Lawn care calendar for Arkansas: when to fertilize and seed

Months follow the Division of Agriculture calendars for bermudagrass and tall fescue; the PDFs say dates can start earlier or run later with the weather and with where you live in the state.

Which grasses grow where in Arkansas

The Division of Agriculture says Arkansas lies in the transition zone, where both warm-season grasses (bermudagrass, zoysiagrass, centipedegrass, St. Augustine) and cool-season grasses (bluegrass, tall fescue, ryegrass) can be grown. Its seeding fact sheet calls bermudagrass and zoysiagrass the most popular choices, with bermudagrass the most commonly used lawn grass.

Tall fescue can be grown across the state but does best in the northern tier of counties. Bermudagrass is full-sun grass and not shade tolerant; the calendar says the seeded varieties Riviera and Yukon are well adapted in all parts of the state, while Princess-77 lacks enough cold tolerance for north Arkansas. Hybrid bermudagrasses must be started from sod, sprigs or plugs.

Frost dates from NOAA

Dates are the NOAA 1991-2020 normals for the last spring and first fall 32 F freeze at 50% probability. At Fayetteville Drake Field the last spring frost averages April 15 and the first fall frost October 21. At Jonesboro Municipal Airport the dates are March 23 and November 9, and at Little Rock Adams Field they are March 21 and November 10.

Counting the days between them gives about 189 frost-free days at Fayetteville, 231 at Jonesboro and 234 at Little Rock (our arithmetic). The gap of about six weeks between Fayetteville and Little Rock is why the northern tier suits tall fescue and the south leans on bermudagrass.

Spring

Both calendars put preemergence herbicide for crabgrass in late February or early March. Bermudagrass is mowed slightly short before growth starts to clear dead blades, then regularly once it greens up. The recommended range is 0.5 to 2.5 inches: 0.5 to 1.5 for hybrid cultivars and 1.5 to 2.5 for common bermudagrass. Tall fescue is mowed at 2.5 to 4 inches, and neither grass should lose more than a third of the blade at one cut.

Bermudagrass is not fed until about three weeks after green-up, in late May, at 0.5 to 1.0 pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet. Tall fescue gets 1.0 pound in March or early April and nothing after May 1. Both sheets add that irrigation is seldom needed in spring except on new sod or in a dry, hot, windy stretch, and that a soil test should come before the first feeding.

Summer

Bermudagrass is the summer grass: feed every 4 to 6 weeks at 0.5 to 1.0 pound of nitrogen, mow every 5 to 7 days and give about 1 to 1.25 inches of water a week to keep its color. On sandy soil the sheet suggests 0.5 inch every third day. It takes roughly 620 gallons to put 1 inch on 1,000 square feet, which is often 3 to 5 hours with a home system. Thatch comes out every two to three years, best by core aeration or dethatching in early summer.

Tall fescue should be mowed at 3 inches or higher, left unfed and checked for brown patch. The Division of Agriculture advises cutting nitrogen to a minimum and not overwatering to keep brown patch down, and says to avoid herbicides on fescue in summer. A dormant fescue lawn can be watered about every three weeks if it does not rain.

Fall

For tall fescue, September and October are the seeding months, with 8 to 10 pounds of seed per 1,000 square feet and light, frequent sprinklings to keep the bed moist. The seeding fact sheet lists bermudagrass, centipedegrass and zoysiagrass for May and June instead, at 0.5 to 1.0, 0.25 to 0.5 and 1.0 to 2.0 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Fescue feeding is 1.0 to 1.5 pounds in mid-September and again in November.

Bermudagrass gets no more than 0.5 pound of nitrogen in September, four to six weeks before the first expected frost. If a soil test calls for potassium, the calendar suggests a low-nitrogen, high-potassium product such as 10-0-40. Winter weeds such as henbit and chickweed are treated with a labeled herbicide, with no more than two applications a year of the 2,4-D and dicamba type and 30 days between them. Leaves come off tall fescue promptly so they do not shade it.

Fertilizer rules and soil tests

The Arkansas Department of Agriculture runs the state fertilizer program under A.C.A. 2-19-201 and later sections: brands must be registered and facilities licensed. The page I read on October 2, 2026 describes registration, labeling and tonnage reporting, and I found no rule there that limits phosphorus in home lawn fertilizer.

The Division of Agriculture still advises a soil test first, free through county Extension offices. Its fertilizer fact sheet notes that about 77 percent of Arkansas lawn soils have enough potassium. For new lawns its table calls for phosphorus only where soil test phosphorus is 25 ppm or lower. The lawn fertilizer calculator on this site does the division the sheet describes: pounds of nitrogen wanted divided by the nitrogen percent on the bag.