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This episode of The Turf Zone Podcast features the article “Turf Tips” by Dave Han, Ph.D. with Auburn University and Alabama Extension.

When hot weather arrives, our warm season grasses will soon shift into high gear and simply keeping up with them can be a challenge. Here are some reminders of what to expect and look out for in the transition from spring to summer.

Temperatures will still fluctuate

Most parts of Alabama aren’t truly safe from all possibility of frost until mid-April. Even then, it’s possible to get stuck into a pattern of warm days (80 F or even warmer) but cool nights (temps falling into the 50s). This temperature pattern holds back the growth of warm-season grasses. They may have been green for weeks, but don’t really start to show fast lateral growth until the soil temperature stays above 70 degrees consistently. This usually takes both warm days and nighttime lows remaining in the 60s.

Slow lateral growth in April and May frustrates many turf managers and their clients, especially if the turf experienced some injury from cold, disease or pests during the winter. It’s important to remember that as long as the soil is still relatively cool, early fertilizer applications will have little effect on the rate that grasses fill in damaged areas. It’s the temperature that holds back spreading growth this time of year.

Warm season turfgrass that is “stuck” in greenup mode can also be more sensitive to postemergence herbicides than it will be during hot weather. This is especially true with centipedegrass, but can happen with any species. Many postemergence herbicides have language on the label that urges caution when applying them during spring greenup, or outright recommends waiting until the grass is completely out of dormancy to apply them. This can take until well into May in north Alabama.

Annual insect pests will be laying eggs soon

For those in the sandy soils of the coastal plain, now is the time to think about getting ready to apply insecticides to areas that showed mole cricket tunneling damage earlier in the spring. Like any insect pest, mole crickets are easiest to control when they are very young – just hatched is perfect! They usually lay their eggs in from April to May, and eggs take 3-4 weeks to hatch. That means May is the perfect month to get an insecticide with a good residual activity into the soil so that new nymphs are killed right after they hatch, and don’t ever have the opportunity to grow into the larger stages that can damage turf with their tunnelling.

Likewise, white grubs will soon be pupating and adults usually emerge to mate and lay eggs in the May-July time frame, depending on the exact species of white grub. As is the case with mole crickets, an application of an insecticide with a soil residual measured in months will head off problems with grub damage in the fall. Scout for grubs in the spring by cutting back the sod and looking for the larvae, or count adults as they fly by catching them in pheromone traps.

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