Texas Lawns Roughed-Up by Recent Past

Dallas, Texas (May 24, 2010)--This spring has been mostly kind to lawns, but the 2009-10 winter was not, said an expert with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service.

Warm-weather grasses, particularly St. Augustine, suffered from the effects of the recent winter season, said Dr. Jim McAfee, AgriLife Extension turfgrass specialist in Dallas.

Texas lawns covered by St. Augustine and centipede grasses took the biggest hits, but the worst problems were confined to St. Augustine, McAfee said.

“This is probably the worst low-temperature injury to St. Augustine grass in the Dallas-Fort Worth area since the winter of 1988-89,” said McAfee, who is based in Dallas. “No question about it. It’s bad out there.”

Consistently cold temperatures – and a few hard freezes – hurt grass especially in areas already weakened by poor management, diseases and insects, McAfee said.

Then spring flowers bloomed and lawns turned green, brown dead patches of lawns were revealed, McAfee said. In some cases, entire lawns were dead.

Homeowners and lawn-care workers were often left wondering: “What the heck happened?” McAfee said.

“Most likely your home lawn or commercial property was the victims of elements that hurt lawns around Texas over the past year or so,” he said.

McAfee said cold weather is often a problem, but there are other factors such as insufficient water, areas prone to flooding, too much shade and newly planted lawns which haven’t adequately establish their roots.

“Generally, lawns that are under stress going into winter dormancy are more likely to be damaged by winter temperatures,” he said.

Disease can be a major problem, McAfee said. “Take-all root rot” is particularly harmful to St. Augustine and centipede. “Large patch,” formerly known as “brown patch,” is too. As their names suggest, they both leave patches of dead grass in the lawn.

There are other things that can stress lawns, McAfee said. Misapplied herbicides, soil compaction, heavy shade and thatch can be problems.

But there are solutions that can be employed to aid in lawn recovery where there is live grass.

• Allow time for nearby grasses to fill in, a ‘greening process’ that occurs naturally.

• Avoid using herbicides on newly planted lawns.

• Rake up the dead grass and re-seed.

• Or, after a while, rake up dead grass and re-sod.

• Applying three-quarters or up to a pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet of lawn can help. Lawns can roughly be measured by “walking off” length and width.

“Avoiding winter kill when we have hard winters is almost impossible,” McAfee said. “But if grass is maintained well with proper maintenance – water, mowing, fertilizer – then the impact and injury might be reduced.”

More information about caring for lawns, athletic fields and golf courses can be found at: aggieturf.tamu.edu/aggieturf2/index.html.

Contact:

EmoryJones
706-348-7372