lawn Archives - South Austin Irrigation

Tips for Fall Lawn Care

October 27, 2022 By Matt Sorenson

Taking proper care of your lawn in the fall keeps it healthy and prepares it for the winter months ahead. There are a number of steps you can take to ensure your lawn’s winter survival and a strong recovery in the spring.

Fertilizers

In the fall, apply a quick-release fertilizer at least six weeks before the first expected frost. You’ll need to water it in with irrigation after application. The nutrients from the fertilizer will increase lawn density, improve color, help prevent winter weeds, and provide enough stored sustenance to aid growth in the spring.

Warm-season grasses, such as buffalo, bermuda, St. Augustine, and zoysia, go dormant when the temperature drops below 60°F on a regular basis. Because of this factor, fertilizers for warm-season grasses in the fall should not be high in nitrogen (N). Too much nitrogen at this time can over-stimulate growth when the grass should be preparing for dormancy, making it vulnerable to frost and possibly winter kill.

A high nitrogen content in the fall also provides energy for winter weeds, as well as disease such as Large Patch, a fungus that becomes active when temperatures drop, and moisture and heavy nitrogen levels are present.

Warm-season grasses also benefit from a late-season fertilizer containing potassium, especially if soil test results indicated low amounts. Potassium helps grass resist disease and endure cold temperatures.

Herbicides

Fall pre-emergent herbicides should be applied when soil temperatures reach approximately 70°F. This won’t necessarily occur at the same time every year, as environmental conditions differ year to year. To help determine the correct application time, homeowners can use soil temperature probes, probe-type meat thermometers, or soil temperature maps.

Choosing the right herbicide is less challenging if you know what grassy and broadleaf weeds you’re dealing with. Products usually list the range of plants they control, and whether they’re annual or perennial. The pre-emergent herbicides are most effective on annual weeds, while post-emergent herbicides are needed for perennials. In some instances, it’s better to apply both pre- and post-emergent herbicides at the same time, especially if homeowners are splitting their pre-emergent application over a couple of months.

Granular herbicides are easier to apply for the homeowner than liquid ones. In either case, it’s important to always follow the label instructions for proper use, timing, and implementation (e.g. might need activation by irrigation or rainfall). Some pre-emergents will injure grass when applied at certain times of the year, and many are only meant for established turfgrass.

Always apply a herbicide before fertilizing. Give it a couple of days to work before applying the fertilizer.

Mowing

Continue to mow your lawn to the proper height for your type of grass. The recommended cutting height for warm-season grasses varies by species. According to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, the height for some of the common Texas warm-season lawn grasses are as follows:

Bermuda (common) — 1.5 to 3 inches
Bermuda (hybrid) — 1 to 2.5 inches
Buffalo — 2 inches
St. Augustine — 2.5 to 4 inches
Zoysia (fine-textured) — 1 to 2 inches
Zoysia (coarse-textured) — 1 to 2.5 inches

It’s also recommended you keep your grass species at the taller height of the range. Generally, no more than 1/3 of the height should be removed during any one mowing. For example, if your ideal grass height is 2 inches, then you would need to mow before the height is more than 3 inches. Letting the grass get too tall before mowing can lead to scalping (the excessive removal of leafy green growth that results in injury to the grass).

Removing Leaves

A heavy build-up of leaves on a lawn not only suffocates your grass when air can’t circulate, but also blocks the sunlight, prevents water evaporation, and can attract fungus, mold, and pests.

There are a number of choices for dealing with leaves:

Rake, pile, and bag them for collection.
Take the raked leaves, layer them 6 inches deep in your garden and flower beds and use a tiller to work them directly into the soil.
Use a mulching mower or mulching attachment to shred leaves into tiny quarter-sized pieces. These can decompose slowly on the lawn, adding nitrogen and organic matter to the soil.
Use a grass catcher with your regular mower to capture the chopped-up leaves and create or add them to your compost pile.
Place chopped up leaves from the grass catcher as mulch around trees and shrubs, and over perennial beds.

Diseases

When temperatures start dropping in the fall certain warm-season grass diseases become more active. Effective grass management practices should prevent and control fungal diseases, but if specific areas of your grass have a history of disease (e.g large patch and take-all root rot) you can apply a preventative fungicide around the same time as pre-emergent herbicides.

Correct diagnosis is important for successful treatment. If you’re having difficulty identifying the disease, ask a lawn care professional, or contact your Texas A&M AgriLife Extension County Office for assistance.

