At this point, you might be tempted to bring in new topsoil. That's not a good idea, since it may contain weed seeds that are tough to control. Be sure to read the directions on the package since not all lawn foods are meant to be applied at seeding time. Which goes on first, the grass seed or the fertilizer? It's up to you. Have issues with weeds?
It also gives new grass a jumpstart so it can grow fast and thick. Thanks to its unique combination of seed and fertilizer, your grass will grow twice as fast as it would if you were using seed alone, giving you a thick, green lawn in just weeks. Different types of grass seed and fertilizer require different spreader settings for optimal coverage.
Don't have a spreader? Find the right one for your lawn right here. Apply the product to the perimeter first, which allows you to fill in the rest of the lawn without worrying about missing any of the edges. Similar to a mowing pattern, seed and feed your lawn with slightly overlapping passes. Avoid getting grass seed or fertilizer in your garden beds or on your sidewalk or driveway.
After you finish laying down the grass seed and lawn food, cover both with a thin layer of soil to help keep the grass seed from drying out and washing away. On hills, mulch with a thin layer of straw to keep seeds from washing away; just be sure you can plainly see the seedbed beneath the straw. You can also mulch the rest of your new lawn with straw to help cut back on water use.
When watering a newly seeded lawn, the key is to keep the top inch of soil consistently moist, but not soggy. Once the seeds start to germinate, aim to keep the top 2 inches of soil moist until the new grass reaches a mowing height of around 3 inches. After that, reduce watering to about twice per week, soaking the soil more deeply about 6 to 8 inches each time to encourage grass roots to grow down deep in the soil. Adjust your mower to a high setting to keep the lawn nice and thick; when you cut it too short, it weakens the grass, allowing weeds to sneak in.
While the grass is still new and developing, avoid as much foot traffic on the lawn as possible. After 6 to 8 weeks, you can start a regular lawn fertilizer program to help keep your new grass thick and lush.
The more you know about grass, the easier time you'll have growing it. Whether you are just starting out, maintaining or troubleshooting, you'll find advice and answers here for all your lawn care needs. Skip to main content. The first step in understanding grass growth is an awareness of the different groups into which grasses can be categorized. Grasses can have annual or perennial life cycles, tall or short statures, jointed or non-jointed regrowth mechanisms, sod or bunch growth habits, warm or cool-season responses to climates, and requirements or no requirements for vernalization.
The labeling of plants as annuals, biennials, or perennials goes back to the early Greeks. Plants with annual life cycles complete their growth cycle in a single growing season which is not usually an entire year , and are perpetuated by seed. The major row crop plants of the world are annuals; corn, rice, wheat, and barley.
Biennials are plants that take two seasons or years to complete their growth cycle. The first year is a time for accumulating food reserves in storage organs. The second season produces reproductive flowers and seed. Some of the root crops, such as beets, carrots, and parsnips, some ornamental shrubs like hollyhock, and some vegetables like onions and cabbage are biennials.
There are no common biennial grasses. Perennials are plants that continue to grow indefinitely. Some may die back to the ground each winter herbaceous perennials , but revive from the roots in the next spring. They propagate by tillers and seeds. Many of the forage grasses function in this way.
Most perennial plants add new growth each year as trees do. Some species, especially tropical forms like the tomato, are perennials but are cultivated as annuals in certain climates. Some annuals can be managed to be short-term perennials. This general understanding of plant classifications will help grass managers to understand the normal cycle of their grasses and help them make decisions on how to select forage species and maximze their production. The following lists include the major annual and perennial grasses:.
Grasses vary in size from very small species only 0. A few species even grow prostrate along the ground which is common in legumes but not so common in grasses. Understanding the potential size and erectness of grasses can add to successful decision making for forage managers. Most references to grasses list grasses as tall or short and some grasslands are characterized as tall or short-grass prairies, with some overlapping. The Great Plains region of North America is known as one of the largest grassland areas in the world.
It extends east to west from the deciduous forests of the east to the foothills of the Rocky Mountatins. There is a west to east gradient of increasing precipitation and, of course, a gradient of increasing temperature north to south. Some have divided the Great Plains into four prairie sections: tall grass, mixed grass, short grass, and fescue.
Thousand of years of grass growth and regrowth in the Great Plains resulted in tremedously fertile soil which is now mostly used for crop production. The tall grass prairie is mainly made up of warm-season grass species like big bluestem, little bluestem, indiangrass, and switchgrass. These species thrive with higher precipitation.
Precipitation is a direct factor in tall grasses. Tall grasses are also often located near ditches, riparian zones, and other areas where water collects.
Tall grass prairies extend from Texas north into Manitoba. Short grass prairies are dominated by blue grama and buffalograss. The semiarid climate east of the Rockies, from Texas to Saskatchewan supports these shorter grasses. The mixed grass prairies are transition grasslands containing a mixture of tall and short grasses. This is a result of intermediate precipitation in Kansas up into Canada.
In the foothills of the Rocky Mountain range, the prairies consist of fescues and oatgrass. The major tall-grass prairies of the Midwest and Great Plains were quite overwhelming to early settlers.
Tall-grass prairies have been described as oceans, and some found them too vast to cross. After the American Revolution, settlers and pioneers waited almost 40 years before inheriting million acres million hectares of bountiful prairies.
