Even the Highlander is teaching us about grass this week. This piece discusses the photosynthesis reaction...and the key piece: SUNLIGHT! Without sunlight, grass won't survive. Now let's get more extreme...lets take that same grass plant that grows to 18" in nature and mow it at 1/8". Let's walk in it, roll it, mow it 2x a day. It becomes an abusive relationship for which it not only has to survive, it also has to recover from all these outside stresses. All the while, it only has 1/8" of leaf blade to produce food as opposed to 18". We call this Photosynthetic area of the plant, which explains why higher cut turf often appears "healthier" compared to short cut turf.