Raptor SD cut quality - any recommendations?

[1striper1]

Gee seems like I just kinda said or posted the same thing in my last post, as far as cutting height goes you can cut KBG down to as low as 1.5 inches if you want during the cool times of the year where you are and increase your height during the summer months when it's hot to 3 inches for your location unless it gets extremely hot then maybe as much as 4 inches.

Ric,

Have you ever actually been "up north" and cut (more than 5X) a lush KBG lawn? You say you're from Florida.....I'm just asking if you have. I myself have never cut a warm season grass, but have spent enough time "down south" to say that any grass I have walked on, laid down on, played golf on, or "anything" on has never had the texture of a lush, fine blade KBG lawn.

Maybe I haven't been in the right places....I dunno!

I read your post about cutting heights to mean that one could KEEP a KBG lawn at 1.5". My bad and I'm sorry. :ashamed:

 

[Ric]

Ric,

Have you ever actually been "up north" and cut (more than 5X) a lush KBG lawn? You say you're from Florida.....I'm just asking if you have. I myself have never cut a warm season grass, but have spent enough time "down south" to say that any grass I have walked on, laid down on, played golf on, or "anything" on has never had the texture of a lush, fine blade KBG lawn.

Maybe I haven't been in the right places....I dunno!

I read your post about cutting heights to mean that one could KEEP a KBG lawn at 1.5". My bad and I'm sorry. :ashamed:

:laughing: Yes I been up north, lived up north and I've cut grass up north and I was so impressed with up north I couldn't wait to leave and I never looked or went back. I mean really you can cut KBG at any length you want to get the look you want.
KBG grass is best cut and probably at its healthiest if maintained at 1 1/2 to 2 1/4 inches to maintain a manicured appearance, thicken the base, and help keep the most moisture in the grass during times of drought conditions. If he cut the lawn at that height his deck would handle the load without clumping and leaving a bunch of clipping all over it especially if he never took off more than a third of the total height.

 

[1striper1]

:laughing: Yes I been up north, lived up north and I've cut grass up north and I was so impressed with up north I couldn't wait to leave and I never looked or went back. I mean really you can cut KBG at any length you want to get the look you want.
KBG grass is best cut and probably at its healthiest if maintained at 1 1/2 to 2 1/4 inches to maintain a manicured appearance, thicken the base, and help keep the most moisture in the grass during times of drought conditions. If he cut the lawn at that height his deck would handle the load without clumping and leaving a bunch of clipping all over it especially if he never took off more than a third of the total height.

OK...all I wanted was an answer. Personally I would never want to live in FL. You can have the hurricanes, bugs the size of my hand, ants and all the other issues of living down there.

KBG is healthiest at 1.5 to 2.25? Wow.....I won't touch that one.

Run up that post count Ric! :laughing:

 

[Ric]

OK...all I wanted was an answer. Personally I would never want to live in FL. You can have the hurricanes, bugs the size of my hand, ants and all the other issues of living down there.

KBG is healthiest at 1.5 to 2.25? Wow.....I won't touch that one.

Run up that post count Ric! :laughing:

Yeah you mow the stuff when it gets up to like 3 or maybe 3.5 inches in height and you bring it down to 1.5 or 2.25 inches in height depending on what you want. Yeah we have Hurricanes but I think bugs the size of your hand is a little exaggeration, never seen anything that big not even palmetto bugs are that big and like you don't have ants up north and what other issues are there that I'm not aware of :laughing: Yeah you run your heat three quarters of the year and we rub AC
Thing is we've haven't had a Hurricane of any consequence in I don't know how long and as often as they do happen I''l take the Tropical depression anytime to setting in a snow bank and shoveling snow for three quarters of the year.


[h=3]Detailed Mowing Schedule For Kentucky Bluegrass[/h]

March 20 to April 10	Clean lawn of debris (i.e. rocks, sticks, etc.). Mow lawn as short as possible and remove clipping debris.
April 10 to June 15	Mow lawn at 2.0 inches. Mowing frequency should be dictated by growth rate, never removing more than one-third the mowing height at any mowing.
June 15 to Aug. 30	Raise mowing height to 2.5 inches.
Sept. 1 to Oct. 15	Lower mowing height to 2.0 inches.
Oct. 15 to Nov. 15 (or last mowing)	Lower mowing height to 1.5 - 1.75 inches.
Alternative and Preferred Mowing Schedule:
March 29 to last mowing	Maintain 2.5 - 3.5 inch mowing height throughout season to promote rooting and stress tolerance.

