By now most of you are probably doing what I do all day and that is watching grass grow. If you threw down seed to overseed your warm season lawn in the last couple weeks it surely has sprouted,and should be filling in quite nicely with our weather.  It always amazes me how quickly ryegrass grows at this time of the year. You can check your lawn before you leave for work in the morning, and by the time you get home it has grown a ½”. It usually takes about 7-10 days to get your lawn really going, but once it does you will start to see the grass tiller and fill in any voids in your lawn.

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The days are getting shorter and the heat is starting to die down a little as we enter the fall season. With fall comes the onset of overseeding in many parts of the country and the west coast is no different. For those new to overseeding let me give you a brief definition. Overseeding is simply the process of seeding a cool season grass into your warm season turfgrass in order to maintain winter color. This is not a mandatory process if you have grass, but it is one of the options that are out there for homeowners and professionals.

There are a few options during the fall months to take care of your lawn and without question the most popular is to overseed. Outside of overseeding you have the option of using turf paint such as Endurant to give your dormant grass a nice green appearance or you can just let your lawn go dormant for the winter months (brown can be the new green!). There is no right or wrong approach so decide what you would like to do as the temperatures begin to drop over the coming weeks. If you will be letting your lawn go dormant it will stay fairly green until the first hard frost which is around Thanksgiving and will start to green up in late March. If you have a paspalum lawn you can usually get through the month of December with a green lawn and it will start greening up in early March.

(Dogs love overseeded lawns!)

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With the heavy rains and slightly cooler temperatures we had this past week no doubt people are thinking about overseeding. By the way, if your sprinklers are still set to on, turn them OFF. While the calendar says September 11^th we’re still a few weeks away from having temperatures in the optimal window. Overseeding does not need to be a one day process. You can begin the process a little early and then when temperatures are in the 60’s at night you will just need to give your lawn one last haircut, drop the seed and begin watering.

Prepping for overseed is often a large ordeal, but starting the process gradually you can eliminate the headaches associated with trying to get it all done in one afternoon. I want to reiterate something I have said for the past few years. The height of the grass is not associated with a quality overseed. In other words scalping the grass down to the dirt does not guarantee good results, but opening up the turf canopy does. The shorter you mow your lawn the tighter the leaf blades become making it harder to get the ryegrass seed into the plant. If the seed is lying on the surface it will be slow to germinate and much of the seed will be lost. The seed needs a base to grow out of and getting inside the grass plant allows for perfect moisture, heat, and a solid growing medium. By looking at my last statement you can now understand why I have said without a good warm season grass base you will most likely have a poor ryegrass season. The seed will establish much faster inside a healthy grass stand than it will on bare dirt. Read the rest of this entry »

As we move through the dog days of summer in California and Arizona, now is a good time to evaluate your turfgrass lawn. The summer is the optimal time to grow warm season turfgrasses so it is important to get good growth before the end of the season. The golden rule is that all warm season grasses need to have 100 days of growing without any competition in order to maintain their health. That is 100 days without any lingering ryegrass in the way. Think back to when the ryegrass was completely out of your lawn? Was it June or did it hang around until July? If you didn’t transition it by mowing lower and verticutting then most likely you still had some ryegrass until the humidity increased and wiped it out in July. Read the rest of this entry »

Fall has finally made its way to the valley and with the onset of shorter days are cooler temperatures. We’re right in the middle of the overseed season and with a few weeks left to get seed down I wanted to address what to do if you haven’t seeded yet and the next step for those of you that have overseeded. The window of opportunity to overseed is actually quite large but optimally it is done between October 1^st and the second week of November. That is not to say you won’t have great success if you go a little earlier or later but historically this is when the weather is on your side.

