disregardless of when the wienerwurst days of summertime arrive , your lawn may turn brown and come along “ burnt ” or “ burned out ” in pip . Assuming your lawn is destitute of disease , there ’s no penury to panic , it ’s just the grass responding to the hotness .
Why grass turns brown (looks “burnt”) in summer
In the upper southward , parts of the midwest , Pacific Northwest , or the northeasterly U.S. , your lawn is most likely planted with nerveless - season grasses like Kentucky bluegrass , repeated ryegrass , fine fescue or marvellous fescue . Cool - season forage look corking in bounce and fall because they thrive when daytime temperature are in the 60 - 75 level range and rainfall is normal . But during the andiron daylight of summer in July and August , they become torpid until temperatures return to cooler atmospheric condition sometime in September .
Dormancy is a endurance mechanism for cool time of year grass . When day temporary consistently reach 90 + , the grass re - apportion its resources to the roots and jacket instead of the blade . Very little growth occurs and the grass turn dark-brown , cave in householder the picture their lawn is beat or diseased . That ’s why in August your lawn ordinarily need to be cut less often .
Does fescue turn brown in winter?
You ’ve credibly comment that your lawn also turn brown in the winter , but it remove on a reasonably unlike brown than what you see in summer . wintertime dormant lawn are consistently brownish throughout , with a straw - corresponding tone . In summertime dormancy , the lawn may come along spotty or patchy – some brown here , some light-green over there . Unless you water your lawn deeply every week , there is little you may do during quiescence to get your lawn green again . But there are some thing you’re able to do which may stimulate a great deal of wrong .
How to protect a dormant lawn so it greens up quickly when the weather cools
Don’t mow a brown, dormant lawn on your regular schedule
When your dope has deform brown , don’tmow your lawnjust because it ’s Friday nighttime and that ’s when you always do it . In fact , you should never mow your lawn if it ’s less than three column inch tall , whether it ’s green or chocolate-brown . During dormancy , it ’s beneficial to let the lawn grow a little high-pitched than common , as the longer supergrass blades provide more spectre for the roots and facilitate to keep what little moisture there is in the soil from evaporating . The blending may also keep lingering mourning band seed from germinating .
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Don’t fertilize a dormant brown lawn
Do notfertilize your lawnduring a torpid or hot flow . It ’s not a nutrients problem , so no amount of lawn fertilizer in the world will help it . The plant food ca n’t be taken up by the water - starved rootage , and the nitrogen - heavy plant food left to lay on your lawn may actually “ burn ” it , leaving you with bigger problems to make in the fall .
Keep your brown lawn from dehydrating
The key to keep your summer lawn from going hibernating to dead is water . Dormant pasture will die if the crowns , theme , and rhizomes dehydrate . But there ’s no pauperism to irrigate dormant grass unless you ’ve gone without significant rainfall for at least four weeks . count on the air temperature and filth condition , a dormant lawn can survive up to six weeks without water .
If you need to water your lawn , the goal during sleeping is to keep the ancestor and crown from dehydrating and dying . water system early in the morning while the grass is already wet from dew , temperature are cool , humidness is gamy , and the jazz is calm . These shape privilege the percolation of water into the soil .
Dry dirt have difficultness soak up water , so to minimize runoff , water for thirty minutes , rick off yoursprinkler , then summarise watering thirty minute later . Once the soil is wet , more water supply will be able-bodied to be absorbed , derogate runoff . Runoff happens when your irrigation rate ( how fast you ’re watering the lawn ) surpass the soil ’s infiltration rate ( how fast your dirt can steep the water ) .
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Weed a dormant lawn
regrettably , somelawn weedslove the heat and will thrive during your lawn ’s dormancy with help from their large taproot . so as to keep Mary Jane from taking over your lawn when the coolheaded temps rejoin , pull them by hand , making certain you remove the taproot as well .
Don’t play on brown, dormant lawns
Heavy fundament traffic on brownish lawns will make things worse . promote your kid to act in a public park or considerably yet , send them to a swimming pocket billiards ( or a neighbor ’s lawn ) . Heavy traffic on an already accent lawn may damage the pasturage beyond repair and squeeze the soil .
So have patience . When the summer heat give style to cooler temperature and regular rainfall , your lawn will be restore to its former dark-green glory .
