Remedies for Dying Grass Under Tree Canopy

This one comes from Paul. He says ‘I have a maple tree that has been there for 20 plus years. After last winter, I noticed all the grass under the canopy had died. I replanted to no avail, dug up some to check for grubs, and didn’t find any in the area. Looks a little bigger this year, area probably 15 by 15. Do not notice this problem under any of my other trees.’

I mean again without seeing it, if he wants to bring a picture into the nursery, that definitely helps us be more accurate. At this point, it’s an educated guess. The more information we have, the higher likelihood of that guess being correct. But I would say probably as the trees age and mature, the canopy develops out, it blocks the sunlight. It also competes with the grass for moisture, and the tree is larger.

We were really dry last summer, so without supplemental watering, and this being said, I’ve got 70 foot oak trees in my front yard. I had to water underneath there last year or that grass would not have survived. Even though the rest of the lawn necessarily didn’t need it, underneath the tree it did because even when we were getting moisture last year, the trees shed that moisture to the outside with the leaf canopy. Once the leaves were on they were taking up everything they could. And with maples, a lot of times the branches are lower and we need to do some trimming and trim those up a little bit. It’ll allow ambient light to come in from the side.

Seeding in the springtime is highly recommended. Now, you want to be very careful. Depends on if you’re treating your yard yourself for like, say crabgrass, the chemical that kills crabgrass kills grass seeds as they germinate.

You wouldn’t want to use that product anywhere you were using a grass seeding or new grass seed. Try to get it to grow and fill in. But the spring is an excellent time to seed. I started putting some down at last yesterday actually. We’re starting to sell a lot of it, too

Now, it’s not going to grow right now, but it will lay there dormant, and when the environment’s right, it will grow. So we’ll get what’s called a frost heave, where the ground will kind of bubble up a little bit. And when you put that seed down, as the ground settles back down it buries it just to the right depth where you’re going to get good germination

Doesn’t matter if it snows on top of it. It’ll just lay there dormant, and then you’ll get good germination. Some people that seeded late in the fall, I’m sure there’s still seeds laying there that did not germinate in the late fall. Especially like bluegrass seed, it takes 21 to 28 days to germinate.

So those seeds that you put down last fall, if we were only warm for two weeks that seed is still laying there. You’ll lose some through a winter, and the rest should germinate and grow and thicken up and fill in the spring.

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