Having your grass clippings clump up while you’re mowing has to be one of the most annoying (and messy) scenarios you can face when maintaining your lawn. Clumps can not only cause problems for your mower (blocked bagging chute and a less effective blade being two of the main ones), but they’re also not healthy for your grass either. If grass clumps aren’t removed from your lawn after mowing, they can stop sunlight from getting through to the grass underneath, leading to patches of your lawn becoming discolored or even dying. Grass clumps can also lead to mold and other kinds of fungal lawn diseases if you’re not careful. But just how do you keep grass from clumping when mowing?
Our Checklist for Preventing Clumping When You’re Mowing
There’s no magic involved in preventing your grass clippings from clumping. Most of the time, you just need to follow a few basic principles. If you do, there’s a good chance you will enjoy a clump-free mow most of the time. Here’s our list of things that we’ve had some success with.
Only Mow When It’s Dry
The absolute number one factor that will almost certainly lead to clumps is wet grass. If you’ve ever mowed grass when it’s wet you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. Wet grass clippings stick to EVERYTHING. The underside of your mower, the pathways in your yard, your boots…hell they even stick together, and that’s what causes those clumps that you’re here researching how to prevent.
As I mentioned just a minute ago though, there’s no magic trick to preventing this. No fancy mower gadget, no special knowledge required. You simply take the moisture out of the equation and only mow when your grass is dry. It’s as simple as that.
Related Article: How to Keep Grass From Sticking Under the Mower Deck
Raise Your Cutting Deck
I know you want to get right down to business, zip around your lawn and get on with the rest of your day as soon as you can. But if your clippings are clumping, you’ll need to take it a bit slower. You’ll want to raise your cutting deck and take less off your grass. This can help to minimize clumping, as it reduces the amount of grass that is flying around the inside of your deck at any one time, making it less likely that it’ll stick together and form clumps.
And if your grass is really quite long, this is good practice anyway, since you should never remove more than a third of the length of your grass in any one mowing session. If you do, it can weaken your grass and make it more susceptible to lawn diseases. There are many benefits of cutting grass high.
So if your grass is 6 inches long, don’t try and bring it down to 2.5 inches in one session. That’s just asking for trouble, and clumps likely won’t be the worst thing that happens.
Give Your Mower a Good Clean After Each Cut
You might not notice it at first, but not cleaning down your mower after each session will have consequences, particularly if you mow when your lawn is wet. This is because moist clippings will coat the underside of your mower, as well as the exit chute that leads to your grass catcher. This coating hardens as it dries, and over time, if this process is repeated multiple times, it can build up and really start to affect how your mower functions. It’ll also increase the chances of your grass clippings clumping as you mow.
So if you’re trying to figure out how to keep grass from clumping when mowing, maintenance of your mower cannot be overlooked. And I can tell you, it’s much more efficient time-wise to do this straight after mowing, because any clippings will dry out and harden. If that happens, you’ll need a little putty-knife to scrape them off, and it’ll take a bit of elbow grease. But if you turn over your mower after mowing, you’ll be able to just wipe them off with minimal effort.
Mow Your Lawn More Frequently
Another tip that relates to the length of your grass and something that’s easy to implement. It might even save you some time in the long run. Just mow your grass more often. Doing so will mean that you’re only ever removing a little bit off the top of your grass, so your deck isn’t going to have a huge volume of clippings being cycled through it at any point, lowering the chances that you’ll have any clumpage to contend with.
How frequently will depend on a number of factors, given that grass type and local climate conditions play a big part in how quickly your grass grows. The best thing to do is to keep an eye on it and adapt your cutting schedule to what you see. If you were getting lots of clumps when removing 1.5 inches, try cutting it after it grows an inch over its ideal height. If that solves your problem, then you’ve found your solution. You now need to schedule in a cut any time it grows an inch. If not, next time try taking off 0.75 inches.
Slow Down If You Sense Your Mower is Struggling
At some point, you’ve probably heard your mower “bog down” under the workload that it’s put under. It may be that you have one or two areas of your lawn that are a bit thicker or perhaps you’ve tried to cut down some really long grass. Either way, it’s quite noticeable when this happens. You’ll notice a change in the sound that the motor or engine produces.
At this point, it’s super important to slow right down and give your mower the time it needs to cut up the grass properly and clear the deck. If you pass through these areas at normal speed, your clippings likely won’t be cut up into small pieces, and you’re more likely to see clumps.
Remove the Blade and Give it Some TLC
Keeping your mower deck clean is not the only maintenance item that can solve the issue of grass clumps. Inspecting your blade on a frequent basis and giving it a good sharpen might do the trick too. This is because a blunt blade won’t be as effective in cutting the clippings into small pieces. And as we’ve mentioned a few times, that can be bad news when it comes to clumps.
Most mowers will need this done 1-2 times per year and it doesn’t have to cost you a lot. You can sharpen your blade with some pretty basic equipment, such as a clamp and a hand file. How sharp does a mower blade need to be? Just remember this rule; your blade needs to be butter-knife sharp, not carving knife sharp.
Buy a More Powerful Mower
If you’ve tried all of the above, frequently hear the engine/motor on your mower struggling and can’t seem to mow without seeing clumps, it might be time to invest some money into a new mower. It could be that the mower you currently have just isn’t up to the task. You may have a very thick grass variety and it’s just not powerful enough to cut up your clippings into small pieces. You need a mower with more power to get the job done effectively and put an end to your clumping issues.
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