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Just wanted to know what height you guys recommend cutting at?
Thanks, Kevin

Kevin O. said:

Just wanted to know what height you guys recommend cutting at?
Thanks, Kevin

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Depends on what type of grass your cutting.

Duh... Probably should have added that. I'm up in the northeast so it's all cool season grass mostly Kentucky bluegrass.

Kevin O. said:

Duh... Probably should have added that. I'm up in the northeast so it's all cool season grass mostly Kentucky bluegrass.

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Kentucky blue grass needs to be cut often and should be cut at around two and a half inches (2 1/2") Give it about an inch then cut it back to 2 1/2 again and water it often.

I'm in Connecticut too and my cutting heights on my customers lawns range from 2.5 to 4 inches depending on the lawn and the time of year. 3 inches is about right for most lawns here increasing to 3.5 to 4 inches in mid summer to keep them from burning out.

I cut my lawn at 3.5 last year (kbg,fescue,rye). It seemed to be too long as the grass had a tendency to lay over. This year I am going to cut at 3 inches.

Depends on your mower and deck size, too...
Generally speaking the larger the deck the higher you should cut but some mowers allow higher settings than others.

My mowers are set to the highest each will go, not all mowers can go as high.
I cut at 4" with my 21" Honda and 48" Toros, and 5.75" with the 60" Ztr's.

You will usually have to get into some pretty wide decks before getting much past that 4" setting, although there may be a few smaller decks that allow it.

I'm in zone 8 where it's mostly fescue, some zoysia and some bermuda.
Oh and we have crap grass as well, plenty of it too.

Kevin O. said:

Duh... Probably should have added that. I'm up in the northeast so it's all cool season grass mostly Kentucky bluegrass.

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In Connecticut (like me), bluegrass should be cut to 2.5" to 3.5" with the lower limit not recommended for mid-June through August. Keep in mind you shouldn't cut more than 1/3 of the height in a mowing. Thus, if you want to maintain a 3" lawn, you can let it grow to 4" which is great for root development. Also, some bluegrass varieties are resistant to rapid decomposition. That means you may want to pick up at least 1/2 your clippings to avoid a build-up.

Grass Type

Ric, I sense you know your stuff and take it your heights have been confirmed but the bluegrass (and other grass) height seem low to me - particularly allowing for summer mowing. The ranges appear to be mnimums. Here's information provided by Purdue U.:


https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FrjUOySoxXVinhTcw&sig2=KAOIx4MPDWOq1pa0mXnyWg

TonyPrin said:

Ric, I sense you know your stuff and take it your heights have been confirmed but the bluegrass (and other grass) height seem low to me - particularly allowing for summer mowing. The ranges appear to be mnimums. Here's information provided by Purdue U.:


https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FrjUOySoxXVinhTcw&sig2=KAOIx4MPDWOq1pa0mXnyWg

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Most of these charts are of recommended optimum cutting heights and depending on location and time of year cutting heights can vary greatly. Use the charts as a starting point and adjust for your location and conditions. If I used the cutting heights from those Purdue or those other places like that or from the postings here on this and other forums I'd probably be out of business in a short period of time.
Cutting grass is basically common sense, I mean really grass that's cut too short is more susceptible to weed invasion, drought and heat damage etc. Let your grass grow too long between cuttings and you run a good risk of creating a habitat for insects like mosquitoes, mole crickets, chinch bugs and critters like voles, mice and snakes etc.

sidemouse said:

Depends on your mower and deck size, too...
Generally speaking the larger the deck the higher you should cut but some mowers allow higher settings than others.

My mowers are set to the highest each will go, not all mowers can go as high.
I cut at 4" with my 21" Honda and 48" Toros, and 5.75" with the 60" Ztr's.

You will usually have to get into some pretty wide decks before getting much past that 4" setting, although there may be a few smaller decks that allow it.

I'm in zone 8 where it's mostly fescue, some zoysia and some bermuda.
Oh and we have crap grass as well, plenty of it too.

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I don't know where you get your information from but I disagree with your post as it doesn't really make much sense to me. Most of your cheaper residential mower heights settings will range from or have a height adjustment from 1.5 in. - 3.75 in. Honda and Toro will top out at 4" but will carry a little heavier price tag. You can also buy residential ZTR mowers with 60" decks that only will cut a height of 4" and some cut at 5" depending again on how much money you want to spend.

If you want to get into the 5" cutting range you'll basically have to go to the Commercial end mowers and you don't have to buy a large deck to get past the 4" settings. I have a 30" push a 36"stander and a 48" ztr that all cut at the 5" settings although I rarely cut much higher than 3.75 to 4" on most lawns.

