Water grass after mowing is beneficial only if the soil needs it. Knowing when and how to water freshly mowed grass is important because you want to protect the grass.
This ultimate guide on how and when to water the grass after mowing takes care of all your concerns. Go through this guide to learn some tricks that would help you maintain a lush lawn.
Contents
Can You Water Grass After Mowing?
Yes, you can water grass after mowing, however it is healthy to water it but only if it requires it. Watering will help the mowed blades perk up and survive being cut better. Take care not to water a lawn overwatered or from noon till late into the night.
How Soon To Water Lawn After Mowing?
You should water it after mowing when the soil feels dry and the grass needs hydration, as soon as possible after mowing. As your grass is freshly mowed, it needs to be watered to gain strength again and grow in a healthy way.
The footstep method is one sure-shot way of discovering if the grass needs watering, if they show, then you must water it, if not, then it’s healthy. Footprints do not form on healthy and hydrated grass and indicate that you need water right now.
Watering dry grass right after mowing helps it to bounce back and works like magic. In addition, you also need to watch the weather forecast for that day and the next day. You shouldn’t water the grass only for it to be re-watered by rain soon after.
However, if the grass is already well hydrated, you need to wait for its soil to dry about one to two inches before it becomes safe enough to water. Otherwise, you risk exposing your lush green grass to overwatering followed by bacterial or fungal infections.
– Best Time of Day
The best time to water grass after mowing is early morning. This soil and the grass can take as much water as they need before the bright noon sun evaporates it away. It also gives the freshly cut grass additional strength to go through the hot afternoon.
Note that if you mow grass at night, wait until the next morning to give it water. Even if the grass seems dry and needs water, it is safer to wait till early morning. If you water at night, then the soil will stay wet all night long, and the already susceptible freshly mowed grass blades will be at more risk of fungal attacks.
In addition, another concern that you should keep your eye open to it is that watering the lawn during the hot summer days after 11 am is only a waste of water and nothing more. At the peak of the summer, when the days are the hottest, watering anytime after nine in the morning is seriously not recommended.
The reason for this is simple enough to understand. The harsh summer sun evaporates 80 percent of the water that you give your lawn. The grass rarely gets any benefits. Instead, you waste the precious commodity that clean water is.
Which means that during the peak of summer, we either carry out our lawn mowing early in the morning, followed swiftly by watering, or we mow the lawn at night and then wait till the next morning to water it.
– Cautiousness of Hydrated Lawn
You will not need to water if you are generally regular with your lawn care and keep the grass well hydrated. This is because overwatering is worse for the lawn than under watering it.
First of all, overwatered grass becomes hypersensitive to a lot of infections and problems. Secondly, this extra water in the soil does not allow the roots to absorb the required levels of nutrients from it. Even though if it is fake, the grass grows back slowly and is much more shallow than otherwise.
Note that if you have planted grass with a deep and extensive root system, such as in Bermuda, it will not even need to be watered that much. That is, unless your neighborhood is going through some drought period.
Similarly, if the soil in your lawn is well-draining and has access to sufficient underground water resources, the grass will be well-hydrated enough not to be watered. The same goes if you live someplace that receives significant rainfall each week.
How To Tell If The Lawn Needs Watering?
The lawn needs watering if you see that the color of the grass has become more gray and has faded. In addition, when you walk on it, and your footprints appear, it means that the grass isn’t properly hydrated, and it is in need of water.
You can also touch the grass and the soil to see if it feels dry and wispy. Insert a pencil two to three inches deep into the soil and see how it turns up. If it comes out with dry, crisp crumbs of soil, then this means that the soil needs watering.
There is also this thing called a screwdriver test. All this entails is sticking a screwdriver into the soil.
If it goes down easily, the soil is moist and soft and no longer needs watering. Dry grass will also shrink somewhat, and you will see gaps between the grass edges and the sidewalk or the patio.
If the lawn is experiencing an extended period of drought, then this would be visibly noticeable as well. Water-starved and dormant grass turns brown, making its grass blades crisp and hard. This is your cue to arrange water for it to survive being mowed in such a condition.
– How To Hydrate After a Cut
Before you water your grass after a mowing session, you need to ensure that the soil is actually in need of watering. The timing also needs to be right, and preferably in the early morning.
You need to know the ideal watering requirements of the grass you have planted. Some grass types need a large quantity of water, while others need only a small amount. Most common grasses do well with only one inch of water per week.
If your lawn has not received any rainfall in the past week leading up to mowing, you need to take your sprinklers out. Set your sprinkler to the exact amount of water that your grass needs.
Some types of sprinklers waste a lot of water, so it would be best to invest in a more conservative one. Setting the sprinkler, so the lawn is watered at a very slow pace is better. This way, the grass gets watered much more deeply than dumping water on the lawn all at once.
Make sure your sprinkler covers the whole lawn evenly. You don’t want some patches to be healthy while the rest of the grass struggles to grow. As for the water, grasses respond the best to distilled or filtered water. Plant grass varieties that tolerate salinity if your only option is salty water.
– Never Water Before Mowing
Wait to water the grass before you run the lawn mowing operation. This is because cutting wet grass can be a big headache. You will not only have a tough time cutting grass after watering the lawn, but this will also lead to many problems afterward.
Wet grass blades get weighed down by the water instead of staying at the same level. You will end up cutting the grass unevenly at different heights.
It is only sometimes possible to keep the lawn mower blades razor sharp as they should be. Remember that the dull blades tear through wet grass, making it susceptible to diseases and pest attacks.
Thoroughly wet soil is prone to get compacted by moving the mower over it. This is not healthy for the growth of the lawn in the long term. If the soil gets compacted, it will start to store water in it, leading to a nasty fungal and pest overgrowth in the lawn.
Wet grass also clumps together, and the wet grass clippings tend to clog up the lower deck of the mower.
Dry clippings can be strewn across the lawn to serve as mulch for the grass. On the other hand, wet clippings cannot be used as mulch. Instead, they look bad and will have to be collected and picked up over time.
FAQ
– Should I Water My Lawn After Having Fertilized It?
Yes, you can water the lawn after fertilizing, although we advocate watering right before. Water helps wash the fertilizer off the grass blades and penetrate the soil. For pellet form fertilizers, you can water the lawn immediately right after. When dealing with liquid fertilizer, you must wait for at least two to four hours before it dries and then water.
– What Should I Do After Having Mowed The Lawn?
Check out and clean your mower blades every time after a mowing session. If you don’t have time, thorough cleaning at least twice a year is a must. Otherwise, the grass clippings clog the machine and dull the blades.
It also helps to spread the bagged clipping over the cut grass for mulch fertilizer. You can also use a commercial liquid fertilizer instead. This also helps to equip the grass to survive being cut and grow back better.
– Is Watering Grass In The Sun Going To Burn It?
Watering grass in the sun does not burn it, but is mostly useless. This is because, mid-day, the sun evaporates most of the water before it has had a chance to seep into the soil.
Conclusion
At the end of this extensive article, a few important points need to be rethought.
- It is not unhealthy to water any grass after it has been mowed. It can be useful and much needed unless the grass has been watered recently.
- During hot summer days, mow and water the grass, preferably before nine in the morning.
- Watering freshly mowed grass at night leads to water staying in the soil all night. This will lead to rapid fungal and bacterial proliferation, attacking the already vulnerable freshly mowed grass.
- If you walk on the grass and see footprints staying over it, then this means that the grass needs watering.
You know watering right after mowing grass is healthy, but only if the grass needs it. We hope that the next time you take your lawn mower out for a walk, you will keep all the important points given in this article in mind.
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