Buffalograss: Weeds Mean You Are Doing Too Much

Weeds are the symptom, not the problem

Every weed page on this site treats weeds as an invasion to be repelled. On this one grass that framing is wrong, and K-State says why in eleven words:

“Weeds are a sign that buffalograss is overmanaged.”

Read their list of what actually causes them. Practices that encourage weed growth:

“light and frequent watering, early season fertilization and watering, extremely short mowing, and excessive fertilization”

Four items, and every one is something you did. None of them is about weed seed arriving, a neighbour’s dandelions, or a thin spot. Colorado State arrives at the same place from the other direction:

“Excessive fertilization, especially in combination with too much water, can result in rapid weed invasion”

So on a buffalograss lawn a flush of crabgrass is not a weed problem to be sprayed. It is a receipt for water and fertiliser the grass did not ask for. K-State’s summary of the whole mechanism is blunter still: “Applying excess water and fertilizer defeats the purpose of planting a native grass.”

And there is a corollary most lawn advice never offers:

“It is better to tolerate a few weeds than to expect weed-free buffalograss turf, which may involve excessive herbicide application.”

The instruction nobody expects: do not water in spring

This is the single most actionable line in either source, and it inverts normal practice. K-State:

“Spring watering benefits weeds more than buffalograss.”

The grass is still dormant while the cool-season weeds around it are not. Water in April and you are irrigating henbit, dandelion and annual bluegrass on a lawn that cannot yet compete. K-State is specific about when water does help:

“The most beneficial time to water buffalograss is June, July, and August when drought tends to be most severe.”

And the shape of that watering matters as much as the month:

“Frequent, light watering leads to weeds, shallow rooting, and other problems. A deep watering every two weeks during hot, dry summer weather is sufficient”

Colorado State’s floor is compatible — “a minimum of one-two inches of rainfall or irrigation every two-four weeks during the summer to maintain active growth.”

K-State also says you can simply stop: “Cutting the amount of watering or stopping entirely does not harm buffalograss, as long as it has not been on a program of frequent watering.” The catch is the last clause — a lawn trained on weekly irrigation has lost that option. How often to water your lawn covers deep-and-infrequent generally; here the interval is two weeks, not two days.

What that means against Kansas's own numbers

Local rainfall: The defining Kansas number is a gradient, not an average: over 45 inches a year in the southeast, under 18 in the southwest, with Stanton and Morton counties around 17.4. Any single watering or species recommendation for 'Kansas' is wrong at one end of the state Humidity: Humid and heavy in the east, semi-arid in the west — the same state that gets brown patch in Kansas City has lawns 400 miles west that will not hold a cool-season stand without irrigation

Soil is the other half of the decision, because K-State rules out sand outright. Locally: Deep loess silt loams through the centre and west (Harney silt loam, the state soil since 1990, covers nearly four million acres); heavier silty clay loams in the east and shallow soils over limestone through the Flint Hills Drainage: Moderately slow through the loess, which is deep and well drained at the surface but permeable only slowly, so a heavy storm runs off before it soaks in; fast on the western sands and the shallow Flint Hills soils over rock

That is compatible with what K-State asks for. Their ideal is a well-drained loam, and they note buffalograss tolerates clay and compacted sites with slower establishment rather than failure.

The dominant lawn grass here is Tall Fescue, so a buffalograss lawn in Kansas is a deliberate departure from what the neighbours have — which matters more than usual on a species whose main cost is looking different. Local seeding window: Tall fescue goes in from late August into September. Warm-season lawns — zoysia, bermuda, buffalograss — go in late May through July as sod, sprigs or seed, once soil is thoroughly warm

And the office publishing the local version of all of this is K-State Turfgrass at Kansas State University Research and Extension — K-State runs a Lawn Problem Solver and a turf diagnostic guide, and its cultivar recommendations come out of the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program trials grown in Kansas — which is the reason to prefer its variety list over a national one..

Two pounds is a ceiling, not a target

K-State’s fertiliser table is short enough to quote whole:

With the note attached: “Two pounds actual nitrogen per year is the maximum amount for buffalograss,” and if you exceed one pound, split the applications. Their warning about going further is direct — “Applying more than 2 pounds of nitrogen per season defeats the low-maintenance advantage and may lead to problems.”

A real disagreement between our two sources, and it is worth seeing. Colorado State’s routine recommendation is “One pound of N per 1000 square feet in late May to mid-June, and again in late July” — two pounds a year, which is precisely K-State’s stated maximum. So one source’s normal programme is the other’s ceiling. Our reading: work from K-State’s low end, because the documented failure mode on this species is excess and there is no documented failure from underfeeding a native prairie grass.

Timing then decides the rest. K-State: “Fertilize buffalograss when it is growing, preferably in June after stolon growth begins,” because “Early fertilizing, watering, and mowing encourages weeds.”

