Cutting grass in late fall

Nov 29, 2004 12 Replies

Hi there, I have laid my sod in mid-August here in Canada where winter usually starts around end October. My lawn has started to turn browinsh since a month ago, and I think it's pretty normal (Cold weather has started). Most of my neighbors' grass are almost the same as mine. But two of my neighbourss grass is still green. Theirs have some brownish patches, but not that much mine has. Do you have any idea why? First thing has come to my mind was that he might use different type of grass. But I think all the sod retailers use the same type of grass all over the city I am living. By the way, the two neighbors laid their so by end of September. Their grasses has not even reached to that height so they can cut it. Another question I have is about cutting my grass. My grass height is something close to 3 inches,and most of it s brown. Should I cut the grass so I can avoid the snow moles later on? Or just leave the grass as is? There is not snow yet, and Temperature ussually stays between 2 and -7 C.



thanks


Should I cut the

Sounds like you neighbours lawns that are still green are still under the effect of the fert from the sod farm... or perhaps they have fertilized the lawns themselves. Either way at this time of year in most of Canada your lawn should be brown and dormant... ready for the blast to come. You also don't want to fertilize a new lawn until it has rooted.

I would recommend giving it a final cut and I'm a fan of the really short last cut. It will help to deter the moles, but will also help prevent some fungal infections.

Peter H

btw. many homeowners get far too excited about the "green" of their lawn in my opinion. Getting it green is easy, keeping it healthy is quite another thing.

Soil temp or moisture content can change turf color at this point, so I wouldn't be concerned with that on new sod at this point.

You need to cut it as short as your deck allows without scalping, under

1 1/2" if practical. One caveat about that tho..don't cut it if it's not rooted enough to keep it from sucking up into the mower deck.

Try it in an inconspicuous area first. Good luck with your new lawn.

If you don't know he meant snow mold, buy a turfgrass book please.

A blanket of snow is actually a good insulator and moles (or other small rodents) will dig tunnels under the snow and in the grass. While generally not a big problem, I did lose a bush one year when they ate the branches during the winter.

I wouldn't bother to cut it, but if you haven't fertilized it, you might want to do that in the early spring.

Moles burrow under lawns in search of food such as earthworms and grubs, they're not called snow moles.

He'll have snow mold out the ying yang if he over-winters his lawn excessively long. Those blades will lay over and mat down, forming the perfect enviroment for fungus.

Steveo wrote:

Moles burrow under lawns in search of food such as earthworms and grubs, they're not called snow moles.

Steveo wrote: He'll have snow mold out the ying yang if he over-winters his lawn excessively long. Those blades will lay over and mat down, forming the perfect enviroment for fungus.

Thanks Steveo. Now that makes sense.

his lawn

forming the

What the ..... are GFR rocks? Is this a common problem in your area?

Bob :-)

On 12/7/2004 6:46 PM US(ET), Bob took fingers to keys, and typed the following:

He's replying to GFRfan. Grand Funk Railroad - a band popular back in the early 70s.

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