Tall Fescue Died (Summer 2020)

3 years ago

Hi - Our home is located in Carlisle PA, which is in a transition zone. This summer (2020), we’ve had extremely high temperatures. We have also had some rain. Our lawn is a mixture of tall fescues, which are drought tolerant cool weather grasses. We are accustomed to seeing our grass “brown-out’ in summer only to recover with cooler weather. We do not water the grass because again - we are accustomed to seeing our grass “brown-out’ in summer only to recover with cooler weather.

This summer has been different. The front of our lawn (S.W. exposure) plus side yards have experienced virtual wholesale die-out. The back yard has not died out. We spoke with a local landscaper about our lawn problem. He asked us 3 questions: Do you have good and deep top-soil; Is your property sitting on shale; Does your property sit high in your development. Answers: No, Yes, Yes. The landscaper said these answers/conditions would exacerbate grass die-off.

Attached are pictures of the dead grass in the front yard. What caused this? Do you have any recommendations for restoring and maintaining our lawn going forward?

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User
3 years ago
https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/carlisle/17013/august-weather/335346?year=2020&view=list

I'm using that as the historical rainfall for Carslile, which is far enough from me that it would be in another country over in Europe. In terms of significant rainfall, you've had 0.71" of rain on Saturday, August 28th...and a third of an inch on Friday, August 7th. September rainfall so far has been much better, with 3 rainy days and 3 dry ones, but even so, the 3 rainy days were good, fair, and fair, summing to very good.

Other than that, there's been no rainfall that's enough to do anything other than keep the roots barely ticking.

I'd actually expect your lawn to look like that at the moment and I'm going to advise, "Don't Panic." Effectively, the wakeup call only went out on August 28th, and the lawn is in, "Let's not take any chances" mode. Dormant grasses are low on energy and breaking dormancy costs a lot of energy. Grasses can usually break dormancy once. Going back into dormancy a second time means severe losses.

I'd expect significant recovery, after a longer-term dormancy like this, once temperatures start to drop a bit and the soil has been damp for a longer period of time.

This might be the one instance where, when it starts to cool and recover, where I would water if it began to get dry once again. Just enough to assure that the lawn doesn't stress. And make certain to feed with any good synthetic or organic food as per bag instructions in October because it's going to need the energy, and again in November when you do your last mow for the year--winterization of that lawn for energy storage for winter will be critical.

Next year, feed on Memorial Day (and not before--spring feedings tap energy out of the roots and reduce summer performance, plus reduce the grass' ability to go dormant) to armor it for summer, and otherwise irrigate or not as you wish. I don't water the lawn either.

Cumberland County is heavy agriculture. Your overall soil is actually pretty good, so I wouldn't expect that your soil is awful, or terribly thin, or that underlying shale is too much of an issue. If you have rocky soil (reasonably normal, I certainly have rocks in mine!) or are at the top of a hill (I'm the third property from the top of a two hundred foot, mile-long hill that's a billion years old), it's really of no great consequence.

The sprigs I see doing well (cough--K-31 fescue--cough) are the things that are literally impossible to send into dormancy and that will probably survive nuclear war, any pandemic, the Zombie Apocalypse, and still be around, happily green, when the Sun turns into a white dwarf.
nvf7777
Original Author
3 years ago
Thanks for your reply! I appreciate your insight and for offering me some hope. I must say frankly, I will be amazed to see the grass in question recover to any meaningful level. I hope you prove me wrong! When I reseed or overseed when it gets cool, I plan to again use 'Premiium Mixture', which is a mixed varied of tall fescues (not K-31) recommended by my local landscaping.

Re: 'Premium Mixture' at this site: https://www.ahreiff.com/grass-seed/

Do you know of any other seed that might be better for my location and lawn condition? Thanks again.
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User
3 years ago
I've seen worse summers and my memory runs long. :-) Longer, really, than I'd care to admit...

That mix is fine. I don't see any reason for most casual lawn-owners to have an elite lawn, or to deal with the joys and problems from said lawn. I might suggest the Pro Landscape Mix just because it has more bluegrass in it. It'll take the longest to sprout at about 20-28 days, but...

Bluegrasses are the first to go dormant, but survive drought the best (my lawn is 100% elite bluegrass and I don't irrigate it at all at any time ever under any circumstances or for any reason period paragraph end statement nyah). Long after fescue and rye have given up, bluegrass just sleeps on, waiting for Prince Charming in the form of rainfall.

The summer we had was nothing to my bluegrass. It's already back (although I had more August rainfall than you did!)

But if you'd rather not, the Premium is just fine and it does have some bluegrass in it. And this is by weight, where 10% bluegrass is actually closer to 40% bluegrass. :-) Bluegrass seeds are tiny things, compared to the giant fescue and rye seed.

Which is why I think your lawn will be coming back just fine.
nvf7777 thanked User
David Moore zone 6a nw new jersey
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
We had a terrible summer here in Hackettstown, NJ. My lawn was cooked and I am now trying to renovate it. I have reseeded, fertilized, aero rated, dethatched and am watering daily. My 2/3 acre is consuming all my time. Still very light on rain.

Tall Fescue Died (Summer 2020)

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Tall Fescue Died (Summer 2020)

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