October Mowing

 

The following article was published by the University of Nebraska and provides tips about maintaining your lawn this fall and preparing it for winter. I thought it could help you all as our growing season comes to an end.

Many people ask how long to continue mowing into the fall. The answer is to keep mowing as long as the grass continues to grow, which is normally into late October or early November. Frequency of mowing can decrease, but continue to mow regularly into the fall. Avoid the urge to set the mower down and scalp your lawn for the final mowing. In years past, publications have recommended mowing low late in the fall. About the only advantage to this is that the tree leaves will blow from your lawn into the neighbor's lawn. Agronomically, mowing your lawn low in the last mowing should be avoided because photosynthesis is occurring deep into the fall, well beyond your last mowing. The higher the photosynthesis, the more energy a grass plant will store for winter and next spring, and the healthier the will be next year. Mowing off too much leaf area reduces photosynthetic capacity of a plant, reducing energy storage, and decreasing turf performance next summer. Regular mowing into the fall is also helpful to mulch tree leaves into the lawn, which research has shown to be beneficial
(http://turf.unl.edu/pdfctarticles/Octmulchtreeleaves.pdf). Continue mowing at your regular height until the grass stops growing in the late fall, since unmowed tall grass can encourage snow mold in rare years.

Zac Reicher, Professor, Turfgrass Science, zreicher2@unl.edu