Growth Rate of Kentucky Bluegrass Seed

Description

• Kentucky bluegrass is a cool-season perennial that can grow 18 to 24 inches tall. Its blades have boat-shaped tips that make it readily identifiable. A typical shoot of Kentucky bluegrass has three to four leaves, greenish-blue in color.

Seed Growth Rate and Establishment

• Kentucky bluegrass is slightly slower to establish than many other cool-season perennial grasses. It takes approximately two weeks for the seed to germinate. Once established, the grass spreads via rhizomes, which are stems that grow horizontally below the soil surface. The rhizomes produce nodes every few inches, from which a bluegrass shoot forms.

Seasonal Growth Patterns

• As Kentucky bluegrass is a cool season grass, its growth rate is greatest in the spring and early summer, when temperatures are cooler. Its growth rate declines in midsummer, and picks up again in the fall. Root growth peaks at soil temperatures of 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and decline as the temperatures rise, practically ceasing at temperatures above 80 degrees Fahrenheit.