Identifying And Dealing With Heat Stress In The Lawn
Allyn HaneNews
See that picture down there? You are either, Primed!, avoiding the hangover or doing the happy dance this coming weekend. Its a tale of cool and warm season grasses and the development and exit of Spring… and youre invited to take the ride. But hurry this weekend is when things REALLY heat up, literally.I swiped this image from and added my own definitions in yellow to serve as a visual for you:
Signs Your Lawn Is Suffering From Heat Stress
The early signs of heat stress on your lawn are fairly noticeable. If your footprint is still visible hours after walking on the lawn, or if your grass begins to change colors you may be on your way to a brown yard. If the yard is left untreated, you may notice the tips of the grass leaves turning brown or curling inward.
Brown patches in your yard can also signal a pest infestation such as grubs or chinch bugs or diseases that thrive when the grass is weakened by heat stress. Lack of moisture can also result in soil compaction due to lack of aeration. All of these issues can keep your lawn from being able to take in the nutrients it needs to thrive.
Dont Cut Your Grass Too Short
One of the most common mistakes made by homeowners and landscapers in lawn care is cutting grass too short. When a lawn is cut too short, it interferes with the grassâ ability to generate energy sufficient for growth. On the flip side, if grass is cut at the proper height, the roots are able to strengthen to support a more vigorous lawn that tolerates stress better. It is important to know that some types of grass have different growth habitats and their ideal mowing height should be taken into consideration, such as cool-season grass and warm-season grass types. 3 to 4 inches is a good height to keep your lawn during a heatwave.
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Should I Fertilize A Stressed
If your lawn is looking brown, dried out, or feels crunchy, it is too stressed from the heat and possibly even dormant. Fertilizing your lawn while it is in this state can really stress it out, if not outright kill it. If you really want to get a fertilizer application in before summer is out, follow the tips above first. Once the grass has hydrated and revived, and the soil is moist from adequate watering, you can apply a gentler fertilizer like our Bio-Enhanced 16-4-8, or get more aeration a dethatching done with an application of Lawn Force 5.
If you want a lush, dark green lawn but not the excessive growth, try using Liquid Iron . Iron improves grass color without forcing the growth that you get with high nitrogen fertilizers. Our sugar-chelated Liquid Iron soil amendment provides a readily available source of iron to increase chlorophyll in any plant, making it rapidly greener without the growth. This is the perfect late-summer application for a lawn that is looking a little more ragged than youd like!
How To Avoid Heat Stress When Laying New Sod:
- Place pallets in the shade while you lay the sod.
- Water as you go. After you lay a row, hose it down. Then lay the next row. In high heat, you have no wiggle room with this step. Its serious business and you need to water right away.
- Water the entire lawn when you have completed installation.
- Dont lay Tall Fescue sod in the late spring or summer. It simply doesnt work. The window for laying Tall Fescue sod in sod zone 2 is typically from September through April.
- After the new sod is laid, follow our watering instructions to ensure successful establishment of the root system – and happy, green grass! Basically, keep new sod “wet like a sponge” until roots form and you can hardly pull it up.
The first sign that your new sod isn’t getting enough water each day is brown edges along each roll. Then brown patches indicate that the problem is getting worse. The cure: more water over the whole lawn every morning!
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Heat Stress Can Do A Number On Your Yard: What Can You Do
Posted on August 7, 2020 by
Dry Lawn in the Summer? How to Beat Heat Lawn Stress
For most of us, summer is not a season of stress. For lawns though, it is. Consistent hot and dry weather over a long period of time can lead to heat or moisture stress, which can cause your lawn to turn brown and even invite a variety of weeds and lawn pests. Heat stress can be compounded if the area you live in is currently experiencing a drought. To keep your lawn at its best and limit the hot summer damage, you should familiarize yourself with some of the basics of this issue.
How Heat Affects Grass
The summer may be a great time to be outside, but the heat affects each blade of grass and especially the roots. Summer heat with bright days, warm nights, and little to no rainfall is the source of many dry lawns during the warm months. When the heat outside increases, the roots beneath the soil shrink in size to reduce the amount of water they need to conserve energy. Sometimes the grass will also utilize its stored energy in the roots to help the plant withstand the intense heat.
Signs of Lawn Stress
On the bright side, heat stress is not that difficult to identify. Early on, your lawn may need a drink if footprints remain on the grass hours after walking on it or if the grass appears discolored .
