Any lawn, turf, landscape experts out there? Will our crispy lawns

[jaretac]

This post is pretty hard to follow but I will try:

The RH here in Central IA is actually lower than normal, we have no water in the soil to evaporate, no rain so the moisture level in the air is more like Texas than a normal Iowa summer. Because of the low RH the plants and soil lose moisture faster to the air than normal. Plants (grass) are comfy in high humidity, just the opposite of us humans. We would have very high Evapotranspiration right now if we actually had any moisture in the soil to evaporate, the reality is that we dont.

Bottom line is that I would highly reccomend watering your lawn if at all possible within reason. If you live in the country or have a 5 acre yard its really not an option for most. If you live in the city and have a normal sized lawn I would reccomend watering substantially (around 3/4-1inch) per week. This seems like a lot, the reality is that you are working with nearly zero reserve so it is much more important than if you were watering in early May when soil moisture was fairly adequate.

I have no idea what you are talking about. First, much of Texas is very humid, worse than Iowa. Second, even though there haven't been any weather systems or very much rain doesn't mean that the humidity can't be high. The humidity comes up from the gulf of Mexico and the weather systems come from the west (normally).

What I was saying is that I'm from a dry climate so in my experience grass will come back. Where Des Moines is 3 inches under for July, we are 3 inches over, so what you have received for rain this month is what we normally receive. What you are getting for RH levels (monthly average of 46%) we normally get lower in the 30s. The big temp swings at night of 25 to 30 degrees (which is a indication of low moister levels) we normally have more wild swings of 40 degrees or more (on July 12 we had a swing of 50 degrees).

Although this is my experience I do acknowledge that it is a different climate and like any plants or animals, grass will adapt for the climate. So yes, to my knowledge grass will return at least in Washington it would. In Iowa where the grass usually doesn't have to be watered ever, I don't know.

[BoxsterCy]

If I could I would send this forecast for my city south down I-35 for you.

[CyCrazy]

If I could I would send this forecast for my city south down I-35 for you.

Ya that would be great! I ran the rain total numbers from Jan 1st to now a couple a days ago and Ames is 7 inches under the average per year.

[isucy86]

I saw the story on the DSM TV station also with the ISU turf expert. I hadn't been watering up that point but if he says 3-4 more weeks of drought and lawns will be dead without water, I'm gonna listen. Cheaper than having to re-sod.

[CyBer]

I havent and won't water my yard. Just wait it out after a couple of good soaking rains it will be green again. On the plus side I have not mowed my yard in over a month.

It doesn't rain in Iowa anymore I don't know if you got the memo.