KBG rhizome questions....

[northeastlawn]

Sorry if this question is a little out there.

I was walking the lawn today, and noticing how my rust areas are actually in the spots I have POA Annua. I know because when I pulled the POA out the roots were very shallow and I didn't see any rhizomes.

I was just curious when the KBG creates the rhizome system, does the outlying individual plants ever break away from the main plant and start growing on their own?

Does the summer heat hurt the new KBG rhizome off shoots that don't have the deeper roots of the main plant?

I have been amazed that the POA Annua is getting through so far with just once a were watering, Ill deal with it agin in the fall, but keeping an eye on where it is and if the summer wipes it out.

[ken-n-nancy]

In New England, summer often isn't hot and dry enough to kill Poa annua, and it can survive year round. If you were in Virginia or Iowa, very little (none?) would survive the summer.

I don't know if KBG rhizomes ever break off, so that the daughter plants are completely self-sufficient, or if the rhizome remains intact in perpetuity. I've wondered that, too. Good question. Hopefully somebody else here knows the answer.

It seems to me that new KBG plants that develop from rhizomes are much more mature than similar plants that develop from seed -- the daughter plants seem to have even their first blades look like mature KBG, rather than the initial immature wispy blades that emerge from seed. Those first blades from rhizomes also have better color (darker) that looks more like the blades of the parent plant, instead of the brighter lime green color typical of baby grass.