Warm-Season Lawn Tips for March
Warm-season lawns include bermudagrass, zoysiagrass, centipedegrass, and St. Augustinegrass.
- It’s about time to start mowing warm-season grasses! Keep an eye out for your lawn “greening up” – small green blades popping out. Your mowing height can have a big impact on your turfgrass health. For the healthiest grass, mow bermudagrass and zoysiagrass to 1-2″. St. Augustinegrass should be mowed to 2-3″. For any grass type, raise your mowing height an additional half inch in hot weather and don’t remove more than 1/3 of the grass height at one time.
- It’s also about time to start watering! Established lawns do best with about 1″ of water per week. Keep in mind that rainfall also contributes to this amount, so adjust the amount you water depending on that week’s precipitation. A cheap rain gauge in your yard is an easy way for you to keep track of the amount of water your lawn gets from precipitation and irrigation. Water new seed or sod daily for the first 30 days to help it get established.
- It’s aaaalmost time for fertilizer, but not quite. Don’t apply your nitrogen fertilizers until the soil temperature is reliably 65°F and rising at a 4” depth.This is when lawns have fully greened up. Always apply lime based on your recent soil test results.
- Hopefully you’ve gotten a soil test and limed your warm-season lawn already, but go ahead and do it if not. Bermudagrass and St. Augustinegrass do best when soil pH is 5.5-6.5. Zoysiagrass likes the pH to be a little higher, at 6.0-7.0.
- Get ready to lay new seed or sod in May, June, and July. It’s still a little too early now.
- You also don’t want to aerate or dethatch until grass is actively growing. Aeration is recommended in May-August and dethatching in June and July.
- Your window for applying pre-emergent herbicides for warm-season weeds has closed, but you can continue to apply post-emergent herbicides for broadleaf weeds that have already come up. (Note: when applying post-emergents for grassy weeds, like crabgrass and dallisgrass, wait until your lawn is actively growing in June-August. This will help avoid burning your turfgrass.)
Cool-Season Lawn Tips for March
Cool-season lawns include tall fescue, fine fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, rough bluegrass, and ryegrass.
- Continue mowing and watering cool-season lawns regularly. Mow tall fescue to a height of 2”-3” and never remove more than 1/3 of the total height at one time. Turf should get about 1” of water per week. Keep in mind that rainfall contributes to this amount, and adjust your irrigation as necessary.
- Now is the optimal time to aerate cool-season lawns. Core aerating regularly is important for reducing compaction and helping your turf grow as vigorously as possible.
- No need to fertilize cool-season lawns until early October. Cool-season lawns are dormant in the summer, so fertilizing now could cause damage. No need to lime until Fall.
- We don’t recommend seeding new lawns, interseeding established lawns, or laying sod until Fall.
- Your window for applying pre-emergent herbicides for warm-season weeds has closed, but you can continue to apply post-emergent herbicides for broadleaf weeds that have already come up.