Pests

This time of year, homeowners should monitor their yards for fall armyworms up until the first frost. The small larvae chew the green layer from the leaves, creating a “windowpane” effect (small areas of the leaf with no green tissue). They’re most active early in the morning or later in the evening, although they can feed at any time. Damaged lawn areas appear off-color, and eventually turn brown as entire leaves are destroyed.

Treat your lawn when leaf damage is visible or you can see large numbers of caterpillars (larvae). Conventional treatments for armyworms in lawns include such insecticides as bifenthrin, carbaryl, esfenvalerate, and permethrin.

Early fall is also a good time to inspect your lawn for visible signs of grub damage. The grubs are now in their late larvae stage and will continue to attack the grass roots until the cooler weather, at which time they’ll move below ground and go dormant until spring.

Irregularly-shaped dead patches can be one sign of a grub infestation, especially if one or more of those patches easily peels away because there are no roots. Animal life digging tunnels or stripping away your grass is also another possible sign.

To be certain, dig several areas of your lawn 1 foot square and 4 inches deep, and peel them back. If you see 10 or more grubs per square foot you need to treat your lawn.

The curative treatments carbaryl and trichlorfon are the chemicals to use in the fall for grubs. They’re short-lived products that kill all grub life stages. Apply them in September or late October. The following June and July you’ll need to treat again, this time with preventive insecticides to protect against the next generation of grubs.

Overseeding

Homeowners with bermuda grass who want a green lawn during the winter can overseed with a cool-season ryegrass. Overseeding is not recommended for other warm-season grasses.

According to turfgrass specialists at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, fall overseeding is done mid to late October and early November. Bermuda grass should be dormant by then, so the ryegrass won’t compete with it for nutrients and sunlight.

Varieties of perennial and annual ryegrasses are most commonly used for overseeding. Perennial ryegrass is often preferred because of its slower growth, disease resistance, less mowing time, and superior dark color. However, annual ryegrass is less expensive, germinates 3 to 8 days faster, and dies out more quickly in the spring so the bermuda grass can regrow without competition.

If you are overseeding with winter ryegrass here are some guidelines:

Generally, don’t apply a pre-emergent herbicide within 6-8 weeks of overseeding. Read the label for specific instructions on the timing.
You may have to apply a starter fertilizer before or right after seeding, especially if a soil test indicates low phosphorus (P).
Mow the lawn to the lowest height in the recommended range for your type of bermuda grass.
Dethatch if there’s more than 1/2 inch of thatch so the grass seeds can reach the soil evenly everywhere. Use a dethatching rake for small areas, and power-driven equipment for large areas (rent or hire someone).
If aeration is necessary, irrigate heavily the day before, or a day after a rainfall, so the soil is moist. Then wait 30 days before overseeding to allow the holes time to heal.

One of the most effective things you can do to maintain a lush, healthy lawn and garden is to keep your irrigation system at peak operating efficiency. South Austin Irrigation can provide custom scheduling, controller replacement and upgrades, system upgrades, leak detection and repairs and many other. Call us at (512) 534-7449 or fill out our online service request form.

Fall Lawn Care in Austin

October 18, 2022 By Matt Sorenson

Lawn maintenance in the fall season is a little different than in the summer months, partly due to steadily dropping temperatures as well as decreased rain. As such, you want to make sure that your irrigation system is working as it should. You might need to make some irrigation system repairs or do some maintenance in advance of the dry winter months.

With all of that in mind, here are some tips for lawn care in the fall.

Lawn Care During Colder Temperatures

Your lawn will continue to grow even though temperatures are steadily declining. This means you should continue to mow your lawn for most of the fall.

You should also rake up the many leaves that will fall so that your lawn continues to get sun and fresh air. If you don’t rake them up, they will block the light and trap moisture underneath, which could kill part of your lawn if left for too long. Essentially, you want to keep your lawn active for as long as possible before the winter frosts come and the grass stops growing.

As the fall season progresses, average rainfall in Austin tends to decrease a little, although not much, with a typical spike in October. Therefore, if you irrigate your lawn a little more, you want to ensure that you don’t accidentally over-irrigate your lawn and end up drowning it.

On the other hand, you don’t want to assume that you don’t need to irrigate because the lower temperatures mean less evaporation and because fall brings more dew. You want to make sure that your lawn still gets at least an inch of water a week.

