Ryegrass is often used to overseed lawns in the Southwest during the colder months while our Bermuda grass and zoysia grass is sort of hibernating. There are plenty of pros and cons of overseeding with ryegrass. In this blog post, we’ll explore those pros and cons!

• Overseeding with ryegrass provides year-round green turf-surface.
• Overseeding makes the grass more attractive and useable during the winter months.
• Ryegrass grows fast.
• Ryegrass is cheap.
• Ryegrass will die off as temperatures rise in the spring, making way for the return of the warm season grasses like Bermuda grass.

• Ryegrass will compete for nutrients needed by the lawn in spring.
• Fertilizing the ryegrass may make the turfgrass more easily winter-damaged.
• It’s very difficult to have a seamless transition where you can maintain uniform green turf.
• Perennial ryegrass can prevent 100% green-up by the Bermuda grass.
• The Bermuda grass underlying an overseeded stand will still be partially dormant.
• If you wait for the ryegrass to die out on its own, it could take a while and even then it could still turn into clumpy ryegrass which is difficult to control.
• Perennial ryegrass, if you have a dry spring, may remain longer than it should – perhaps into the early summer.
• Allowing perennial ryegrass to transition naturally can decrease the health of the Bermuda grass. Bermuda grass needs about 90 to 120 days of good growing conditions during the summer.

If you want to help your perennial ryegrass seed germinate well, mow the dormant warm-season grass before you sow the ryegrass. You should gather up those clippings. Then, it’s wise to rake over the area. This will score the soil’s surface. Ryegrass, like all grass seeds, needs to be in direct contact with moist soil after mowing to grow properly.