How tall to mow your lawn.

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So the way that you've been taught to Mow the lawn as far as how tall the mow It you've actually been taught wrong and Most of it is my fault so today we're Going to clear it all up So here I am sitting in my beautiful Fifth Saint Augustine grass over about Air and you can see it's well overgrown It's time to mow it and so this comes up The question how tall do I mow the grass And typically what I would tell you for St Augustine grass mow it as tall as you Can so four inches or more on the flip Side this is my zoysia grass and I've Been mowing this at one and three Eighths inches but I've always taught You two inches or less same with Bermuda Grass two inches or less or if you can Get it down sub one inch then you have Some stragglers there in the middle Centipede grass two and a half to three Behind grass and of course I don't want To forget about my friends with cool Season grass that's Turf type tall Fescue perennial rye grass in Kentucky Blue you guys should mow somewhere Around three and a half to four but just Mowing Heights alone it doesn't actually Give you enough information there's one Rule that you really need to understand And it actually trumps the mowing height And that is called the one-third rule Okay so I have a grass blade here and uh Got my tape measure and you can see this

Grass blade look at that exactly six Inches long now I would tell your wife That that's eight inches but that's Between you and and her You can see what you don't want to do Now is cut off more than one third of This grass blade that is the one-third Rule because I have this perfect since Six inches one third of that is two Inches so I could actually cut off two Inches in height and I will be within The one third Rule and the reason that You do that is because the grass can Handle that if you cut off any more Especially if you get down here into the Meat you're going to really hurt it like Cutting yourself off at the knees but Think of this one third cut is like Getting a nice little trim on your nails It doesn't hurt anything it's actually Healthy all right so here's a grass Blade that's been cut so it was up there I took off the two inches and you can See what's left now notice there's a lot Of green meat left there and that is Because this grass still needs to grab Sunlight it still needs to Photosynthesize it still needs to do its Job and so that's why we need to leave Some Leaf surface so that the grass can Still grow healthy and that's what the One-third rule does is it leaves you With plenty of green to still grab Sunlight so the grass can continue to

Grow in a healthy Manner and so that's The rule right there is never remove More than one third of the grass Blade's Length in a single mowing what that does Is it kind of takes all that mowing Height out of the equation all right so You can see here for me this is pretty Cut and dry right my grass is six inches Long the top setting on my mower is four Inches I'm going to take off two I'm Well within the one third rule I'm good To go but let's say that I had let this Go a little bit too long and it grew Longer and I was going to need to break The one-third rule because I couldn't Cut any taller well that means then that You need to pick up your mowing Frequency all right now there are times When you're going to have to break the One-third rule you can see here this Piece of Saint Augustine grass is Severely overgrown it's nine inches long All right I think this one's going to Work that's pretty long that's what she Said Now my mower only goes to four inches Tops so there's no way that I could stay Within the the one third rule so I'm Going to have to break that off and I'm Outside of the one third rule however You can see there's plenty of still Green meat left here so I'm not really Hurting anything but you don't want to Make a habit of this but it's going to

Happen you're going to go on vacation It's going to rain things are going to Get away from you and you're going to Have to break the one-third rule so just Know it's okay to do it every once in a While as long as you still have plenty Of green meat left here and then get on Top of your mowing from there on out and Don't let this happen too often in order To stay within that one third rule You're going to need to mow more often Which is why I tell people to sometimes Especially in the heart of the growing Season you have to mow twice a week now Another thing that might come up is People say well what if I wanted to mow My grass in this case St Augustine a Little lower than before what if I want To go to three you could do that and you Would be fine you just again need to Stay within that one third Rule and Because this Grass Grows so fast Especially in the summer you might have To mow every two or three days in order To keep within that one-third rule of Never removing one third of the grass Blade in a single mowing all right now This section of my Saint Augustine grass I've actually broken the rule the last Time I mowed here I set the ego mower Down two notches which brings it to a Three inch cut height it's been a few Days since I've mowed so these grass Blades are now four inches long you can

See there's plenty of meat there I'm Going to come in and cut today I'm going To remove one third which is one inch And I still have plenty of green meat Left and now I'm down at three inches Now could you go even lower you could Just always keep in mind that you don't Want to cut too much into that green Meat and then follow the one third rule Once you reset your height now I will Recommend with St Augustine grass that You don't try to push it too much lower Than the three inch Mark but that's how You would do it if you did want to mow a Little bit lower now the thing I want to Keep stressing is no matter if you're Mowing tall or you're trying to mow a Little bit lower when you get to the Rainy season this grass is going to grow Really fast so what you're going to have To do to keep your height wherever you Decide to keep it is you're going to Have to mow more often increasing the Mowing frequency is really the most Important part to stay within the one Third rule not necessarily the height so Just keep that in mind it keeps Stressing it repetition is the key to Learning it's about mowing more often Mowing frequency is truly what matters And not necessarily the height just Follow that one third rule you've also Seen people online that take their grass Like their Kentucky Bluegrass and they

Real low it and they'll go down less Than one inch that actually seems like Oh my gosh they're Breaking All the Rules and they are and I have great Respect for that but what you have to Understand is for them to stay within The one-third rule on that really short Grass they don't have a lot of Forgiveness so some of them have to mow Every single day in order to keep up or Use chemicals that slow the rate of the Growth of the grass down either way as Long as you're staying within that One-third rule everything is going to be Good okay now this is Bermuda grass and This is mode at I don't know way less Than one inch and I want to illustrate This because I'll show you that this Grass stays within the one-third rule as Well so when I pick it you can kind of See we don't have a lot of forgiveness Here we have what is that like a half Inch Third of an inch that's all we really Have so you can imagine the one-third Rule here is is really tough to stay Within and the reason it's tough is Because you have to mow so often I keep Mentioning that you have to mow so often Because you don't have a lot of Forgiveness here well this one is mowed With a robot Mower and it's mowed every Single day and so that's why it's able To be kept this low and stay within the

One third rule because that grass no Matter how fast it grows it's cut every Single day stays within the one third Rule what that does is it makes it knit Really tight and really low to the Ground so that's just an example of Another extreme of Bermuda grass being Mode super super low but still staying Within that one-third rule by mowing Every single day so I hope this video Has been helpful to you hopefully hasn't Caused more confusion stay within the One third Rule and your grass is going To be great with that I'm Alan Hayne the Lawn care now reminding you to enjoy the Mo and I'll see you Foreign