While temperatures rarely drop below 32 F in winter in Texas, they can trend pretty close on the lower end, starting towards the end of the fall. Therefore you need to make sure your irrigation system is prepared for the winter.

What Irrigation System Maintenance and Repairs Are Recommended?

Fall is the last chance you’ll get to sort things out before the winter chills roll around when you won’t want to spend time fiddling with your sprinklers outside.

During summer, your irrigation systems would have been used plenty and will be due for a good servicing.

The first thing to do is to clean the system by removing all debris ‒ including grass cuttings, dead leaves, sticks and soil ‒ from around sprinkler heads and gutters to prevent any overflow during winter months or clogging when the spring rolls around. Fall will contribute a lot to debris buildup, so you will want to be pretty regular about raking or blowing your lawn and your beds clear.

Secondly, you’ll want to check that your backflow valves are in good working condition so that come springtime, you can pop the system back on without a worry. If you don’t make sure it’s working properly, you could be faced with expensive repairs and fines as well, which you will want to avoid.

Once you’ve cleared away all of the debris, a good visual inspection of your entire system is worthwhile. During the summer months, heads may have become damaged or clogged, among other issues. This is a good time to ensure that your system isn’t leaking anywhere and that your sprinklers are all angled correctly.

If you need to carry out any repairs or replace any components, you should do so before winter hits in full swing so that, when spring returns, you can turn your sprinklers on with the full confidence that they will operate perfectly. You don’t want to be scrambling to get your sprinklers repaired at the eleventh hour in spring.

Also, you should make sure that critters and insects have not interfered with the proper functioning of your sprinkler system during the summer months when they are most active. Nests, burrows and other things could cause your irrigation system to function sub-optimally, so you should inspect your landscape to make sure that any changes caused by animals won’t cause problems going into the next year.

Finally, as the fall draws to a close and winter rears its head, you will probably want to winterize your sprinkler system by making sure that any points near or above the surface are protected from freeze damage. If the backflow valve is above ground, make sure it is properly insulated. For more information on how to do this read Protecting Your Backflow Preventer Assembly During the Winter.

To ensure that your lawn is well-maintained into the fall, irrigation repair and maintenance is a very good idea. Contact South Austin Irrigation for more advice and excellent service in keeping your lawn thriving through all seasons.

Winter Lawn Care Tips

May 23, 2022 By Matt Sorenson

Most lawns go dormant in the winter, but that doesn’t mean you should forget about them until the spring. Keeping them alive and healthy requires maintenance during the colder months.

Watering

Winter watering is usually needed only once or twice a month as a supplement to rainfall. The lawn should be watered deeply each time to the grass roots level, about 6 inches (1 inch of water). Water delivered to the grass root cells keeps them from drying out, and insulates them from freezing temperatures. Moisture in the soil adds even more protection.

The following methods can help monitor soil dryness in your yard to assist with proper irrigation scheduling:

Push an 8-inch screwdriver into the ground. Don’t water if you can push it more than 3 inches into the ground.
Dig down into the soil 6-8 inches using a shovel or hand trowel. Take a handful of soil and roll it in the palm of your hand. No watering is necessary if the soil rolls easily into a ball.
Use a soil moisture meter to check different spots in your lawn. Push the long, metallic probe into the soil 6 to 8 inches, and check the dial for a reading of wet, moist, or dry.

Winter Watering Tips

Only water when the temperature is above 40°F.
Watch for predicted freezes, and water a day or two before. This gives the water time to penetrate the roots and protect them from the cold.
Never water when there’s snow or ice on the ground, even if the temperature is above 40°F. Watering can contribute to ice formation, which is harmful to grass.
Never water when there’s frost on your lawn. The water can turn to ice, destroying grass blades and killing the lawn.
Prevent runoff from occurring on sidewalks, driveways, and roads, where it can freeze and turn to ice.
Water around 9:00 a.m. to avoid the cold morning temperatures, and to give the grass time to absorb the moisture before nightfall. Giving the grass time to dry will also prevent fungal disease.

Minimize Lawn Traffic

Avoid walking on dormant grass as much as possible. It damages easily, and takes longer to recover. A weakened and stressed lawn is unable to resist weeds or disease when it re-emerges in the spring.

Also stay off frozen grass. During a freeze, ice crystals form inside the blades. Walking or driving on the frozen blades crushes them, and causes the ice inside to puncture the cell walls. Those damaged blades can turn brown in the spring.

