Mowing Weeds

[lawnboy]

My mowers, like most mowers have a hard time cutting weeds. Many times they will push them over. Is there any thing different that you guys do to prevent this from happening? Many times when you go back over a yard twice it is only for the weeds,not the actual grass.

[Likestomow]

Double Gators. One magnum, one standard.

[joshua]

i have no problem with high lifts and gators on top. double cut the lawn, but all my acounts get fertilized so i don't run into that unless its a new customer.

[CLARKE]

Out of 54 lawns about 10 have the weeds these people
don't care about the weeds just mow the grass that all
they say and that all i do i'm not mow it 2 times if they
don't care about the weeds, why should i. :mad:

[lawnboy]

What do you mean by double blades? That you put two blades on at once?

[CSRA Landscaping]

Do a search on 'double blades' and you'll come up with more than enough info. Also check out Eric's site (http://elmlawnsite.com/double_blades.htm) for some more info. on them.

[Atlantic Lawn]

Doubles work great on all the weeds I encounter. Use the search and ck out Erics site both are great.

[Runner]

Are you talking about weeds in a lawn, or just taking down weeds like field weeds? If you are talking about weeds in a lawn, then I guess alot of it has to do with what kind of mower you run. With my Gravely Promaster rider for instance, when I cut weeds like Buckhorn, (those tall thin spaghetti strand like weeds that are so hard to cut) I would actually drop my rpm's a bit and it would cut them more efficiently. I don't know if it was from the air current being too strong combined with the acoustics of the deck when the throttle was all the way up, or what. This was with a commercial field that was full of them. Now, with my Lazer, it's the oddest thing, because I can go over them at full hilt with the throttle all the way up and at full speed, which is twice as fast as the Gravely, and it cuts them clean leaving not a one. This is even if it is cut higher, too. Somme people just cut lower to better cut the weeds, but is not an answer to the problem, only a contributer. If you have that many of these type of weeds, try slowing the r's down a little bit, and maybe the ground speed too. It may seem like a sacrifice, but it MAY actually be faster in the long run. Definitely try the doubles first, though. Good luck!

[lawnboy]

thanks runner I will try that.

[awm]

one thing not mentioned about cutting weedy lawns is the
tendacy to plant these weeds in your other yds via the mower deck.
i wash mine real good at a car wash if i mow weeds. later

[CSRA Landscaping]

How in the world do you get the wand in there awm? I have a hard enough time getting my hands in there.

[awm]

JUST PULL IT OFF AND DRIVE ONE WHEEL UP ON THE EDGE OF THE TRAILOR RAMP.
TRUTHFULLY WHEN WASHING IT FOR THIS SITUATION, I JUST STICK THE WAN UP UNDER
THE DECK BETWEEN THE RAILS OF THE TRAILOR.NOT PERFECT BUT IT GETS IT PRETTY CLEAN.WEED SEED IS GOING TO BE ALL OVER THE MOWER IN SOME SITUATIONS ,SO YOU ARE JUST PROTECTING YOUR WORK FROM CAUSING
WEED PROBLEMS ELSWHERE. HATE TO ADMIT IT BUT I USE TO SPREAD WEEDS EVERYWHERE,:(

[SLS]

Another easy way to get under the deck at the car wash is to get a "Jungle Jack". I just toss mine in the back of the truck when I need to take the mower to the car wash and the jack raises it up high enough to get it really clean. I cut with a ZTR....don't know if this would work with a tractor.

Peace.

[CSRA Landscaping]

SLS, I have a ztr but I tow it around in a covered trailer that has wood on the ramp. My thought is this, the less water that I get on that ramp, the better. I suppose I could treat it with a sealer.

[SLS]

CSRA:

I tow a 7x12 exposed trailer with wooden slats on the floor and a steel mesh gate/ramp. I put a gallon or so of Thompson's Water Seal in an old pump garden sprayer about every couple months and soak the floor slats. The trailer stays outside and the floor is holding up extremely well. Water beads up and rolls right off of it.

Still I like to pull the blades and scrap off some of the bigger clumps first and bag them before I go and wash it...it keeps the car wash management off my case by not trashing up the drain grate and saves me a bunch of quarters. Plus it keeps the floor of the trailer free from big, wet clumps of grass. :D

[lawnMaster5000]

weeds, what weeds?

[Ground Pounder]

I did a search on Buckhorn because of this one customer. It seems like all she has is Buckhorn. I tried to sell her on herbicides, but she doesn't care.

Her lawn is too big to double cut. It already takes me 1.5 hours to do it once. With a few uncut stragglers, she asked if I could cut it shorter (like that's going to help). I told her we either need to kill the weeds or live with them. I haven't heard from her since. I guess we're living with them.

[Guido]

Keep your blades sharpened regularly, to begin with the basics. A lot of people let them go too long before sharpening.

I won't go into it because there are already 100 posts on "how sharp" and "when to" and "How to" sharpen blades.

Hope this helps!