With the rising temperatures we have quickly entered the best time of the year to plant sod. I’m sure a few of you just read the first sentence and thought that I was crazy since we’re hitting 105-110 degrees most days. Warm season turf is so well adapted to this type of weather that establishing a lawn during the summer is a simple process with the right prep work and follow up. I’m going to outline some simple cost effective steps for those looking to put in a lawn this summer.

Living in the desert we all know that water is scarce so we want to do our best to preserve it and not overuse it. One of the best water saving tips is putting in an automatic sprinkler system. Before I proceed I will tell you that I don’t recommend putting in a new lawn without one. A good sprinkler system will allow you to put out the correct amount of water in a given period of time and will help eliminate waste.

BOBSod does very well during the hot summers.

Setting up a manual sprinkler or hose is inefficient, time consuming, and most of all it is very tough to gauge the amount of water you actually put out. Before putting in an irrigation system you should by a small gauge to check your homes water pressure. Knowing how much water pressure you have will determine how many sprinklers can be on each valve. Depending on the area you will be watering you may need a couple to several valves to correctly operate your irrigation system. Most sprinkler systems are set up with a valve that controls the drip lines to the plants and then a valve for each section of the turf. A home with 1000 square feet of turf will typically have two valves to control the lawn. If you have very low water pressure you will probably need to add a third valve so less sprinklers are running at one time.

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The word transition tends to conjure up some ugly thoughts in people’s minds. Transition is often used to describe moving from one stage to another or in the case of sports teams are often transitioning from one style of play to another. Fans of sports teams cringe when they hear the word transition and the same is true for most turf managers but with turf it is often an easy fix. My goal today is to answer some frequently asked questions on transition, sod install, fertilizer and watering for the summer. If you have another question that I didn’t list please let me know.

Q.     I overseeded my lawn last fall and I can’t get the ryegrass to die off. Can I turn the water off and kill it?

A. Yes and no. You can turn the water off and severely stunt or kill the ryegrass but you will also do some serious harm to your warm season turf. It is best to cut your water back 30-40% and let it fade away with the warmer temperatures.

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No matter how many years I live in Arizona it always surprises me how quickly the temperature goes from 50 degrees to 90 degrees. I can’t say that I’m very excited to see our first 90 degree day this coming weekend. I would be okay if we could make it until April for this to happen but we don’t get that choice. Since we rarely have a winter in Southern California and Arizona February is the month to apply your pre-emergent herbicide to control summer annuals. If you’re from back east or the mid-west you will realize this is about three months earlier than you would apply one but timing is everything in turfgrass. I spend so much time discussing weather in these blogs because every part of the grass cycle is controlled by temperature.

Summer annual weeds can be everything from spurge to any number of broadleaf weeds. These weeds attack weak areas of your lawn and fill in voids because of the lack of competition with your grass. There are a few options to controlling these and the first is to maintain a healthy balanced lawn. The second is to apply pre-emergent fertilizers, and the third is to treat weeds that pop up with post-emergent herbicides or by hand picking them.

Most people don’t want to deal with an invasion of weeds in their lawn so the easiest and most efficient way is to apply a pre-emergent herbicide. One thing you must keep in mind when you apply these is that they won’t control weeds that are already present but they will help prevent new weeds from emerging from the ground. When you’re looking at different herbicides to apply you need to carefully inspect the label and see if the product is okay for overseeded turf, non-overseeded turf or both. Most of the herbicides are okay for both but different rates will be listed on the label.

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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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With the fourth of July landing on a Thursday this year many of you will have a long weekend so I figured I would give you a to do list for your lawn. We’re probably a week or two away from getting any monsoon activity so now is a great time to clean up the yard and get it ready to grow when the humidity starts to kick in.

Living in the desert it is often tough to get ideal growing conditions for a warm season grass. The high temperature help bermudagrass and paspalum grow but what they really desire is humidity. The humidity is a kick starter for your grass and if your grass has space to grow you can expect to see some quick changes to your lawn. Before I go into detail about what you will gain from the humidity I should address anyone that still has lingering ryegrass from the spring. Ryegrass has a tendency to stick around in shaded areas at this time of the year but you can bet the first blast of humidity will wipe it out. If you’re looking to hold on to this grass because you can’t grow bermudagrass in that spot then you will want to apply a fungicide now and every 14-21 days throughout the monsoon season. This is not a guarantee of success but the best way to try and save it through the summer. Read the rest of this entry »

We all know that with the rain showers the weeds are going to start to appear in our grass soon if we don’t take some action. The best approach for early season weed issues is to down a pre-emergent and with temperatures that will be on the rise soon.  There is no better time than in the next few weeks. I will be outlining the specific steps needed to take action before the weeds become an issue.

Normally when we have this cold of a year the weeds will emerge a little later than normal from the heavy freeze but with timely rains and some warm weeks we’re starting to see quite a few annual weeds appearing. If you live south of Tucson or up north where you are still getting morning frosts you can hold off on weed control until the end of the month, but for the Phoenix and Palm Springs area now is a great time to get this product down.

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The past five days have brought in a weather pattern that us desert dwellers are not used to and I’m pretty sure many of you have noticed your dark green lawn turn to an ugly shade of yellow and brown.  While your plants outside have been suffering pretty bad with the deep freeze there is nothing to worry about with your lawn.  Ryegrass is well adapted for the cold weather and even though it is below freezing at night the daytime temperature is moving into the 40’s which will keep the lawn from going dormant.  It would take a couple weeks of freezing temperatures combined with very low daytime highs for you to lose all the color in your lawn.

I have been watching all my neighbors throwing covers over all their plants in hopes of preventing any frost damage and running their irrigation water for the trees on a trickle to keep the foliage but this is not necessary for your grass.  I have been by several neighborhoods where people are watering at 7:00 to 8:00am to try and get the frost off their lawn and instead of removing the frost they’re creating an ice rink.

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With the holidays right around the corner I’m sure everyone wants to spruce up their lawns to show off to family and friends, so I’m going to give you a few tips to help make that happen.

We have been pretty fortunate to not receive any frost yet which has allowed the ryegrass to really take hold and start to flourish.  If you’ve been following the overseed plan you should be seeing a good amount of growth and the color of the turf should be bright green.  If you’ve missed a couple fertilizer applications, now is going to be your chance to really catch up and get that color back before the holidays.

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By now most of you have overseeded for the fall or made the decision to let your turf go dormant for the winter. I think now is an appropriate time to talk about the best way to control your water bill and at the same time give your grass the best chance of thriving. Our extreme summers often give homeowners the wrong idea of just how much water is necessary to grow a green lawn. Read the rest of this entry »