For Release October 10, 2000

What Do We Do With Our Lawns Now?

AGRI-VIEWS
by Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent

We currently have a good news - bad news situation with our lawns. The bad news is that we still aren’t receiving normal rainfall. The good news is that the weather has cooled off, we have received some rainfall and if we need to, we can now water the lawns again. But since we obviously aren’t yet back to a normal condition, what should we be doing?

For those of you with the low maintenance mindset, probably the best thing to do for the next couple of weeks is nothing. With the small rains we received since the middle of September, you should be seeing some green in your grass. Some of this you can not see from the driveway or street. You need to get out into the lawn on your hands and knees. The rains have re-hydrated the crowns and the surface few inches of your yard. This will keep the grass alive, but a lot of it will still be semi-dormant.

You don’t have to water your lawn. You can just let it stay semi-dormant. There are not a lot of weeds growing yet, they haven’t had time. If we start to receive regular rain showers, I would fertilize and treat for broadleaf weeds, if you had weeds last spring, that is. If we don’t receive any rain for several more weeks, I would just wait until the end of October or early November and then apply a winterizer type of fertilizer treatment.

Regardless of if you’ve been watering and your turf is lush, or if you’ve been letting it idle along in dormancy, do not mow your lawn short. Keep mowing your fescue and bluegrass lawns between 2 ¾ and 3 ½ inches. We need to keep those long grass blades to keep the plant healthy and to protect the crowns of the plants. We still see this mistaken notion that in the fall we can to chop those lawns down short. Short lawns lead to shallow roots. This is not what we need, we need long roots!

If you want to get your lawn back to looking a little more normal, then go ahead and give it a shot of fertilizer now and turn the sprinklers on. Keep in mind, that water use rates on the lawns are much lower now than they were six weeks ago. One good deep soaking every five to seven days is probably enough, as long as you are applying at least ½ inch of irrigation. Keep mowing high as the lawn greens up.

Once you start watering your lawn you need to be ready to treat for weeds. Even with the drought, there will be no shortage of weed seeds. Any bare spots in your lawn will be at greatest risk for weed invasion. Keep checking on your yard and once you see those weeds germinating and growing, you can apply the broadleaf weed control products.

If you want to core aerate or power rake, the fall is the best time to do this BUT only if you are watering the lawn. A dormant or semi-dormant lawn should not be power raked or aerated. Both of these actions cause some damage to the turf and the plant needs to be actively growing to recover from that damage.

I strongly discourage lawn seeding after the middle of October. The ground is cooling down and it becomes somewhat questionable as to whether the plants will become well enough established to survive winter weather. If you can, wait until early April with that overseeding or reseeding. If you do have new seed planted, keep it watered to get it up and established. You also need to hold off on any fertilizer or weed treatments until the new grass has become tall enough to be mowed two or three times.

-30-

Return to Agri-Views Home Page

Return to Ag Home Page