 

[1striper1]

Yeah you mow the stuff when it gets up to like 3 or maybe 3.5 inches in height and you bring it down to 1.5 or 2.25 inches in height depending on what you want. Yeah we have Hurricanes but I think bugs the size of your hand is a little exaggeration, never seen anything that big not even palmetto bugs are that big and like you don't have ants up north and what other issues are there that I'm not aware of :laughing: Yeah you run your heat three quarters of the year and we rub AC
Thing is we've haven't had a Hurricane of any consequence in I don't know how long and as often as they do happen I''l take the Tropical depression anytime to setting in a snow bank and shoveling snow for three quarters of the year.


[h=3]Detailed Mowing Schedule For Kentucky Bluegrass[/h]

March 20 to April 10	Clean lawn of debris (i.e. rocks, sticks, etc.). Mow lawn as short as possible and remove clipping debris.
April 10 to June 15	Mow lawn at 2.0 inches. Mowing frequency should be dictated by growth rate, never removing more than one-third the mowing height at any mowing.
June 15 to Aug. 30	Raise mowing height to 2.5 inches.
Sept. 1 to Oct. 15	Lower mowing height to 2.0 inches.
Oct. 15 to Nov. 15 (or last mowing)	Lower mowing height to 1.5 - 1.75 inches.
Alternative and Preferred Mowing Schedule:
March 29 to last mowing	Maintain 2.5 - 3.5 inch mowing height throughout season to promote rooting and stress tolerance.

Where did you get those specs from? Up here above the arctic circle (that's where most folks think I live) if you mow KBG at 1.5-2.0 in summer you're battling weeds and crab grass all season as well as the grass going dormant (yellow) due to stress.

But I digress.....you do it your way...I'll do it my way.

What was this thread about?

 

[Ric]

Where did you get those specs from? Up here above the arctic circle (that's where most folks think I live) if you mow KBG at 1.5-2.0 in summer you're battling weeds and crab grass all season as well as the grass going dormant (yellow) due to stress.

But I digress.....you do it your way...I'll do it my way.

What was this thread about?

NW Wisconsin isn't exactly above the arctic circle:smile:I'm not asking you to agree or disagree. Two different sites tell me basically the same thingFirst Site says:
Mowing: Older bluegrass varieties were mown at 2-3 inches for a good looking lawn. With the emergence of newer, improved varieties many bluegrass lawns can now be mown shorter than 2 inches. Mowing maintenance requires that you should never remove over a third of the growth at the time. Consistent, not constant mowing will help keep the density of the lawn thick and lush and helps to keep out insects and disease. Over mowing can lead to problems in dehydration of the sod base and invitation to insects with thinning of the grass material.

Heres what another site says:
Management. Begin mowing young grass when it grows above a 2-inch cutting height. Either rotary or reel type mowers may be used but blades must be sharp and reels properly adjusted to prevent pulling up young seedlings. The initial cutting should be at a 2-inch height. Subsequent mowings should be frequent enough so that no more than one-third of the leaf is removed at each mowing. At a 2-inch mowing height the grass needs mowing before it reaches 3 inches. Weekly mowing is usually satisfactory at the 2-inch mowing height. At lower mowing heights more frequent mowing is required. Some of the improved bluegrass varieties such as Fylking, Ram I and Touchdown tolerate mowing heights below 1 inch. However, weaker stands of Kentucky bluegrass result when mowing height is below 1 inch. Also, at mowing heights below 1 inch annual bluegrass and crabgrass invade a bluegrass turf. At mowing heights above 1° inches weeds are much less of a problem.
Compared to the warm season grasses, Kentucky bluegrass has a high water requirement. As much as 2 inches of water per week are needed to keep bluegrass green and growing during summer months in the transition zone. Ideally this amount of water would be applied in one day to wet the entire rootzone of the turf. However, the effective rootzone is often too shallow to hold that amount of water. No less than ° inch of water should be applied on any single day to promote deeper rooting of the bluegrass turf.

