What height are you mowing at?

[ClintB]

Was at 1.25 on front Blueberry, Bewitched, Prosperity kbg mix but moved down to 1.125 today. Plant growth regulators in use as well as reel mowing every 4 days (ish).

Back half Bewitched, half northern mix is at 3. Am cutting every other day with the rain. Like to hold it here as long as the rain holds up and then go to 3.5. My northern mix tends to get floppy at 4 inches.

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[tlinden]

3.5 in front (sun) and 2.5 in back (shade)

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[andy10917]

4"

[wis99ski]

4"

So soon shag man?


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[bauer time]

I've been at 3.5" for a few weeks now. Once temps are in the 90s everyday I'll bring it up to 4".

[ligrass]

I bumped it up from 2.5 to 3". The color looks fantastic, it stripes a little better, and looks better from far away. However, up close and standing above I like 2.5" better. Probably going back down to 2.5" for another few weeks.

[1977212]

Up to 4 today, will do 4.5 next and keep it there till end of summer

[oze]

...which brings me to a question. Based on recommendations made from some around here whose knowledge about turfgrass I respect, I purchased a copy of the very excellent James. B. Beard book, Turfgrass: Science and Culture. After slogging my way through the Growth and Development chapter (I'll be re-reading that until kingdom come), I am now studying the chapter on Cool Season Turfgrasses.

I understand that this book, and, I assume, a class which it accompanies, are geared toward the turf professional (or Turfman, as Beard calls them--woulda made a great handle here); nevertheless, he appears to agree with the mowing height recommendations that came with, for example, my Barenbrug RPR. That is, the best appearance and overall health of the turf occurs at mowing heights in the range of 1 - 2.5" for the Big Three of KBG, TTTF and PR, depending on the specific type.

Again, I appreciate that these recommendations are for the ultra-high maintenance and *level* turf of golf courses. With my relatively bumpy lawn, 2 3/8" is as low as I can go without scalping some areas. I have been cutting right around that length all spring to encourage tillering of my fall overseed grass, but am about to slowly raise the height to 3" for the summer. In my opinion, the lawn looks best at 3" anyway.

I am also aware of the notion that allowing the shoots to grow taller encourages root growth. On the other hand, I have recently read that root depth is less dependent on cultural practices like watering and mowing than it is on soil structure. In my case, getting two completely different soil structure results from one sample taken of 0 - 4" depth cores and one taken from cores of the single inch between 3-4" encouraged me to do some more digging, so to speak. Turns out that I have what seems to be a definite horizon right around the 3" point, where the clay that forms 34% of my soil seems to begin. So, my poor grass roots are going to have so struggle to break past that horizon, and there is not much I can do other than to add as much organics and BLSC as I can.

I guess I don't have a specific question after all, but I would be interested in any comments or discussion about this. The engineer geek in me wishes that there was a non-credit class that I could take--maybe a turfgrass/soil overview. If nothing else, it would bring me into contact with fellow lawn enthusiasts with whom I could discuss this fascinating stuff.

[BoatDrinksQ5]

I'm at my 2nd notch(2.9" or so)...(1st notch is scalp city...) - I will be raising it up one notch (~3-3.2", middle) this week as we are finally seeing signs of consistent 80-90° temperatures in the forecast in Minnesota.

My actual HOC measurements are typically a bit rought, since it is very hard for me to tell when my ruler/tape/finger hits ground vs thatch vs clippings vs pressing into soil... etc. I believe I only have five notches and the first and last are fairly useless (one scalps...and is high enough that i don't get good consistent cutting/suction)

[llO0DQLE]

So I measured a spot on the lawn and Notch #4 for me is about 2.5 inches. That's the shorter blades of the plant as they're not all super upright, but seems to be the height of most blades. Temps were around 27C/80F - 30C/86F the past few days and will continue on for the next few days. I mowed yesterday morning after 5 days from last mow as I was away on vacation and cut off maybe almost half, breaking the one-third rule. I also irrigated in the evening as I was trying to play around with my sprinkler positioning with my irregularly shaped front lawn and it was windy earlier in the day and I needed time to go through the process. Well, this morning the grass didn't look so pretty. Some PM in some spots, not much to worry about, and a few clumps and some matted areas of grass. Anyway, I wasn't happy with how the lawn looked and I think it was a combination of a lot of different things that I did wrong.

I should've increased HOC for my mow yesterday and should've probably done it in the evening instead and irrigated at night, instead of in the evening. Anyway, nothing too bad, I did another cleanup mow this morning after raking the grass up with a leaf rake and bagged because I had a lot of clumps. Looked better after. I will see how it looks tomorrow morning.

[Shindoman]

Newbie here, first post. I use a Caltrimmer reel mower and cut anywhere from 5/8" to 1 1/2".
Yard was completely renovated 4 yrs. ago and laid sod that I believe is PR and KBG mix. I overseeded
with Colonial Bentgrass last fall. Ongoing battle with Poa. Lawn is looking great but there is so much to learn. Glad I found this forum. This is all new to me but I am learning fast.
Biggest regret was using sod rather than seeding.

[lawn_cuttery]

Been at 3" with the HRX217 for about a month. Started the season at 2.5" for first 5 mows and I will probably jump up to 3.5" later this month once temps really start to ramp up. I am at 12 mows total so far for the season, as I logging them for the first time this year. Might try to go up to 4" HOC in July - Aug if it looks OK, otherwise keep it at 3.5".

[seiyafan]

Do longer grass blades cause greater evapotranspiration? Basically I want to know if keeping at 3.5'' is better than 2.5'' during drought season.

[andy10917]

It's a balancing act. Yes, more surface area can mean more transpiration, but it also means less sun getting to the soil to bake it.

[bauer time]

Raised deck to 4" last week. Temps in NJ have been high 80s-low 90s. Going to keep it at 4" until early August as I bump it down to get ready to overseed.

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[soiled.myself]

At present...

4" back (full sun)
3" front (dense shade)

[Billybob]

3.5" now but going up to 4". Been pretty dry here lately and grass looking a little stressed.

Watered this morning.... About an inch

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[edenl01]

3.75 right now. I tried the high setting at around 4.25 and it looks bad after a day or so and it does not mulch well either. Hopefully 3.75 isn't too high for a Reno scalp in 2 weeks.

I am beside myself with the lawn this year. It's become a little softer and with higher hoc it stays moist for more than 2 days.

We had a bare cracked dead mess around July last year.

Thanks everyone

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[northeastlawn]

It's a balancing act. Yes, more surface area can mean more transpiration, but it also means less sun getting to the soil to bake it.

On that note, the edges of my hell strips that are PR and in full sun all yellowed out. Are these edges dead now, or will they come back in the fall?

My fault for letting the 1" of rain we had make me complacent, but now I'm curious if I just forced myself to oversee again.

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[Spammage]

.75"

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