last mow, low or high?

[workinallthetime]

i live in oklahoma and the 10 acres is mostly bermuda. Dad says leave it long, i say mow it normal which is pretty low.

any thoughts with the reasons to back it up?

 

[EagleTDL]

i live in oklahoma and the 10 acres is mostly bermuda. Dad says leave it long, i say mow it normal which is pretty low.

any thoughts with the reasons to back it up?

I'd go with Pop's suggestion... For various reasons, no one more important than any other.

1) "The longer the grass, the longer the root". This allows the grass to survive drier conditions. (This old rule of thumb really doesn't apply to bermuda, especially if it is in "field" conditions. It tends to "run" rather than "stand up" like your fescues. If you have bermuda in the lawn and it gets plenty of water and grows "up" instead of "out", then the above saying is applicable.)

2) If you let your grass grow higher, it will help keep out the weeds. Not only does it choke the weeds out, but it also keeps the stray weed seeds from being able to germinate by blocking them from the sun.

3) Longer will help it survive any compaction over the non-growing season (paths, walkways, etc). Those areas will brown-up quicker, but they will come back in the spring.

Nickel's worth...

 

[1955jd]

i mow mine the same all year, kind of on the med/low side...never seems to hurt a thing

 

[JCByrd24]

I've read last mow should be short, though I'm not disagreeing with Eagle, for the reasons mentioned I mow pretty long all year. But I've found over the years if I leave it too long in the fall it becomes a matted mess under the snow and doesn't come back as quick in the spring.

 

[EagleTDL]

But I've found over the years if I leave it too long in the fall it becomes a matted mess under the snow and doesn't come back as quick in the spring.

JC, you're correct... If you leave it long it will get matted under snow/heavy rains. But that "mat" will keep the weed seeds out and that's what, personally, I'm looking for.

I almost put in here what I do in the spring, but didn't... Guess I should have since you brought up the matting problem. Once it warms up a bit in the spring I'll scalp the grass about .5" above where I could really go with the mower deck. Generally have to mow it twice to get the clippings down to a small enough size where they will decompose. That will get all the frost-burnt tips off the grass stem and also put down a good layer of mulch to keep the weed seed out. Any areas that are still matted (not stood up by the suction of the blades as I go over it) I'll hand rake to get it to stand up. Cut that down too and then sit back and wait for it to green up.

That's also a good time to aerate (spike or plug, your choice), lime and over-seed after the aeration, if required. Again, an opinion, but I believe aeration and using a mulch kit on your mower deck are about the best things you can do for your lawn from a homeowner's perspective.

 

[Red Horse]

My two cents. Not sure if applicable to Oklahoma conditions, but I always mow "long" but for the last mow of the season I drop it down. I've always been of the school that leaving it long in the fall leaves you with a matted mess in the spring. As it is, keeping it short I still have a lot of "thatch" to pull up in the spring.

I never heard the theory that leaving it long-and matted keeps out the weed seeds. One other benefit to "short in the fall" is when the wind blows, the leaves keep moving!

 

[blueriver]

i live in oklahoma and the 10 acres is mostly bermuda. Dad says leave it long, i say mow it normal which is pretty low.

any thoughts with the reasons to back it up?

I would think cutting or grazing short is kinda the same ... the following is pasted from the Noble Foundation ...

The shorter that grasses are grazed, the shallower the root systems become. This inhibits the plants' ability to obtain water that is deeper in the soil profile. It also reduces their ability to act as a water filter when it does rain. Without this filtering effect, rainfall washes sediments (soil) into our ponds, lakes, rivers and streams. Finally, adequate stubble height on grasses can affect the microclimate underneath the forage canopy. The stubble helps insulate the plants from the extreme heat that lack of moisture creates.

Myself I try to go into winter with a 3-4 inches. Also we are at the end of our growing season and anything cut now (real low) will not have a chance to get
any growth before winter.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

The Noble Foundation is a tremendous resource for pasture management information. There are a lot of "wives' tales" out there that have no verification from a scientific standpoint.

 

[EagleTDL]

I never heard the theory that leaving it long-and matted keeps out the weed seeds. One other benefit to "short in the fall" is when the wind blows, the leaves keep moving!

I hear ya about keeping the leaves moving, can't disagree with that! But, there is some goodness to those leaves if you make use of them... Granted, leaving a thick layer of leaves on your lawn over the winter isn't a good thing, it leads to rot and fungus problems and nobody wants that.

My personal choice is to let the leaves fall and then on a good dry day, mulch them into the yard. Set the deck about a .5" higher than the grass and run over them a couple of times to reduce them to small particles. Lots of nutrients in them and I'm all about turning that back into the soil for next year's growth. It's free fertilizer! :thumbsup:

Granted, Wikipedia ain't the end all, be all. But, there's a lot of good iinfo in there. Take a look at this link, especially the last sentence in the "Water" sub-section:

"After the seedling emerges from the seed coat and starts growing roots and leaves, the seedling's food reserves are typically exhausted; at this point photosynthesis provides the energy needed for continued growth and the seedling now requires a continuous supply of water, nutrients, and light."

If the weed seed germinates on the matted grass, it can't get any nutrients from the soil because it's not touching the soil. It will eventually die off...

I would think cutting or grazing short is kinda the same ... the following is pasted from the Noble Foundation ...

This goes with what I was saying about leaving it long. I cut my field grass at 3.5 on my Toro, and 4.0 for my bermuda in the civilized portion of the lawn. What you said just backs up what I was saying up post...

 

[Western]

I think it will also depend on what your grass is used for, I.E. grazing or just an ornamental lawn.

In my hay fields ( Giant Bermuda) I would let go through winter cut about 6" tall, so in the spring, I could burn it off with the first growth of weeds, usually sometime in March.

In my yard I try to leave it around 3" for the last cutting (Hybrid lawn type Bermuda). I want something there all winter that wont become a mud pit. If I gets matted I'll deal with that in Spring. !st spring cutting , usually just before growth, I mow to 1" (mulch) to rid the lawn of the "stiff" stubble.