About Tall Fescue (2024)

FAQs

About Tall Fescue? ›

Tall fescue is valued for its adaptability to a wide range of climates and its tolerances for cold, heat, drought and shade. In its preferred growing zones, tall fescue provides lawn owners with outstanding options for improving lawn resilience and durability.

The stems are 3-4 feet tall, supporting a nodding panicle that is 4-12 inches long. There are 227,000 seeds per pound. Tall fescue is adapted to cool and humid climates and most soils with a pH of 5.5 to 7.0. Tall fescue will grow fairly well on soils low in fertility, but it is better adapted to fertile conditions.

Plant Description: A tufted perennial grass growing to 200 cm high. Leaves are dark green, hairless, strongly ribbed and flat, to 60 cm long and 12 mm wide.

Tall Fescue is a cool-season grass that is well suited to the cooler, southern states of Australia. While it has good shade and drought tolerance, Tall Fescue has some significant drawbacks, including its susceptibility to pests and disease and a coarse clumping habit which is not ideal for backyards.

Tall fescue seed needs soil temperatures near 60 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit for thorough germination and strong root development. These soil temperatures roughly correspond to fall and spring air temperatures in the range of 68 to 77 F.

Tall fescue offers greater heat tolerance than other cool-season grasses and greater cold tolerance than warm-season grass options for these lawn owners. The result is beautiful year-round lawns in this challenging transition area.

Tall Fescue requires a significant amount of water during the summer. Your grass needs 1-1.5 inches of water per week. Whatever does not come from natural sources like rain, will need to be made up with supplemental irrigation.

Tall fescues naturally have deep, extensive root zones that typically reach 2 to 3 feet deep. 1 Deeper than any other common cool-season U.S. lawn grass, this naturally extensive root system provides access to water and other resources beyond the reach of grasses with limited root depth and density.

Tall Fescue performs best when it receives at least 1 inch of water per week; 2 inches in the heat of summer. If one (two in the heat) or more inches of rainfall occurs in a week, additional irrigation is not necessary. (Example: if 1/2 inch of rain occurs within a growing week, apply 1/2 inch by irrigation.)

Why do people not like tall fescue? ›

The downfall to grazing or feeding tall fescue is the risk of fescue toxicosis caused from plants infected with an endophytic fungal species, such as Neotyphodium coenophialum and Epichloë coenophiala, which lives within plant tissue and aids to improve the tolerance and pest resistance of the plant, but also produces ...

Fescue fungus creates a number of compounds called ergot alkaloids (also called ergo peptides) that are toxic when ingested in certain quantities. Ergots are a type of mycotoxin, a more familiar term in the ag community.

Fescue performs best in dappled shade to partial sun, does very well in full sun when maintained properly, and struggles the most in dense, heavy shade. A full fescue lawn is the best solution for the typical-sized lawn with a few trees making caring for both cool-season and warm-season turf difficult.

In the Southeast, fescue grass really takes a beating-especially in full sun. The heat alone is damaging, but add some humidity and the conditions are just right for brown patch fungus. Unlike warm-season grasses like Bermuda and Zoysia grass, fescue grass does not spread.

Low maintenance. Tall fescue has excellent tolerance for heat stress and drought. It will tolerate moderate traffic and infrequent mowing. This species is not well adapted to high altitudes.

It depends on the type of grass. Kentucky bluegrass has runners that help it spread on its own. But many northern grasses are bunch-type grasses which don't spread, so seeding is needed to fill in bare spots. Perennial ryegrass and fescue are among the non-spreaders.

The ergot alkaloid ergovaline has been detected in toxic fescue and constitutes ~90% of the ergopeptide alkaloids produced. Ergovaline content of infected tall fescue often ranges from 100 to 500 ppb, and >200 ppb is considered a toxic concentration.

Planting & Care

While the Elijah blue fescue is a durable plant, it only lives up to 10+ years. However, shearing can be done in the late winter to promote a neater appearance and extend its lifespan.

Tall Fescue does very well with five to six hours of full sun exposure. Centipedegrass and Zoysiagrass need six to seven hours of sunlight. Bermudagrass needs at least eight hours of full sun with the exception of a couple of cultivars that may do well with six to seven hours.