Hello again my fine friends of the turf and landscape world. Today’s subject as you can see by the title is mowing and how to properly handle the final mowing of the year, or so we think. All you scalpers out there, please stop, just stop right now. I have seen way to many homeowners , even some landscapers, put their mowers on the lowest setting and totally scalp their turf grass and single handedly undo a season’s worth of work for no reason at all. I am being extreme in my words, are you in your mowing ? The answer is yes and yes.
Let’s try to be objective here and start at the beginning. Why do we cut it lower at the end of the season? The main reason is so that the turf grass does not stand too tall, clumpy, and possibly lay over itself and retain moisture from winter’s rain or snow. The reason we would prefer that not happen is that invites snow mold (disease), and other unpleasant things that we do not want to happen to the turf. This can be avoided if done properly.
The proper way to mow at season’s end is this: simply lower the mower settings to a notch or two below what you are currently doing. Your mower should be at the present time, as we are in fall, at approximately 3 inches. So if you drop the mower blade a setting or two you should windup at about two and a half inches or two and a quarter, no lower.
Why do you not want to take it down any lower? Never cut off more than one third of the leaf blade at a time. If you do this then you are stressing out the turf grass plant and the energy you have been feeding it to grow properly (not just up , but the root system growing out and spreading, or for this application storing energy for over winter). That energy will be used to regenerate the blade of grass and won’t be able to help the root system. You have just destroyed your last application and wasted money and time.
We will go into good cultural mowing practices over the course of the winter so that we minimize any mistakes with that. I will say right now though, to be proactive for 2011, when you are done your last mowing there are a few things you should do for yourself and your mower. Take off the blade and get it sharpened, change your spark plug, scrape off the bottom of the mower deck and change the oil. This will give you a good start to the new year.
Hey, did you catch me over at Gelati’s Scoop yesterday? I was the guest post over there. Here is his link so if you did miss it you can go over and say hello: http://www.gelatisscoop.blogspot.com . Thanks a lot and we will see you on Monday for some more lawn and landscape fun and excitement.