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Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

Atco Balmoral 17 - Scarifier help

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Hi All,

Looking for a bit of help and advice please if you can please?

Last year I borrowed a friends Atco Balmoral with the scarifier cassette to scarify the lawn, it did an amazing job and pulled out bags of moss. I was so impressed that over the winter I purchased one off eBay. 

Last weekend I thought I would have a go. However it didn't go to plan.  I set the height to "S" and basically the mower just kept digging into the ground and the rear roller would just spin on the floor leaving patches of mud. When I tried to raise the height I found that this meant the tines weren't low enough to do the job. It's almost like the rear roller wants studs on!

Does this sounds familiar to anyone? Any advice please?

Forums

wristpin Tue, 02/03/2021

Need to be there!  Sounds as though either you have too much thatch etc for it to cope with at present. Perhaps the lawn needs to dry out a bit.  Scarifying moss without killing it first just spreads the spores around. Try MO Bacter which kills and digests the moss.

 

villiers98 Wed, 10/03/2021

With the mower on paving slabs and not running just check the height adjuster does give different heights ( measured between the side casing and the floor in line with the scarifier spindle) from S to 5 .   It could be the lawn is just too long and wet , but the height adjuster knob can break inside upsetting the level. The scarifier works best  when moss has been killed ( as mentioned) and on short mown dry grass

Stintov Wed, 10/03/2021

Thanks to both of the replies.

I relation to the height adjuster I believe it's working correctly as turning the knob on the grass shows a clear level adjustment. I had not treated the moss first and the ground is very wet! I was under the impression that this is the time of year to scarify? How many times throughout the year should this normally be done please? Any advice welcome.

wristpin Wed, 10/03/2021

If your lawn is anything like mine it will take a fair bit of work to get it back to  working order. Water retaining clay soil and a very wet winter have taken their toll.

I would take advantage of any dry spell to cut and collect the grass in stages to get it down to where you want to be and expose the moss, then treat it. Kill off the moss with your chosen potion, then scarify with the box on , in two directions. Give it some time to recover and perhaps encourage the grass to grow . A one time presenter of our local radio Sunday gardening programme used to maintain that Grow More was all that was needed - no need for fancy products.

Once you’ve beaten the moss, scarifying in the Spring and Autumn could be sufficient, but don’t forget the spiking, sanding and top dressing etc !!!!