The Basics of Maintaining a Healthy Fescue Lawn in the Piedmont
August 2025: Premium Tall Fescue ON SALE NOW @ $85 per 50 lb bag
Mid-August to mid-October is the best time of year to seed fescue lawns in our climate.
Tall Fescue grass seed have been cultivated over the decades to enhance desirable characteristics such as:
• Dense Tall Growth
• Dark Green Color
• Slender blades
• Disease Resistance
• Drought Resistance
• General Hardiness
These characteristics are achieved through selective breeding and testing, and each new cultivar is given a new name. As you would expect, the names on the list of top-performing cultivars are regularly changing as small but incremental improvements are made. The NC State Extension publishes a list of top cultivars, but by the time they publish, there are new, slightly improved cultivars. There is no reason to get obsessed with figuring out the names of the very latest cultivars. The top cultivars available a few years ago, compared to the very latest cultivars, have not changed enough to make a noticeable difference. But compared to the top cultivars available 20, 30, and 50 years ago, huge progress has been made.
In contrast, the baseline, less expensive seed on the market is Kentucky 31 Tall Fescue. It was not cultivated, but rather discovered on a farm in Kentucky in 1931. To exemplify how much progress has been made surpassing Kentucky 31, we have literally had customers show us pictures of patches of the pale green Kentucky 31 tall fescue growing in their lawn of dark green cultivated tall fescue, and asked for help identifying this “weed.” Kentucky 31 is not a weed, but it does stick out like a sore thumb among today’s much richer cultivated tall fescue.
How do I know I am getting quality seed?
There should be a tag on the bag that describes the content, including the varieties of tall fescue blended, the percentage of each, their tested germination rate, the percentage of weed seed, other crop seed, and inert matter, as well as the location where it was harvested. You can certainly Google the varieties if you wish, but if you see that it was grown in Oregon, has a 90% germination rate, has 0.00% weed seed, and no fillers or coating, then those are all good signs that you have found what you are looking for. Prices fluctuate from year to year based on weather and crop yields, but are usually somewhere between $70 & $130 per 50lb bag of pure seed.
B T South sells top-quality tall fescue seed seasonally from late August to early October.
Don't fall for coated seed that claims to have better germination but only gives you half as many seeds per pound. Coating is an inexpensive filler to make their product less expensive to produce per pound. For a coating that causes you to have half as many seeds per pound to make itself worthwhile, it would have to double the germination rate, which is impossible for seed that already has a 90% germination rate.
• Overseeding: 4-6 Lbs per 1000 sqft (4 bags per acre)
• New Ground Seeding: 8-10 Lbs per 1000 sqft (8 bags per acre)
Why not seed in the Spring instead?
• The most stressful time of year for fescue is the heat of Summer. By planting in the Fall this maximizes its time to grow deep roots to resist heat and drought.
• Spring is when most weeds germinate, which is why pre-emergent herbicide is used at that time of year to keep seeds from germinating. If you seed in the Spring, then using a pre-emergent will prevent the grass seed from germinating. If you don't use a pre-emergent, then the grass will compete with the weeds for water, nutrients, and sunlight. The weeds will grow faster and win, choking out the grass. Even if you don't use pre-emergent, planting in the Fall gives the grass a head start to help crowd out and shade out the weeds.
What else can I do to improve results in my yard?
• Put down starter fertilizer (time-release fertilizer) when you seed.
• Maintain the pH of your soil by putting down lime annually.
• Help the seed stay moist. When overseeding, aeration of yards is typically done, providing holes that the seed wash into allowing the seed to stay moist and germinate. On new lawns, straw is typically laid down over the seed, fertilizer, and lime to help retain moisture. If it is feasible to irrigate, that is ideal; however, often we have to rely on nature, which can result in a great or not-so-great seeding season.
• If your yard is thickly covered with undesirable vegetation, then this will compete with the grass seed getting the sun, moisture, and nutrients it needs to germinate. Spraying herbicide to kill these undesirables prior to seeding may be helpful, but be sure to read the label to determine how long you need to wait to seed after applying the herbicide. There are broad-spectrum herbicides that kill everything green, like glyphosate, and there are selective herbicides that don’t kill your existing fescue, which tend to be more expensive.
• In late Winter, put down preemergent to stop the germination of undesirable competing plants in your yard, and again in early spring. The first application should be made when ground temperatures reach 55 degrees, and a second application should be made approximately 6 weeks later. This is especially important when there were weeds in the yard last season, because those seeds are lying in wait to become the next generation of weeds. A yard that has been under control and in good shape for a year becomes easier to keep under control.
• In the heat of Summer, mow your fescue tall. Set your mower height of cut in the range of 4.5” to 5.5”. Fescue is most stressed and most likely to die in the heat of summer. Mowing it tall allows it to better maintain its moisture and shade out competing vegetation. Mowing short can result in dead grass and healthy weeds, the opposite of what we want.
The blog picture above is of our own yard here in Guilford County mowed at 5" in August 2025. The light spots are where the sun is shining through the tree limbs above. It does not have an irrigation system. In extreme droughts of years past we have sometimes used a garden hose and sprinkler, but no irrigation has been needed in 2025. The picture below, also taken in August 2025, also mowed at 5", has some leaves in the grass, as Black Walnut trees shed their leaves in late Summer.
