Start watering your lawn now, turf expert urges

Akron Beacon Journal

AKRON

The current dry spell might be taking a toll on your yard.

The National Weather Service says the Youngstown area got just 2.7 inches of rainfall in June, more than 1 inch below normal. Storms provided relief in some areas Tuesday, but many lawns and landscapes remain parched.

If you haven’t already been watering, it might be time to start, especially if you have younger trees or other plants that suffer from dry conditions.

Established lawns can survive fairly long periods of drought, particularly if they’re planted in decent soil, said Joe Rimelspach, a turf grass expert at Ohio State University. The grass will turn brown and go dormant without water, but the grass plants’ crowns and root systems will stay alive for weeks.

Rimelspach said the bluegrass and rye grass typically used in Ohio lawns should remain alive for about six weeks without water; tall fescue, even longer. However, he said the lifespan will be shorter if the lawn gets heavy traffic, if it’s planted on a south-facing slope and gets a lot of sun, if the soil contains a lot of buried gravel or other debris, or if the grass has a poor quality root system.

Providing about a half-inch of water once a week is enough to keep a dormant lawn alive, Rimelspach said. A good soaking once a week will reach deeper into the soil, so it’s better than smaller, more frequent waterings.

It’s hard to tell how much water a sprinkler emits, however. Rimelspach and Tim Malinich, an OSU Extension agent, said you can use a rain gauge or even a straight-sided, flat-bottom can to capture the water and measure the amount.

Better yet, Malinich suggested putting several cans around the area you’re irrigating, since sprinklers don’t always water evenly.

A more accurate method, however, is to dig down into the soil and feel it.

As long as the soil at the thatch level is moist, Rimelspach said, the crown of the grass plants should be getting enough water.

In the meantime, avoid hard wear on the lawn such as parking on it or inviting your friends for a volleyball game. Typical foot traffic from people walking on the grass or children playing on it shouldn’t be harmful, he said.

Rimelspach noted that as long as your grass is a tan or straw color, it’s probably just dormant.

As grass dies, it turns gray and the grass plants start collapsing and matting.

It’s best to water in the morning so any water that does get on the leaves will evaporate as the day heats up.