Abstract: An inproved cutting unit specially suited for grooming turf includes a frame supporting a conventional horizontally mounted driven reel having a number of spirally arranged blades. The cutting unit is supported on the ground by front and rear rollers. The front roller is a slotted expunger roller having numerous annular slots along its axis. Immediately behind the expunger roller is mounted a knife roller which includes numerous vertically oriented knife blades aligned with the circular slots of the expunger roller. As the expunger roller rolls along turf, horizontally lying plant material is pulled or puckered up by the expunger roller into the circular slots. The knife roller, driven at a high rate of speed about its own axis, pulls up and slices through the pulled up plant material.