Many native, northern prairie grasses are warm-season grasses. “Warm-season" does not automatically mean cold-intolerant. Tropical lawns do best with grasses that thrive in hot, humid conditions. Pennington Pensacola Bahiagrass offers greater tolerance to heat (and cold) than common bahiagrasses do. Bahiagrass tolerates high humidity common in the hot Southeast, as well. 2 Pennington Bermudagrass yields dense, resilient, heat-tolerant lawns. Zoysia grass, Centipede grass and Bahiagrass also tolerate high heat very well. They stay green and growing during hot weather that would cause cool-season grasses to turn dormant and brown.īermudagrass is extremely heat tolerant - daytime temperatures of 95 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit are optimal. As a result, these grasses are well-adapted to high soil and air temperatures. came from tropical and subtropical regions around the world. The faster the growth, the more frequently you should mow.Ĭommon warm-season lawn grasses in the U.S. This means never removing more than one-third of the blade during any single mowing. Pennington Centipede Grass Seed & Mulch offers a low-growing, very low-maintenance lawn with little input on your part.įor any type of lawn grass, mowing should be done as needed to keep the grass at its recommended height for optimal health and good growth above and below ground. 5 Centipede grass has the slowest growth rate of common warm-season lawn grasses, and very low fertilizer needs. Zoysia grass needs less fertilizer and mowing, but thatch buildup can require dethatching, especially on fertilized lawns. 2 Its aggressive, vigorous growth creates a dense, durable lawn - but it can mean twice weekly mowing and monthly fertilization during peak summer growth. Bermudagrass is the fastest growing common warm-season lawn grass. Matching your grass to desired maintenance levels helps keep lawn care from becoming a burden. 1 Bermudagrass or Zoysia grass, which both tolerate higher soil pH and salinity, are better choices in such areas.Īll lawn grasses require mowing and fertilizing, but they vary significantly in those needs. Centipede grass, like Bahiagrass, experiences iron deficiencies in alkaline soil. For example, Centipede grass flourishes in acidic, low-pH soil common to the Southeast, but can't tolerate high-alkaline soils of the Southwest. Matching your grass to soil conditions helps reduce labor and the need for added fertilizers and amendments. Lawns with soil pH outside this range may need applications of lime or other soil amendments to restore pH balance and nutrient availability. Regional norms for soil pH are especially important because soil pH affects your lawn's ability to use soil nutrients, including those you add through fertilizers. Most lawn grasses do best where soil testing reveals pH in the slightly acidic to neutral range of 5.8 to 7.0, where essential nutrients stay readily available. But choosing the right warm-season grass seed for your lawn goes beyond these climate basics to additional regional differences that affect lawn health and maintenance. Warm-season lawn grasses do best across the country's southern tier of states and up into the challenging midsection known as the transition zone, where cool, warm, humid and arid regions meet and merge. Grass professionals divide the United States into separate grass-growing regions based on cool and warm climates, humidity and aridity. By understanding the characteristics of these perennial grasses, you can choose the best warm-season grass seed to meet your lawn maintenance and enjoyment goals. Some can only be grown from sod or grass pieces known as sprigs or plugs, but the warm-season grasses noted in the chart below offer the advantages of starting your lawn from seed. Though warm-season lawn grasses share many traits, they differ in significant ways. Their growing cycles and preferences for warm soil temperatures keep lawns in southern and southwestern climates green and growing in summer heat. These grasses get their name because their most active growth occurs during warm seasons, from late spring through summer into early fall. If you live in the southern half of the United States, most of the grasses you see in lawns, parks and athletic fields from coast to coast are “warm-season" grasses.
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