Finish cut?

[Hammbone81]

Is anyone cutting their lawn twice?

It's never been something I felt I "had" to do. But I'm starting to think it's necessary. Not sure if it's because this is my first year with irrigation or if it's because I'm getting more persnickety with age. What I'm seeing and/or becoming more in-tuned to is the grass that gets matted down where my wheel tracks crisscross from rotating my mow direction each time. (|| == // \\). My mower isn't lifting those spots. I just purchased a high lift blade for my Toro Super Recycler and in side-discharge mode, it does a much better job lifting those matted spots (opposed to mulching with the stock blade). Side-discharge leaves a better cut finish, but it also leaves a bigger mess. Mulching minimal mess, but doesn't lift the grass as well.

For those who are doing a second pass, what's your process as far as mower set-up? For example; are you mulching first, then side-discharge? Visa-versa? Exclusively mulch? Exclusively side-discharge? Are your deck heights different between the two passes? Do you pitch your deck pos/neg/flat? I'm not asking about bagging because I cannot justify bagging my 10,000ft² lawn 2-3 times a week. I'm also not too excited about running 2 passes over my lawn each time I mow, but it may be a thing I have to do, at least in the fall.

[MorpheusPA]

Welcome to the addiction.

Now that I have a robot, it does this automatically by repeatedly mowing over every spot several times a week. I find I enjoy that look.

[Hammbone81]

Welcome to the addiction.

Now that I have a robot, it does this automatically by repeatedly mowing over every spot several times a week. I find I enjoy that look.

Do you have any photos of what that looks like?

I'm afraid if I didn't have my lines I'd get lost spreading and spraying.

[PSU4ME]

I’m double cutting some areas because I get the poor cut/matting you’re referencing. This time of year I usually cut, thatch and then cut the other direction, doing this twice in the fall to help “clean up” the lawn. As I cut lower, I get a better cut as well.

[MorpheusPA]

Oh, do I have photos...

I need to take new ones. I'd do it now, but the light's nearly gone in an incoming thunderstorm. There are no lines, it looks like a dark green carpet, and there is not one blade out of place. Olivia is off-duty until Saturday, when she'll cycle twice.

[Masbustelo]

Morph What is your height of cut? Nice color.

[Hammbone81]

Oh, do I have photos...

I need to take new ones. I'd do it now, but the light's nearly gone in an incoming thunderstorm. There are no lines, it looks like a dark green carpet, and there is not one blade out of place. Olivia is off-duty until Saturday, when she'll cycle twice.

Morph - as expected, it looks fantastic.

I'm on your soil remediation plan, as can be seen here:
viewtopic.php?t=26546

And I'm in my first year with irrigation. Running 3x per week at .5" per application. It does run if we get rain.

My lawn is looking really funky right now. Its thick and full, but very pale.



I need to find time to put down some FAS.
I will say that I may have had a bit of a snafu in June with Humic DG. Long story short; I put down WAY too much. I'm wondering (pretty sure) thats my problem. Is there an antidote?

[MorpheusPA]

Yours looks stellar, actually. And yes, wayyyyy too much humic acid can bind resources. You'll get them back. There's really no antidote but time, although application of Milorganite will certainly enhance color. Keep doing so until color returns, monthly. You really can't overdo iron except at very low pH.

My camera is abysmal in terms of greens. I took a few shots tonight. Color in person is deep green. On camera, to my eye, it looks far too yellow. This was just before I dumped about ten percent of the gardens onto the lawn for cutting up. Olivia has no problems handling that.

[Hammbone81]

Morph - thanks for the kind words. This lawn is 10x more difficult than my last house. But I'm on season 4 here and things are turning around. (Color and everything looked awesome in the spring!)

Regarding Milorganite; that was my go-to at the old house, but I stopped using it here (except for as a carrier for micronutrients) because it was my understanding with my ph in the 8.0-8.4 range, iron in granular form (chelated?) wouldn't be available to the plant. If you think it'd help, I'll put some down. Let me know your thoughts on that.

[MorpheusPA]

Oh, yeah, that is rather high, too high a pH to bother that much. In your case, though, I'd be very tempted to mix iron with your humic acid (it'll bind with it), and some will have some chance to become available to the lawn, at least occasionally, before it locks tight.

Color also tends to fade in hotter weather, for obvious reasons, becoming paler in summer and darker in cooler weather. Mine will deepen again when summer weather fades. Whenever that is--it's effectively fall in PA with summer weather still continuing unabated.

[Dmoore2145]

I have a toro 42" zero turn mower that weighs several hundred pounds. When I mow at 3 or 31/2" the grass is flatten by the wheels. I am using gator blades but also have high lift blades. Neither is able to lift the grass back up and I am very unhappy with the cut. When I was younger I used to walk my 2/3 acre with a Honda and it looked great but I am 82 now and can barely walk. Do all riding mowers produce a poor cut! I cut in a circle. Should I be trying back and forth

[MorpheusPA]

You might get a better answer if you start a new thread with this. But I did find that even my walk-behind mower had a bit of this problem. My new robot doesn't, but she weighs all of about 15 pounds.

Changing direction of mow, mowing when it's dry, but not mowing stressed (overly dry) grass can all help. Your grass type is one (mixed) that shouldn't mind being mowed taller over-much once it adjusts; mine looks fantastic at 3.5", and it's a dwarf bluegrass.

[Hammbone81]

I have a toro 42" zero turn mower that weighs several hundred pounds. When I mow at 3 or 31/2" the grass is flatten by the wheels. I am using gator blades but also have high lift blades. Neither is able to lift the grass back up and I am very unhappy with the cut. When I was younger I used to walk my 2/3 acre with a Honda and it looked great but I am 82 now and can barely walk. Do all riding mowers produce a poor cut! I cut in a circle. Should I be trying back and forth

We've lived here 3.5yrs and I push about 10,000ft².
At our old house, I mowed 3/4 acre with my 52" zero turn. I thought it was awesome. But I think my opinion may be different today as I tend to get more persnickety's as I age. I used to have a roller on that mower and would stripe the grass. Basically, I had once giant "tire track" mashing the grass down. That mower was a commercial grade SCAG and had tons of power and did a great job cutting.

Now I mow with my Toro. I have a striping kit for it too, but I never use it. I like the look without it (and it handles so much better with out it too).

I'm a Mechanical Engineer and have a few ideas on how to make the "ideal" walk-behind mower. But I find I keep myself plenty busy with my real job and kids activities and just don't have the time or ambition to build a prototype.

[Vintagestrat]

Welcome to the addiction.

Now that I have a robot, it does this automatically by repeatedly mowing over every spot several times a week. I find I enjoy that look.

Which robot do you have? Coworker of mine was talking about it.

[MorpheusPA]

In my case, the Worx Landroid WR155--their top model, which is really overkill for my lawn. She's out right now, doing a stellar job.

She's got one spot where she gets stuck, but I'm working on fixing that. It's from an error the Township left when they "repaired" the front line and left it three inches too low for the curb.