SolveYourProblem
Lawn Care Article Series
Practical
Tips For The Perfect Lawn
Cutting
Your Lawn Short Can Cause Problems
Cutting your lawn, and understanding the science
behind when and how to cut your grass is one of the important
parts to maintenance for your lawn. Cutting at the
right time and knowing the right length to cut can help with several things
in your lawn, while not doing this can cause more problems
and maintenance than was expected.
It is said that you should allow the grass to stay at an average
of two to two and a half inches. When you mow, you should only
remove the top third of the blade. When your grass is a little
over three inches high to three and a half inches at most,
is the best time to mow your grass. You can either estimate
these heights, or you can set your lawn mower to be able to
cut this much. There are special made lawnmowers that will
help to determine the length in which you should cut your grass
with.
The measurements that have been made for cutting grass have
been averaged out for several reasons. The main purpose of
this is that allowing this much length in your grass allows
nutrients to continue to move through each blade. When the
blades of grass are growing, they take a certain amount of
soil, water and sun in order to grow properly. When you cut
the tips of this off, they have to adjust how much of the nutrients
they should continue to get. If this change is too drastic,
it will cause problems with the grass.
This moves into the second reason as why you should not cut
the blades of grass too short. Because of the change in size
and nutrients, cutting blades too short will stress
out the plants. This is because they have to adjust to the different
length. The second type of stress that they receive from the
shorter blades is if the weather is hotter, the blades will
not have enough protection provided from the length that they
once had. Too much of a difference in blade length can then
cause problems by either causing brown patches, wilting, or
grass burn.
A third reason why it is always good to only cut this much
off, and consistently, is because each time you cut your grass,
it grows back thicker and faster. If you only cut the grass
by a third, it will continue to be able to receive the same
amount of nutrients and sun. By doing this, it will be able
to grow back at a faster pace, turning even more green and
filling out space more than it did before.
On the maintenance side, you won’t have to remove as many
grass clippings when you don’t cut as much off. It is known
to be healthy to leave some of the grass clippings that you
have cut on the grass, as this provides more nutrients as well
as protection to the growth of the other grass blades. With
this in mind, if you leave too many grass clippings, it will
take away the sunlight and water that the plants are supposed
to be receiving.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the grass
should not be mowed when the grass is wet. This causes a spreading of
diseases, as the dampness that is on the blades of grass can
not be evaporated, and eventually begins to mold or turn into
a disease. Mowing with wet grass may also cause you to slip
and injure yourself. The best time to mow a lawn is in the
early evening. This will prevent the grass from getting stressed.
The sun in the afternoon usually stresses out the grass and
the mowing in the afternoon will only add to this.
Grass should always remain at a length between two and three
inches. When it begins to move past three inches is the best
time to mow the grass. Beyond this, you should never take off
more than one third of the blade. If grass is not mowed at
the right height, it can cause problems with stress, nutrients,
and diseases spreading throughout your lawn. By cutting your
grass at the right height, and mowing when it is about three
inches tall, you will not only keep your lawn healthy, but
you will also provide a better looking, greener lawn.
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SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
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