Pros and Cons of Creeping Bentgrass

Homeowners like creeping bentgrass for its wear tolerance, soft and fine texture, and lushness. However, creeping bentgrass is a very high-maintenance grass that discolors and is prone to pests, diseases and weeds. Let’s go over the pros and cons of creeping bentgrass.

Creeping bentgrass at a glance

Creeping bentgrass is a cool-season grass with a good range of color, ranging from light greens to deeper green (or even bluish) hues. It gets its name for its ability to spread and its short, bent roots. It grows well in the Pacific Northwest and in the Northeast regions of the country.

It’s more commonly used in sports fields, especially golfing greens. It’s because it can tolerate a very low mowing height. In residential areas, it’s more often considered a weed and grows in overwatered, overmowed, and overfertilized lawns. However, some homeowners have embraced it as a turf option.

Pros of creeping bentgrass

Some homeowners tolerate the cons of creeping bentgrass because of its beneficial qualities:

• Soft to walk on
• Great wear tolerance
• Good cold tolerance
• Decent shade tolerance
• Good salt tolerance
• Lush carpet-like look

Soft to walk on

Creeping bentgrass has a fine texture that’s quite pleasant to walk on. It’s soft underneath your feet – one of the best grasses to walk on barefoot, even.

If you’re planting creeping bentgrass for the texture, make sure you pick a cultivar with a fine texture, like one of the Penn A or G cultivars. Some bentgrass cultivars can be a little coarse.

Great wear tolerance

Creeping bentgrass is the most widely used turf on golf courses for a reason. This turfgrass has great wear tolerance, so it handles heavy foot traffic. This is especially true if it’s not mowed too short – higher than golf course greens, anyway.

If it does sustain damage, don’t worry. Creeping bentgrass recovers from damage very well thanks to its stolons, which helps bentgrass spread and regrow.

Good cold tolerance

As a cool-season grass, it’s no secret that creeping bentgrass has good cold tolerance. It will survive cold winters without much issue as long as there’s snow cover. 

In areas with freezing temperatures but without much snow, it will die or at least be heavily injured. According to the Oregon State University, it’s because it cannot handle drying out in the cold.

Decent shade tolerance

It also has decent shade tolerance, despite the rumors that it can’t tolerate shade at all. As long as you don’t cut your creeping bentgrass really short — like on a golf course — it will tolerate shade well. For better shade tolerance, aim to mow on the higher end of the recommended range – up to 0.75 inches tall. 

However, it’s still best to grow creeping bentgrass in full sun. Creeping bentgrass mowed very short and grown in shade is more susceptible to weeds.

Good salt tolerance

Lastly, it has a good salt tolerance. In fact, the first available seeded creeping bentgrass cultivar was seaside creeping bentgrass, according to the Oregon State University.

However, like its other tolerances, creeping bentgrass’ salt tolerance is only good when mowed higher than golfing green mowing height. A study published in the journal HortScience concludes it might be because a low mowing height makes grasses less efficient at photosynthesis and producing energy. Maintaining a good salt tolerance requires a lot of energy.

Lush carpet-like look

When mowed at the right height, creeping bentgrass is uniform and thick. This lush carpet of grass helps boost your curb appeal. While it’s typically light green, some varieties have a deeper hue.

Note: If planting multiple bentgrass varieties, make sure to get cultivars with the same color. Creeping bentgrasses tend to separate over time, so you may end up with patches of differently colored grass.

Cons of creeping bentgrass

There are many reasons why creeping bentgrass is not a popular cool-season lawn for homeowners:

• Needs frequent mowing
• Needs a lot of water
• High nitrogen fertilizer requirements
• Produces a lot of thatch
• Discolors in certain seasons
• Prone to summer decline
• More prone to pests, diseases, and weeds

Its main downside is just how maintenance-heavy it is. If you’d like to learn more about how to care for creeping bentgrass, you can read our guide here: “How to Care for a Bentgrass Lawn”.

Needs frequent mowing

Unfortunately, creeping bentgrass has higher maintenance requirements than other cool-season grasses. For example, it grows best when mowed low – about 0.125 to 0.25 inches tall. You can go higher (up to 0.75 inches) in the summer for better drought tolerance and heat resistance.

If not maintained properly, it can grow irregularly in “fluffy” patches. This fluffiness is caused by false crowns, which make the plant grow leaves higher up on the stem rather than at the soil line. So, you’ll need to mow creeping bentgrass often to keep it short.

