Lawn Talk with Harold Enger - Podcast Transcription
Episode: Cultural Practices
Tim Kauffold: Welcome to Lawn Talk, I'm your host Tim Kauffold. Lawn Talk is a series of conversations with Spring-Green lawn care professionals. Joining me is Harold Enger. Harold has worked in the Green Industry for nearly 30 years and is a Certified Turfgrass and Ornamental Landscape professional. Cultural practices are the topic of this episode of Lawn Talk. Throughout this series we've touched on several different kinds of grass in a homeowner's lawn. Harold, do these different grasses have different cultural practices.
Harold Enger: Oh certainly, each variety of grass, whether it be bluegrass, ryegrass, Bermuda grass, centipede, they all have different types of ways that they will help in making them grow better and these are what we call cultural practices. And those refer to the mowing, watering, the thatch control and fertilization. Those are our four main cultural practices that we deal with with lawn care. And the ones the homeowner has direct control over—mainly watering and mowing—we will apply the right fertilizer at the right time and we can provide the processes for reducing thatch through core aeration, but we really rely upon the homeowner to properly mow and water the lawn. We often say that it is a partnership between us and our homeowners. That we can do certain parts but they have to do their part, which is the mowing and watering.
Tim: Throughout our series we've touched on it a couple of times in different topics the idea that the lawn should be mowed fairly high. Why should I mow it higher? Because wouldn't I have to be out there more often?
Harold: Not necessarily. Your goal is to try and not remove more than one-third of the grass blade at one time, but that sometimes is impossible, especially in spring when you get rain and the grass is growing rapidly. So if you are mowing it high, you may be removing a little bit more than one-third of the blade at one time, but you are leaving enough of the grass plant that it will continue to stay green and growing. If you look at a grass plant, you'll notice that the leaf blade at the top is green and is it goes down it gets lighter in color and gets almost white at the base. Well, if you are mowing it short the plant has to reproduce a new grass blade right away—it has no other choice because that's how it gets more food through photosynthesis through the leaf surface. So it really stops growing everything else—it stops root growth—it stops food storage—so it can grow up a new grass blade. If you continue to mow short week after week, you are actually starving your plant by not allowing it to produce food to build better roots, to build stronger roots and to have a healthier plant.
Tim: So we are in fact even doing damage under the soil by cutting the grass so short up on top.
Harold: Right. Exactly. Yes you can. It's a natural balance of nature that the roots will correspond in depth to the height of the plant. Now that doesn't mean you should let your plant grow to six inches tall, so that you have these nice deep roots. That's not exactly what we are saying. The longer grass blade will have a deeper root because the plant is growing at a much more even pace and can produce plenty of food while it is growing.
Tim: And we've talked about the partnership role between homeowner and Spring Green Professional and the other piece for me as the homeowner is watering. What's the best time of day to water the lawn?
Harold: That's a very common question we get. The best time of day to water is in the early morning, because during the heat of the day you can get more water through evaporation. It won't hurt the lawn to water during the heat of the day—that's a fallacy, but watering it from about 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. is the absolute worse time to water because you are getting a lot of free or available moisture on the grass plant. And there are lots of disease organisms out in every lawn—that's just part of nature—and going into the evening when its' cooler or even if it's warmer the free moisture allows these spores and these diseases to germinate or to grow and infect the plant. You can really increase your disease activity in a lawn.
Tim: Okay and what's going to happen if I just can't water my lawn for some reason?
Harold: And that's a very common concern throughout the country, because some areas go through drought periods. Some areas have water restrictions. If you are mowing high and the turf is growing well, then it's going to have a good root system, so it's going to be able to survive three to four weeks without any rain. Grass has great recuperative abilities even in severe droughts where we did not receive any rain for six weeks I have seen lawns regrow back and be just fine. It's a pretty remarkable plant. So for the most part, if you can try to get at least a half of an inch of water onto the lawn once a month—it's not going to be a beautiful lawn, but you will keep the plant alive.
Tim: If you would like to know more about services available from your local Spring-Green lawn care professional, visit the Spring-Green web site, at Spring-Green.com. There you will find more detailed information, including how to contact a Spring-Green lawn care professional in your area. This has been Lawn Talk, an on-going series for homeowners looking to protect and enjoy their outdoor investment, brought to you by Spring-Green Lawn Care and its many local lawn care professionals nationwide.
Find more episodes at Spring-Green.com or on iTunes under Lawn Talk.
Thanks and have a green day!