And skip the balanced bag. K-State: “Avoid regular use of a balanced fertilizer such as 10-10-10 or 13-13-13. Too much phosphorus encourages broadleaf weeds and traps essential micronutrients in the soil.” What they want instead is “a nitrogen-only fertilizer or one with a small amount of phosphorus and a medium amount of potassium compared to nitrogen” — decided by a test: “Perform a soil test to determine phosphorus and potassium requirements.”

How much fertilizer do I need converts the rate into product, and how to read a fertilizer label covers finding the nitrogen figure — which on this page you are dividing rather than multiplying.

Nebraska’s calendar, and the one technique worth stealing from it

Nebraska is where most of the named buffalograss cultivars were bred, and its Buffalograss Management Calendar (G2178) is the most concrete season-by-season document published for the species. Four things in it are worth having.

The mowing height is higher than people expect. Not a short prairie cut: “Mow at 3.0 to 4.0 inches as needed to avoid removing more than 1/3 of the leaf blade. Mow at this height throughout the year.” Throughout the year — there is no seasonal step-down here.

The pre-emergent carries a nitrogen problem with it. Nebraska flags something most homeowners never notice: “Most preemergence herbicides are only available with N as the carrier. Try to limit N rate to 0.75 lb N/1,000 sq ft and use products containing 25 to 50% slow release N.” On a grass this easy to over-feed, the weed-and-feed you bought for crabgrass is also a nitrogen application you did not plan.

A temperature ceiling on 2,4-D. “Avoid applications containing 2,4-D once temperatures are higher than 75°F”, with quinclorac named as the option that handles both crabgrass and broadleaf weeds.

And the dormant-season trick. From November 1 to February 1, “herbicides containing glyphosate can be applied to control green weeds in dormant buffalograss” — with two conditions attached that are the whole safety margin: “be sure that buffalograss is fully dormant and herbicides contain only glyphosate.” Only glyphosate. A combination product with a residual partner does not qualify, and a lawn that is merely brown-ish rather than fully dormant will take damage. Weeds die slowly at that time of year, so patience is part of it.

One caveat Nebraska attaches to its own calendar is worth repeating, because it is the reason this page carries state versions at all: “different locations and weather conditions within the region may alter dates by three weeks or more.”

The two hard limits

Shade. K-State:

“Buffalograss grows best in full sun, but 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight per day is enough for acceptable turf. Stands will be thinner in semi-shady areas. Almost no growth occurs in heavily shaded areas.”

Six to eight hours is a bright site. Colorado State rules out anything with more than half a day of heavy shade. For real shade the answer is fine fescue, and growing grass in shade has the light floor.

Sand — and this one is counterintuitive. A drought grass ought to want sand. K-State:

“Sandy soils, wet areas, and poorly drained soils are not suitable.”

It lists “Does not grow well on poorly drained or sandy soils” among the disadvantages outright. What it wants is “A well-drained loam soil”, and clay is acceptable: “Establishment is slower on clay and compacted sites, but buffalograss can tolerate these conditions.”

On traffic the two sources are usefully precise rather than absolute. Colorado State excludes lawns where traffic is “concentrated and constant” but adds “Sporadic heavy use is not a problem”, and K-State lists playgrounds, parks and golf fairways among its uses. So this is not the no-feet grass fine fescue is — it is a grass that objects to a permanent path rather than to children.

The honest cost is the calendar

Everything above is a saving. Here is the bill, and it is not agronomic — it is what the lawn looks like. K-State:

“Buffalograss greens up earlier than bermudagrass, but several weeks later than Kentucky bluegrass or tall fescue. It turns brown after the first fall freeze.”

They put it on the disadvantage list twice over: “Greens up later in the spring and goes dormant after the first fall frost” and “Lacks dark-green color some people prefer.”

So on a street of bluegrass lawns, yours is the brown one in April and the brown one in October, and grey-green rather than deep green in between. K-State’s framing of who this grass is for is the fairest sentence in either document:

“It should be planted by those who appreciate the natural look of this native prairie grass and do not want it to look like other lawn grasses.”

And their honesty about the species generally is worth repeating, because it is unusual in turf literature: “Buffalograss is not a miracle grass, nor is it the ideal turfgrass for every situation.”

How long brown actually lasts in Kansas

Local frost dates put a number on it: first frost Early to mid-October across most of the state, later in the southeast, last frost Mid-April in the southeast to early May in the northwest. Buffalograss goes brown at the first of those and, per K-State, greens up several weeks after a bluegrass lawn does — so the dormant stretch here runs from that first frost until well past the last one.

The comparison that matters is with the neighbours, and locally that means Tall Fescue, which holds colour on a different calendar entirely. USDA range here is 6a–7a.

