Mowing Jamur

hodad – posted 12 July 2011 08:33

Just trying to determine the best hbeight to mow Jamur during the hot weather. Any suggestions out there. Noyjing specific just a general description of long or short.

jod788 – posted 12 July 2011 09:26

No lower than 2.5″ for me.

jugheadfla – posted 12 July 2011 09:36

I mow mine 3 plus with a reel mower. I would suggest using a reel mower if you have a small enough yard. It really does make a difference. My neighbor has the same sod as me and uses a rotary mower and its definatley not as healthy as my grass.

hodad – posted 12 July 2011 11:55

Thanks.

For now I am keeping my mowing height pretty at least 2.5″ maybe a little higher until the weather cools down a little. I have a rotary mower. but I keep the blade sharp and it seems to be cutting well (no brown ends and no tearing).

Watering for two hours once a week.

Mowing once a week when the seed heads start to appear. If I were to cut it short I could probably go 10 days to two weeks.

I just had the sod installed in May so this is my first experience with Zoysia. I am depending on this forum for most of my care and maintenance info and trusting my instincts. So far so good. Getting ready for my next dose of fertilizer this coming weekend.

By the way I am in the Atlanta area.

mrmumbels – posted 12 July 2011 12:46

hohad, I just read your statement below.

“For now I am keeping my mowing height pretty at least 2.5″ maybe a little higher until the weather cools down a little”

I made the mistake of dropping my mowing height the 2nd year during the growing season, which is almost all year here in fl except for a few months.

Zoysia like bermuda does not like to be scalped. Even bringing the mowing height down a little will hurt it. If you look at the grass good you’ll see that the higher you mow it the higher the little bottom stems get. Kind of like a pine tree with most of the color at the top. If you’re at 2.5 inches and get it down to 1.5 you may end up with no green but all stems. Be sure to check if the green blades go down deep.

In my case I was mowing at 4 inches and dropped it to 2.5-3 which hurt it badly.

Also you’re able to scalp when it’s dormant but if you’re in central Fl your lawn will not go fully dormant so you’re actually hurting it with the scalping.

Those are just a few things I’ve learned in the last 5 years.

hodad – posted 13 July 2011 09:06

Thanks mrmumbels. Like I said, I am feeling my way along with this newly sodded lawn.

I will heed your advice and keep it in the 3″ to 3.5″ range. I kind of like the way it looks at that height anyway. My next door neighbor had the same Jamur installed and keeping his shorter so I will compare and see which I like best.

Since I am in Atlanta the grass will go dormant this winter so I need to determine what to do when the growing season starts again in the Spring.

The landscape guy that installed it said he “scalps” his Jamur before the growing season starts. I need to research that strategy a little more.

Thanks again.

vivona – posted 28 July 2011 11:34

I have a JaMur lawn that was installed in November 2010 in Central Florida. Because of the late-season install, it is hard to judge how established it is compared to a lawn that was installed in the spring. I water it twice a week with the sprinkler system, 3/4″ each time. I supplement that with hand watering (legal under water restrictions) those areas that look drought stressed in between regular waterings.

I should be mowing it every week, but in the real world, rain and other obligations often make it 10-15 days between mowings. I mow at 2.5″ which is the highest specified by the JaMur growers. I have sometimes broken the rule of not taking more than 1/3 of the blade off because the grass grew too high before I could mow it and I didn’t want to mow it twice over a few days to bring it back down to 2.5″.

I did not do the scalping after the winter, so the browned portions of the grass stems are at the 2.5″ level and when I mow my grass to 2.5″ the browned areas still show. This browning is not from a dull blade, it is actually the brown portion of the stem that is there prior to mowing. As soon as the grass begins growing again, the new growth extends above the brown portion of the stem and the lawn looks okay again. If I should mow to 3.5″, no brown shows. I didn’t want to mow below 2.5″ during the growing season and will wait until after winter to mow it shorter the first time to reduce the brown stem height.

