I know they say you are supposed to mow your lawn a little higher during the summer to avoid burning it. However, my yard (St. Augustine) is growing like crazy. I can't let it go one week without it looking like a jungle. I'm mowing it on level 4 of 5 but the grass is very thick. Level 4 makes it look like a golf fairway. Level 3 would be scalping it. If I mow it on level 5, it would look good for two and then like a jungle again. I've been doing this all summer and the grass keeps popping right back. I assume this is not too low even though it looks it?

I mow on the highest setting my mower will allow (5??) and really must cut it about every 5 days to not cut more than about a 1/3 of total blade height.

I too have been fighting this inner OCD battle this summer as well. I mow on the second highest setting and it looks like a jungle a few days later. However, with little to no rain, and trying to water as little as possible it still is looking good. I normally mow lower during spring and fall when the temps go back down to normal and we actually get rain.

For many years in a previous house I had St Augustine, I would mow at 3".

I now have bermuda, mow at 3/4" with a trucut reel mower.

I've never had a set interval of when to mow. I mow when needed never cutting off more than 1/4" - 1/3" of the grass. Could be anywhere from 3-7 days depending on time of year.

It's going to grow regardless of what you set the mower at. It's going to be healthier and tolerate the heat much better at higher settings.

Mow high. Water less to slow the growth a little.

I've got bermuda. TAMU states to keep it between 1-2". I'm currently on a 4 day mowing cycle to not remove more the 1/3 of the leaf.

St. Aug can be cut lower than Bermuda in the summer.

If you mow st. Aug too high it looks bad and requires you to mow more often. It doesnt grow faster, but just looks like it needs mowing sooner. Also I have found mowing too high can encourage fungus problems.

Bermuda on the other hand can be mowed low but does much better high in the summer. Mowing higher helps it choke out some weeds and obviously doesnt dry out as fast in the summer heat.

I scrap my at the beginning of the year. Then mow my Bermuda at a 0.76-1" through most of the spring. Come June (or when our 95-100* days get here) I increase it a notch or two. Just so it doesn't look like I'm scalping it.

Also, cut back on your nitrogen or at least use a slow release revision. I put out more P/K in the late summer then N.

I keep my St Aug lawn pretty low. Mow 2 times a week (if I can stand the heat) during the summer with a reel mower. It's been fairly dry in Houston so the grass has slowed down a little, but not enough to skip a week. My neighbor has a sprinkler system and her yard gets pretty high after a couple of days.

sleepybeagle said:

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St. Aug can be cut lower than Bermuda in the summer.

If you mow st. Aug too high it looks bad and requires you to mow more often. It doesnt grow faster, but just looks like it needs mowing sooner. Also I have found mowing too high can encourage fungus problems.

Bermuda on the other hand can be mowed low but does much better high in the summer. Mowing higher helps it choke out some weeds and obviously doesnt dry out as fast in the summer heat.

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This is completely backwards from everything I've ever been told/taught/experienced, including all my turf grass classes at A&M

Gigemags05 said:

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sleepybeagle said:

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St. Aug can be cut lower than Bermuda in the summer.

If you mow st. Aug too high it looks bad and requires you to mow more often. It doesnt grow faster, but just looks like it needs mowing sooner. Also I have found mowing too high can encourage fungus problems.

Bermuda on the other hand can be mowed low but does much better high in the summer. Mowing higher helps it choke out some weeds and obviously doesnt dry out as fast in the summer heat.

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This is completely backwards from everything I've ever been told/taught/experienced, including all my turf grass classes at A&M

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Yeah my front yard is St Aug (STA) and my backyard is Bermuda. I ALWAYS mow the STA on a higher setting than Bermuda. In the heat of summer I mow STA on the highest setting, but mow the Bermuda at the mid-setting. For the yard to look it's best in the summer I have to mow about every 4 days to stay within the 1/3 or less blade cut range. I try to mow in the evening to allow the grass time to recover overnight.

I mow my Bermuda year round at 1" and don't do anything different during the summer. And I watch my water and I'm watering less than my neighbors with taller Bermuda, and my lawn looks better. The lower you mow Bermuda, the more it spreads to cover the ground which prohibits weeds from growing.

I know my advise sounds a bit backwards, perhaps because I wasn't as clear as I should have been. When I say lower and higher for StA vs. Bermuda, I mean relative to the height you'd normally mow for that type of grass. Bermuda is generally always mowed lower than StA.

But my point remains true - you can't just keep raising the height of StA in the summer. At a certain point - it just looks bad and will require mowing every few days. Mow StA too high and you lose the "fresh cut" look in a day.

One nice thing about Bermuda is it looks great cut low. But - it also can be mowed higher and still retain the "fresh cut" look longer.

Also - I know I've heard the theory that if you mow Bermuda lower it will help kill weeds. I haven't found this to be true for Central Texas during the summer. Mowing lower allows the ground to dry easier and gives light to the weeds to germinate. I've found that a thicker healthier Bermuda actually helps choke out the weeds. But honestly, healthy being the operative word.

If you have really good top soil, and you can maintain your grass low and still keep it healthy and green, the grass will choke out the weeds via spreading.

InMyOpinion said:

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For many years in a previous house I had St Augustine, I would mow at 3".

I now have bermuda, mow at 3/4" with a trucut reel mower.

I've never had a set interval of when to mow. I mow when needed never cutting off more than 1/4" - 1/3" of the grass. Could be anywhere from 3-7 days depending on time of year.

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You get out there and measure that with calipers? lol.

I mow mine of #5 of 1-5.