Lawn Care Services, Lawn Treatment Solutions Blog

Should I mow before a lawn treatment? Right after a lawn treatment? 

We’ll answer both of these questions in this brief article.

Should I mow my grass right before a lawn treatment?

It is usually not necessary to mow your lawn before we arrive and it is often helpful to leave the lawn unmowed.

Here are a few reasons why:

Easier to see the weeds. It can be hard to see certain weeds when they are freshly cut and level with the grass, especially if they are grassy, grass-like, or finely textured broadleaf weeds. Most weeds tend to shoot up quicker than the grass and stand out more. Easily seeing and identifying the weeds growing in your lawn will help us treat them effectively. 

Easier to kill the weeds. Weed killers enter a plant through its foliage. If a weed has at least a day or two to grow out after mowing then there will be more foliage to take in the weed killer, which could make the treatment more effective.

Easier to identify weak areas of the lawn. Leaving some growth on the lawn for a visit helps us to identify areas that are not growing as well. If an area appears a little weaker than the rest of the lawn then we can either address it while we are there (depending on what the problem is) or make a plan to correct it.

 
Is it ok to mow right after a lawn treatment?

Ideally, no.

We recommend waiting 24-48 hours after a treatment to mow, if possible. We also recommend leaving the clippings on the lawn when you do mow. (Learn more about bagging clippings in this blog post, Should I Bag My Clippings When I Mow?)

A weed treatment tends to be more effective if you leave the weed undisturbed for a day or two after the treatment. Because weed killers enter the plant through its foliage, cutting off the weed immediately after its foliage was sprayed could make the treatment less effective.

Treatments of soil amendments or fungicides won’t be affected by mowing right after a lawn treatment as long as the clippings are left on the lawn. Removing the clippings would remove some of the solutions applied before they have a chance to work.
 
While we offer these best practices for optimizing lawn treatments, we also very much understand that it may be impractical to align your lawn mowing schedule with these recommendations.

Should I reschedule mowing or my lawn treatment?

We understand that the timing of mowing your lawn is dependent on your personal schedule or the schedule of the person or company that mows for you. It is probably not worth rescheduling your lawn mowing service if they are scheduled to mow just before or after a lawn treatment. If they are like us, they have a full schedule and are visiting your lawn on a carefully planned service route. It may be difficult to drop by a day or two later to mow your lawn.

The timing of lawn mowing and lawn treatments may not always be synchronized. This is fine. Your lawn will benefit from the lawn treatment and the proper frequency of mowing.  

If it is possible to avoid mowing 24-48 hours before and after a scheduled treatment, then we recommend doing so. Either way, just be sure to leave the clippings on the lawn for at least one mowing following a treatment.