lawn height during winter

19 years ago

I've scraped mowing my lawn in October since growth was minimal. November brought warmer temps in the NE so I had a little spirt of green. I am considering to leave it a little longer (@4 inches) over the winter to protect the soil and mantain a stronger root system.

Is it more beneficial to cut it or leave it long?

TTF in New York

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Comments (8)

bpgreen
19 years ago
I mow mine at the highest setting of the mower all year.
dchall_san_antonio
19 years ago
Is there a typo in your first sentence? I'm not sure I understand what you did.
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joepyeweed
19 years ago
I usually mow shorter in the fall just because I am trying to mulch leaves. If my mower is set high, then too many leaves are blowing out the sides of the mower deck and I don't get effective mulching.

My shorter fall mowing height has more to do with leaf control than with grass height.
iowa50126
19 years ago
Tall grass plus heavy fall fertilization ... and a heavy snow cover can lead to snow mold in the Spring.

Snow mold damage is fairly common in most of the snow belt. My local golf course uses a fall fungicide, cuts the grass down to 2 inches. Where the snow drifts deep they use snow fences to protect certain areas of the course.

At 4 inches you are probably OK. I mow my TTTF down to 2.5 inches for winter and I bag the last cutting and put it in the compost pile.
dchall_san_antonio
19 years ago
iowa50126: you must be new to organic turf control. Snow mold is not a problem in most organic lawns and if it is, one application of corn meal at any time will cure it. Applied in the fall the snow mold is prevented. Applied in the early spring it is killed.
dchall_san_antonio
19 years ago
Oops! Sorry iowa50126. I should have read your profile. I see you are familiar with organic turf programs. One of the reasons we hardly ever talk about snow mold is that the ordinary corn meal in popular use solves that problem. Golf courses can't seem to bring themselves to go organic so they use chemicals for everything.
iowa50126
19 years ago
Probably another reason you don't talk much about snow mold is that you have warm season grass and there is little snow down there dry balmy in San Antonio. The forecast for thursday here in Iowa is snow/sleet and a low of 12F.

I'm not convinced that corn meal cures every fungus that is among us...although it may help with some.

BTW...Now that the market price of a bushel of corn is near $4.00 (it was over $4 for a short time today)... cornmeal will not be as cheap as it was last season.
dchall_san_antonio
19 years ago
Most of the snow mold talk I've seen comes from Canada where the corn meal has worked against it.

I agree that corn meal does not work against all the lawn diseases. The "red" ones (rust and red thread) don't seem to be touched by corn meal. Milk, on the other hand, does seem to control the red diseases.