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Texas and Oklahoma Drought

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Texas and Oklahoma are enduring a serious drought this year.  In fact, the drought actually started last fall and has persisted throughout 2011 with little relief.  Many areas haven’t experienced drought at this level since the Dust Bowl era of the 1920’s and 30’s.  Farmers and ranchers are faced with major crop losses and herd reductions as they deal with the abnormally low rain fall levels. What about the care of lawns in these areas?  Fortunately, most warm season grasses are adapted to low moisture levels and excessive heat.  Bermuda and Zoysia can go an entire summer without water.  St. Augustine and Centipede can survive for 3 to 4 months without water.  When I say survive, that does not mean there won’t be some damage to the plants when rain returns to the area.  Turf is a remarkable plant and can recover after much adversity, but there are limits when the environment is just too extreme. Be conservative with watering.  Your goal should be to keep the grass alive, but not necessarily green.  When soil dries out completely, it is better to water in short increments of 15 minutes, a couple of times in one day.  Very dry soil takes a while to “re-wet”, so successive watering to slowly moisten the soil is better than watering for a long time all at once.  Water once every other week.  Your lawn may not be the greenest on the block, but it will recover faster once regular rain fall returns.