The crown is the growing point, where the cells divide and send out new green foliage. Pull up a turfgrass plant and cut into the crown cross-wise.
If you don’t see any green tissue, chances are it’s dead. In addition, if there are turf areas where you can pull the blades of grass easily from the soil, then it’s likely dead as well.
If you have Kentucky bluegrass or ryegrass or a blend of these, you still have a little time left this season to seed. However, don’t delay past this weekend. Any longer and the new blades of grass that germinate this season will be prone to cold damage.
If you decide to seed yet this fall, make sure to water if we don’t have normal fall rains. You might have to work to get the grass seed germinated, again, before it gets too late into the season.
If you have a turf-type tall fescue lawn, you should wait until later and either do a winter or spring seeding.
Turf-type tall fescue is much more susceptible to cold temperatures and freezing and if it germinates yet this fall, it’s likely to be injured and thus not as strong next spring.
So, the first decision is whether or not the grass is dead; the next is whether or not to seed yet this fall.
Dormant winter seeding is the second best time of the year to seed. Therefore, you can always wait until winter and let nature take its course rather than worrying about watering.
When dormant seeding, go ahead and prepare the area right now. Loosen up the soil so that when you do add the seed this winter, it has good contact with the soil.
Another advantage with dormant winter seeding is that the freezing and thawing of the soil helps to work the seed into the soil.
The final step in helping your lawn this fall is to fertilize. At this point, you can either go ahead and apply fertilizer now or you can wait until late October.
The normal recommendation is to apply fertilizer in early September and then eight weeks later. However, we pretty much missed the early window because of the dry weather.
You can also go ahead and hit the broadleaf weeds with herbicide if they have greened up and are growing.
Overall, lawns took a beating this summer and need a little care and attention.
Pam Bennett is an Ohio State University Extension horticulture educator and the state Master Gardener volunteer coordinator. She can be contacted by e-mailing bennett.27@cfaes.osu.edu
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