Needs a lot of water

The root system of creeping bentgrass is quite short and can’t reach the deeper sections of soil that other turfgrass species can. So, it needs frequent, short bursts of irrigation – perhaps every other day, depending on the weather and temperature.

This is even worse in the summer as heat stress can make its already short roots even shorter. You may need to water your lawn every day.

High nitrogen fertilizer requirements

Creeping bentgrass is also a nitrogen-hungry grass, needing about 4 to 6 pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet of turf every year. That’s around the same amount as Kentucky bluegrass, another cool-season turf option with high nitrogen needs.

Since you can’t get fertilizer that’s pure nitrogen, you’ll need to apply more than 4 to 6 pounds of fertilizer on your bentgrass lawn. You can learn more about how to calculate how much fertilizer you need to feed your lawn in this article: “Fertilizer 101: How to Fertilize Your Lawn”.

Produces a lot of thatch

Creeping bentgrass is a heavy thatch producer, accumulating up to ½-inch of thatch (organic material) annually. A little thatch is fine, but an excess will block water and nutrients from getting to your lawn’s roots and harbor pests. A thatch layer thicker than ½-inch is too much and will need to be removed.

Because it produces so much thatch, creeping bentgrass will need to be dethatched at least once a year.

Discolors in certain seasons

Some cultivars of bentgrass become a different color – for some, a somewhat purplish hue – in fall and winter. Sometimes, it’s because the grass produces purple clones during these seasons.

A more glaring issue is how bentgrass is prone to becoming dormant in the summer, turning brown. We’ll talk more about this in the next section.

Prone to summer decline

Unfortunately, summer bentgrass decline (SBD) is a major problem with this turfgrass, especially in the South where it’s grown on putting greens. SBD is characterized by yellowing, thinning turf as well as the shortening and death of its roots.

According to a research paper by Dr. Bingru Huang, an associate professor with the Rutgers University Plant Science Department, SBD is caused by excessive or a lack of water, poorly aerated soil, high humidity, and – most importantly – high soil temperatures (around 90 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit).

Additionally, creeping bentgrass tends to grow brown and dormant when under heat stress, which is more likely in the summer. Bentgrasses have very bad heat tolerance and will require a lot more maintenance to stay green.

More prone to pests, diseases, and weeds

Creeping bentgrass is more susceptible to diseases. It’s particularly vulnerable to brown patch and dollar spot. This turfgrass is also prone to being attacked by pests such as armyworms, sod webworms, and white grubs.

When not maintained properly or during dormancy, creeping bentgrass can be overrun by weeds. In particular, it can be taken over by annual bluegrass – a common lawn weed – when cut too short; it’s more of a problem in golf greens than home lawns, but it’s still something to take note of.

The problem is that creeping bentgrass is sensitive to many common chemical pest and disease control products. Some common herbicides also can harm creeping bentgrass. 

It’s better to take a proactive stance toward pests, diseases, and weeds when it comes to this turf species. Use preventative fungicides and pre-emergent weed killers, as well as practice good lawn care — like proper mowing, watering, fertilizing, and dethatching — to minimize these issues.

FAQs about the pros and cons of creeping bentgrass

What is the problem with creeping bentgrass?

Aside from the cons listed above, creeping bentgrass can be a problem for those who don’t want to grow it because it loves to spread. It tends to invade home lawns through seeds and stolons, and it can be difficult to get rid of once it’s gotten a foothold in your yard.

How do I get rid of creeping bentgrass on my lawn?

Getting rid of creeping bentgrass often entails using non-selective post-emergent herbicides. You can learn more about controlling creeping bentgrass in this guide: “How to Get Rid of Creeping Bentgrass.”

What are some alternatives to creeping bentgrass?

If you’re looking for a cool-season grass that’s nice to walk on, consider Kentucky bluegrass or perennial ryegrass (which can also be mixed with KBG). 

These grasses have either a good wear tolerance or good self-repair capabilities like creeping bentgrass. On the plus side, they tend to require less maintenance than creeping bentgrass.

Hire a pro to care for your lawn

Whether you decide to go with a bentgrass lawn or something else, you’ll still need to pay a fair amount of attention to your lawn to keep it looking great. However, you don’t have to kiss your dreams of a beautiful lawn away if you can’t commit the time and effort required. All you need to do is to hire a pro.

Hiring a lawn care pro through Lawn Love is easy. With just a few clicks you can schedule a pro to come take care of your lawn as soon as you need.

Main Image Credit: Stefan.lefnaer | Wikimedia Commons | CC BY-SA 4.0