The Best Time to Plant Grass in Tennessee

Tennessee's climate features mild winters and hot, humid summers that are cooler in mountainous parts of the state; climate will have a significant impact on when you plant grass.

Types

• You can plant a number of grasses in Tennessee, including cool-season and warm-season grasses. The University of Tennessee recommends four fescue species -- tall fescue, red fescue, chewings fescue and hard fescue -- which are cool-season grasses.

Time Frame

• Cool-season grasses in Tennessee have two growing cycles: spring and fall. The best times to plant are early spring and early fall, at the beginning of these cycles. The University of Tennessee website points to the period between Aug. 20 and Sept. 15 as the ideal planting period for grass seed. If you are laying sod, September, October and March are the best months, though timing is less important with sod than with seed.

Conditions

• The longer nights of late summer and early fall bring cool temperatures and moist soil to Tennessee; these conditions are ideal for grass seed. Early spring also has ideal conditions, but new growth is susceptible to heat damage as spring turns to summer. Likewise, if you are laying sod, you should avoid doing so in summer because of heat, drought and disease potential.