Treating Stressed Grass
Once youve identified heat stress, its time to treat the damaged grass and help it flourish once more. Here are a few tips for how to get those brown spots healthy again:
Dry Patches And Hydrophobic Soil
Because soil doesnt necessarily hold water evenly, the dry patches or heat stressed turf may present in patches rather than uniformly across the whole lawn.
In many cases this is because the soil in these patches has become hydrophobic and/or compacted. In some cases, a pre-existing fungal problem could also be contributing to the occurrence of hydrophobic soil.
After long periods of dry weather, soils can become dehydrated and this is when the hydrophobic surface is exposed. This surface stops water from penetrating efficiently.
Wetting agents are the solution in this situation. Wetting agents are like a detergent or surfactant that attract water to the soils surface, helping it to soak in and improve infiltration in these areas. This reduces water run-off, encourages deeper roots which helps to make your lawn more drought tolerant.
Lawn Soaker is a ready to use soil wetting agent specifically developed for use on lawns. It improves the penetration of water so it can reach deep down to the roots. Regular use will ensure the soil re-wets and prevents further dry spots from forming.
In addition to a wetting agent application, we also recommend aerating your lawn. Aeration, whether it be with a garden fork or aerating machine, will help disrupt dry compacted soil and allow moisture to be absorbed down deeper.
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When Your Lawn Is Stressed Out Hold Off On Feeding
Stressed-out lawns aren’t growing, so feeding them won’t help much. Instead feed before the hot, dry weather arrives. Once the weather cools down and rain returns, feed again to help your lawn recover quicker. Scotts® TurfBuilder® UltraFeed is an excellent choice for fertilizing lawns that tend to get stressed in the summer. It holds onto nutrients until your lawn needs them, then releases them. Because of this, a single feeding can last up to 6 months.
When To Use A Lawn Care Fertilizer
If youre worried that your grass is stunted or dormant outside of its natural cycle, there may be an underlying lawn issue. In this case, you can apply a growth booster or lawn care fertilizer. However, if your lawn is heat-stressed, avoid fertilizer products. Lawn fertilizer on a heat-stressed lawn can have the opposite effect and can cause further damage to an already sensitive grass area.
If other issues such as nutrient deficiency are causing your lawn to look worse for the wear, you may want to consider applying fast-acting, nourishing lawn fertilizer. Our liquid lawn fertilizer and other liquid lawn care products are formulated for smaller particle sizes that are quickly and more effectively absorbed by the soil.
Simple Lawn Solutions offers lawn care products to combat any lawn issues, including heat stress, so you can worry less and enjoy your lawn more.
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How To Treat Heat
After spotting the heat stress, its time to treat the damaged grass and help it flourish again. There are a few things you can do to increase the health of your yard:
- Consider aeration. If your yard experiences a lot of foot traffic or heavy mowing equipment, the soil will become compacted, making it difficult for air and water to reach the roots. Aeration relieves compaction and the stress on your roots.
- Water deeply, but not often. Watering lightly daily produces shallow roots that cannot handle hot or dry weather very well. Instead, your lawn so that the top six inches of soil are moistened. Wait until the soil dries before watering again. Water in the morning to avoid the high evaporation rates in the afternoon.
- Adjust fertilizer applications. In high-stress periods, light fertilizer applications can keep your lawn healthy and assist in recovery.
If you have a newly-planted lawn, dont let it go dormant. Letting new immature turf go into drought stress can have devastating long-term effects because its shallow roots may not be able to recover from heat and drought stress.
Watering Twice A Week
Seeing that the drought is dry and raspy, you should first water the lawn so the hydration in the ground can start its work and help bring moisture to the hardened ground. To play a part, carefully water thoroughly for a few days and check how your lawn reacts. If, in any case, it fails to bring the lawn back to life, there may be another issue at play.
Another way to approach this can be by setting a watering schedule. Studies show that shooting 4-6 inches of water twice a week during the early morning and late at night can greatly rejuvenate the stressed lawn.
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Gardening: How To Help Our Heat
Thu., July 1, 2021
This historic heat means we are going to have to change our lawn maintenance practices until it cools down into the low 90-degree temperatures. We are breaking records all over the region and the humidity levels are headed in the opposite direction fast. All this means our lawns are being stressed.
First, to tell if your lawn is drought stressed, look across your lawn in the sun. If the grass has taken on a blue-green color instead of a warm green, it is water stressed. To confirm this, walk across the grass. If you leave footprints and the surface feels firm, then its time to change your watering schedule.