Without large numbers of domesticated animals and plows, the tall-grasses seemed too massive to control. Pioneers felt more comfortable with trees and felt land that grew only grass was inferior. They mistakenly reasoned that if there wasn't enough rain for trees, then there wouldn't be enough rain for crops.
They avoided the "Great American Desert". Some historians felt that the Indians Native Americans of the prairies were more feared than Indians Native Americans of the woodlands and this feeling contributed to the slow acquisition of the prairies. Other practical factors entered into the matter: few navigable rivers, the different prairie soil did not respond to the plows available, few railroads extended into the prairie, settlers often did not own enough horses and mules, few available trees for building homes, fences, tools and fuel.
So, much of the tall-grass prairies was given away. Without understanding the needs and growth habits of grass, the immense prairies were almost destroyed within 50 years. By the time of the Dust Bowl the prairies were in grave danger. Tall grasses are those that grow erectly over feet 0.
Their stature must be supported by adequate precipitation. The short grasses are blue grama, buffalograss, annual bluegrass, and western wheatgrass.
Most of the common forage grasses, perennial and annual ryegrass, orchardgrass, bermudagrass, kentucky bluegrass, and tall fescue are erect but not considered tall grasses.
Sod-forming grasses have strong, creeping rhizomes that extend through the soil or have stolons that grow above ground, producing new plants when they root at the nodes. This type of growth that extends out into the soil is called extravaginal growth. The Bromus and Agropyron species are sod grasses, sometimes called "sod formers. Augustine grass are sod grasses. Tall fescue has lower, lateral growth but is not aggressive. Creeping foxtail and smooth bromegrass are very aggressive and need careful management to not become pests.
Bunchgrasses grow from intravaginal tillering at or near the soil surface without rhizomes or stolons. New plants shoots arise from buds within basal sheath tissue and grow up from within the plant forming distinct clumps or tufts of vegetation. Bunchgrasses can eventually cover a pasture with a good stand but sod grasses can do so much more quickly. While empty space exists between bunchgrasses the opportunity for weed infestation is greater.
Bunchgrasses can be more productive than sod-formers because they are putting all their energies into above ground structures which can be utilized. Sod formers have structures at ground level and below. The following lists designate the sod-forming or bunchgrass growth habits of the common forage grasses. Understanding warm-season C 4 and cool-season C 3 plants. Although animals eat all year round, there is no "all season" plant to use as forage. Knowing that some plants are C 3 cool season, temperate and some plants are referred to as C 4 warm season, tropical is a basic key to having quality forage all year long.
But understanding the physiology internal chemical changes of both can even further improve the management of forages. The science: C 4 and C 3 plants both utilize photosynthesis which is a chemical process in which light energy from the sun is captured and mixed with water and carbon dioxide to make sugars which are used as food for chemical energy.
But C 3 and C 4 plants use different leaf anatomies to carry out photosynthesis. The differences are reflected in how plants take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use the components for plant functions. But it should be noted that photosynthesis also is influenced by solar radiation, temperature, water stress, and mineral nutrition.
C 3 plants cool season The science: C 3 plants are called temperate or cool season plants and reduce fix CO 2 directly by the enzyme ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase in the chloroplast. The reaction between CO 2 and ribulose bisphophate, a phosphorylated 5-carbon sugar, forms two molecules of a 3-carbon acid. This 3-carbon acid is called 3-phosphoglyceric acid and explains why the plants using this chemical reaction are called C 3 plants. The 3-phosphoglycieric acid molecules move out of the chloroplast to the cytoplasm and are used to make hexose, sucrose and other compounds.
The enzyme ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase also triggers a reaction where oxygen splits ribulose bisphophate into a 2-carbon acid and a 3-phosphoglyceric acid. The 2-carbon acid is respired to carbon dioxide and basically a loss to plant function. The percentage goes up in higher temperatures, so C 3 plants use more available oxygen in cooler environments.
The ramifications: C 3 plants have an optimum temperature range of degrees F Growth may begin when the soil temperature is degrees F 4. What do you need to do to maintain a beautiful lawn, short of shelling out hundreds of dollars to a professional lawn care service? In this article, we'll find out what grass is, what it needs, and how you can make yours the best on the block.
If you don't have your own lawn, or you couldn't care less what it looks like, none of this will seem very important. But if you're up late at night tossing and turning because the grass is greener on the other side of your fence, read on. Before we get into the peculiar world of lawn care, let's cover some basics. What exactly is grass? Grass is the common name for the Gramineae family of plants. With more than 9, known species, this family is one of the largest on Earth.
Grass is extremely important to most people's lives, whether they know it or not. For one thing, grass is a major food source all over the world. Rice, corn and oats come from grass plants, for example, and most livestock animals feed primarily on grasses. In some parts of the world, people use grass plants in construction bamboo is a grass, for example , and wherever it grows, grass plays a vital role in curbing erosion.
Grass is also used to make sugar, liquor, bread and plastics, among many other things. Grasses have a very simple structure, and a very simple way of life. You can better grasp what grass needs when you understand how it actually functions in the world. At the base of the grass plant, roots grow down into the earth.
Typically, grass roots are fibrous , or threadlike. They extend into the soil like fingers, collecting nutrients, soaking up water and securing the plant to the ground. Grass stems, called culms , grow up from the base of the plant the crown. In most grass species, the culms are hollow and rigid, except at the nodes -- joints that join stem segments together.
0コメント