equal not to mention the Toro has a bigger capacity motor to boot. The honda did both passes on equal then a lower setting than the Toro and was considerably hard to bog down and stall than the Toro 🤟thanks for tuning in mate hope you have a great day 😎

bahaha cheers mate

haha especially in time lapse in reality though 🤦‍♂️😩

Thanks Brian na ain't had any complaints from the kids being itchy on it. Under a microscope its not as serrated along the leaf blade as original non soft leaf buffalo.

Depends on what sorta blades you have, If they are "swing back" blades they are throw away units, however if you run a bar blade they are able to be sharpened with a grinder or a dremel tool

@@theaussielawn have a hru196 with 4 seperate blades. The way they come they have like no edge. I grinded them to be sharp but no results. :(

I did this vis 2 weeks back mate but yeah i was late with all mine this year due to work and having ben come over everything sorta had to align best as i could

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How good is that mate, so good to hear. I used Hydrolink Advance and the fertiliser was 2spec elevate both available through Ben Sims at lawn tips

@@theaussielawn cheers mate!!

No worries mate, tune in next week for the update 🤟

Cheers Zac next weeks vid will have a recovery update

G'day Earthau, In the actual owners manual they list the heights of each notch on the mower 😉

@@theaussielawn you know the only info I can find online says 16mm on every product page, the HRU196 Product Brochure's as well as the online manuals including the revised 2018 which is the latest I can find on the Australian Honda Website. 11 stages 16mm - 76mm where Position 11 is 16mm, 10 is 22mm & the 2018 manual is 9 is 29mm. Obviously the latest model has done away with the lowest setting and the manual has not been put online yet. So thank you for the heads up. I am wondering how low can I mow Wintergreen Couch with a rotary mower and have it look Mint and 16mm on the Honda seems to be the rotary with the lowest cut I can find?. Enjoy your weekend!

@@Earthau utility mowers will cut lower, the Victa Mastercut will go as low as 8mm and the Masport to 13mm. They’re side discharge only though. Honda’s HRS216 won’t cut that low because it’s designed to mulch as well. Any mower designed to support mulching will have a greater minimum height of cut because of the airflow and air volume required to mulch. The same can said of bagging. We tend to think only of the solids, the grass clippings but rotary mowing is essentially suspended matter in a fluid, with the fluid being air. The more air it can flow the more solid matter it can carry. Utility mowers have a very short and open flow path so move air and clippings easily which allows lower cutting.

Cheers mate 🤟

haha stay tuned mate next week all will be revealed 😜

Hi mate, they are totally recovered I will do an update vid really soon 🤙

@@theaussielawn Awesomeness

Yeah thatch is a big issue, our climate is a bit different here to you guys in Florida even things like UV levels etc it all plays its part on how plants / grass grow in different parts of the globe. By doing this I'm essentially starting each season with a fresh young lawn with nice upright growth habits without the spongey effect often associated with Buffalo / St Augustine here in Australia 🤟

Thanks for clearing that up 👊🏼

@@lawn2learn No worries hope you have a great weekend mate 🤟

Yup nice well built solid mower but could just do with a little more power for warm season lawns

I had an aluminum deck Toro for 40 years. Great machine. When I was mowing especially high grass (aggash-lazy-alshsg), I would lower the back wheels so it mowed the front grass higher and then lower at the back. It mowed every blade of grass many times until it got to the back of the mower. That "seemed" to me to work.

@@dchall8 Nice one mate Id love to get you being that Honda of mine and see your thoughts of it. But unfortunately that model is specific to Australia have a great weekend mate thanks for tuning in

Thanks Andrew there is an update at the end of next weeks video

G'day Adam they are Hunter PGP Ultra's

G'day Dane, sorry for the delay I must have missed your message in the comments. After the renovation scalp I always give the lawn an extra good soak in the first week. after that its just back to usual irrigation but this season having regular rain Ive only had to irrigate the lawn a hand full of times. I do tend to let the grass tell me when it wants a drink rather than just water for the sake of it, However the general rule of thumb in summer is 25mm per week over 2 cycles

It all depends on the turf variety you have mate

@@theaussielawn buff

haha yeah Its a beast that old Victa 🤟

absolutely you could mate and it would push back through in no time and laugh at you 😂

Left over stuff from the green and front lawn renovations it’s a 70/30 mix 70% sand 30% clay silt

I have the HRU196 buffalo pro

Cheers Woodzy tbh I'm now glad all the hard work is done haha

There is a number of ways to help determine possible compaction issues. Poor growth, Water run off, hard ground, wear tracks / constant traffic etc.

Up here (US) we stick a screwdriver into the ground when it's dry and when it's moist. There's always going to be a difference in how hard it is to push and how deep it goes easily. We have found that if you core aerate, there is no improvement in the screwdriver test. However, if you spray a surfactant like baby shampoo, and water that in deeply (at least 1 cm with max of 3), after three weeks the entire yard takes on a different character. After that, when it rains I find my soil is almost too soft to walk on. Screwdriver sinks in easily to the hilt after shampoo and rain. Shampoo is cheap and you already have some. App rate is 100 ml per 100 square meters. You can reapply if you don't like the result after 3 weeks. Doubling or tripling the amount is not a mistake - the lawn can take it.

Yeah the screw driver test has been about for a long time and is quite effective. Have you got some formal Turf training mate?

@@theaussielawn Sort of. I studied engineering at an agriculture school and took a couple classes in horticulture. I thought I knew it all until about 2002 when I joined a lawn forum online. As it turned out, I had to unlearn everything I thought about lawn care (daily watering, mowing short, lots of chems), and learn about deep and infrequent watering, mowing high, and organic fertilizer. Since then I found some lawn care gurus and I pay close attention when they say something. Over the years since I've been asked to moderate three different organic lawn forums.

@@dchall8 Thats the go mate, well done 🤟

haha yeah I have to agree mate

Thanks mate

Believe it or not I did exactly that in the main patch raised it up 2-3 notches then went back over the same pass on the low setting. I actually don't think there is much difference in time believe it or not because its the stuff down low thats hard to cut bit