Croydon, England
Mowing
When you can next cut it, and the best slot this weekend.
Best weekend slot
Saturday 8am–8pm
Verdict: Good
rain earlier today, ground firm
Next mow
Today 8am–6pm
Verdict: Good
rain earlier today, ground firm
The next 10 days
Column height is how mowable the day is; the lighter band is the best stretch within it. The line is soil temperature at 6cm.
9°C — seeding
Soil at 6cm 20.6°C cooling to 17.2°C
Thursday 3 September: Good. 8am–6pm — rain earlier today, ground firm
Thursday 3 September · 8am–6pmConfident
8am–6pm — rain earlier today, ground firm
- Good:Grass wetness
- Grass dryrain earlier today
- Good:Ground firmness
- Ground firm17mm rain over the last week
- Good:Growth
- Growing wellgrowth potential 0.99
- Good:Temperature
- Temperature19°C
- Good:Wind
- Wind light15 km/h
- Sociable hours
- A bit early or late, but finestarts when it stops being antisocial
Limiting factor:none
Friday 4 September: Good. midday–2pm — dried off since a shower 1 hour ago, ground firm
Friday 4 September · midday–2pmConfident
midday–2pm — dried off since a shower 1 hour ago, ground firm
- Good:Grass wetness
- Grass dryrain earlier today
- Good:Ground firmness
- Ground firm12mm rain over the last week
- Good:Growth
- Growing wellgrowth potential 1.00
- Good:Temperature
- Temperature19°C
- Good:Wind
- Wind light20 km/h
- Sociable hours
- Fine by the neighboursstarts once the rain has passed
Limiting factor:none
Saturday 5 September: Good. 8am–8pm — rain earlier today, ground firm
Saturday 5 September · 8am–8pmConfident
8am–8pm — rain earlier today, ground firm
- Good:Grass wetness
- Grass dryrain earlier today
- Good:Ground firmness
- Ground firm8mm rain over the last week
- Good:Growth
- Growing wellgrowth potential 0.88
- Good:Temperature
- Temperature13°C
- Good:Wind
- Wind light8 km/h
- Sociable hours
- A bit early or late, but finestarts when it stops being antisocial
Limiting factor:none
Sunday 6 September: Good. 10am–8pm — no rain since Friday, ground firm
Sunday 6 September · 10am–8pmConfident
10am–8pm — no rain since Friday, ground firm
- Good:Grass wetness
- Grass dryno rain since Friday
- Good:Ground firmness
- Ground firm4mm rain over the last week
- Good:Growth
- Growing wellgrowth potential 1.00
- Good:Temperature
- Temperature16°C
- Good:Wind
- Wind light10 km/h
- Sociable hours
- Fine by the neighboursstarts when it stops being antisocial
Limiting factor:none
Monday 7 September: Good. 11am–8pm — dried off since a shower 1 hour ago, ground firm
Monday 7 September · 11am–8pmReasonably confident
11am–8pm — dried off since a shower 1 hour ago, ground firm
- Good:Grass wetness
- Grass dryno rain since Friday
- Good:Ground firmness
- Ground firm3mm rain over the last week
- Good:Growth
- Growing wellgrowth potential 1.00
- Good:Temperature
- Temperature19°C
- Good:Wind
- Wind light14 km/h
- Sociable hours
- Fine by the neighboursstarts once the rain has passed
Limiting factor:none
Tuesday 8 September: Good. No — 0.9mm of rain falling.
Tuesday 8 SeptemberReasonably confident
No — 0.9mm of rain falling.
- Poor:Grass wetness
- Grass wetraining now
- Good:Ground firmness
- Ground firm2mm rain over the last week
- Good:Growth
- Growing wellgrowth potential 0.62
- Good:Temperature
- Temperature13°C
- Good:Wind
- Wind light14 km/h
Limiting factor:grass wetness
Wednesday 9 September: Good. 11am–8pm — grass dry — rain earlier today
Wednesday 9 September · 11am–8pmReasonably confident
11am–8pm — grass dry — rain earlier today
- Marginal:Grass wetness
- Grass dryrain earlier today
- Good:Ground firmness
- Ground firm16mm rain over the last week
- Good:Growth
- Growing wellgrowth potential 0.56
- Good:Temperature
- Temperature11°C
- Good:Wind
- Wind light12 km/h
- Sociable hours
- Fine by the neighboursstarts once the dew has burnt off
Limiting factor:grass wetness
Thursday 10 September: Not worth it. No — 0.2mm of rain falling.
Thursday 10 SeptemberReasonably confident
No — 0.2mm of rain falling.