Determining how long to water your lawn in a drought and a heat wave will depend on your type of soil. Water sinks through sandy soils faster than through loam or clay. Loam and clay hold more water and for longer. In general, sandy soil will need more frequent waterings than loam or clay. Under normal conditions, most lawn experts recommend applying at least 1 inch of water each week and to apply it so that it can soak about 6 inches into the soil each time you water. In this hot weather, put down 1.5 to 2 inches a week until we get back into the low 90s.
Water in the late evening, overnight or before 10 in the morning. Our humidity here is usually under 20% when its hot, so we dont see the diseases and fungal issues, people in other parts of the country have to deal with.
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Will Grass Turn Green Again
The temperature and weather conditions will greatly affect your lawns appearance. The grass is still alive and will become green again when the correct temperature returns. If you want your grass to remain green year round regardless of the temperature, you can plant a mixture of cool- and warm-season grasses.
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Late Summer Lawn Care
Lawn looking kind of sad? If youre feeling discouraged with the state of your yard, youre not alone. Busy summer schedules can foil our best intentions, causing us to neglect our yards, and extreme weather can thwart the best efforts of even the most attentive homeowners, and drought stress can turn your once lush green grass into a splotchy brown lawn.
Not to fear! Theres still time for rejuvination! Follow these tips from our experts.
How To Know If Your Lawn Is Stressed From Heat
There are several symptoms that can indicate your lawn is heat-stressed. The first is when you see your grass blades turning brown and wilting. This is caused by the lack of water in the soil. Another symptom is when you see your lawn starting to thin out or patches of grass dying. This is usually due to the roots not being able to access enough water. If you notice any of these symptoms, its important to take action to help your lawn recover.
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How To Sharpen A Mower Blade
Sharpen your mower blade every month or two. Dull blades have a tendency to rip grass instead of making clean cuts, which leaves the grass damaged.
Here are the general steps to take to sharpen a lawnmower blade:
If your blade is bent or nicked, sharpening wont be adequate. You will need to replace it with a new one. Consult your owners manual to ensure that you purchase a suitable replacement.
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Tip #: Fertilizing And Cultivation Dont Even Think About It
Homeowners and landscape companies alike will do what it takes to keep their lawn healthy and growing right. Although the idea of fertilizing might sound like a good idea to maintain a vigorous lawn, do not consider it during the heat of mid-summer. During the hot summer months, the cool season grasses are consuming more than they can produce. Fertilizing stimulates more growth, which consumes even more energy further stressing lawns during periods of high temperatures.
The same rules apply to cultivation practices such as aerification and dethatching. Resist aggressive practices that impose temporary damage during periods of summer heat. Instead, cultivate in fall or spring when the turf is vigorous and can recover quickly from the temporary injury.
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How Do You Identify Heat And Drought Stress
The first and easiest method in identifying drought stress is giving your lawn a thorough look. A stressed lawn typically has brown patchy areas throughout the lawn. It may not be immediately evident when looking at the lawn that there is a problem. If you suspect your lawn is suffering from drought stress, there are some tests you or a lawn care technician can do.
Crunch test To perform this test you will need to take a stroll around your lawn. If you can hear a distinct crunch as you take each step this can signify drought stress. In times of stress like this your lawn will not be able to keep the blades hydrated. They tend to crisp up and become crunchy. Take this test a step further and look behind you. If you see footprints in the grass, where you have walked, this can be another indicator. Especially if you arent 100% sure youve heard a crunch.
Pull test While under stress the root system of your lawn can suffer even if it isnt apparent from looking at the blades. To perform this test grab a blade of grass and give it a tug. Roots should be thick and deep to have a healthy lawn. If you pull up thin shallow roots during a hot summer day then it is likely your lawn is suffering and is susceptible to the full effects of drought stress. When roots are shallow they lose an opportunity to soak up the water they need since the hot sun will evaporate most water that is near the surface of the soil.
Drought Stress Knowing Is Half The Battle
University of Florida guidelines suggest that watering lawns on an as-needed basis is one of the best ways to combat environmental factors such as heat and drought. In order to do this, it is important to recognize the signs of water-related stress in grass. Grass, plants, and shrubs show stress when the amount of water lost in transpiration is larger than the amount of water available for the plants ongoing needs.
If you observe closely, you will notice that in an attempt to conserve water, the leaf blades of most grasses fold in half lengthwise. Lawns tend to lose their bright, vibrant green color the longer they suffer the effects of drought. Heat and drought work together to dehydrate our landscapes, making it difficult to keep up with the watering needs of your lawn. One indicator that you need to change your irrigation schedule comes in the form of footprints. Dehydrated plant walls lose elasticity, so footprints last from several minutes to several hours after theyre made.
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