Turfgrass and post-drought recovery

By |  September 11, 2012

By Jim Novak

For most of the country, this year has been one of the driest in decades. Many professionals in the landscape business and those responsible for sports fields or golf courses know all too well that many fairways and lawns haven’t fully recovered from this year’s excessive heat and lack of precipitation.

How bad is it? The National Drought Mitigation Center recently reported that an estimated 77.28% of the contiguous U.S. was suffering from “abnormally dry” to “exceptional drought” conditions. The Center also estimates that 39% of the lower 48 states’ land mass was in a severe drought category.

Assuming that the coming months will bring cooler weather and some much-needed precipitation, what can be done to give lawns and other turfgrass areas a much needed boost to recover following such a severe drought?  For home lawns, keep mowing heights high at 3-plus in., and advise your customers to stay off the turf completely if it is still under stress. Don’t apply nitrogen fertilizer until temperatures become more moderate, closer to normal and when some precipitation is available.

But what if the lawn has seriously suffered or appears to have died?  You have two options:

1. For a quick fix, you can recommend your customers consider removing the dead turf and have new turfgrass sod installed. The benefits are immediate, and this can be done even when the weather gets considerably cold.
2. As a second option, you can recommend they reestablish the dead area by sowing grass seed.

The Lawn Institute recommends that smaller areas can be prepared by raking the dead spots to break the soil surface. Work the seed into the soil by lightly raking the area a second time.

For larger areas, three or four passes with a core aerator is recommended if soil compaction is an issue.  These multiple passes will result in 20 to 40 holes per sq. ft., which will help nutrients and water get into the soil. Seed can then be applied with a drop seeder. A drag mat or small section of a chain link fence can be pulled over the area to break up the soil cores and mix the seed into the soil.

After the seed has been sown, keep the upper 1 in. of the soil moist. If necessary, water the newly seeded areas once or twice a day. Remember, too, that new grass seed requires a steady supply of available nutrients for cooler weather and for favorable growing conditions.

With adequate moisture, favorable soil temperatures, proper nutrients, the seeds of most turfgrasses should germinate in two or three weeks. But unlike a newly sodded surface, the seeded area will take a considerable amount of time to become fully established, plus there’s the additional labor to manage weeds.  If necessary, some areas may also have to be reseeded until the grass grows in fully.

In either case (sod or seed), good site preparation is necessary for successful establishment of the turfgrass.

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