Verticutting Your Home Lawn
Verticutting is as exactly how it sounds - vertical cutting. Have you ever noticed flat-lying grasses on your lawn or long straggly pieces your cylinder keeps missing? These can smother any straight growing grasses from getting any light for photosynthesis. The cylinder from your lawnmower would normally miss these flat grasses as the roller would just flatten them. The verticut cartridge can help you lift these flat-lying grasses and trim them to the desired length. Thin and closely spaced blades effectively lift lateral growth and remove moss which helps encourage tillering and new growth. This cartridge is our second favourite cartridge here at Allett. Note you can also replace your front roller with the auxiliary wheels if your front roller is flattening straggly pieces of grass.
The aims of verticutting your lawn:
- To prune the grasses to improve tillering and stolon formation- this increases turf density and thickens up your lawn.
- To control thatch. The verticut cartridge blades are designed to be used above the thatch layer to remove dead and dying grass plants that will ultimately contribute to the thatch layer
- To produce an upright grass prior to mowing to give a cleaner more consistent cut
- As a method of controlling weeds and weed grasses without using harmful chemicals- gives weeds a hard time
- Verticutting will also help remove annual meadow grass seed heads and promote finer grasses, such as bent and fescue
We have a homeowner range of cylinder mowers that take interchangeable cartridges- the Verticut cartridge being one of them. This cartridge can replace the cutting cylinder in less than a couple of minutes. You can use the cartridge every two to four weeks or so from April to September to keep on top of thatch and lateral lying grasses. Start with the cartridge on setting four and gradually lower- the cartridge should not be penetrating the soil as it will damage your blades. You want the blades to be touching the thatch layer and above. You will be amazed at how much this cartridge gets out of your lawn. Do not verticut when conditions are too dry. It is best to verticut a few days after it has rained so there is moisture to help with the recovery. You will need to cut your lawn before you verticut to a reasonable height- of course using a cylinder it would be cut quite short anyway. You can verticut in different directions. You may want to water and fertilise the lawn after aswell as giving it another cut to cut any lateral grasses that have been pulled up by the verticut cartridge.
This cartridge is also great for attacking Poa Annua, Yorkshire Fog and various weed grasses. Make sure you keep your grass box on so you can collect the seed heads. You can verticut in the shape of a union jack. This cartridge cuts rhizomes and stolons to help promote new growth thickening up your lawn.
Find a video on our VERTICUT cartridge here
