What is Drought Stress

Your Drought Stressed Lawn

It is no secret that it has been incredibly hot this week and without a doubt, your lawns are feeling the stress of it too. We have been getting calls and are noticing that many of our customers are lawns are stressed right now so, we thought it would be a good idea to share some information about drought stress and what you can do to help your lawn. This is information was gathered from several sources including The Missouri Botanical Gardens, The University of Missouri, and The University of South Dakota.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Symptoms and Diagnosis

• Footprints in the lawn. Walk across your yard and then look back at your path. Can you see your steps on the grass? Yes? That’s drought stress. This is a telltale sign that comes in handy when your lawn is still green, but you’re worried about a recent lack of rain.

• A purplish sheen to the lawn. You’ll often see grass looking a little bluish-purple/gray instead of bright green when it’s starting to get stressed. Usually this goes hand in hand with the footprints in the lawn symptom.

• A golden yellow or brown lawn. Drought stress tends to affect the entire lawn evenly, so if you only see patches of brown or yellow grass, that’s most likely another problem (like a fungal disease). If your lawn has started yellowing or turning tan during a season when it should be actively growing, it's probably drought stressed.

• Hard, dry soil. When you water the lawn, does the water just run off? Long spells without regular irrigation can cause the soil to become hydrophobic, which means a water-repellent, waxy surface has developed in the soil and it’s keeping your lawn from absorbing water.

Is it dead or just dormant? Cool-season grasses, such as, fescue, often go dormant under the stress of summer heat and drought but will resprout when conditions change.

How to Help a Drought-Stressed Lawn

• If you decide that you are going to water your lawn, infrequent, deep watering is the most beneficial. This will help to allow deeper penetration of the water into the soil profile which will in turn encourage deeper rooting that will help to avoid further water stress. Frequent, shallow watering encourages roots to stay near the soil surface where they can dry out quickly. Generally cool season grasses need about 1” of water per week for best growth which is ideally applied in one or split between two applications per week.

• Mow high. We normally mow at 3 to 3 1/2” to avoid causing summer drought stress and or those of you who do your mowing, this is very good advice to avoid any added stress to your lawn. The higher you mow; the deeper your lawn’s roots will grow. Mow at the highest height recommended for your grass type and never remove more than ⅓ of the total height in a single mowing, as that can further stress your already stressed-out grass.

• Sharpen your mower blades. Sharp blades give a clean cut, which means your grass heals faster and there’s less stress. Plus, it looks better than jagged grass ripped by dull blades, so this is always a good idea even when your lawn is at its best.

• Limit foot traffic. Your yard will thank you if you stay off it while it’s stressed. You’ll also avoid causing even more damage that could be difficult to fix.