Warm temps = warm nights

With a forecast like we have for this week it makes are job extremely difficult.  This morning when we came into work at 5 AM it was 81 degrees.



Cool season turf does best when high temperatures are 55-88 degrees, when the temperature gets above 88 then cool season turf starts to shut down and go dormant, save its carbohydrates and go in a state of rest until the temperatures cool down.  That is why areas in the south have warm season turf, which prefer temperatures above 88.  Well in our climate, we are suitable for cool season turf 10 month out of the year, but for the two months of July and August we should truly grow warm season grasses.  That would not work for the other 10 months, so we are left with trying to babysit cool-season turf through the super hot days of July and August.

When we have high temperatures in the mid 90's but it still cools off at night to 65-70 then we can still maintain cool-season turf and the grass gets 5-7 hours of cool temps where it can rest from all the stress during the day.  When our temperatures reach highs like they have forecasted this week, then the night time lows stay around 75 - 83, and in that situation the heat is putting stress on the turf 24 hours a day and it never gets to take a break.

This week you will see staff out syringing turf all day long with hoses, just to give it a cool down from the hot surface temperature of the sun.