When I mow my St. Augustine grass I get a lot of single blades of grass that stick up after I make a pass with the mower. I sharpened the blade at the beginning of the season. I am using a 4 year old Craftsman 6.5 HP mulching mower that works fine. It is adding a few extra minutes to back over these blades.

Make sure the deck is clean and check the blade again. Sometimes if you mess with the angle of the blade's sharp edge it will do that. May need a new blade after 4 years...

Kid a couple of houses down cuts my front yard, and always does a good job. I told him the other day though, I wanted it to be left taller, and I noticed a lot of stray blades sticking up afterwards. You might try lowering the blade some. I cut the back today with my 15 year old 5 hp mulching Craftsman, no problems.

No problems - nature of the beast. Means it is healthy with good stolon growth.

St Augustine grows sideways. There isn't a mower in the world that can keep those stray blades from poking up.

I never got em after I swapped out to a blade with more lift and put it on my bench grinder.

If you let it grow too high, you may want to try cutting in half strips insteaad of full strips. I have carpet grass and when i procratinate and dont cut it and it gets a little long, I have to do half strips so this doesnt happen.

May try mowing more often.

Try mowing in a different pattern once in a while.

+1

THe grass gets used to being cut in the same direction all the time so it' starts to lay that way. if you usually mow squares mow strips...or mow diagonal

im gonna start mowing diagonally, makes the grass look "cooler" lol