Let’s start with those of you who haven’t overseeded yet. There is no need to worry or get out there this afternoon and do it; but you should have a plan. Part of your plan should include purchasing ten pounds of perennial ryegrass seed for every 1000 SF of lawn area, a starter fertilizer, and doing a full irrigation check. I have received a lot of questions about using a seed cover or mulch to protect the seed. This is completely up to you but it isn’t necessary during this time window. The seed cover or mulch will keep the plant moist and allow heat to stay in the ground but unless we really dip down in temperature the conditions are already favorable for growth. Birds seem to be another concern but you can rest assured that you’re putting down more than enough seed to get your lawn established even if the birds throw a party on your lawn. I know many people have always covered their lawn to speed up the growth of the ryegrass. I can’t say scientifically if this works or not but I do know that we don’t cover our seed here on the sod farm and golf courses do not cover the courses wall to wall to prevent birds or to help speed up growth. A cover is typically only necessary if you’ll be applying seed to an area after a frost has occurred.

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As we approach the end of August we are starting to get people asking about overseeded turf. When can they overseed or when will out turf be ready? I know most of us are optimistic that the end of August should indicate the end of a hot summer but we’re still a long ways off. The month of September will typically see at least 10-15 days above 100 degrees and night time temperatures will still be in the low 80’s. The last thing you want to do to your lawn is cut the growing season a month short and pay for it in the spring by having weak turf.

For those of you who follow my blog monthly you know how important it is to have a minimum of 100 days of growth for your summer lawn without any competition from ryegrass. One thing you need to keep in mind with that statement is that even though many of us think all of the ryegrass has been eliminated by June, it is doubtful unless you chemically transitioned your lawn like most golf courses do. Today’s ryegrass varieties are so strong that it takes a few days with high temperatures and high humidity to completely remove them. Have you ever gone on vacation in the month of July with a perfect lawn and returned to a lawn rich in ugly brown hues? The humidity is the final straw for ryegrass so once it hits it will eliminate your grass stand overnight if you’re not treating it with a fungicide. Many of us will try and hold on to ryegrass under a shade tree as long as we can but once the monsoon’s arrive you can say goodbye to your pretty lawn. My point being that you really need to start your 100 day count around July 1st, not June 1st because the ryegrass sticks around a lot longer than you think.
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Before I begin talking about the next step in perfecting your lawn I will let everyone know that overseeded sod is now available if you’ve been waiting to sod your lawn.

The overseed season is well under way for most people so I thought I would take a few moments to talk about the next few steps after your seed starts to emerge from the ground. Read the rest of this entry »

WCT installing the new Sewallo GC

This has been an extremely long summer so far and I’m not quite sure if that is because I’ve spent every morning out on the trails or if it has just been hotter than normal. For those of us that are in Arizona we know July was one of the hottest ever recorded. Then we started August with 9 straight days without going below 90 degrees. That is absolutely brutal weather for us runners and non runners, but it has been beautiful for your lawn. Who would have ever thought the more we suffer the more your lawn thrives? Read the rest of this entry »

Let me save you the time from watching the weather forecast over the next 4 months and we can all just say it is going to be HOT! Yes we will see a few days under triple digits but the majority of them will be above 100 and the Bermudagrass and Paspalum are going to start taking over and pushing the winter Ryegrass out.

We are seeing soil temperatures that are favorable for warm season growth and with a little bit of time you can make this a painless transition process. If you opted not to overseed your lawn last year I am sure by now you’ve mowed the grass plenty of times and are starting to see it develop into a lush turf. The idea is to keep your lawn perfect and not get behind by forgetting to add fertilizer and a great choice with overseeded or non overseeded turf is the Soil Burst 5-15-10. The magnesium, calcium, and iron will jump start your lawn and get it the right nutrients to have a healthy start to the year. Below you will find instructions on making sure you have a good transition and your lawn stays healthy as the weather changes. Read the rest of this entry »

Installing Fresh BOBSod into a Home in Casa Grande

In my last blog I talked about a few weeds that are starting to appear in your lawn that are perennial problems. This week I want to talk about getting down a pre-emergent herbicide on your lawn before all the spring and summer annuals start to show their faces. Weather obviously plays a key role in everything we do concerning turfgrass so it is important to get the timing right. Read the rest of this entry »