Backyard Gardener: Taking care of your lawn in the fall - Parkersburg News
Hello Mid-Ohio Valley farmers and gardeners. Yes, the first frost this fall hit us last week as temperatures dipped near freezing. The growing season may unofficially be over, but work around the home garden, lawn and the farm does not end.
A hard freeze and week of cold weather is forecasted for next week. If you have any tomatoes left harvest them all over the weekend. A hard freeze will ruin any fruit left in the field.
Tomatoes can be ripened indoors. Look over your plants and pick any tomatoes that appear to be partially ripe or light green. Fruit that is dark green will not ripen indoors; it hasn't matured enough. Check for disease or dead stems, ensure the plants are still healthy, to ensure a safe product.
Those dark green tomatoes will not ripen but can be used for jams, relish and other recipes ("Let's Preserve Green Tomatoes" – U of Maine Extension @extension.umaine.edu ).
Tomatoes being ripened should be stored at temperatures between 55 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit in well-ventilated areas out of sunlight. Green tomatoes should ripen in about two weeks, while more mature fruit will ripen in a few days to a week in ideal conditions.
This week let's talk about lawn care. When autumn temperatures arrive, many people forget about the lawn. However, fall is a great time to fertilize, control weeds and prepare your lawn for next year. There is a lot of work that needs to be done to prepare for the long winter ahead.
Continue to mow the lawn until the grass stops growing in the fall. Our cool season lawn grasses' (bluegrass, fescue, perennial rye) most active growth is when air temperatures are between 55-75 degrees F. As the temperature begins to cool below 55 degrees F, grass growth will slow significantly, especially when daytime high temperatures are consistently below 50 degrees F.
However, grass growth will slow but depending on the weather cool-season grasses will keep growing into mid-November. Once the foliage stops growing, the lawn mower can be put away for the winter.
Fall is a great time to aerate your lawn. Aeration is a mechanical process that involves pulling out soil cores to reduce soil compaction and allow for air, water and nutrients to penetrate the grass roots. Aerating your lawn helps the grass roots grow deeply and produce a stronger, healthier lawn and provides better seed-to-soil contact when combined with overseeding.
The optimal time for aeration is late August to mid-October because most weeds are not actively germinating. Spring is the second-best time for aerating your lawn, but you may encounter more weed pressure as weed seeds are exposed to light. Aerators may be rented or purchased at many lawn care or home improvement stores.
Another lawn care practice that some people do in the fall is dethatching. Thatch is the accumulation of roots and shoots resistant to decay beneath the healthy grass of your lawn. Dethatching removes the thatch. Consider dethatching your lawn if you have more than 1 1/2 inches of thatch. If less than 1 1/2 inches, it can be left alone.
Early fall is also good time to reseed or over seed the lawn. However, WVU recommends that cool season grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass and tall fescue be seeded in September but no later than Oct. 15. Plantings later than Oct. 15 can be successful, but the odds of success diminish significantly.
The problem with late plantings is with rooting after the seed germinates and starts growing. Unless the young grass plants have a fairly extensive root system, the freezing and thawing that takes place during winter heaves plants out of the ground, and they dry out and die.
Fall is the best time to control perennial broadleaf weeds in the lawn with broadleaf herbicides, even after the first frost. In fall, perennial broadleaf weeds are transporting food (carbohydrates) from their foliage to their roots in preparation for winter.
Broadleaf herbicides applied in fall will be absorbed by the broadleaf weed's foliage and transported to the roots along with the carbohydrates, resulting in the destruction of the broadleaf weeds. You can help insure weed plants will metabolize and transport the herbicide by selecting a day to treat when temperatures will get to 60 degrees F or above. Be sure to read the label on all pesticides before use.
Another advantage of fall treatments is you can often go back two or three weeks after your initial application and spot treat individual weeds that weren't controlled with the first treatment (depending on the weather). Remember to consider the moisture and temperature when making spot treatments. If you do not completely control the weeds this fall, you may weaken them, and they are more likely to winterkill.
Fall is when grass plants are building up root reserves for next spring's growth. Fertilizer applications can be made in mid-September and late October/early November. Mid-September fertilization promotes a moderate rate of shoot growth and helps to thicken the turf.
An application of fertilizer in late October/early November (at the time of the last mowing) promotes root growth and early green-up next spring. Apply 1 pound of actual nitrogen per 1,000 square feet in mid-September and late October/early November.
A word about mowing heights. Leave your mower on 3 inches. It is not necessary or recommended to lower the mowing height in the fall. Taller grass will catch more snow
which provides a protective layer over the turf, lessening the chances of winterkill if we have a winter with little snow. Turf is much more likely to be damaged when exposed to the winter weather.
Finally, I recommend mowing and mulching or raking leaves as they accumulate on your lawn. Don't allow a layer of leaves to accumulate on the turf. When moisture mats these down, large areas of turf can be damaged or killed resulting in the need to overseed or reseed next spring. Piles of clippings or ground leaves on top of the turf can smother the turf as well.
Mowing and mulching leaves returns nutrients to the soil. If they are thick and you have piles of ground up leaves and clippings left behind by the mower, mow over the area again or bag and remove them. Bagged leaves and grass clippings are great for compost pile.
Contact me at the Wood County WVU Extension Office (304)-424-1960 or jj.barrett@mail.wvu.edu with questions. Good Luck and Happy Gardening!
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