Glimpse of the life of turfgrass during the fall

One of the curious things about the lawn care business, and I suppose any business for that matter, is that the next season begins before the previous season ends. At Lawn Dawg, we have already engaged in our preparations for 2012 long before the last bag of fertilizer is applied to the final lawn of the season.

You know the old clique: prior planning prevents poor performance.

And it is equally true of the turfgrasses that we care for as well.

Even absent our management, turfgrasses react to the stimuli in the environment in order to prepare for winter and the spring that eventually follows it.

The environmental stimuli that the turfgrasses react to can be summarized by one thing – the tilt of the Earth’s axis in relation to the sun. In the fall, the days become increasingly shorter and the sun doesn’t seem to even try to get too high in the sky. What little daylight there is even looks different to us – the reds seem redder, the greens seem greener. There is a big difference in the spectrum of light in the fall versus the summer as sunlight travels through more of the Earth’s atmosphere due to the low angle of the sun.

Turfgrasses recognize this and know that this signals the onset of winter. It’s programmed into their DNA and when you really think about it, it is a fascinating piece of evolution.

You’ve probably already noticed that your lawn has stopped growing – at least in the manner that you’ve been accustomed to observing. Shoot growth (the stuff we mow off) has slowed dramatically, but root growth has increased dramatically, and will continue unabated until the soil freezes. Bud development, the part of the plant responsible for providing us with the density of the turf (which keeps the weeds at bay) occurs in the fall as well.

Within the plant, the changes are even more dramatic. The plant must prepare itself to survive three months of not producing any food, not growing and being subjected to some brutally harsh weather. The grass plant of the summer months would die in a few minutes if suddenly thrown into the below zero cold of a February morning with the wind howling out of the north – heck, I barely survive it myself.

The cells within the plant become smaller, their cell walls become thicker and they shed water. In other words, they toughen up. A plant with thicker cells walls is insulated from the environment. A plant with less free water is less apt to freeze.

All the while, photosynthesis is still occurring – in fact, it is high season for photosynthesis. The plants that are well adapted to our region are by and large using a different form of photosynthesis than those plants growing in more tropical regions. The cooler weather is perfect for plants like Kentucky Bluegrass but dreadful for plants like Zoyziagrass (the miracle lawn grass that was sold on the back page of Parade Magazine in the Sunday newspaper when you were a kid).

You’ve probably noticed the deepening green color of lawns as we have progressed through October and into November. That green color is a signal that your lawn is hard at work manufacturing sugars that will be stored in the new roots that your lawn is creating – all essential in the health of your lawn next year.

What can you do to help this process along?

First, resist with all your might the temptation to lower your mowing height. Leave it right where it should be during the remainder of the year – 2 ½ to 3 inches. Why? Recall earlier that I mentioned that shoot growth has all but stopped, but photosynthesis is running at near peak performance. That leaf tissue that you remove will not be replaced, nor will the plant be able to conduct as much photosynthesis. You’re literally starving your turf and the results will be seen in the coming season.

Second, make sure that your lawn is ready and available for the remaining fertilizations that Lawn Dawg has scheduled – and give serious consideration to adding a winterizer fertilizer to your program. Having the proper amounts of necessary elements present for use by the turfgrass when it is in the middle of such important growth is essential to having a healthy lawn next year.

If for some reason you are still irrigating – stop. Even if this were a dry autumn, it would be good practice to withdraw irrigations such that the turfgrass begins the hardening off process of dewatering its cells. Excess irrigation fools the plant and puts it at a disadvantage for the winter months.

Keep your lawn clean and clear of leaves. This can be a challenge to be sure. I no sooner cleared my lawn of maple leaves then it was almost immediately covered in oak leaves – most of which came from my neighbors’ homes. Those leaves sure do like my house for some reason. You need not clear the lawn daily, but be sure that the leaves are not allowed to mass to the point where they block sunlight reaching the lawn surface or become matted. Both circumstances will kill the underlying turfgrass, and you’ll be wondering why you have this area of crabgrass and spotted spurge in your lawn next summer.

Last, and this has nothing to do with agronomics, prepare your lawn mower and other gasoline powered equipment for the winter. The ethanol that is being added to automotive gasoline is very, very, very harmful to small engines. If left in the fuel system over the winter ethanol will corrode the very small parts of the engine’s carburetor and cause you unnecessary and costly repairs. I try to plan on running my mower and trimmer out of gas with the last use of the fall. It there is anything left, I just let the engine run until it is exhausted of fuel. Then, I close the choke and restart the engine just to use up the last of the fumes. Fuel additives that stabilize gasoline over long periods are fine, too. The same thing could have happened to your snowblower while in storage over the summer – best check that out now to see if it is in running order for the next blizzard.