Dormant is not dead
Dormancy is a survival mode, not a death sentence. When a lawn does not have what it needs to keep growing, usually water in summer or warmth in winter, it stops top growth and protects its crown, the small white growing point at the base of each plant. The blades brown out, but the crown and roots stay alive and wait for better conditions. Knowing the difference between dormant and dead saves Maryland homeowners from tearing up a lawn that would have greened up on its own.
Why Maryland lawns go dormant
Most lawns in our area are cool season grasses, with tall fescue being the most common, often mixed with Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass. Cool season grasses grow best when temperatures sit between 60 and 75 degrees. They go dormant in the heat of mid to late summer when soil dries out, which is the most common type of dormancy you will see here.
Some local lawns are warm season grasses such as zoysia. These do the opposite. They green up in summer heat and go dormant and tan after the first hard frosts, staying that color until late spring. A zoysia lawn that turns brown in November is behaving exactly as it should.
How to tell dormant from dead
Two quick checks settle it. First, the tug test: grab a handful of brown grass and pull. Dormant grass holds firm because the roots and crown are alive. Dead grass pulls out with no resistance. Second, check for a green crown. Part the canopy at the soil line. If the base of the plant is still firm and shows any green or white, it is dormant.
The most reliable sign of all is uniformity. A lawn that browns evenly across the whole yard is almost always dormant. Patches that stay brown while the rest greens up after rain are more likely dead and will need reseeding.
What to do during a summer dormancy
Pick a strategy and stick with it. Cool season grass can survive about three to four weeks of summer dormancy without dying if the lawn was healthy going in. You have two good options.
Let it stay dormant. Stop fertilizing, mow only as needed, and keep foot traffic light, since walking on dormant grass crushes crowns that cannot repair themselves. A light watering of about a quarter inch every two to three weeks keeps the crowns alive without breaking dormancy.
Or keep it green. Provide about 1 to 1.5 inches of water per week, in one or two deep soakings rather than daily sprinkling. The mistake to avoid is flip flopping. Watering heavily, stopping, then starting again repeatedly drains the plant’s energy and does more harm than steady dormancy.
Bringing a lawn out of dormancy
Cool weather and rain pull cool season lawns out of dormancy on their own in early fall. You can speed recovery, and that is exactly why fall is the best season in Maryland to aerate, overseed, and fertilize a tired cool season lawn. Warm season lawns green back up on their own as soil temperatures climb in late spring. If your lawn does not fully recover after a couple of weeks of cooler, wetter weather, the thin areas are the spots to reseed.
The takeaway
Brown grass in July or in January is usually a healthy plant riding out conditions it cannot grow in. Confirm it with the tug test and a crown check, choose one watering approach, and stay off it. Save the real repair work, aeration and overseeding, for fall.
Hometown Landscape provides lawn care and seasonal maintenance throughout Burtonsville and nearby Montgomery and Howard County neighborhoods if you want help getting a stressed lawn back on track.
Hometown Landscape provides professional landscaping services for homeowners across Burtonsville, MD and the surrounding areas.