TYPE	Texture	Kind of Lawn	Maintenance	Major Usage	Cost of Seed Establishment
Bentgrass	Fine	Exhibition	High	Golf putting	High
Kentucky Bluegrass	Medium to Fine	Averageto Good	Low	Lawns	Low
Tall Fescue	Medium	Averageto Good	Medium	Lawns –  Sports	Low toMedium
Creeping Fescue	Fine	Medium – Exhibition	Medium	Lawns	Medium
Annual Ryegrass	Fine	Low	Low	Mixes in Lawns	Low
Perennial Ryegrass	Medium	Low	Low	Lawns- Sports	Medium

TYPE	Texture	Kind ofLawn	Maintenance	MajorUsage	Cost ofSeed Establishment
Bahiagrass	Coarse toMedium	Averageto Good	Low	Lawns -Erosion & Wear areas	Low
Bermuda	Fine	Average	Medium	Lawns – Golf & Sports- Dry	Low
Carpetgrass	Medium	Low	Low	Wet areas	Low
Centipede	Medium	Low – Medium	Low	Lawns	Medium
St. Augustine	Coarse	Medium	Medium	Lawns	High
Zoysiagrass	Med – Fine	Medium – Exhibition	High	Lawns	High

Cool Season

grasses are used extensively though-out the Northern areas of the USA. As with all cool season grasses their best growth periods are in the Spring and Fall. Summer time and winter brings on dormancy in these grasses. Many of the cool season lawns planted in the North today are cultivars of improved varieties of the three major cool season grasses — i.e.: Bluegrasses, Fescues & Perennial Ryegrass. These improved variety mixes work together in special ratios of each grass to provide a better lawn in the various different conditions that exist across many lawns.

Warm Season

grasses are planted throughout the South from an area west of Texas to as far north as Tennessee and North Carolina.

Transition

grasses are nothing more than either Warm Season or Cool Season grasses. Sometimes they are specific mixtures of different types of grasses. Within the transition zone, no one type of grass will do well in all weather conditions (heat / cold). This makes for a difficult situation where either more intensive maintenance of a cool season grass is required, or the use of a summer time warm season grass which goes dormant (and brown in color) in the cool days of fall & winter. During the summer months, the cool season grasses decline due to the hot weather in Transition zones. Planting one of the more “cold hardy” warm season grasses can help keep your lawn in shape and green through the summer. Cool season grasses must be inter-seeded in these lawns to maintain a green appearance during spring and fall/winter seasons. The best way to determine a good “warm season” grass to plant in your lawn for summer purposes is to see what your neighbors have good luck with. Areas can vary so much within the transition zone due to temperature differences and soils that using “suggested” grasses for your specific area can be misleading. What works best is usually what others plant successfully. Which is best????? Zoysia, Bermuda and Buffalograss are three of the more commonly planted warm season grasses used in the cooler transition zone areas. Fescues, Ryegrasses and Bluegrasses are also very popular and used quite extensively in the transition zone. While there is no one rule of thumb about which grass works best, cool season grasses seem to be the more popular choices for the majority of lawns planted in the transition zone.

The three general areas at right showing where Warm (yellow) and Cool season (blue) grasses are used within the USA. In the transition zone (purple), a mixture of these two grass types is sometimes required. However the Transition zone generally favors the cool-season grasses over the warm season ones.

 

 

 

FERTILITY REQUIREMENTS
WARM SEASON		COOL SEASON
Buffalo	Low	Bentgrass	High
Centipede	Low	Bluegrass	Medium
Common Bermuda	Medium – High	Fine Fescue	Low
Hybrid Bermuda	High	Ryegrass	Medium
St Augustine	Medium	Tall Fescue	Low – Medium
Tall Fescue	Medium
Zoysia	Low – Medium

