We may see significant low temperatures that might result in widespread Frost Damage”.
Luv A Lawn and Pest Control has put together some information for your review about Frost Damage below.
Please feel free to contact our office if you have any questions. We want to assure you that our programs are designed to help your property recover from such an act of nature, however, this is a slow process this time of the year
Why do I have cold injury here and not there? Why is my lawn damaged more than my neighbor’s?
Many factors such as the availability of moisture in the plant, the slope of the landscape, the moisture in the soil, wind speed, and other protective factors like tree cover determine the amount of cold damage that occurs from one area to another. If a plant is dehydrated going into a freeze the damage will be much more severe. Damage will also be more severe at the bottom of a slope since cold air falls and warm air rises. Moist soils are usually warmer than dry soils resulting in less cold injury. Additionally, irrigation water is usually about 70 degrees. Soils watered before a freeze will be warmer than those that are not. Wind can increase or decrease the amount of cold injury depending on just how cold the temperatures get. Wind can keep frost from forming when the temperatures are near freezing or increase the amount of damage caused by desiccation if the temperatures fall far below freezing. Some plants and turf will be protected from frost by coverings such as the canopy of a tree or the side of a home.
Recognizing cold injury can be tricky. The morning after a frost the grass blades will initially appear darker green, and water soaked. Within a few hours, the leaves will begin to develop grayish spots. The next day the grass will be wilted and folded over. Within a few days, it will turn brown. Some areas of the lawn may not turn brown. This is usually due to having a protective covering such as a tree canopy or other object keeping the frost from settling on the turf. Weeks later, as the turf begins to recover, some areas will remain brown long after others. This gives the turf a very strange appearance that looks as though someone has dipped a basketball in RoundUp (total kill herbicide) and bounced it all over the lawn. These brown areas have been more severely damaged because of small depressions in the turf or soil where the frost and cold air settle for a longer period causing the turf in those areas to remain cold longer. The patterns often follow the path that the lawn mower usually travels.
What to do to prevent damage from the cold.
To reduce the amount of cold injury that occurs, the lawn should be irrigated before the frost or freeze making sure to end the irrigation run time soon enough for the leaves to dry so ice will not form on the leaves. Cold-sensitive plants can be protected with blankets or boxes. The cover must be removed as soon as the temperatures begin to warm up. Do not irrigate during a freeze. This practice is beneficial in nurseries and citrus groves only because they are equipped to water nonstop until the ice is melted. If not done properly, this process can prolong the amount of time that the plants are subjected to cold temperatures. The ice does not melt as quickly as the air temperatures are warming up.
What can be done to speed up the recovery?
If the lawn was in good health before the frost, there is nothing extra that will need to be done to speed up recovery. We fertilize on a regular basis with fertilizers that contain slow-release Nitrogen. There is no need to apply additional fertilizer. There is already a Nitrogen source available in the soil that is just waiting for warmer temperatures to begin releasing the Nitrogen source again. As soon as the weather warms up, the lawn will grow out of the frost injury.