My Toro SS TimeCutter can cut 4-1/2" (& that is measured @ front blade tip to flat floor with operator on board).

The size of grass depends on the season. The typical range for cool-season grasses falls between 1 and 4 inches high.

We've had some rain recently with more on the way forecast for the next several days in a row I had to cut this morning, in the window, no way around it. It was getting long (KBG, zone 4) and while it looks real good at 3" (as high as mower will adjust) the grass was starting seedheads in some areas. I noticed 3" is too high to reliably cut off all the seedheads as a practical matter. I could have tried 2-5/8" but the grass was still a little wet though the mower performed like a champ. This time of year it will need mowing again by this afternoon, or tomorrow

If I cut an average of 500 yards a year, by that math I've mowed roughly 8 thousand lawns in the past 16 years...
To put things in perspective, if a homeowner mows their own lawn 20 times a year (which is quite a lot by most standards) for the next 50 years, they'd have cut 1 thousand lawns.
I could actually add it up one by one, I have all records going back to day one but 500 a year is a good average figure, with 40-50 lots I'm pretty sure I cut most 10-16 times a season.

And the one thing I have learned in all the years, is you can take all of the charts and knowledge and everything ever said and printed...
You can take all that and do what ever you want with it, because the higher I cut, the better it looks in the long run.
Every single time, doesn't seem to matter what kind of grass, we are talking residential non-sports field / non-commercial turf.
Today if I could cut higher I would but my mowers are all maxed out height wise.

And the hotter it gets outside, the more obvious this becomes.
If your grass burns every year it's because you're cutting either too short, too often, or both.

Sharp blades are an absolute requirement.

sidemouse said:

And the one thing I have learned in all the years, is you can take all of the charts and knowledge and everything ever said and printed...
You can take all that and do what ever you want with it, because the higher I cut, the better it looks in the long run.
Every single time, doesn't seem to matter what kind of grass, we are talking residential non-sports field / non-commercial turf.
Today if I could cut higher I would but my mowers are all maxed out height wise.

And the hotter it gets outside, the more obvious this becomes.
If your grass burns every year it's because you're cutting either too short, too often, or both.

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Makes sense to me. Perhaps the question should be why have an upper limit to mowing height? I understand the minimum and why the minimum would change based on location and season but where does the maximum come from? I mean, my lawn is a blend like many others which means some grasses are over the maximum, anyway unless I cut too short.

Part of that is just convention I bet. My Gramps for example had a push reel mower and a tiny lot back in the day over on 3rd street, just like everybody else. Can't let the grass grow very long, or it ain't happenin'!

I think what happens a lot of times today, the average busy homeowner, lawn care with many isn't a hobby at all but mostly, an unwelcome chore. It can be put off for a while (Gramps couldn't, but with a gas mower it can) but only to a point.

So it oftentimes gets cut short almost to the point of scalping, in the mistaken belief of decreasing the frequency or need to mow. Then it gets put off again for a while for whatever reason and maybe the next time instead of the recommended "no more than 1/3rd of the grass blade removed at any one time" it's 3/4 or 7/8 and the lawn goes into shock (again), roots dieback, weeds start to move in etc. Then summertime arrives, and the ground is baked. Heavy traffic, kids, pets, etc.

Maintenance or performance of the mower (dull, bent, unbalanced blades.. ) is a factor too, some mowers won't cut high thick or wet grass well. So the routine is keep it scalped, and that's "good enough."

Grass goes to seed at a certain height though, looks pretty furry, or will start to lay down. Alternating mowing directions encourages the grass to grow more upright, it's not just for the purty stripes. All I can say is it's a lot easier to maintain a nice healthy lawn than it is to restore a neglected one.

It may very well be convention, but when I see information like this (which I find regularly), one would think there's some botanical rationale for the limitss.

Grass Type

Mowing Height
Bahia grass
2” – 3”
Bentgrass
¼” – ¾”
Bermuda
½” – 1½”
Buffalograss
2” – 3”
Centipede
1½” – 2½”
Fine fescue
1½” – 2½”
Kentucky Bluegrass
1½” – 2½”
Ryegrass
1½” – 2½”
St. Augustine
2” – 4”
Tall fescue
2” – 3”
Zoysia
½” – 1½”

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Those numbers are probably for turf that is intensively managed, as in Golf courses, they need a range of heights for the fairway, rough, greens, etc. Heavy fertilization and irrigation, the only way they can get away with the lower heights though.

Depends on what type of the grass is and what height is suitable for it.

I have mostly Bahia grass here in SW Florida and have my Honda set at about 3". I'm thinking of raising it to 4" but since I just got here I'm playing it by ear for a while to see how it does.