Why won't my push/reel mower cut the weeds?

Question

I bought a reel mower to lessen my impact on our enviornment but it won't cut the tall weeds, they just bend over. What do I do?

Answer 1

Your reel mower is probably new so it most likely doesn't need sharpening yet. It might be that the weeds are too tall to be cut by the mower and are simply pushed over and stay bent because of the length. Reel mowers are bad for bent grasses because they provide no air updraft that will lift the blade high enough to be clipped by the blades and the frame itself will keep a really long weed pressed down, out of reach of the blades. But don't give up hope - I have a Scotts reel mower and I find that the weeds that got too long just have to be touched up with a weedwhacker to get it to cutting height.

In my experience, the reel mower does a beautiful job on normal grass types and spotty work on weeds. But as I'm getting into summer my weeds are disappearing and with each cut my grass is looking better and the time spent cutting is reduced because there is less redo work.

Just focus on getting those weeds out and enriching your grass. It'll get easier, I promise. :)

Answer 2

I ran into the same problem. I found three different things that might cause the problem. The first is that your adjustment may not be set right. On many reel mowers there is a bar underneath the cutting blade. That bar may have some set screws that need adjusted so their is little to no gap between the bars and the cutting blades when the blades rotate around.

The second reason may be that your grass is too tall. If the grass is too tall it will just bend it over and not cut it. Cut the grass before the weeds get too tall.

Lastly, the blades may need sharpened. This is done by placing a little piston grinding compound on the blades then rotating the blades several times. Piston grinding compound can be gotten at most auto parts stores.

I'd say you aren't mowing your grass soon enough from the way you worded your question. That's just a drawback of the reel mowers. They don't cut tall grass or tall weeds.

Answer 3

Push Rotary Mower

Answer 4

Most of the lawn equipment manufactures build walk behind sickle bar mowers. They can be self propelled, will cut anything up to one inch brush, are very stable on rough or steep ground and come in bar widths of 36 to 60 inches. Plus, they won't throw things at you like a rotary brush cutter. Check out Toro, Jari, John Deere, etc.

Answer 5

we have this same problem at the golf course I work at. what happens is that the grass it to tall for the grass to flip back up to the reel and the bed knife. the things that work are weed whacker,buy a rotary mower or keep your lawn very short and mow it often