When is the Best Time to Plant Rye Grass?

Location

• Where you live plays a big part in planting rye grass. In northern states, rye grasses serve as primary grasses. Throughout the United States, it is used in seed mixes. In warm-season areas, perennial and annual rye grasses provide a cool-weather counterpart to warm-season grasses such as Bermuda. If you intend to plant rye grass as a primary grass, you can plant during either fall or spring. If you intend to use it to fill in for warm-season grasses during their dormant periods, however, you only want to plant rye seed in the fall.

Fall Planting

• According to the website Ryegrasses.com, you can plant rye grass during the fall in climate zones 3 through 9. In warmer climates such as Arizona, rye grass is planted only at this time of year. The best time to plant rye grass that serves as a winter cover in warmer climates is from early October to mid-November. The exact dates vary based upon elevation, which affects actual soil temperatures.

  Throughout the northern United States, the best time in fall for planting rye grass is from mid-August to early October. The same is true for overseeding, a process by which you introduce new seeds to a lawn already covered with rye grass. The ultimate goal is to ensure that your seeds mature into healthy grass before the winter weather arrives.

Spring Planting

• If you opt to plant rye grass in the spring, you should do so before the weather turns from mild to hot. Ideally, you want to plant spring rye grass early in the growing season but after the last frost. Consult your local extension office for information on when you should expect the last frost. In many areas, you want to aim for late mid to late April or early May.

  Spring plantings of rye grass are likely to be affected by the summer heat and the limited moisture that comes with it. Therefore, you want to give rye grass time to develop prior to the onset of the hotter months. A rye grass lawn stays green and lush until temperatures hit an average high of 90 degrees F, which occurs in late May or early June in many regions of the northern United States.