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Hello Mid-Ohio Valley farmers and gardeners! Fall is here, but you would not know it as daytime highs reached 86 degrees Fahrenheit this week. A few days without rain have allowed things to dry out and backyard gardeners to catch up on some work around the home and in the garden. Several farmers made a final cut of hay these last couple days.
This week, let's talk about lawn care. When autumn temperatures arrive, many people forget about the lawn. However, fall is a great time to fertilize, control weeds and prepare your lawn for next year. There is a lot of work that needs to be done to prepare for the long winter ahead.
Continue to mow the lawn until the grass stops growing in the fall. Our cool season lawn grasses' (bluegrass, fescue, perennial rye) most active growth is when air temperatures are between 55 -75 degrees Fahrenheit. As the temperature begins to cool below 55, grass growth will slow significantly, especially when daytime high temperatures are consistently below the 50-degree mark.
Grass growth will slow, but cool-season grasses will keep growing into mid-November, depending on the weather. Once the foliage stops growing, the lawn mower can be put away for the winter.
Fall is a great time to aerate your lawn. Aeration is a mechanical process that involves pulling out soil cores to reduce soil compaction and allow for air, water and nutrients to penetrate the grass roots. Aerating your lawn helps the grass roots grow deeply and produce a stronger, healthier lawn and provides better seed-to-soil contact when combined with overseeding.
The optimal time for aeration is late August to mid-October because most weeds are not actively germinating. Spring is the second-best time for aerating your lawn, but you may encounter more weed pressure as weed seeds are exposed to light. Aerators may be rented or purchased at many lawn care or home improvement stores.
Another lawn care practice that some people do in the fall is dethatching. Thatch is the accumulation of roots and shoots resistant to decay beneath the healthy grass of your lawn. Consider dethatching your lawn if you have more than 1 ½ inches of thatch. If less than 1 ½ inches, it can be left alone.
Early fall is also a good time to reseed or over-seed the lawn. However, WVU recommends that cool season grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass and turf type tall fescue be seeded in September but no later than Oct. 15. Plantings later than that can be successful, but the odds diminish significantly.
A word of advice when selecting grass varieties for the lawn: In our area, turf type tall fescues work the best as they are drought tolerant, disease resistant and very hardy. You can also use Kentucky 31 tall fescue, which is used on many football fields. However, it has a more bunch-type growth and the turf-type tall fescues have been developed specifically for growing grass in the lawn. If you have any shady areas, I recommend creeping red fescue.
The problem with late plantings is with rooting after the seed germinates and starts growing. Unless the young grass plants have a fairly extensive root system, the freezing and thawing that takes place during winter heaves plants out of the ground, and they dry out and die.
Fall is the best time to control perennial broadleaf weeds in the lawn with broadleaf herbicides, even after the first frost. In fall, perennial broadleaf weeds are transporting food (carbohydrates) from their foliage to their roots in preparation for winter.
Broadleaf herbicides applied in fall will be absorbed by the broadleaf weed's foliage and transported to the roots along with the carbohydrates, resulting in the destruction of the weeds.
You can help ensure weed plants will metabolize and transport the herbicide by selecting a day to treat when temperatures will get to 60 degrees or above. Be sure to read the label on all pesticides before use.
Another advantage of fall treatments is you can often go back two or three weeks after your initial application and spot treat individual weeds that weren't controlled with the first treatment (depending on the weather).
Remember to consider the moisture and temperature when making spot treatments. If you do not completely control the weeds this fall, you may weaken them, and they are more likely to winterkill.
Fall is when grass plants are building up root reserves for next spring's growth. Fertilizer applications can be made in mid-September and late October/early November. Mid-September fertilization promotes a moderate rate of shoot growth and helps to thicken the turf.
An application of fertilizer in late October/early November (at the time of the last mowing) promotes root growth and early green-up next spring. Apply 1 pound of actual nitrogen per 1,000 square feet in mid-September and late October/early November.
A word about mowing heights: Leave your mower height set at 3 inches. It is not necessary or recommended to lower the mowing height in the fall. Taller grass will catch more snow which provides a protective layer over the turf, lessening the chances of winterkill if we have a winter with little snow. Turf is much more likely to be damaged when exposed to the winter weather.
Finally, I recommend mowing and mulching or raking leaves as they accumulate on your lawn. Don't allow a layer of leaves to accumulate on the turf. When moisture mats these down, large areas of turf can be damaged or killed resulting in the need to overseed or reseed next spring. Piles of clippings or ground leaves on top of the turf can smother the turf as well.
Mowing and mulching leaves return nutrients to the soil. If they are thick and you have piles of ground up leaves and clippings left behind by the mower, mow over the area again or bag and remove them. Bagged leaves and grass clippings are great for the compost pile.
Contact me at the Wood County WVU Extension Office (304)-424-1960 or jj.barrett@mail.wvu.edu with questions. Good Luck and until next time, Happy Gardening!