Tall Fescue
Core aeration
Tall Fescue – The Best Addition for Your Lawns
Perfect Leaf Management is your number one partner for taking care of your tall fescues and we make sure that they are properly cared for the way they deserve it.
Tall fescue is a kind of cool-season grass that adapts well to partially shady or sunny areas. When this grass has been densely sown, the pure stand can form a lawn with moderate to coarse texture that has a uniformed appearance and good disease and weed resistance.
Tall fescue can tolerate the warm temperatures of the summer season and can stay green when the cool but not severe conditions of winter season starts. The newer varieties that have shorter stature and finer texture are called the dwarf turf-type tall fescues and turf-type tall fescues. Tall fescues are great species to plant for your lawn use that makes them one of the commonly planted lawn grasses.
How to Identify Tall Fescues
Tall fescues have coarse texture and are medium to dark green in color. Their leaves are rolled in bud and have rounded and short auricles, extensive root system and short membranous ligule. Since tall fescue follows a growth habit of bunch-type instead of creeping type, open areas might develop and reseeding will be required.
Why Plant Tall Fescue in Your Lawns?
Probably the second most extensively used cool season grass that has a broad adaptation area, tall fescue is being used in the cool humid, transition and cool arid zones.
Tall fescue boasts of a high wear tolerance and this is the very reason why it is also widely used in playgrounds and sports fields. This also has the ability of withstanding high temperatures and can also be used in places where the rest of cool season grasses might fail otherwise. When taken care of properly, the tall fescue can come to develop and look greater.
How to Maintain Tall Fescue – Useful Tips to Remember
One of the best things about tall fescues is the fact that they require very low maintenance. These grasses have remarkable tolerance for drought and heat stress. They can also tolerate infrequent mowing and moderate traffic. However, this specie cannot adapt well in high altitudes.
Mowing
o Mow at 1.5 to 3 inches.
o Mow high and occasionally.
o Thinning can result from mowing less than 1.5 inches.
Planting
o Plant with sod or seed.
o If seeding, you should seed at 8 to 10 lbs of seed for every 1000 square feet.
Fertilizing
o Fertilize with the use of 3 to 6 lbs of nitrogen for every 1000 square feet annually during the active growth period which falls during the months of March through June and September through December.
Irrigation
o The grass’ extensive root system gives this the ability of surviving even period of drought.
o Tall fescue needs infrequent, deep and moderate to high water amounts.
More on Tall Fescues
It was during the early 1800’s when tall fescue grass was first introduced from Europe to the United States. This grass is usually found growing abundantly in low and damp pastures as well as wet meadowlands all over Europe, North America and North Africa.
In the US, tall fescue is abundant from Pacific Northwest through pastures low lying areas in states in the south. Even though this grows best when the environment is moist, tall fescue has a great tolerance for drought and can even survive in dry period in dormant state. This can also adapt well to different soil varieties but it can do best on the clay soils with high organic matter. It is also greatly adapted to US’s transition zone in which the summers become too humid and hot for the cool season turf and winters become extremely cold for the warm season turf. In southern states, this can best adapt to those that are in transition zone, including northern areas of Georgia, North Carolina and Texas as well as Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Virginia and Kentucky.
Description
With the scientific name of Festuca spp., fescues make up an extensive genus of around 100 grass species. The tall fescue is a type of cool season perennial deep-rooted grass. It can produce abundant growth during fall and spring seasons and the widespread root system that it has can help a lot for it to withstand the drought conditions. This can produce stubby rhizomes although this also has a growth habit of bunch type, spreading primarily through erect tillers. The stems or individual tillers terminate in inflorescence which can reach to a height of 3-4 feet and it has broad basal leaves of dark green color. The blades of the leaves are serrated on margins and glossy on their underside. It has a smooth leaf sheath and it has short membrane for ligule. It has a compact panicle inflorescence of 3-4 inches in length with the lanceolate spikelets of ½ inch or more in length. This grass produces flowers during spring and the seeds mature during early summer. Its seeds are awned, elliptic and 4-7 mm in length.
Uses and Adaptation
Tall fescue grass is well adapted to various climatic conditions and soil types but it is on its best performance when planted in clay soils that are properly drained in transition zone. It also boasts of great shade tolerance in the South and stays green all year round in irrigated conditions.
Today, the improved tall fescues of turf type are widely accepted as lawn grass in areas that belong to the transition zone, which includes Georgia. With proper care and management, the tall fescue will be able to survive even in densely shaded areas which cannot be tolerated by warm season turf. Aside from that, the improved type of tall fescues can retain their color even during winter months, providing a lust green lawn throughout the year.
Our team at Perfect Leaf Management has the expertise in taking care of your tall fescues. Contact us today for further details!
For more information about Tall fescue grass please contact Perfect Leaf Management. PLM Environmentally Proactively Smart® programs will insure the health and protection of your Tall fescue lawn exceeds your expectation!