By the way, I am using a Craftsman 19″ Rotary corded electric mower. I just didn’t want to deal with buying and storing gas and dealing with the problems ethanol in the gas can cause with mowers. Once I got used to managing the cord, it works pretty much like a gas mower. The small 19″ cutting width means it takes me over two hours to mow my 5,200 sq ft lawn. Edging and blowing adds another hour. I mow in mulching mode, then use a leaf blower to spread the mulched grass out. Otherwise, it lays in rows and looks bad. I have used the bagger, but it fills about 6 large grass bags per mowing and that adds to my mowing time.

[This message has been edited by vivona (edited 28 July 2011).]

hodad – posted 28 July 2011 14:20

I now have my Honda Rotary mower set at the second highest setting (whatever ” height that is, I suspect 3 to 3.5 inches maybe even 4″) and the grass is doing very good. Green, plush and looks healthy. I have to mow once a week. Any longer than a week and it would start to look somewhat unkempt.

I am very pleased with how it is holding up under the rather dry, hot weather we have had in Atlanta this summer. The fescue and even the bermuda lawns in the neighborhood seem to be suffering under the heat and lack of rain.The occasional evening thunderstorm and a little supplementary watering in selected spots seems to be working well so far. It’s pretty easy to spot those areas that are drying out. Usually located on the edges next to my driveway or near large trees, which is logical.

My neighbor (Jamur installed at the very same time) is mowing a little shorter and his looks fine also. I guess it depends on what look you prefer.

dt1016 – posted 27 August 2011 10:25

I put in my Jamur sod on July 14th of this year. I’ve been mowing 1 every 2 weeks. Having absolutely zero knowledge in the gardening area, I’m starting to realize I need to mow more frequent. Some areas of my lawn look great and very soft. One specific area which I’m concerned about is dense and not soft. After further research on this forum, I think I may have been scalping this area. It produces healthy blades, but when I mow maybe I cut the entire blades off and leave nothing but stem. Which I believe this causes a crunchy surface.

Mower height 2.5

My question is, I would to reduce the stem further, so when I mow no scalping occurs. When and can I do this without damaging the yard? In San Antonio we are in a severe drought.

In addition, the area I’m referring to is a very dense area and appears to have the greatest amount of growth, which I believe is why the stems are so high. Other areas are ideal, all blade and very soft, not as dense. I actually got a little nervous, I started to think I had an entirely different specious of grass in one area.

Any advice would be great. Thanks

vivona – posted 29 April 2012 15:25

With mowing season back on again, it is a good time to revisit this topic.

If I check multiple sources on the web (buysod.com, ngturf.com, theturfgrassgroup.com, sksod.com), the mowing height for JaMur is stated in a wide range with the lowest being .5” and the highest being 3”. Sometimes the same website has different ranges listed on different pages. There doesn’t seem to be a clear consensus. I’m in Central Florida, but none of the recommendations refer to different heights based on location.

Last year I mowed at 3” because any shorter resulted in browned areas due to the brown section of the stems showing. My lawn looked nice and green at 3”. However, since 3” was at the top of the recommended range, this year I wanted to try going a bit shorter to reduce the possibility of thatch buildup and get closer to the median recommendation of 2 to 2.5”.

I did my first mowing this year in early April and thought I’d drop the first mowing to 2” so new green growth would start from there and allow me to mow at 2.5” next time. After a few passes I thought the grass looked way too brown and sparse, so I raised the height to 2.5” and finished the yard. In most of the lawn even the 2.5” areas were fairly brown because I was cutting off all the green part of the blades. New growth since the mowing is green, but if I cut it again at 2.5”, it’s going to be brown again.

So, I am at a point where I either go back to 3” next time to get a green lawn, or cut it down to 2” all over so I have a chance to get green with a 2.5” cut. I just worry that the grass will be stressed being cut to 2” in this part of the season.

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