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Summer stress takes a toll on the lawn

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.
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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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Contact us today at:  847-395-0940 or at: group593@lawndoctor.com

www.lawndoctorantioch-waukegan.com  


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