Cylinder mowers have become surprisingly popular among homeowners over the past couple of years. Originally these mowers were primarily designed for golf courses and sports fields. Now your average Joe, like me, invests their money in a cylinder mower for a more manicured mow to show off their pride and joy.
Here’s what you need to know about Cylinder Mowers…
How Cylinder Mowers Work
Cylinder mowers or reel mowers are known for for not tearing grass blades giving a cleaner cut. These mowers have a rotating cylinder equipped with blades and a stationary bedknife. The reel blades guide the blades towards the bedknife, where they are cut by a shearing action.
Your lawn needs to be cut at least weekly when using a cylinder mower. Cylinder mowers are not designed to mow overgrown grass. If the lawn is too long the mower will get bogged down and won’t cut the lawn properly.
As well as regularly mowing your lawn, change the direction you mow each time you cut. This will stop the lawn laying over from the rear and front rollers and allow it to stand up for a cleaner, more precise cut.
This is especially true if you buy yourself a manual reel mower. If you try to take off any more than 10mm of grass with these mowers, they won’t cut the grass.
Quick Tip: The lower you mow, the more often you must mow your grass. If you are mowing at 25mm for example, you should only need to mow once a week.
If you are mowing at 5mm, you will need to mow your lawn nearly daily, like they do on golf courses.
Choosing a Cylinder Mower Choosing a cylinder or reel mower can be quite daunting. There are a lot of options to choose from and different mowers will suit different situations.
Cylinder mowers generally can cut anywhere from 35mm down to 2mm. It’s important to know what height you can cut your grass to, so you can select a mower that cuts in this range.
Identify your grass type
• Buffalo and tall fescue like to be a little taller, so you’ll need to find a mower that cuts in the 30 to 50mm bracket. A secondhand Scott Bonnar 45 is a great option for these grass types if you can get a hold of one at a decent price, because you can get custom rollers that allow you to cut up to 50mm.
It’s hard to find a reel mower that will cut at this height without modification. You can get these grass types below 30mm, but it will take a lot of time and commitment.
• Kikuyu and zoysia like to be cut in the middle; about 15 to 30mm is the sweet spot for these lawns with a cylinder mower. This opens a lot of options when it comes to selecting what mower you would like to buy.
• Couch grass prefers to be cut a little lower – anywhere from 5 to 20mm. If you have a hybrid couch like TifTuf, it will take the lower cut even better than common couch because of the thinner leaf blade.
• Perennial ryegrass and Kentucky blue grass like to be cut in the middle as well; 15 to 25mm is the sweet spot with a cylinder mower, but you can take these grasses lower if you desire. All the mowers listed above will suit these grass types.
Some Cylinder Mowers available include:
Scott Bonnar 45 / Rover 45 (secondhand) Protea Swardman Masport Olympic Series Bushranger Supaswift 17inch Push reel mower, e.g. Victa 16″ Razor Cut
These are the most popular mowers on the market for homeowners.
You can use any of the mowers above, or you can take it to the next level and select something like a greens mower, such as a Toro Greensmaster 1000 - preferably secondhand though as they can be quite expensive.
With a good quality cylinder mower and regular mowing and maintenance, you can achieve some outstanding results with your home lawn. You should also be able to develop some nice stripes or if preferred, that bowling green flat carpet look you have always dreamed of.
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