Wondering how to bring grass out of dormancy is a common query for new and intermediate lawncare enthusiasts to have. If you’re spending all this time getting your lawn healthy and green, you want it to be healthy and green as often as possible, even though some periods of dormancy are necessary. Bringing your lawn out of dormancy in most cases is as simple as giving it more of what it would naturally need to come out of dormancy.
Bringing Grass Out of Dormancy – Can This Process Be Accelerated?
Dormant grass is grass that has had conditions outside of its tolerable range for too long. This usually means temperatures were too hot or too cool, but dormancy can also be caused by lack of water, sunlight, or improper nutrition (either too much or too little of a given nutrient). Beyond these common causes, grass can also go dormant when damaged or diseased.
How you wake up dormant grass and whether that process can be accelerated will depend on the cause of the dormancy. If the cause is something within your control (like water or nutrition), you can absolutely bring your grass out of dormancy quickly.
If, however, the cause of the dormancy is current temperatures being too hot or too cold, there are ways to accelerate the end of dormancy but they are risky. For example, if it’s too cool for your grass to green up naturally, but you add plastic sheeting to it to warm it up, it will green up. However, when that sheeting is removed, your grass will once again be exposed to the cold and may not only go dormant again but could begin to die due to the sudden temperature change.
Determine if Your Grass is Dormant or Dead
This is a key thing to know before you spend too much time trying to “wake up” dead grass. If your grass is well-established and you’re helping it recover from a typical freeze-thaw cycle, there is very little risk that your lawn is dead or has dead patches. However, if your cool-season lawn was left un- or under-irrigated during a summer where temperatures stayed above 95F for days on end, you likely have at least some dead grass mixed in with your dormant grass.
Dead and dormant grass will look the same until you begin to wake up your lawn. However, there are ways to tell if you have dead grass vs dormant grass once you see at least some green in your lawn. With grass that has been damaged to the point where patches of the lawn have died, you may notice that this affects how long it takes your dormant grass to turn green, and it’ll likely be longer than average. If patches of your lawn seem like they’re just not waking up well after the period of time it should take, you likely have some dead patches in your lawn.
If your lawn still has brown patches for several months after the rest has begun to green up, or if you suspect your entire lawn is dead as it has not greened up even when surrounding lawns have, there is a test you can use to help determine if the grass is dead or not.
What you need to do is try to uproot a handful of grass. If it uproots easily and there are no long roots attached to the clump that has been uprooted, you have dead grass that has decayed to the point where its roots can no longer hold onto the soil. If you cannot easily uproot the grass then it is still healthy, though dormant, grass. If the grass uproots somewhat easily but has long roots connected to the uprooted clump you could have recently dead grass or just unhealthy dormant grass.
How to Wake Up Dormant Grass (Step By Step)
Now that you know it’s possible to accelerate the process of bringing grass out of dormancy in most cases and conditions, the following steps will show you how to do it.
Check Temperatures and Weather Conditions
You only want to bring your lawn out of dormancy if the conditions are right. If it’s too hot or too cold, even with the best care and irrigation, you should allow your lawn to stay dormant to prevent lasting damage. Find out what the low and high temperatures are for your grass type and don’t attempt to wake up your lawn until temperatures are safely within those ranges and forecasted to stay that way.
Determine Why Your Grass is Dormant
Most likely your grass has just gone through a period of hot or cold weather that led to dormancy. In some cases, however, when the weather has been nice and your neighbor’s lawns have all been spared from dormancy, you may need to dig a little deeper to determine what exactly is going on.
Treat Any Diseases
If it’s not the weather, it’s likely a disease that’s causing your lawn to go dormant. Rust, dollar spot, and brown patch can all cause your lawn to go dormant in whole or in part depending on the severity of the infection. Before following the remaining steps to bring your lawn out of dormancy, make sure you treat the root problem first.
Check Nutrient Levels and Apply Fertilizer
The second most important step with regard to how to revive dormant grass is to fertilize. Ideally, you will use a slow-release fertilizer each spring, fall, or spring and fall depending on the product you choose. This should keep your lawn well-fed all year long. Slow-release fertilizers can also help prevent over-fertilization, an uncommon but possible cause of dormancy and extended dormancy.
Water Your Lawn
Water is the single most important thing when it comes to bringing a lawn out of a period of dormancy. Once temperatures have reached the minimum range and are predicted to stay there, you should begin watering your lawn every day. Ideally, you want to water early in the morning, about half an hour before sunrise. You want to irrigate your lawn for 5 to 6 consecutive days so that the lawn is saturated with 1/2″ to 3/4″ of water every day. Once you have done this, you can begin staggering back the water to a deep watering schedule.
Precautions That Should Be Taken
Above I have outlined a tried-and-tested method for bringing your lawn out of dormancy as soon and as safely as possible. However, you may have heard of a few other methods that could work “faster” such as covering your lawn with plastic to heat it up faster. Below are some precautions to take when you’re deciding how to wake up dormant grass.
- Know the Difference Between Dead and Dormant – As mentioned above, dead grass won’t wake up and sometimes a lawn owner may add more water and fertilizer than is necessary to a lawn to “wake up” these still-brown patches.
- Watch the Forecast – Waking up your lawn too early or trying to keep it green during periods of high heat can end up backfiring and though your lawn may green up or stay green a little longer, these methods will inevitably end up causing damage. While supporting your lawn during stressful times with slow-release fertilizers and extra water is recommended, using plastic, chemical sprays, or flooding your lawn to adjust the temperature is not.
- Don’t Rush – While it can be a nice feeling to have the first fully green lawn on your block, ending up with a lawn that dies a few weeks later is not. Go slowly, keep your lawn healthy year-round, choose the ideal grass type for your climate, and you can have a lawn that greens up easily every year.
- Don’t Over Fertilize – It can be tempting to fall into the trap of over-fertilization. However, remember that too much fertilizer applied directly to your lawn can lead to stunted root growth, disease, and even rusted or burnt blades of grass.
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