The Benefits Of Verticutting
Achieving the picture-perfect lawn requires more than just regular mowing. One often-overlooked but highly effective technique for lawn care is verticutting. Verticutting involves 'vertically' cutting through the thatch layer to remove lateral growth, rhizomes and stolon's thereby promoting new growth and discouraging weeds.
Let's look at some benefits of verticutting....
Lifting and Cutting Lateral Growth And Removing Thatch
Over time lawns can develop a thick layer of thatch—a dense mat of dead grass, roots and debris that accumulates above the soil surface. While some thatch is beneficial (half an inch) excessive thatch can hinder water, air and nutrients from reaching the soil and grassroots. This stifles lawn growth and encourages disease and pest infestations.
Verticutting is a game-changer in that it effectively lifts and cuts through the thatch layer. Sometimes your cylinder mower can miss longer lateral growth as it lies flat and is rolled down by the front roller. Verticutting can help lift and cut this lateral growth. Top tip- to improve the efficiency of your verticutter cartridge take your front grass rake off and replace the front roller for the auxiliary wheels.
Cutting Rhizomes and Stolons for New Growth
The main difference between stolons and rhizomes is that stolons are shoots of stems that creep or run along the surface of the soil. Rhizomes grow, on the other hand, underneath the surface. Both of these plant structures give rise to new plants which thickens your lawn up.
Verticutting targets these horizontal growth structures cutting them to encourage new growth and promote a denser, more uniform lawn. By trimming rhizomes and stolons, verticutting stimulates the grass to produce new shoots and tillers resulting in thicker, healthier turf with improved coverage and resilience.
Giving Weeds a Hard Time
Weeds are the bane of every lawn enthusiast's existence. They compete with grass for resources detract from the lawn's aesthetics and can quickly overrun an otherwise well-maintained lawn. However, verticutting can be a powerful tool in the battle against weeds.
By disrupting the root systems of weeds and removing their lateral growth verticutting makes it difficult for weeds to establish and spread. Furthermore, the improved conditions created by verticutting—such as increased airflow and nutrient availability—favour the growth of healthy grass which can outcompete weeds and prevent their return. Verticutting is a great tool for giving Poa Annua a hard time.
How often should I verticut?
The beauty of the Allett cartridge system is that it is so quick and easy to change from mowing to verticutting- you can swap over in less than 10 seconds in our Stirling and less than a minute in our Cambridge mower. The more often you do these extra tasks the better your lawn will look. You should be aiming to verticut at least once a month in the mowing season - twice would be even better! You don't have to be too aggressive- you can raise the height cut and just lift and cut the lateral growth on the surface of your lawn. Make sure there is plenty of moisture around before you verticut- you don't want to be verticutting if we are in a drought and your lawn is already stressed.
Start verticutting at the same height as you cut at. If you are not getting anything in your grass box then lower your mower a step at a time- now get out there and see the benefits of regular verticutting.
Find our verticut cartridges here...
QC14V- Fits the Allett Classic 14L, Liberty 35 and Kensington 14B
QC17V- Fits the Allett Classic 17L, Kensington 17H/B,Liberty 43,
QC20V - Fits the Allett Kensington 20H/B
UC43V - Fits the Allett Stirling 43
UC51V - For the Allett Stirling 51