 

[1striper1]

NW Wisconsin isn't exactly above the arctic circle:smile: Mowing: Older bluegrass varieties were mown at 2-3 inches for a good looking lawn. With the emergence of newer, improved varieties many bluegrass lawns can now be mown shorter than 2 inches. Mowing maintenance requires that you should never remove over a third of the growth at the time. Consistent, not constant mowing will help keep the density of the lawn thick and lush and helps to keep out insects and disease. Over mowing can lead to problems in dehydration of the sod base and invitation to insects with thinning of the grass material.

Well lotsa people think we are! LOL!!! Yes I'm aware of the older vs. newer varieties of KBG but while I'm not inthe biz, I have yet to see KBG do well when consistently cut under 2". Sure, there are situations when it can. I speak about the 90% factor.

And yes to the not cutting more than 1/3rd of the blade off. Sometimes this is just not possible and one has to deal with the result of cutting 5" tall grass down to 3". It's usually not pretty.

 

[mooch91]

Jumping back in...

I will say that 3" is a definite inflection point for my lawn and mower. When I mow higher than 3" (which I had been doing, because I always thought longer is better), I was getting a lot of grass laying down and a lot of blades "missed". At 3", especially with the high-lift blades, the cut itself is extremely smooth and even (see the picture of the stripes I posted earlier). We've had a very dry spring here in PA, though, and I'm starting to see the effects in the lawn (dormancy, browning), so I don't think I'll drop the cutting height any time soon.

I don't intend to go much lower than 2.5-2.75", anyway, as I think there's enough uneven-ness in my lawn that I would end up scalping/chopping up some areas if I went shorter.

I can definitely understand the need to not go too low on mowing height, but I'm still trying to read and get an understanding about what benefits you get at different points in the height range. Seems like much of the advice is to mow as long as you can tolerate, as it will crowd out weeds, preserve moisture, etc. But I imagine there's a point where too long becomes bad for the turf quality as well? Most guidance is to not mow too low, but not much info on mowing too high.

Unless by mowing lower I can get the rate of top growth to slow, I don't see the mowing height having a dramatic impact on the issue I've been experiencing, which is the quantity of clippings when mowing once a week. If I'm growing at a rate of 2" per week, I would imagine I'd grow at that same rate whether I mow at 1" height or I mow at 3" height. The final height before I mow will be different, but I'm guessing I'll still be taking 2" off, so the volume of clippings to discharge will be the same.

 

[Ric]

Jumping back in...

I will say that 3" is a definite inflection point for my lawn and mower. When I mow higher than 3" (which I had been doing, because I always thought longer is better), I was getting a lot of grass laying down and a lot of blades "missed". At 3", especially with the high-lift blades, the cut itself is extremely smooth and even (see the picture of the stripes I posted earlier). We've had a very dry spring here in PA, though, and I'm starting to see the effects in the lawn (dormancy, browning), so I don't think I'll drop the cutting height any time soon.

I don't intend to go much lower than 2.5-2.75", anyway, as I think there's enough uneven-ness in my lawn that I would end up scalping/chopping up some areas if I went shorter.

I can definitely understand the need to not go too low on mowing height, but I'm still trying to read and get an understanding about what benefits you get at different points in the height range. Seems like much of the advice is to mow as long as you can tolerate, as it will crowd out weeds, preserve moisture, etc. But I imagine there's a point where too long becomes bad for the turf quality as well? Most guidance is to not mow too low, but not much info on mowing too high.

Unless by mowing lower I can get the rate of top growth to slow, I don't see the mowing height having a dramatic impact on the issue I've been experiencing, which is the quantity of clippings when mowing once a week. If I'm growing at a rate of 2" per week, I would imagine I'd grow at that same rate whether I mow at 1" height or I mow at 3" height. The final height before I mow will be different, but I'm guessing I'll still be taking 2" off, so the volume of clippings to discharge will be the same.

In some cases mowing shorter does slow the rate of growth and letting it grow long doesn't necessarily choke out weed growth. A lot depends on the type of grass your cutting. The use of high lift blades is about useless IMO unless your going to bag the grass because all they do is leave large clippings laying on top of the lawn which basically robs the grass that is left of important nutrients and water. If your going to try and maintain a height of 3 inches then you really need to cut the lawn before it gets to 4 inches if you don't want clippings left on the lawn other wise you'll probably end up with a mess like you had in the pictures again.

 

[PVHIII]

Some people are waaaaaaaaaaay to into their grass!!