You want to get decent root growth before the grass goes dormant. It usually takes alot more than a few hours of freezing temps to get fescue dormant.

Survival during freezing temps is one reason people plant fescue.

Yes Dchall, I understand that but I was simply referring to the new baby grass coming up. Will freezing temps affect them since it has only been mowed once? I have heard that it takes 3 mowings to harden the new grass. Anyways, thankfully the weathermen were wrong last night. It didn't go below freezing.

I've read that it takes about 6-8 weeks after germination before fescue can handle Dormancy. A single fost wont trigger that, it takes consistent temps below 50 for that to happen. The University of Maryland published a doc stating tall fescue should not be planted after 15-Oct. So, I guess theres hope. It all depends on how quickly it cools off for winter.

I'm in a similar situation, I'm just crossing my fingers that it makes it. I only used a 7 pound bag of seed for the small area I seeded so, I'm not out much if I have to reseed it in the spring.

Here is a link that might be useful: University of Maryland Document

We had our first freeze and my new lawn did just fine,I've mowed it once all ready, so I think yours should be just fine

Bear

mine just emerged 3 days ago, will it survive?

Fescue is a cool season grass. it goes dormant in summer, not winter. It will stop active root growth if temperatures drop below 40F but it will not go dormant. It will resume growth once things warm.

You should be fine.

We know Fescue turf can handle cold etc. The question is will forst kill feecue seedling that just emerged? Per many lawn care websites as the newly emerged seedling is too fragile to handle forst and will get killed . But its not clear how long of a frost it takes to kill it. I am guessing if it goes below 32 for several hours, it will kill newly emerged seedlingns unless action is taken, @ HU-514415109 - if its only one night and it wont go to frost again in a few days, I would cover it with a tarp the evening prior. Another technique is to water the lawn for a couple of minutes each hour during the over night hours when the frost is expected, if you have a timer and sprinkler system. A few years ago, I covered my newly emerged seedling with tarp couple years ago for 3-4 nights in a row due to a sudden cold spell in October. It warmed up again after 3-4 days and none of them died. They grew a bit but not to the point i had to mow it. Then after mid Nov, was starting to dip below low 30s quite freqently and I really did not do anything as covering with tarp was a lot of work. I never did but did not take off great either. Each time we had a bout of warm weather, it would green a bit more. By late winter/early spring it was completely green, full and ready to be mowed. I live in Charlotte zone 8, so winters are relatively mild but was colder than normal that year and the grass still made it. Not sure if covering it up with a tarp helped or not. but I wanted to play it safe.