Can mower spread crab grass?

[JM]

Crab grass is out in full force in the city I work in right now. I'm seeing it in many of the residential lawns I service? I've heard people say several times that your mower can spread crab grass from one lawn to the other. Is this true?

JM

[cuttin thru]

w'ell, I suppose if some of the seed head's were stuck on the underside of the deck, you could transport from yard to yard. I tried to convince the board members of my local little league(I was the head groundskeeper for 4 fields) to purchase a new 2352 exmark lazer with a vac,jrco rake and stripping kit. The machine they had was a simplicity tractor no mulching kit, or bagger, they ended up spreading weeds from left field to right, people would keep going over the cuttings and blow them all over the damn place. instead of keeping them contained in one area and easier to control. I finally resigned after I got a bunch of grief over the price $7500. The people had no idea what the hell they were talking about when it came to field care. I was also in charge of the irrigation system. Better luck to the next guy...

P.S. This was a VOLUTEER job. I did it because my kids play..

[Lawngodfather]

Short answer YES

Your mower can spread other weeds and diseases too.

We call it Lawn AIDS.

[CCLS]

Yes the seeds can spread with your mower, but more likely the crabgrass is already existant in the turf. In Iowa our weather has been so drastically extreme hot and cold, dry then humid that the preemergent applied in the spring has been bypassed and crabgrass and goosegrass is present in the turf. Crabgrass is just starting to show up now in the turf.

[GroundKprs]

Yes, mowers can spread weed seeds, as stated above. BUT mother nature is much more efficient at spreading seeds than your mower, LOL. Never would one worry about spreading crabgrass seeds with his mower. A single crabgrass plant produces up to 15,000 seeds, some of which can remain viable for up to 12 years. So did my crabgrass plant come from your mower, or from the crabgrass plant in my neighbors yard 8 years ago?

Spreading seed by equipment is generally just a concern when you are talking about exotic weeds. Generally, on a county level, there are specifications concerning cleaning equipment after mowing in certain areas containing exotics.