05/24/2023
If your bermudagrass or zoysiagrass lawn is not as green as your neighbor’s lawn this time of year, you might want to consider a few things:
1. What kind of grass does your neighbor have planted? If your neighbor’s “bermudagrass” or “zoysiagrass” lawn is fully green this time of year, then it is VERY LIKELY that the lawn is mostly w**ds, specifically winter annual w**ds (chickw**d, henbit, etc.).
2. This winter was a doozy. Lots of untimely bitterly cold temperatures and high winds leading to one of the most severe outbreaks of winterkill in the last 20 years. Therefore, it is not surprising that warm-season grass lawns (e.g., bermudagrass, zoysiagrass, centipedegrass, etc.) have not fully greened up yet or are very injured. After visiting many lawns in Arkansas, many of the issues I have observed are certainly related to Mother Nature over the last year. We had a very dry summer in 2022 leading into a cold winter followed by a cool, wet spring so far this year. These combined factors have created a perfect storm for delayed warm-season grass (bermudagrass and zoysiagrass) green-up and a lot of winterkill caused by extreme sub-freezing temperatures and high winds over the winter. Unfortunately, there is very little, if anything, that can be done to prevent the damage we have seen this spring. My best advice is to be patient, take a soil test, fertilize and water sufficiently this spring and summer, and hope for good weather. All of these best practices in conjunction will make for a faster recovery and a healthier lawn by the end of the summer. Fingers crossed for good weather this year!
3. Is part of your lawn greening up while other areas are not? Consider where the lack of green-up is occurring. If it is a shaded area, or a historically dry area, or a slope facing north, then those areas are very likely to green up slower than areas that receive full sun, stay adequately watered, and are facing south.
4. Did you start treating your lawn with herbicides in the past year and now it looks like you do not have much green left in your lawn? This is quite common as many lawns that have not been historically intensively managed will often have high w**d populations and very little turfgrass underneath all of those w**ds. Therefore, when you begin taking care of the grass and NOT the w**ds, the w**ds die and there is only a little grass left over. No need to fear, though, with enough maintenance the grass will fill in and replace those ugly w**ds.
Source:
Wendell Hutchens, PhD
Assistant Professor of Turfgrass Science University of Arkansas
