Different Mowing Heights For Different Grasses

hey there it's pete with gci turf i hope you're having a great day today and what mowing height should you mow at right big question well let me go over that with you give you my two cent on it and yeah it might differ from what somebody else has told you in the past and you know it is what it is i kind of got my own way of doing things and that's what i like to show you [Music] now for my friends that have saint augustine centipede or zoysia not really going to talk about those grass types because i don't have them here i don't have them at the shop and morally i just don't feel right about teaching you about those grasses when i don't personally grow them so i apologize for that so let me start off by saying most turf grasses are going to fall into two categories warm season turf and cool season turf the name kind of says it all warm season grasses typically grow better in warmer climates like down south cool season turf typically grows better up north where your summers may not be quite as brutal then you got this strip with this band that kind of goes across the country called the transition zone and that's where i live in north carolina and so we kind of get the best of both worlds it's not uncommon at all to see bermuda zoysia fescue all here in the transition zone and even some kentucky bluegrass so how does moen height go into all this what what's the big deal with moen height well different turf types perform better under different mowing height conditions now in this video i might not cover every single last detail but i want to give you a good all-around ballpark idea of what i'm talking about let's start with bermuda grass as far as the mowing height goes you can cut bermuda at a wide variety of heights you can take it all the way down to putting green height which can be incredibly short or i know folks that mow it at three to four inches i think with bermuda and mowing height it is all about personal preference and the level of maintenance you want to put into the yard meaning if you cut your bermuda higher it's probably not going to require quite as much mowing or quite as much maintenance but if you're like me and you like to reel mow your bermuda turf and keep it between a half inch to an inch tall that means you might have to put a little bit more effort into your lawn care it simply takes a little higher level of lawn maintenance to maintain a shortcut bermuda yard now rye grass is one of those ones that it can also tolerate a low cut and height or you can cut it up tall i've got mine cut it four inches right here the reason i keep it cut up at four inches out here the house is to simply protect the ground the more thick dense cover i have over the ground the easier it is for the ground to hold and retain moisture therefore supplying the plant adequate moisture it needs to deal with these hot conditions it was growing in and as most of you know rye grass is not a fan of heat it really don't like it this is in the cool season category of grasses and in my opinion it's probably the weakest of all the cool season turf grasses as far as being able to handle heat goes really not a lot of folks around here have rye grass simply because of the water requirements and it doesn't like the heat deep south probably not a good idea to try and grow rye grass it's probably not going to work and even for you guys up north that can actually have a full stand arrive for a yard it still goes back to what i said with bermuda and the cutting height yes you can take rye grass down really short and keep it maintained short or you can keep it cut up tall like i have it typically if i cut it taller it's going to require a little less maintenance involved but if i have it kept short all the time it's going to require more maintenance and when i come out here everything in this block this kind of shortcut block that's inside the fescue and inside the rye all of this is kentucky bluegrass i'm standing on an area right here that's cut at two and a half inches and then when i take one step over right here this area has been cut at one inch and of course i've maintained them at this height all year long the reason i didn't mow any kentucky bluegrass at four inches is because i already know it can handle our heat at a four inch cut it would do just fine that was the whole reason for planting these blue grasses out here to test different mowing heights so i can see just how low i could go it because this is going to become bluegrass this year and i personally want to cut it shorter so i had to kind of teach myself and train myself on the limits of bluegrass before i go spend a whole bunch of money and renovate my test plot over here so if i'm being honest with you i was going to come out here and tell you just how hard this kentucky bluegrass has been to maintain this year but that's simply not the case i've had extremely good luck with the bluegrass you know mowing height really hasn't affected how i've maintained this because i've obviously i've got an inch cut in height here i've got two and a half inch here and i already know i could go higher and be okay this is a turf type that can tolerate lower cutting heights and i think it goes back to the same point i made with bermuda that if you want to cut it lower keep it tight to the ground it's going to require a little more maintenance meaning a little more frequent mowing maybe a little bit more water but at the same time this one inch height of cut gets the exact same amount of water as this two and a half inch height of cut and i mow it the same day on the same frequency i don't mow the one inch any more often than i mow the two and a half inch i think one of my tricks to being successful with this is this bluegrass is incredibly dense and incredibly thick it is as thick as the hair on the dog's back you can't see any ground in here it's just so dense and lush that it helps to protect the ground and conserve moisture man that stuff is absolutely off the hook and then of course we got my baby we got the turf type tall fescue and yes they call it tall fescue for a reason it kind of prefers the tall high to cut i think it's more of an aesthetic thing it simply looks better when it's cut tall this is cut at four inches right here and you can see it's loving life right now now i'm sure some of you folks that live up north and your climate isn't quite as brutal as ours or if there's an area in your yard that is a little bit shady it can actually tolerate a little bit shorter height of cut nothing remotely close to bermuda rye or kentucky bluegrass i wouldn't dare cut this at one inch tall i just wouldn't dare even attempt it but anywhere between the two and a half to four to four and a quarter four and a half inch height of cut that's going to be great for turf type tall fescue and obviously if you're living in a climate that is a little bit warmer a little hotter like we are the taller the better simply because it helps the turf to thicken up and become dense and it will help the ground to retain moisture and the way it does that is it shades the ground so when you do get rain and it penetrates down in the soil profile it's actually going to retain that moisture better because it's shaded well so i hope this has helped you understand a little bit about the differences in how to cut as far as fescue bluegrass rye and bermuda go i'm sure a lot of you already know this but got a lot of new folks that are kind of undecided which way they want to go with grass and grass seed and what kind of yard you want and all that kind of thing so i figured this would be a good timely video just to help you understand a little bit more about how the height of cut goes along with the turf type that you have say if you like this kind of stuff be sure and subscribe to my channel that's what we do here and show turf and how to mow it and grow it and water it and have fun on it and all that kind of thing say as always i appreciate you taking time out of your day to watch i'll check you later

Channel: GCI Turf

Views: 40,063

Keywords: Different Mowing Heights For Different Grasses For Different Grasses, Different Mowing Heights For Different Grasses, Different Mowing Heights for grass, mowing height, grass mowing height, lawn care tips, lawn care, lawn mowing, mow grass, proper mowing height, gci turf, how tall to cut grass, how high to cut grass, lawn mower, lawn mowing tips, diy lawn care, mowing tall, reel mowing, how tall to mow grass, Lawn cutting height

Id: 432AVBoliD4

Length: 9min 36sec (576 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 26 2021