How Low Can I Mow Tall Fescue? | Best Mowing Height

[Music] our first one is going to come from Nashville Tennessee hey Alan this is chase from Nashville Tennessee have tall fescue lawn want to say thank you first for everything you do but listen hardcore last month or so two questions are about mowing height and weed control so mowing height have been to about 4 inches twice a week hardcore just like you've been saying pushing pushing tall pushing tall pushing tall more mo more mo to get that growth pushing out some weed some are still staying but is it ok for me to drop the Thorian happens you set up for everybody I've talked to that's hardcore and then like 4 inches 4 inches 4 inches pushed halls house you can but I know it's more manicured 3 and a half when I've done that in the past so can you tell me if I'm gonna say anything hurting anything with that so three and a half four inches I don't know which one tastes great questions these are these are solid because these are gonna help a lot of people and that comes back to the mowing height now what you guys know is that I i will tend to hammer on something and i'll hammer on it so hard and you will think that that is the only choice that you have and sometimes i have certain things that I say are certain ways that I convey things because I realize I'm talking to a very broad audience and so if I give any kind of variance in certain things people they can they'll go to the extremes and it could cause issues if they're not ready for it and this is one of those things you'll hear us always say mo you're tall fescue at 4 inches Jack your mower blade all the way to the top and that's it set it and forget it if anybody remembers old Ron Popeil and for most of you that is true because most of you are not going to get super nutty and mow the lawn twice a week even though I tell you to do it that's another one of those things I'm encouraging you to mow the lawn twice a week because I know it's super helpful to the lawn for sure gonna stimulate more rooting more rhizomes all that kind of stuff I know that's helpful but I also know that a lot of you guys struggle with even mowing the lawn once a week and some of you would go really really Alan people can't even mow once a week well guys people get busy man people with three four kids and they work both working parents and on the weekends everybody's at baseball and soccer and everything else and dance recitals and all of these different things it's hard to find time to mow the grass and for sure especially if you're somebody that gets days off you have shift work oh it can be crazy and yes it's tough for people to even be able to mow once a week a lot of people especially during different times of the year like spring sports that really start to kick up so what I do is this I go to extreme and tell you to mow twice a week mow twice a week mow twice a week if you want to have the best results mode twice a week and I want you to go to that extreme I want you to aim for that perfection but I know that you're gonna fall a little bit short of that that's how the mowing works so if I if I hammer you for perfection of twice a week my hope is that you'll fall short at once a week rather than once every 12 days which is very common and that's how this works I want to push you just a jacket all the way to the top because believe it or not guys so many people will not do that and they will not pay attention to the way the lawn looks and they'll cause problems the reason we jacket all the way to top is that is the very safest way to protect your lawn especially in the heat of summer a lot of you guys that have turf type tall fescue are in Nashville Tennessee you get some hot summers in Tennessee I had turf type tall fescue up in Indiana our summers are not near as hot as Nashville Tennessee not even close we have a couple humid days I remember it would get over 90 and Northwest Indiana maybe three days a year maybe and people I mean they had news flashes telling people go check on your relatives and all kinds of stuff you know down here it's 90 in this garage right now and we're just on make you know first second here so that's the whole fourth four inches thing here chase so here's some advantages though because you are mowing twice a week so what that tells me is you're on it bro you're watching it you're into it you're able to schedule that time out so you have the flexibility now because you're out there and you're watching the lawn this is the other thing that moment twice a week does is it allows you to be more observant of your grass it forces you to be that way because you have to concentrate when you Mon I can zone out like the best of them but you definitely will notice when things don't look right in the lawn when you're mowing and so if you're mowing twice a week you're more observant and that's good because now I'm gonna say yeah go ahead and take that puppy down and in fact I would say that you might want to experiment in the neighborhood of three inches don't go lower than that with turf type tall fescue now if Conor Ward he doesn't listen to this podcast but if he did he would tell you to mow it at a half an inch in real moyen I I'm yet to find the girl in the community that's going to take their turf type tall fescue real low if somebody's done that please make sure you ping me cuz I think that'd be super cool there's a guy that that real mows his Saint Augustine in our group and he goes pretty low with that it's a little bit scary sometimes but I don't want you to take your turf type tall fescue chase any lower than that three inch mark but you ought to test it because you're out there man you're watching it and if you notice that on the hottest days some areas start to fade some areas start to go that dark gray tan color that tall fescue will when it gets under heat stress then you know all right let's go back up to three and a quarter three and a half and mow it out from there and see what happens you might have to adjust your irrigation a little bit now I will tell you that when you do see those spots I don't want you to immediately rush to them and shove a bottle in their mouth and get that baby fat no let them lean out a little bit do a little tough love on those spots don't let them go too bad but let them lean out just a little bit let that grass realize whoa whoa we we might be coming into a little bit of a situation here for the summer so let's start to conserve a little bit let's not push so hard your growth will slow down naturally and then once you feel like hey I got to give them some water now then go ahead give them that water give them that relief but keep watching I bet you could do three point five most of the summer if your irrigation is good and I want you to try it now there's an advantage to this and the advantage to mowing turf type tall fescue or any other grass type but it's specially turf type tall fescue when we recommend you mow it at four there's an advantage to mowing at three three and a quarter or three and a half and that is you have fudge factor built in now when you're mowing at the top setting on your mower you're done you you don't have room for error at that point if you do forget to mow not to forget because no one forgets if you're not able to get to your mow because you're busy with family or the kids or you're on vacation or something comes up or combinations of all of that if you're not able to get to your mow save for 10 days or 12 days and you've been mowing on the top setting now you have no relief anywhere you're basically gonna scalp the heck out of the grass because you're already at the highest setting you have no choice you have no recourse you have no option so in that case what you have to do is just get out there gut it out you know live through that pain with your lawn you probably double or triple cut if it's and up and done but chase if you're mowing at 3:00 now chase you're a more extreme you're not gonna ever miss 10 days but you chase you might miss 7 when you've been mowing every - and if you're pushing hard like I tell you to do you guys in the spring here if you're pushing hard with nitrogen and the lawn is really growing and chase let's say you miss your second your second mow and so instead of mowing every three days you have to mow it at a 7 day mark or hmm god forbid an 8 day mark chase but you've been down at 3 you got a lot of relief in there right first thing is it's hopefully not grown too much past the 4 inch which is your top mark but if it has okay then what you'll do and this is how you cut an overgrown lawn when you do have the option is its overgrown you do raise it to the top setting and you cut it at 4 and you let it sit for one day and then you come back the next day and you take it down one notch and you mow it and then you let it sit for a day and then you come back the next day and you take it down a notch and you bring it down slowly now you may not be able to do it every day like that it'd be fun if you could but maybe you do it over every two to three days but you bring the cut back down slowly back to your 3-inch because you gave yourself some leeway you gave yourself some slack in the line so chase I'm gonna say yeah man you're on it bro I say you're good to go and I would see if you can get down real low but not lower than three inches and that's re al not AR ee l Conor Ward [Music]

Channel: Lawns Across America

Views: 22,290

Keywords: lawn care nut, lawn care nut podcast, allyn hane podcast, lawn care tips, lawn care questions, DIY lawn care, the lawn care nut, how low can i mow tall fescue, best mowing height, mowing height, what mowing height should i use, can tall fescue be cut low, mowing height for tall fescue, mowing height for kentucky bluegrass, mowing height for rye grass, proper height of cut, best height of cut for the lawn, is mowing height important

Id: pWDnx1PRSQ0

Length: 8min 9sec (489 seconds)

Published: Tue May 07 2019