Avoiding Winter Injury

sean — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:28:32 +0000

It’s looking like we may get hit with a bit of snow and ice overnight—at least that’s what they’re saying—so I thought I’d take a moment and talk about Winter Injury.
Typically, we in the South, don’t have much to worry about when it comes to our turfgrass wintering; as the temperatures rarely get cold enough—or stay cold long enough—to cause any damage to our lawns. However, with the near zero temps of a couple of weeks ago and lower than average temps expected, combining that with snow and ice, there is a possibility for winter injury to occur. While the chances of it actually affecting your lawn are low; as a precaution, you should do your very best to minimize traffic of any sort on your lawn during the time it is covered with snow/ice. Obviously, thinning areas, shaded areas, areas with poor drainage and newer sod installations are most at risk; it’s a good idea to just keep to the sidewalks and driveways.
I recently spoke to a man at a sod farm who mentioned there was still frost in the ground as shallow as five inches—that five inches will freeze quickly, leaving a nice frozen base for the snow and ice to sit upon. Having a lot of traffic on the lawn in this state can cause irreparable damage to the turf.

And It Rained

sean — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:13:40 +0000

And then the rain came… again, and again, and again. In the 10 years I’ve been doing lawncare, I can’t recall having seen more rain in such a short amount of time—and during this time of year. Sadly, with the amount of rain we’ve had, I’m also seeing a tremendous amount of soil erosion. Soil erosion is bad. To put it bluntly: there is nothing that can be done about losing areas of turf due to soil erosion, other than replacing it in the spring, or—preferrably—preventative measures (ie., French drains, gutter downspout relocation). I have have seen soil erosion in excess of 3″ this year alone; exposing tree roots and carving deep ruts along fence lines and pavement. We’ll need to address these problems before Spring arrives.

We will see a spike in turf diseases this Autumn as well… namely, Brown Patch. As a homeowner, the one thing you can do to lessen the likelihood of turf disease in your lawn, is to disable your irrigation… Now. Brown Patch disease thrives in cool temperatures and damp turfgrass. Additionally, if your lawn is chemically treated, the fertilization being applied during this time of year will increase the rate and spread of Brown Patch—this is especially true in Zoysiagrass and St. Augustine lawns. My advice for you, would be to to ask your lawn chemical specialist to delay application until your lawn has had adequate time to dry.

We have had an extraordinarily wet Summer and Autumn; which can lead to all types of lawn problems—let’s try to stay ahead of Mother Nature.

SEANSCAPES » Climate

Avoiding Winter Injury

And It Rained