The Scoop on Mowing Height and 3 Common Turf Diseases

Our most recent edition of The Scoop offers tips from our Landscape Professionals.

Welcome to this edition of The Scoop.  In this post we'll discuss proper mowing heights and 3 common diseases often found in residential lawns.

Proper Mowing Heights

There's no doubt about it - mowing your yard is a chore. If you are going to do it, you have to get the height of your lawn mower's blade right in order to have a successful lawn.

Forget the idea that the shorter you mow grass, the less often you'll have to cut it. Not cutting to the right height is one of the most common mistakes that homeowners make in their yards.  A yard that's cut too short is more prone to weed invasion and at greater risk for drought and heat damage.

On the other side of the coin, if your let your grass grow too long between mowing, you run the risk of creating an ideal habitat for insects and pests. Letting your grass get too long is also hard to mow, and the extra-long clippings create more work for you and your mower's engine.

It's worth the extra effort to mow your lawn frequently and keep it close to an ideal height. Even during the peak growing season of summer, you should only be mowing every five to seven days. Your frequency will depend on your type of grass and growing conditions, which vary during the growing season.

Warm-season turf grasses like St. Augustine, Bermuda, centipede and zoysia hit their peak growth during the heart of summer. Specific mowing heights vary by grass type and can even be different for different types of the same grass. For instance, mowing height for Empire zoysia is 0.75 to 3 inches, while Zenith zoysia thrives when cut to 1.5 inches, and even those ideal heights vary by region and growing conditions.

The general rule of thumb for mowing is never to remove more than one-third of total grass blade length at a single cutting.

The easiest way to accomplish this is to discover what your turf's ideal height should be and allow it to grow one third longer before mowing.

Follow the general guidelines in the chart below to make sure your grass is mowed at an ideal height. 

Diagnosing 3 Common Diseases in Your Lawn

Diseases are the exception for most lawns, not the rule. And all spots and patches of yellow and brown do not immediately indicate that there is a disease present in your lawn.

Turf grass diseases are caused by a very small number of fungi, while the vast majority of fungi that are already present in your lawn are very beneficial. That’s why correctly identifying the disease is essential. Once you know what the disease is, you can get to work controlling it.

Fairy Ring

This disease affects all warm season grasses and is generally controlled with chemical treatments. There are 3 types of Fairy Ring to look out for:

• Zone of dead grass inside a dark green zone (often weed infested)
• Dark band of green grass (sometime accompanied by mushrooms)
• Ring of mushrooms with no dark bands

Brown Patch

These rings of yellow or brown turf appear around areas of healthy green turf. They are generally triggered by excessive rainfall or overwatering, or in periods of high humidity. Brown patch can be tricky to diagnose, but once identified can be easily controlled with chemical applications.

Grey Leaf Spot

Grey Leaf Spot is most often seen from late Spring, through early Fall. It starts with pinhead-sized spots that appear olive green to brown in color. They enlarge to form circular to oblong spots with brown margins throughout the grass blades. Grey Leaf Spot can be controlled with an application of a specially formulated fungicide.

We hope that you've found this information helpful as we enter the heart of our summer season.  We'll be back next month with more tips from our Landscape Professionals, here at The Scoop.

Mower Image courtesy MightySnail via Flickr