# 50/50 Bermuda/StAug mowing height?



## WBrown999 (Apr 3, 2018)

Greetings from humid Houston Texas! We bought our first house in November, and I am beginning to repair our neglected lawn (damn the previous owners). Currently, it is a 50-50 mix of Bermuda and Saint Augustine grass.

I have read everywhere that I should mow Saint Augustine at 4 inches, and Bermuda should be mowed much, much lower. My question is how high I should mow my mixed lawn? I don't want these competing sets of information leading to the destruction of my already struggling lawn. Any advice? Thank you!


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## Ral1121 (Mar 19, 2018)

I believe you need to decide if you want to keep the Bermuda or St. Augustine. If you mow somewhere in the middle, neither will take off and they will continue to compete. If you want to keep the Bermuda, cut your yard llow at your mowers lowest setting and the Bermuda will start to tribe and take over the St Augustine. If you want to keep the St Augustine, cut the yard at your mowers highest setting and it will choak out the Bermuda. Highest setting is usually somewhere between 3.5-4".


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## WBrown999 (Apr 3, 2018)

Ral1121 said:


> I believe you need to decide if you want to keep the Bermuda or St. Augustine. If you mow somewhere in the middle, neither will take off and they will continue to compete. If you want to keep the Bermuda, cut your yard llow at your mowers lowest setting and the Bermuda will start to tribe and take over the St Augustine. If you want to keep the St Augustine, cut the yard at your mowers highest setting and it will choak out the Bermuda. Highest setting is usually somewhere between 3.5-4".


Great advice. I actually prefer Bermuda over St. Aug, but but my front yard has way too much shade for Bermuda to grow.

Would it be possible for mow low for a Bermuda lawn in the sunny backyard and high in the front for St. Aug? Is t possible to have two different grasses in your lawn?


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## Ral1121 (Mar 19, 2018)

@WBrown999 I do not see why not. As long as the back is cut short and the front is cut high, you should not have a problem. Not 100% sure though. Maybe someone else will chime in that actually has both Bermuda and St Augustine.


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## WBrown999 (Apr 3, 2018)

Ral1121 said:


> @WBrown999 I do not see why not. As long as the back is cut short and the front is cut high, you should not have a problem. Not 100% sure though. Maybe someone else will chime in that actually has both Bermuda and St Augustine.


Would love to hear from@Ware regarding this. Any experience with one lawn with 2 grass types?


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

WBrown999 said:


> Ral1121 said:
> 
> 
> > WBrown999 I do not see why not. As long as the back is cut short and the front is cut high, you should not have a problem. Not 100% sure though. Maybe someone else will chime in that actually has both Bermuda and St Augustine.
> ...


It gets too cold where I live for St. Augustine.

It really depends on your expectations, but I would personally have no interest in mixing two warm season grass types.


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## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

They will continue to try to invade the other, but if you tailor your maintenance, you can usually keep them separated easily enough. There are herbicides that will help you keep the St Augustine out of the bermuda, but not the other way around. Mow the St Augustine as high as your mower will cut and allow the shade to help suppress the bermuda.


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## WBrown999 (Apr 3, 2018)

Spammage said:


> They will continue to try to invade the other, but if you tailor your maintenance, you can usually keep them separated easily enough. There are herbicides that will help you keep the St Augustine out of the bermuda, but not the other way around. Mow the St Augustine as high as your mower will cut and allow the shade to help suppress the bermuda.


Looks like I am sticking with mowing tall then. Too much shade here to allow the Bermuda to really do its thing. Thanks y'all!


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## Greendoc (Mar 24, 2018)

Other thing I can tell you management wise, is to hold back on the fertilizer a little. St Augustine only wants 1/4-1/2 lb of N per month. Fertilizing it more will encourage the Bermuda to become dominant because it is a very fertilizer hungry grass. St Augustine gets by on much less.


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## WBrown999 (Apr 3, 2018)

Greendoc said:


> Other thing I can tell you management wise, is to hold back on the fertilizer a little. St Augustine only wants 1/4-1/2 lb of N per month. Fertilizing it more will encourage the Bermuda to become dominant because it is a very fertilizer hungry grass. St Augustine gets by on much less.


Very good advice...

Too bad I just put down a pound of N yesterday... doh! :lol:


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## Greendoc (Mar 24, 2018)

Height of cut and fertilizer rates are very powerful tools for favoring one grass over the other. You should be alright with the 1 lb. Further applications should be 1/2 lb or less. Maybe even not at all. If you do not collect the clippings, that should be enough fertilizer to get through the season. I have seen St Augustine not fertilized and just mowed. Not a lot of weeds. It seems the undesirables feed off of the extra fertilizer.


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

My grandfather had a very lush St. Augustine lawn in Tyler,TX, where there was a lot of shade in the back yard. He mowed high, and discharged into the lawn. His mowing frequency was every 3-4 days, and I never saw him put any fertilizer on it at all. They had a lot of pecan, and sycamore trees on the lot, along with a very large Cedar tree in the front. Plenty of shade, some water, and good mowing frequency kept his yard healthy and green for years. Had several moles that kept evading him though.


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## Greendoc (Mar 24, 2018)

That describes the rare St Augustine lawn here. As long as the lawn ninjas with their string trimmers do not buzz the whole thing down to the ground and it is mowed with a mower at 4", St Augustine is self maintaining. Buzz it down and do not keep it watered, the weeds take over. Bermuda will definitely take over if St Augustine is abused in that manner.


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## WBrown999 (Apr 3, 2018)

Greendoc said:


> lawn ninjas


So funny that you would use that term. My neighbor hires a mower to come out every other week. Cuts his St. Aug to 1" to avoid mowing frequently. Whatever, not my lawn, and it makes my yard look better by comparison.

However, the dingus who mows his lawn could maneuver the riding lawnmower carefully enough, and encroached on MY domination line! I will try to remember to take a picture after work. I'm not mad about it, but I would definitely prefer to keep the line nice and straight :roll:


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## Greendoc (Mar 24, 2018)

What else can I call them? They jump out of a white van with boarded up windows, padlocks on the doors(so it is harder to steal the string trimmers) and have filthy T shirts covering their heads. What they just about always leave behind is grass scalped and every blade shredded. They do it to all grasses, only Zoysia survives this treatment, BTW.

I did not know a riding rotary mower could go down to an inch. The meme between myself and the guys on the other forum I am on is we wish there were no such thing as rotary mowers capable of going lower than 3". 3" is as low as you should go on St Augustine and cool season grasses being rotary mowed. If you are not doing St Augustine and using a reel, then 1" or lower is fine.


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## WBrown999 (Apr 3, 2018)

Greendoc said:


> I did not know a riding rotary mower could go down to an inch.


For what it's worth, I haven't actually gotten in my neighbor's yard to measure lol. It is noticeably lower than my 4" though... also noticeably yellow compared to by *T H I C C* green blades.


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## Greendoc (Mar 24, 2018)

I know those mowers can. However a wide cut from a blade spinning perpendicular to the ground is scalp city unless the ground is pool table flat. Trying to make blades that big spin fast enough not to just shred when asked to overcome that much resistance would also require extremely overpowered engines. My idea of a passable rotary for warm season grass does not exist. Imagine a deck riding on rollers, hardened rather than annealed blades, an armor plated deck to contain a shattered blade, and an huge engine. as in double the HP of what is used on rotary decks right now.


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## Alan (Apr 23, 2017)

Here's a half and half:


















From the trees to the ditch/street is SA. From the trees to the little piece of concrete on the far left is Bermuda. I cut it at 1/2" with a reel.

And here's mostly SA cut to 1/2":


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