With Wilmington under heat and drought conditions, here's how to manage your lawn

These hot summer days with low rainfall are showing up in drought-stressed turfgrass. We anticipate the drought levels to increase statewide in the coming weeks and the result will likely be more brown lawns, even in the warm-season grasses we see in this area.

According to N.C. State University’s Dr. Grady Miller, “heat alone is generally not problematic with warm season turfgrasses unless there is low soil moisture or a restricted rootzone. In many N.C. landscapes, the turfgrass is not irrigated. In those instances, all the locally grown turfgrass species may begin to brown under our current conditions. Zoysiagrass will often brown before bermudagrass, even though long-term drought tolerance may be similar. All warm-season grass species may turn brown and then slowly green up with the return of favorable soil moisture. Even though the grasses may currently be more brown than green, they can usually handle appreciable dry conditions in terms of survival.

Depending on your irrigation capacity and current level of irrigation restrictions, you can either irrigate to maintain growth and green color or irrigate for turf survival, allowing the turfgrass to go semi-dormant to dormant. Turf survival under drought conditions is affected by turf species, turf age, rooting depth, soil type, shade, maintenance practices, traffic and heat, so it is difficult to provide an exact minimum watering plan to ensure survival under severe drought conditions.

More: 3 ways to beat the heat in the Wilmington area this summer

Common recommendations indicate that turf this time of year needs approximately 1 inch of water per week from irrigation or rainfall. This is an approximate amount to irrigate if you want to keep the turf green and growing. Set your controller to water between 10 p.m.-8 a.m. to improve efficiency. If you pull water from a city water system and have low water pressure, it is typically better to water at night rather than early morning when the water demand is high. Check your irrigation system for evenness of distribution and put out a few catch containers to verify the application rate (amount). You can fine tune the application by not watering again until you see turf turning bluish gray in the heat of the day. If you are under water restrictions, then you may need to hand water those areas that show visual signs of heat and moisture stress until your next allowed irrigation.

If you decide to minimally water during the heat/drought period, then apply ? inch of water every two to three weeks to keep the turf crowns hydrated. This amount will not turn the turf green, but it will increase its chance of survival. Avoid herbicides and fertilizers until rains resume. Also, keep vehicle traffic (including riding mowers) off the turf when it is under severe drought stress.”

Our plant clinic is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday at the N.C. Cooperative Extension New Hanover County Center and Arboretum, located at 6206 Oleander Drive in Wilmington. The arboretum gardens are free and open daily.

Lloyd Singleton is the director and can be reached at [email protected] or 910-798-7660. 

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: How to keep your grass alive during heat and drought in Wilmington, NC