High Wet Grass

[BRIAN GALLO]

Hey Guys,

I need some advice. This Spring I am having a heck of a time out here in Western PA with cutting tall wet grass. It seems like its always raining, and I'm getting behind on my accounts. Even on a dry day, its like I'm trying to shoot mashed potatoes out of the side chute!! I have double blades on and I'm still getting a lot of clumps. I'm cutting with snapper walk-behinds (a 32 & a 48)and I have the blades as high as they will go. Any pointers or tips??

[Charles]

You need more power pushing those double blades. 26hp+ would chop up wet grass better. But it still find it clumping around the tires. No way around some of the clumping

[awm]

assuming you have the chute up and out of the way
its tough.mabe high lifts and gators too.
some of these guys will have an idea. good luck.
by the way one solution is to send some of the rain down here nc. we gettin a little dry. later on

[1MajorTom]

First of all it will be tough to get caught up cutting at 4 and a half or five inches whatever is your highest setting.

We have the same problem at times. You have to be hitting these people every 7 days, and it is still difficult sometimes. On yards that are high, you have to bite the bullet and double or triple cut them if need be. The key thing is, treat every customers yard as if it is your own, because many people will see it.

In my opinion, it seems that taller grass holds the moisture longer. The grass will tend to lay over giving an appearance of a sloppy cut. The highest setting you should be cutting at is 3 or 3 and half or you will be chasing your tail until your first dry spell.

[65hoss]

Cut it once real high. Let it sit while you trim and edge. This will let the air get to it some and dry it a little. Then do a fast second cut last. I've done this a few times and it works pretty well.

[Eric ELM]

In wet grass, double regular lift blades work best. You don't want to be mulching it or it turns to mush. I'm not sure which is worst, no rain or to much rain. Either way is agrivating. :mad:

[Barkleymut]

I've had to switch to single blades lately because of the excessive rain. I've found that it doesn't shoot out the clippings as far (disadvantage) but it doesn't cut them up as much which means less clumping. Sometimes I mow in an inward circle and just rake up some of the clippings on a tarp then mow it a second time and it looks great.

[powerreel]

Get one of these and you can mulch in the rain! http://www.agturf.com/trucut_reel_mowers.htm

[Grateful11]

I'll say one thing for those mowers, they're not as expensive as I though they would be. I watched them mow some grass last spring at Disney World on the golf course and they were throwing the grass about 2-3' high off of those reel mowers, being pulled by a tractor. Then a guy with a wide drag came along and smoothed out the clumps. Then a guy with a shovel came along and slung the clumps, that were left, around to spread them out and then a guy with a tractor mounted blower came along and blew the clipping around until you couldn't see any of them. The mower had about 7 gangs on it. When they got thru it looked like carpet and they did this about every morning .

[Lawn Medics]

i purchased a weed wacker from sears and i havent had any problems cutting tall wet grass. after using it i go over grass clippings with my lawnmower. i also charge extra for this.

[Eric ELM]

Lawn Medic, something tells me you must have a lot of small lawns to do it this way. I'm sure you must have some that are least 10K and I was wondering how much you would charge to do this and how long it takes?

And the same question on an acre lawn.

[Roger]

... another Western PA cutter checking in.

This Spring has been tough. We had several days two weeks ago in the 80s. The ground has been very wet as rains keep coming. For those lawns that were well fertilized, the grass really grew. Even when I was mowing with all dew gone and the rain gone, often the grass blades were still very wet. I call it "green wet," that is the water saturation of the blades is extremely high.

When mowing in these situations, the clippings do not remain in tact. Rather, the clippings turn to mush within the mowing deck.

I was running double blades (36" Exmark), Gator on top, high lift on bottom. Quickly, I changed to two high lifts, realizing the last thing I needed was clippings to be chopped more finely! I was trying to get enhanced air flow through the deck (greater blowout force), and trying to keep the underside of the deck from packing up with mushed grass.

This really wasn't working very well either. The power drain on my 15hp was huge. I finally concluded the best was single high lift blades. But, I have no scientific evidence to back up this conclusion either.

I feel like an aircraft mechanic, spending so much time on the underside of the machine. Scraping out the mush doesn't do much good when the saturation level of the clippings is so high.

The idea of double cutting is no good either in these conditions. The more times the material is passed through the machine, the worse off - clumps, clumps, wads, and more wads. And, there is no chance of getting that stuff into a bagger. I've left a couple of deplorable sights recently, but had to make a decision - plow through and get it cut off, albeit messy result, OR wait for another day when things will be drier (even though the grass may have grown another inch or two by that time!).

In those conditions, it is best to make only forward passes, not forward/reverse passes. Passing it through the deck only one time is best. However, the resulting pattern is terrible - looks like a homeowner with a riding tractor did the mowing.

I don't do apps, so am at the mercy of others in how much N was applied. I have two that are real problems. N must be cheap!

Hey, western PA guys, maybe the worst is behind us....

[David Gretzmier]

I use pam cooking spray on the underside of the deck on wet days, and use high or medium lift and dont even thing about mulching. lawn goo everywhere. mow twice if possible, lower then raise 1/2" to spread. too much rain is better than not enough! Dave

[Mark]

I took a measureing tape with me last week and measured three of my yds they were 9" and in different spots they were 11".I use a Z-Master with the sfs deck and have had no real problems i have had to double cut some.But mostly i mow then the grass that looks like cotton real fine stuff,ill trim then blow the lawn if needed does't take long and works very well. Marks Mowing Service

[awm]

well bryan it rained all night,ill know who to contact next time i need rain.lol we good to go now if it ever stops raining.

[lawnnut]

Finally got some in Cary also needed it.

[KirbysLawn]

First, do you feel the mower has the power to handle double blades? With taller, thicker grass I feel that doubles caused my blade tip speed to slow too much and the cut was effected. I changed to single regular blades and the cut was much better (14 hp Kaw).

Second, do you feel that the growth is too rapid, i.e. to much fert? When I first got started I was doing spring fert applications with high nitrogen rates, I couldn't keep up. I then went to split applications of spring fert, first app 19-3-6, second 13-3-5 in April, this gave a much better controlled growth and made my life much easier during spring.

Ray