Mowing New Grass

[DOORZ]

I killed everything with Round-Up earlier this fall, re-seeded the entire yard. I waited until the grass had some pretty good height to it before I mowed it the first time, but have an issue with the grass getting compacted by the mower wheels.

I understand this grass is new, and is not very hearty, which is why it is laying down due to the lawnmower, but it has been more than a week since this was cut, and you can still see all of the tracks. The first time I cut the grass, I overlapped the wheel marks, as to not have it tracked across twice. I don't know if this should be cut shorter as to allow it to breath better, or if I should just allow it to get way out of control before cutting again. After the grass germinated I cut back on watering to every 2 or 3 days, as the grass seems to be damp most of the time due to not a lot of sunlight, and also it being that time of the year where the morning dew leave things damp.


It needs to be cut again, but I don't want to the grass more harm by leaving more tracks by the lawn mower. I obviously will cut the grass in a different pattern, but I fear that the places where the tracks cross will be beat down even more. Places along the edges I have no choice but to track across the same pattern, as there is no other way to avoid this.

I am concerned because there a some areas along the edges that the grass appears to have a fungus or it's dying from being smashed down.


Any suggestions would be appreciated

[slebeau20]

What kind of mower are you using? The smaller and lighter the mower the better. Another thing did you put down any start fertlizer?

[DOORZ]

I have a Honda self propelled push mower, which isn't huge by any means.

Yes I did put down starter fertilizer. The grass shot up really quickly (like 5-7 days) when the see was put down, but has seemed to slow down since then. It was about a month ago when I put the seed & starter down, and have recently given it another shot of fertilizer.

[Jeff_BriggsMML]

I would suggest letting the grass grow to 5 or 6 inches and then cutting. Only cut 1 to 2 inches off and make sure you bag the grass and repeat this cutting whenever needed. The start of next spring the new grass should be much more resistant to compaction and you can cut at whatever length you desire. But make sure to never cut more than 1 third of your total length otherwise your just asking to reseed again next year.

[DOORZ]

It probably got to a height of about 5" before I cut it the first time, and I only cut about an 1" off it. I'm just not sure if by cutting it shorter will help or hurt the compaction issue. I was thinking if it had less height it would have as much grass on top to lay over on itself, but I could be wrong.

I just don't recall having as much of an issue with this in my old house when a did a lawn renovation. It just seems that the grass started off quickly, and has since slowed way down.

[The Rookie]

i just reseeded my lawn in september, i pushmowed it often and today i just striped it for the first time, the wheel marks are there so i think i will go back to push mowing it