And these are Kansas's own spring tasks from our research — read them as the programme buffalograss lets you skip, and note how many of them are the watering and feeding K-State ties to weeds:

• Pre-emergent on soil temperature, which crosses the state over about three weeks from southeast to northwest
• Hold nitrogen on tall fescue: K-State's programme puts the fescue application in autumn, not spring
• Treat henbit and the winter annuals now — by May they have set seed and the argument is over

If dormant brown is the objection rather than the maintenance, grass paint for lawns is the one cosmetic answer that does not involve watering a dormant lawn — which on this species would just grow weeds.

Seeding it, and the cost argument

The two sources differ on rate, so both:

• K-State: “One and one-half to 2 pounds of seed per 1,000 square feet are required to establish a turf in one season,” and one pound gets there in about a year and a half.
• Colorado State: “Three to five pounds of seed per 1000 square feet.”

K-State also makes the comparison that sells the species: “only 1 to 2 pounds of seed per 1,000 square feet are required for a buffalograss lawn, compared to 6 to 8 pounds for fescue.”

Plant in June, not April. “Buffalograss seed planted in mid-June germinates in about a week, while early spring plantings may take two to three weeks,” and “Summer plantings tend to have fewer weeds because of rapid establishment.”

And the trap that catches everyone. Colorado State:

“The amount of water required to establish a buffalograss lawn from seed, sod, or plugs will be equal to (and occasionally greater than) that amount required to establish a bluegrass or tall fescue lawn.”

The drought tolerance belongs to the established stand, not the seedling. Budget the water for year one as if you were planting fescue, then stop.

Grass seed vs sod covers the establishment choice.

What we do not stock, and one thing we will not card

Two honest gaps on this page.

We carry no buffalograss seed. K-State names a long list of seeded cultivars — Tatanka, Cody, Bison, Plains, Sharp’s Improved II, Top Gun, Texoka, Bowie, Sundancer — and separate vegetative types, and none of them is in our catalogue. Buy from a Plains seed supplier and note K-State’s warning about treated seed: “Avoid buying seed passed off as treated that may have been dyed to look like treated seed by checking the label for the source, method of treatment, and other information.”

And no herbicide. K-State names quinclorac as effective and safe here — “Quinclorac, for example, controls many types of weeds, including crabgrass” — and our quinclorac product exists. We are not carding it, because EPA hosts no label PDF for that registration, so we have never read whether buffalograss is on it, and the same product also contains 2,4-D, which K-State says “should not be applied when temperatures exceed 85° F.” Recommending it here would be exactly the off-label guess K-State declines to make. If you need chemistry on this lawn, take the active to our pesticide label guide and confirm buffalograss is printed on the pack in your hand.

One K-State timing note that does not need a product recommendation: “Herbicides containing glyphosate should only be used when buffalograss is fully dormant. For most of Kansas, a sunny day in February (>45° F) works well for this application.”

What overmanaging it would actually grow in Kansas

The weeds K-State attributes to overmanagement are not generic — they are whatever is already waiting in your soil. Our state research records the high-risk weeds here as Crabgrass, Henbit and other winter annuals, which own an eastern Kansas lawn in March, Field bindweed, Dandelion, Yellow nutsedge. That list is the specific outcome of a spring watering here, and it is worth reading before you set a controller.

Local post-emergent window, for the years you decide a few weeds are not tolerable after all: April into May and again in September–October; avoid July and August, when a tall fescue lawn here is already at its limit Pre-emergent: Crabgrass pre-emergent as soil holds 55°F at 2 inches — typically late March to mid-April moving northwest, with a second application six to eight weeks later in the wetter east

And where to send the soil sample K-State asks for before any phosphorus decision: K-State Research and Extension Soil Testing Lab, Manhattan The basic lawn and garden package — pH, buffer pH, phosphorus and potassium — is around $12.50, and samples can go direct to the lab by post, in person or through a drop box as well as via a county Extension office. Several Kansas counties run free or subsidised tests through their Extension office, so ask locally before paying. The pH result is the one that matters most here, because it usually points the opposite way from the national advice.

Where it sits among the alternatives

Buffalograss and fine fescue are the two low-input answers, and they are not interchangeable. Fine fescue is the shade-and-neglect grass that cannot take feet; buffalograss is the full-sun, dry-climate grass that takes moderate use but is brown for longer. Pick by site, not by the phrase “low maintenance”.

The honest summary

Buffalograss asks for almost nothing, and the discipline is in believing that. Roughly one pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet a year with two as the hard ceiling, a deep soak every two weeks in summer and none in spring, a June feeding after the stolons start running, and mowing between two and a half and four inches — or not at all.

The failure mode is not disease and not drought. It is weeds, and K-State’s eleven words are the diagnostic: weeds are a sign that buffalograss is overmanaged. If your native prairie lawn is filling with crabgrass, the answer is almost never a herbicide. It is less water, later feeding and a higher deck.

And go in knowing the real cost, which is cosmetic rather than agronomic: yours will be the brown lawn in April and again in October, and grey-green in between. K-State is right that this grass is for people who do not want it to look like the others.