Brown/straw color with mowing

malignancy · Sep 9, 2018

Hey guys, I did a basic search and came up empty, though I’m sure this has been discussed in the past.

My lawn turns the color of straw (I’ll try to include a picture) as soon as I mow and last for several days before greening up again.

I’m only taking off about 1/3 of the leaf. I’m mowing slowly, about half the speed I casually walk, and have freshly sharpened blades on a 1 year old Honda HRX model. I fertilize 4 times annually. It always looks like this after I mow.

Any suggestions are welcomed.

https://imgur.com/a/y3GSapD

Darryl G · Sep 10, 2018

I'm in a different climate in New England but where I am it's a clear sign of cutting too short. When it's really dry just the weight of the machine causes additional stress resulting in browning of the tire tracks too..

7394 · Sep 10, 2018

How short are ya cutting ? Neighbor has same issue, just when his grass starts looking good, he cuts it to 1.5" & it looks dead.

malignancy · Sep 13, 2018

7394 said:
How short are ya cutting ? Neighbor has same issue, just when his grass starts looking good, he cuts it to 1.5" & it looks dead.

Thanks for the replies, guys. Only cutting about 1/3 of the lead. I had been mowing about once every 6 days. I recently increased to once every 4 days. I’m taking off so little that It’s hard to tell that I even mowed. Still looks terrible. All my neighbors’ yards don’t exhibit the same browning that I am. I’m getting discouraged.

Darryl G · Sep 13, 2018

I think I would cut it 1/4 to half inch shorter once so that when you cut at your normal height you're not cutting down to the brown anymore. Living in CT I'm no expert on warm season grasses though. The only warm season grasses we have here are Zoysia and the dreaded crabgrass. Or just cut taller than you are.

Brown/straw color with mowing

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malignancy

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Darryl G

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7394

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malignancy

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Darryl G

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