Skip to content Skip to sidebar Skip to footer

Warm Season Grasses

warm season grass

What Are Warm Season Grasses

Grasses are 1st divided into two separate categories, Warm Season Grasses, and Cool Season Grasses. As their names suggest, they are each best suited to differing climatic regions, and need different types of lawn care.

Qualities Of Lawn Types

Warm Season Grasses can in theory generate from both seed and runners. However should you personal a hybrid lawn type, then these seeds will obviously be sterile, and so the hybrid lawn types has to be regenerated from its runners only.

The primary characteristic from the Warm Season Grasses is their plant structure, which is made up of runners that creep and grow laterally along the ground. This structure makes it possible for the lawn to spread and self-repair more than damaged locations.

The runners might be divided into 2 categories. Above ground runners are called Stolons, and beneath ground runners are call Rhizomes. Not all Warm Season Grasses have both Stolons and Rhizomes. For example, Couch and Kikuyu grasses may have both Stolons and Rhizomes, as well as a lawn range such as Buffalo grass have only Stolons.

Tillering In Lawns

Warm Season Grasses will also thicken and green up by the tillering effect. It is a desirable process to encourage greener leaf growth that results inside a greener and much more lush lawn. This process also lessens the lawn runners from spreading out as speedily as they usually would.

Tillering could be encouraged by normal lawn mowing as a part of our lawn care practices, where the typical removal of a small amount of leaf material prompts the lawn to use its energy to grow new green shoots, which requires priority more than the lawn establishing new runners.

Repair and Spreading Of Warm Season Lawns

By their really nature, Warm Season Grasses will spread into surrounding areas with their runners, this could be a great advantage when permitting the lawn to repair itself from damage, or to grow into new areas where we want lawn to spread.

Alternatively, this could also be a cause of concern, when our lawn starts to invade our garden beds.

Which Lawn Is the Most Aggressive

Varying lawn varieties have various levels of vigorousness. The two more invasive lawn types are Couch and Kikuyu lawns, where they will spread and grow, sometimes with speed. With their underground runners (Rhizomes), the lawn can also burrow below garden bed edging, under up and by way of paving, as well as the like. And their above ground runners (Stolons) are capable of crawling more than paving along with other obstacles to find a new home.

The Much less Vigorous Lawns

Varieties such as Queensland Blue, Zoysia and Buffalo are significantly less aggressive lawn types, and they grow a little slower.

Lawn Mowing Heights

All Warm Season Grasses can be mowed at lower heights than their Cool Season cousins. When well cared for and mowed having a Cylinder mower, heights of around 12 mm are typical in varieties such as Queensland Blue, Couch, and Zoysia. Varieties for example Kikuyu and Soft Leaf Buffaloes will demand higher lawn mowing heights at a minimum of 20 - 25 mm.

Varieties


  • Couch
  • Buffalo
  • Queensland Blue
  • Zoysia
  • Kikuyu
  • Durban Grass