Zoysia Grass

[Growing Green]

Hi everyone, Ok I'm in Texas and one of my customers had zoysia turf put in in October (weird time to plant) and she is wanting me to scalp the lawn on Friday, but I should wait till Spring right as the freezing temperatures can still come till March? Any help or advice would be GREATLY appreciated. Matt

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Austin Organic Lawn and Landscaping Care

[cruzgardening]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by Growing Green Hi everyone, Ok I'm in Texas and one of my customers had zoysia turf put in in October (weird time to plant) and she is wanting me to scalp the lawn on Friday, but I should wait till Spring right as the freezing temperatures can still come till March? Any help or advice would be GREATLY appreciated. Matt Hi Matt I live in california and have been working in the field for few years now we had clients asking for this sorts of things all the time at the old Landscaping company i worked for. Our response to our clients was simple, we would say no and would explain to them why it would be a bad Idea, but if they insisted on their idea, we would do it but would not include any sorts of gurantees that the results they were after would be the ones that they would get. 4 years ago when i was working with the company we had a couple who had St. Augustine grass they wanted to Dethatch it during its dormancy period, can't really remember the month but it was right after we had the first frost here around December or early January. We told them not to do it they insisted we handed papers to sign the grass almost died completely just some Rhizomes survived, which was enough to get it back on track during the growing season, but the point is that we covered our selves by ahving them sign the papers saying we were not responsible for the job and that if the grass died it would be on them, our clients had to pay extra for the rejuvenation of their grass for the next 2 years and we came with our hands clean and pockets full so warn your client of the potential damage, have them sign papers stating that u are not responsible for any further damage since you had already warned them and any additional treatment will come out of their pockets and once the damage does happen be ready to provide the client with ways to have their grass come back a live :P) have great week hope your client can see the light CruzGardening

[Growing Green]

Thanks for that response! This is part of the email I sent her last night -

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I have some concerns regarding mowing your lawn short at this time.

- February and early March can still bring hard freezes and cutting the zoysia grass shorter will cause it to suffer damage if we have future frosts. I've researched this more in depth and have found that it is recommended to mow the grass at 1" while it is still dormant to remove the dead top growth, but this should only be done after the danger of hard freezes have passed. The dormant grass blades are currently providing much needed insulation against these freezing temperatures.
- Since you planted the grass late last year, the roots have not had much time to grow deep enough yet and therefore causing me to be more concerned with removing the dead top growth at this time due to the current temperatures.
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Sound ok? Plus great idea on getting her to sign a paper.

Matt

[Steve]

What makes a customer even come up with such a request? Why would they ever want their lawn scalped?

[Growing Green]

Apparently some friends of hers said that it is good to do it. I did do some research and it does seem like it is good for this grass, but only after hard freezes are done. She did respond and say that she trusts my judgement and to do whatever I think is best.

Thanks,
Matt

[Steve]

Well good! It seems that was handled well!

Keep us posted on how it goes.

[cruzgardening]

Originally Posted by Steve

What makes a customer even come up with such a request? Why would they ever want their lawn scalped?

some people think scalping is the same thing as Dethatching, i had a couple of clients ask for me to cut their St Augustine really short to reseed but what they mean is they need to dethatch it, they either forgot the term or don't know it.

[cruzgardening]

Originally Posted by Growing Green

Thanks for that response! This is part of the email I sent her last night -

_________________
I have some concerns regarding mowing your lawn short at this time.

- February and early March can still bring hard freezes and cutting the zoysia grass shorter will cause it to suffer damage if we have future frosts. I've researched this more in depth and have found that it is recommended to mow the grass at 1" while it is still dormant to remove the dead top growth, but this should only be done after the danger of hard freezes have passed. The dormant grass blades are currently providing much needed insulation against these freezing temperatures.
- Since you planted the grass late last year, the roots have not had much time to grow deep enough yet and therefore causing me to be more concerned with removing the dead top growth at this time due to the current temperatures.
____________________

Sound ok? Plus great idea on getting her to sign a paper.

Matt

that sounds good just get her to sign a waiver or make sure you guys agree verbally good luck and best wishes