Can I cut wet grass?

Should you mow wet grass? In an ideal world it would be avoided. However, many people are just too busy to mow their lawn only when the weather is good. If the grass needs mowing, the weekend may be the only opportunity you get - even if it means cutting wet grass.

March and April pose the biggest problem. These two months, in the UK at least, see the greatest grass growth and can often be wet. The wetter it gets, the longer the grass grows. So is it OK to mow wet grass? With the correct equipment... yes it can be.

Most lawnmowers will struggle mowing wet grass. The leaves of the grass plant become heavier when wet and will clump together when cut. For most lawnmowers, especially those which collect, wet grass is just too much of a challenge.

Many ride-on lawnmowers rely on air flow to collect grass clippings. This leaves them prone to clogging. The wet clippings block in the cutter and limit the effectiveness of the collector. Eventually, the cutter deck and discharge chute of the collector will jam up with the sticky grass clippings. Persist and you can even damage your lawnmower. At the very least, unsightly rolls or clumps of wet grass could be left on your lawn as the clippings clog up in the cutting deck and are ejected without being collected.

It’s not just the poor finish on your lawn to worry about. Anyone who has mowed a wet lawn will testify to the mess caused by walking back into the house with wet clippings stuck to your shoes.

A Countax garden tractor cuts and collects in a totally different way. It’s why Countax tractors are so popular in Britain. The Countax system does not rely on air flow to collect grass cuttings. Instead, a powered brush, driven by the tractor’s PTO (power take-off), sweeps the clippings from the lawn. The sweeper is effective in wet or dry conditions and, because of it’s design, out-performs almost every other type of collector on the market.

The unique Countax cut and collection system

The cutter blades in a Countax Combi deck cut the grass and then throw the clippings to a discharge chute at the rear of the deck. Because the collection system does not rely on air flow, the cutting height can be set lower. The powered grass collector, towed behind the tractor, sweeps the cuttings into a collector net. Almost nothing is left behind.

Because a Countax collector works on the ground, it has been fitted with a heavy lawn roller. This means that, unlike almost all other ‘ride-on lawnmowers’, a Countax can stripe a lawn whilst it mows.