Will cutting grass help it spread?

Question

I've planted some kikuyu grass by seed in my Arizona back yard. It's growing well in clumps and I want to encourage its horizontal growth of stolons. Would trimming the parts that are growing up speed the horizontal propagation of the stolons or not?

Edit: I'm still trying to find an answer to this question. My grass is now about a foot tall but still in clumps/patches around the yard. The logical side of my brain says that cutting it will not improve its horizontal propagation but I have no evidence or references either way.

Answer 1

Kikuyu is regarded as a weed in many areas, and needs little encouragement to take over any open ground you may have. It can be a menace to keep out of flower beds, etc.

I'm not sure whether mowing will speed up the spreading, but in my part of the world, in colder weather kikuyu doesn't spread nearly as fast in winter as it does in summer - I'm not sure how cold your winters are?

I would suggest you keep transplanting grass from established areas - you can break up the stolons / rhizones (white underground shoots) into sections of a few inches each, and transplant these. This will also help to alleviate thatching