Perennial Ryegrass

Summary

Perennial Ryegrass creates a beautiful lawn, and its quick germination makes lawn establishment easy. Overseed every one or two years to keep the lawn thick and prevent excessive clumping.

Advantages

• Rapid germination (3 to 5 days)
• Good wear tolerance for high traffic areas
• Entophytic cultivars deter insect feeding. Endophytes are fungi that live inside the perennial ryegrass and produce compounds that are toxic to insects
• Resistant to the devastating disease Necrotic Ring Spot

Disadvantages

• It is a bunch type grass and tends to grow in clumps if not overseeded regularly. We recommend overseeding annually with a perennial ryegrass lawn
• Old cultivars have poor cold tolerance and can die in winter. New cultivars have significantly better cold tolerance.
• Tough grass blades can shred when cut with a dull mower. The shredded leaves cause the lawn to appear fuzzy.
• When used in a mix with other slow germinating grass species, the quickly germinating Perennial Ryegrass tricks the lawn owner into reducing the watering because they think the germination is complete. This can result in the slow germinating species never getting established.

Learn about Fine Fescue
Learn about Kentucky Bluegrass
Learn about Creeping Bentgrass
Learn about Tall Fescue