heat stress
Seeding your lawn in June or July? You might want to wait
By Gary Deters
Establishing lawns from seed can sometimes be difficult even under ideal growing conditions, and there are many considerations when putting seed on the ground for small repairs as well. Spring is a time when successful lawn seeding is possible, but soil temperatures in early spring are cold which can prohibit rapid germination and establishment. We have now entered the beginning of summer when growing turfgrass from seed becomes even more difficult and we do not normally recommend seeding your lawn this time of the year.
The risks of mowing green grass during summer drought
By Jillian Turbeville
When it comes to lawn management, droughts in the Midwest have become a topic of concern. Generally, homeowners will mow their lawn in a scheduled manner (once a week) or based on grass growth rate (⅓ rule), but should we mow based on how stressed the grasses are? Although this can be partially unrealistic, having a basic understanding of how your lawn responds to times of heat and drought in summer may help keep your grass greener for a longer period of time.
University of Minnesota Turfgrass team in the media – 5/20/21
Check out our team’s latest efforts in educating the public about our work. Florence Sessoms and Eric Watkins wrote an article and Extension Educator Maggie Reiter has been on WCCO's Smart Gardens!
Florence Sessoms and Eric Watkins co-authored "Turfgrass responses to prolonged heat stress" for GCM Magazine. They discuss research on the ability of 34 turfgrass cultivars and accessions to withstand extended periods of heat.
New research publications from our team - 11/12/20
Learn more about our research! Two new research articles from our group have been published in Crop Science. Florence Sessoms and Eric Watkins have published an article on heat stress in cool season turfgrasses, and Dominic Petrella and Eric Watkins have published an article on the differences in shade responses in the fine fescues.