As lawn renovation season rolls around, the common question arises: can you renovate buffalo grass? The short answer is yes, but there are a few precautions you need to take to ensure you don’t end up causing harm to your lawn. In this blog, we take a look at the best way to renovate a buffalo lawn.
Why Do I Need to Take Precautions When Renovating Buffalo Turf?
Buffalo grass mainly grows by its above-ground runner system and doesn’t have a strong rhizome like couch and kikuyu grasses. With couch and kikuyu, when renovating, you can almost take the lawn back to dirt as the underground runners of the grass will be able to grow back through the soil to repair. With buffalo you can remove the top layer of overlapping stolons, however you will need to ensure that there is still stolons present and attached to the soil so that the grass can still grow back and repair.
How to Dethatch Buffalo Grass with a Mower
One method to dethatch buffalo grass is to give the lawn a low mow to pick up and remove the dry thatch material within the profile. When doing this, we recommend dropping the height down slowly to ensure you are not removing too much of the plant material. Drop the height on your mower, then review how much material is removed. If needed, drop the height again and mow back over the area. You can repeat this process until you are happy with how much of the grass runner is still present.
How to Scarify Buffalo
If you choose to use a scarifying machine on your buffalo lawn, we always recommend testing the scarifier on a small area while on its highest and least aggressive setting. If you are then happy with the results, and most importantly, there are runners of the grass still in tack, continue across the whole lawn.
How to Use a Scarifying Rake on Buffalo
If you want to use a scarifying rake, give the area a light rake, monitor how much material is removed, and ensure runners are still in the tack.
How Do You Top Dress Buffalo Grass?
When top dressing buffalo turf, we recommend using an 80% sand 20% loam mixture if you are wanting to improve the soil profile. If you are wanting to top dress for level improvement, we recommend using a washed or screened river sand.
When topdressing evenly apply the soil to the area, then rub it into the profile by using the back of a rake or a soil leveller.
When top dressing, ensure the top of the leaf is still popping through the sand/soil. You shouldn’t apply more than 5-10mm thickness at one time. If you require more top dressing to level out your area, doing this over a few applications over spring and summer is best.
What Products Should I Apply After a Lawn Renovation?
After a lawn renovation, we recommend applying a fertiliser to help give your lawn a boost in growth and nutrients. We recommend using a well-rounded granular fertiliser like our Lawn Solutions Premium Fertiliser. This has a combination of slow and fast-release granules, giving the lawn a good upfront boost while continuing to feel the lawn after it is repaired.
There are also a few preventative style products we recommend looking into using after a renovation. To help prevent damage-causing insects, we recommend using an Acelepryn powered product like Grub Guard Ultimate. If you want to help prevent weeds this spring and summer, we recommend using a pre-emergent herbicide like Oxafert or Oxafert Plus.
For more lawn care tips and advice, please check out our other lawn care blogs here.
