Winter Injury

Snow cover and turf health

By Florence Sessoms


Identifying traits enabling turfgrass crown resistance to freezing damage

By Maicy Vossen

This article was originally published on the WinterTurf project blog.


Sign up for our new newsletter!

Are you a golf course superintendent or turfgrass manager interested in the latest research on mitigation and recovery from winter stress damage? As part of our new WinterTurf project, we have created a newsletter about the work we are doing on this project, along with other articles on the topic from other sources.


University of Minnesota Turfgrass team in the media – 3/11/21

Check out our team’s latest efforts in educating the public about our work. Extension Educator Maggie Reiter wrote an article in Yard and Garden News!

The article What does winter injury look like on your lawn? will help determine the causes of those pesky lawn problems that are showing up now that the snow is melted.


Golf course data collection assistance - We need your help!

Are you a golf superintendent who has been affected by winter stress injury?  We are seeking assistance from golf course superintendents on a research project (WinterTurf) focused on understanding winter stresses of turfgrass so that we can develop easy-to-implement solutions for turfgrass managers in cold climates. For this to be successful, we need to enlist the help of hundreds of golf courses located in cold climates throughout the world.


Did my lawn survive the winter?

By Jon Trappe


Can we use tall fescue for lawns in Minnesota?

By Eric Watkins


Salt-Tolerant Roadside Grasses: Does Anything Actually Survive?

By Matt Cavanaugh, Research Scientist


Adapting to Extreme Weather

Last year’s heat and drought and this year’s late spring have added extra stress to lawns.

With buds finally starting to bloom on trees in the southern part of Minnesota and ice still stubbornly floating around on lakes in the north, it’s a good time to take stock of a strange year of weather and its effect on our lawns and vegetation.

To rehash the recent weather history that many of us may be trying to repress, we had an exceedingly wet and warm spring in 2012, followed by a summer and fall of extreme heat and certifiable drought. That took a toll on grass and trees—not to mention crops—all around the state.