LEAF TEXTURE
WARM SEASON		COOL SEASON
Buffalo	Fine	Bentgrass	Fine
Centipede	Medium – Coarse	Bluegrass	Medium
Common Bermuda	Medium	Fine Fescue	Fine
Hybrid Bermuda	Fine	Ryegrass	Medium
St Augustine	Coarse	Tall Fescue	Medium
Tall Fescue	Medium
Zoysia	Fine – Medium

SHADE TOLERANCE
WARM SEASON		COOL SEASON
Buffalo	Low	Bentgrass	Medium
Centipede	Medium – High	Bluegrass	Low – Medium
Common Bermuda	Low	Fine Fescue	High
Hybrid Bermuda	Low – Medium	Ryegrass	Low – Medium
St Augustine	High	Tall Fescue	Medium
Tall Fescue	High
Zoysia	Medium – High

WEAR RESISTANCE
WARM SEASON		COOL SEASON
Buffalo	Medium – High	Bentgrass	Low
Centipede	Low	Bluegrass	Medium
Common Bermuda	High	Fine Fescue	Medium
Hybrid Bermuda	Medium – High	Ryegrass	High
St Augustine	Low	Tall Fescue	Medium – High
Tall Fescue	Medium
Zoysia	High

MOWING HEIGHT
WARM SEASON		COOL SEASON
Buffalo	High	Bentgrass	Low
Centipede	Medium – High	Bluegrass	Medium
Common Bermuda	Medium	Fine Fescue	Medium
Hybrid Bermuda	Low	Ryegrass	Medium
St Augustine	High	Tall Fescue	Medium
Tall Fescue	High
Zoysia	Medium

COLD TOLERANCE
WARM SEASON		COOL SEASON
Buffalo	High	Bentgrass	Low
Centipede	Medium – High	Bluegrass	Medium
Common Bermuda	Medium	Fine Fescue	Medium – High
Hybrid Bermuda	Low – Medium	Ryegrass	Medium
St Augustine	Low	Tall Fescue	High
Tall Fescue	High
Zoysia	High

HEAT TOLERANCE
WARM SEASON		COOL SEASON
Buffalo	High	Bentgrass	High
Centipede	High	Bluegrass	Medium
Common Bermuda	High	Fine Fescue	Low – Medium
Hybrid Bermuda	High	Ryegrass	Low – Medium
St Augustine	High	Tall Fescue	High
Tall Fescue	Medium
Zoysia	High

DROUGHT TOLERANCE
WARM SEASON		COOL SEASON
Buffalo	High	Bentgrass	Low
Centipede	Low – Medium	Bluegrass	Medium
Common Bermuda	Medium – High	Fine Fescue	High
Hybrid Bermuda	Low – Medium	Ryegrass	Low – Medium
St Augustine	Medium	Tall Fescue	High
Tall Fescue	Low
Zoysia	Medium – High

THATCHING TENDENCY
WARM SEASON		COOL SEASON
Buffalo	Low	Bentgrass	High
Centipede	Medium	Bluegrass	Low – Medium
Common Bermuda	Low	Fine Fescue	Low – Medium
Hybrid Bermuda	High	Ryegrass	Low
St Augustine	Medium – High	Tall Fescue	Low
Tall Fescue	Low
Zoysia	Medium – High

TOLERANCE TO ACID SOILS
WARM SEASON		COOL SEASON
Buffalo	Low	Bentgrass	Medium – High
Centipede	High	Bluegrass	Medium
Common Bermuda	Medium	Fine Fescue	Medium – High
Hybrid Bermuda	Medium	Ryegrass	Medium
St Augustine	Low	Tall Fescue	High
Tall Fescue	High
Zoysia	Low – Medium

SALINITY TENDENCY
WARM SEASON		COOL SEASON
Buffalo	High	Bentgrass	High
Centipede	Low – Medium	Bluegrass	Medium
Common Bermuda	High	Fine Fescue	Medium
Hybrid Bermuda	High	Ryegrass	Medium – High
St Augustine	High	Tall Fescue	High
Tall Fescue	High
Zoysia	High