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.

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Avoiding Winter Injury