Tall Fescue

[greenman]

Has anyone had any experience with Tall Fescue or any other cool season grasses in my type climate-90-100 in summer? I am wanting to know if it can be grown all year here, even in the hot days of summer. Will it go dormat and die from the heat even on irrigated lawns? Or will I just have overseed with an annual rye grass for the winter?

[Chuck Sinclair]

Just installed a mixture of 90/10 tall fescue/blue grass, This is what we use all the time it get in the 30 degree range in winter and 110 in summer here so i think you would be fine.

[Green Pastures]

Fescue is fine if you water 1" per week in the heat. No water and it'll fry like an egg in a pan.

Scott

[awm]

various fescues are the grass in my area.
which kinda limits my knowledge of other grasses,to what i read. we dont have to many 110 days . but just came thru a terrible drought an the establised fescue
lawns ,2 yrs or more, are all coming back fine.fescue several yrs old is just really durable in this area.

[dforbes]

fescue is the best grass for the conditions you describe. If you water you will never have any problems. Fescue will go dormant but can survive 6 to 8 weeks with no water at all. Watering well once a week should keep it green all season long.
Dennis

[jeffyr]

Tall fescue has great drought tollerance....it's the creeping and chewing that the heat will get. But being from the east coast and only visiting your area 3 times I don't have first hand experience on what will growin AZ......But these guys do : http://www.ntep.org/

A wealth of info !

jeffyr

[odin]

ive found tall fescue to have great dought tolerance .In 1988 in michigan during that 88 dought my front was all sodded bluegrass. I was afraid my well would go dry so i didnt water after a while.

The back i seeded with tall fescue because a guy gave me the seed .
Well all the tall fescue came back the bluegrass died deader than a door knob.
Im fact the tall fescue stayed green though most of the drought.

[TotalLawn]

My front yard is 100% fescue, & I have a few customer yards that are fescue. It should do fine if you keep it watered through the summer. I think it will take more water than once a week though. I generally need to water mine every other day during the 100+ weather. And depending on how hard the winter is you may be mowing it almost all year.

[HOMER]

I'm in south Al. and seeded some about a year ago. It came up very slow and is mixed with centipede-bahai- and whatever else is out there. When I get a chance to cut it, it really looks good. I was always told it wouldn't make it.......I had to spend the $20.00 on seed to find out. I'm planning on putting it all over eventually. Where I planted it is sort of a shaded area. It gets the late afternoon sun but not the morning. I always questioned why it would grow in Charlotte and Atlanta and not here. It get's hotter up there than it's been down here. You got nothing to lose but money if it don't make it..........go fer it!

[jeffyr]

It does take a while to establish--21 day germination period. I mixed with a tri blend (creeping fescue/Kblue/Rye) to get the area covered and give the customer some promise. 21 days of watering without a stich of green coming up is allot to ask of the customer without giving up. The mix is filling in just 7 days after renovation.

Jeffyr