Yard Cleanup

Keep your lawn free of leaves, fallen branches, and other debris. They can suffocate grass by blocking access to nutrients it needs to survive. Wet leaves and other organic material also provide a perfect home for pests, and create a breeding ground for disease.

Other objects, such as toys, lawn furniture, and landscape equipment should be put away for the winter. They’ll create dead spots on the dormant lawn, and in the spring the grass in those areas will be sparse and stunted. Never park vehicles on grass during the winter — they’ll kill the grass.

Winter Mowing

During the winter your dormant grass grows very little when the temperature is below 40°F. But if you have a moderate winter where the temperature goes above 40°F for a number of days, you’ll have to mow your lawn periodically. Don’t mow just before a frost, or when the grass is wet or frozen.

Keep your grass at the maximum height for its type to help insulate the root system from the cold. As recommended by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, here are the low and high optimum mowing heights for some common warm-season grasses:

Bermuda (common) — 1.5 to 3 inches
Bermuda (hybrid) — 1 to 2.5 inches
Buffalo — 2 to 4 inches
St. Augustine — 2.5 to 4 inches
Zoysia (fine-textured) — 1 to 2 inches
Zoysia (coarse-textured) — 1 to 2.5 inches

Always follow the one-third rule when mowing — only cut off the top one-third of your grass blades. For example, with grass maintained at 2 inches, mow it before it grows over 3 inches high.

Weed Control

During the winter you can find such common broadleaf weeds as lawn burweed, chickweed, dandelion, and henbit in your lawn. A pre-emergent should be applied in September to prevent their growth. You can split pre-emergent applications by dividing the total in half, and applying the second treatment in December or January.

For weeds that have already sprouted above the surface, apply a post-emergent herbicide. Make sure you spot-treat using a herbicide that only kills the weeds and not the grass. Some weed types, such as henbit and chickweed, can easily be hand-pulled if they’re not spread over a wide area.

Repeated lawn mowing will also keep winter weeds under control by preventing them from flowering and producing seeds. In time, this will cut down on their numbers. Use a bag attachment for the mower to catch your grass clippings and weed seed heads.

Fertilizing

Top dressing with compost isn’t recommended when your lawn is dormant during the winter. You run the risk of damaging or killing the grass. Instead, in December or January, add a bio-stimulant with micronutrients. It will increase the lawn’s microbial activity and help to build healthy soil.

Fertilizing too early before spring is more beneficial to cool-season weeds than grass. Grass can’t take advantage of the fertilizer’s macronutrients until it’s actively growing in the spring. Early fertilization also promotes shoot growth at the expense of the root growth needed for a healthy lawn.

To determine the right time to fertilize in the spring, monitor the soil temperature in your area. The soil minimum temperature should be in the 60s, with daytime temperatures consistently in the 70s. You can also consult a soil temperature map for your location.

Overseeding

For those who want a green lawn during the winter, overseed with an annual or perennial cool-season ryegrass. In the spring the ryegrass will die off, making room for the permanent warm-season grass to return.

Usually overseeding is done on a Bermuda lawn, and is not generally recommended for other warm-season grasses. It’s done in the fall from mid-October to early November after the Bermuda grass has gone dormant. If you overseed too early, the ryegrass will be competing for nutrients and sunlight, and may not establish successfully.

Perennial ryegrass is commonly selected over annual ryegrass because it offers a darker green color, better disease and traffic tolerance, and requires less mowing. In comparison, annual ryegrass costs less, germinates faster, and dies out more quickly in the spring to allow the Bermuda grass to establish itself.

An overseeded lawn in the winter requires more maintenance than a dormant lawn. Here are some guidelines for overseeding:

Before sowing ryegrass seed, mow your permanent grass to its lowest recommended height.
Sow half the seed in an east-west direction, and the other half in the north-south direction.
Until the seeds germinate, water lightly at least every other day. Irrigate regularly once the ryegrass is established.
Mow the established ryegrass to the lowest recommended height for the permanent grass.
You can apply a high-nitrogen fertilizer midwinter to maintain ryegrass growth and color.
Post-emergent herbicides can be applied after the ryegrass has been established and mowed a few times.

Call the experts at South Austin Irrigation at (512) 534-7449 or fill out our Service Request form for professional maintenance and repair to your sprinkler system.

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