The Grasses

Cool-Season

Cool-season grasses, like Kentucky bluegrass and tall fescue, are very popular in southern Nebraska. These grasses will green-up early in the spring and remain green late into fall or early winter. However, these grasses tend to struggle during the hot and often dry summer months.

Warm-Season

The warm-season grass buffalograss is becoming very popular. Warm-season grasses are preferred in many instances due to their increased drought tolerance over cool-season grasses. However, warm-season grasses do not green-up until late spring and will go dormant in early fall.

Grass Characteristics

	Buffalograss	Tall Fesuce	Kentucky Bluegrass
Water Requirement	Low	Medium	High
Drought or Heat Strategy	Will go dormant.	Will not survive extended drought.	Will go dormant.
Drought Recovery	Excellent	Poor	Very Good
High pH Tolerance	Excellent	Very Good	Poor
Heat Stress Tolerance	Excellent	Very Good	Poor
Disease Problems	Few	Some	Many
Thatch Accumulation	Not a problem	Occasional issue	Needs regular cultivation
Summer Color	Green to light green	Dark green	Highly variable genetic color