Summer stressed lawn
Summer weather has definitely
arrived for the 2016 lawn season. The last 4 weeks have brought many sunny 80 degree plus days and
little rain to the Antioch-Lake Villa- Lindenhurst-Gurnee-Waukegan area.
Temperatures above the 80 degree mark for an extended amount of time and
few summer storms have led to many brown lawns across the area. Summer
stress affects the lawn in several ways. It leads to cool season
grasses goin dormant, summer stress prevents the lawns ability to repair itself, it creates a changing appearance
to the lawn and promotes new growth of summer weeds. I bring up these factors
because they seem to bring a lot of questions from customers and are easily
explained.
As the soil and air
temperatures pass the 80 degree mark, cool season grasses like fine fescues,
ryegrass and bluegrass begin going dormant. This is the natural process of survival for the grass without causing permanent damage to the lawn. This means
that the plant extracts all moisture from the leaf tissue in an attempt to
retain it for the crown and root structure. This allows for perennial
grasses to survive for many weeks of drought and heat. This leads to
brown and crunchy rough surfaces to the lawn.
Lawn exposing different grass types while under stress
During the months of
July and early August the lawns that are dormant are no longer creating new
leaf tissue or growth. This prevents the lawn from being able to repair
itself unless a vigorous watering schedule is in place. Even with daily
watering the turf will significantly slow down. This also prevents us
from being able to "fix" anything in the lawn. Fertilizer applications
will only help once the rains return and any liquid fungicide or weed control
becomes less effective or can sometimes cause more damage than good. We call this time
of year the danger zone and recommend staying off of the lawns other than to apply insect treatments or for watering activities. Seed will not germinate
very well during this time either so repair jobs are delayed until fall.
Lawn getting watered properly next to dormant lawn
As the temperatures
increase and certain turf grass types turn brown from going dormant, others
become more visible giving the lawn a different appearance. Tall fescue
or forage fescues which are found in almost every lawn in the area, stand out
significantly during times of heat and drought. These fescue grasses are
more tolerant of the heat and dryness. They can stay green for many weeks
while the more desirable cool season grasses go dormant. These grasses
are often times confused with crabgrass and weeds. They are present all
season long and blend in with the lawn during spring and fall, but become more
obvious this time of year. Unfortunately they are perennial grasses and can not be controlled with selective weed controls.
Green Tall fescue clumps in dormant bluegrass lawn
High temperatures also
allow new weeds to germinate quickly that are not present during the spring
months of weed control. This leads to a difficult situation where
herbicides need to be used at a lower and more cautious rate or not at all.
Clover, oxalis, spurge and vine-type weeds like creeping Charlie thrive
during the heat and dryness. Crabgrass can also explode overnight and
grow quickly to seed. Our lawn care program takes advantage of
pre-emergent in early spring to help prevent some of these weeds from ever
germinating, spot spraying if possible and our spring and fall weed sprays will
control most of the broadleaf weeds during the cooler months.
.
Lawns will return to normal once rain or cooler tempserature return
Although high
temperatures and dry days lead to dormant grass, it should be short lived and
the lawns will return to their lush green beauty in the coming weeks.
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