Why is mowing a wet lawn so bad?
We’ve all heard it’s not to good to mow our lawns wet. Landscaping companies even delay their maintenance schedules to avoid mowing clients lawns when they are wet. Mowing your lawn wet can lead to a magnitude of problems including spreading disease, damaging the mower and even injury to the person doing the mowing.
Reasons not to mow a wet lawn
- Bacteria and fungi thrive in wet conditions and love to move around in water. These conditions make it easy for diseases to spread quickly throughout a lawn.
- Mowing wet grass can clog a lawn mower which can lead to broken parts and/or injury.
- If it has been raining for days the soil is prone to compaction. Mowing a wet lawn can compact the soil even more than the rain already has.
- Mowing a wet lawn can leave ruts and tear up sections of the lawn.
- Grass blades do not stand up straight when wet, because of this grass does not get the clean healthy cut it needs.
Tips for mowing a wet lawn
What happens if we absolutely need to mow our lawn and it is wet? While it is not recommended, sometimes you just can’t delay mowing a lawn in wet conditions. The tips below are for those stuck in a situation where they absolutely need to mow a wet lawn. The following safety tips and techniques can help prevent extensive damage to yourself and your lawn.
- To prevent scalping and removing too much wet grass, set your mower setting to high.
- Make sure your mower blades are sharpened prior to mowing.
- Mow twice, after your first cut mow your lawn again later in the day or the following day. This will prevent clumps and allow you to reduce the grass height a little more.
- Clogged blades are a common problem when cutting wet grass. NEVER clean a mower that is still running, make sure the mower has shut down completely before cleaning the blades.
- Run your mower at a slower speed to reduce the strain on the blade.