- Poor:Grass wetness
- Grass wetraining now
- Good:Ground firmness
- Ground firm16mm rain over the last week
- Good:Growth
- Growing steadilygrowth potential 0.49
- Good:Temperature
- Temperature11°C
- Good:Wind
- Wind light8 km/h
Limiting factor:grass wetness
Friday 11 September: Good. 8am–8pm — rain earlier today, ground firm
Friday 11 September · 8am–8pmLow confidence this far out
8am–8pm — rain earlier today, ground firm
- Good:Grass wetness
- Grass dryrain earlier today
- Good:Ground firmness
- Ground firm19mm rain over the last week
- Good:Growth
- Growing wellgrowth potential 0.70
- Good:Temperature
- Temperature13°C
- Good:Wind
- Wind light12 km/h
- Sociable hours
- A bit early or late, but finestarts once the dew has burnt off
Limiting factor:none
Saturday 12 September: Good. 8am–8pm — no rain since Thursday, ground firm
Saturday 12 September · 8am–8pmLow confidence this far out
8am–8pm — no rain since Thursday, ground firm
- Good:Grass wetness
- Grass dryno rain since Thursday
- Good:Ground firmness
- Ground firm18mm rain over the last week
- Good:Growth
- Growing wellgrowth potential 0.52
- Good:Temperature
- Temperature10°C
- Good:Wind
- Wind light9 km/h
- Sociable hours
- A bit early or late, but finestarts once the dew has burnt off
Limiting factor:none
Growth
How fast it is growing, and when it will need cutting again.
0.99Growing strongly
Growth potential, 0 to 1 — the turf-industry measure of how fast grass can grow at today's temperature and day length.
Putting on about 5.9mm a day. A lawn cut today would be ready for another in around 3 days.
Worked out from the PACE Turf growth potential model and day length —how and why.
What this means right now
Good: Seeding window open
Seeding conditions are open — soil is 17.8°C at 6cm and holding above 9°C.
Warning: Heat stress
Sunday 6 September gets hot enough to stress the sward. Mow early or late, and raise the height.
Seeding
Soil temperature at germination depth, and when the window opens.
Soil temperature
17.8°C64°F
at 6cm — germination depth
Cooling over the next 10 days.
Seeding conditions are open — soil is 17.8°C at 6cm and holding above 9°C.
Cross-checks against an independent estimate from air temperature (19.3°C), which agrees to within 0.4°C.
Almost every UK and Irish lawn is a ryegrass and fescue mix, whether it was sown or turfed. We assume that, and use9°C as the seeding threshold.
I know what grass I have
The differences are small. Ryegrass is the quickest off the mark; bluegrass is the slowest and wants the warmest soil. Everything else sits between.
| Species | Soil temp | Days |
|---|---|---|
| Perennial ryegrasslikely yours | 8°C | 5–10 |
| Red / chewings fescuelikely yours | 8–10°C | 10–14 |
| Tall fescue | 10–12°C | 10–14 |
| Browntop bentColonial bentgrass | 10–12°C | 14–21 |
| Smooth-stalked meadow grassKentucky bluegrass | 12–13°C | 14–28 |
Feeding
Why timing decides whether a feed does anything at all.
Coming in the app
Grass takes up nitrogen when it is growing. Feed a lawn that has stopped and most of it washes past the roots — which is why timing beats product choice.
Right now this lawn is growing well enough to use a feed.
The app will work out the actual feeding windows for your lawn — along with weed control, scarifying and moss treatment — and tell you when they open without you having to check.
Croydon, England in detail
Soil temperature at 6cm in Croydon, England is currently 17.8°C, and falling about 3.8°C over the next 10 days. That depth matters because it is where grass seed sits and where roots start working, and it lags air temperature by days — which is why a warm afternoon here tells you very little on its own.
Lawns in this area are typically perennial ryegrass with fescue, which is what most lawns round here are sown with. That blend needs the soil to hold above 9°C before seed germinates reliably. Seeding conditions are open — soil is 17.8°C at 6cm and holding above 9°C.
9 of the next 10 days are good mowing days. The other one is held back by wet grass or soft ground. The best weekend slot right now is Saturday 8am–8pm, on the basis that rain earlier today, ground firm.
The next recommended window in Croydon opens at 8am on Thursday 3 September, because anything earlier is the hour your neighbours will remember. Underfoot, the ground reads as firm after 17mm rain over the last week.
Forecast from Open-Meteo, refreshed hourly. Soil temperature is modelled, not measured — how that works and where the thresholds come from.