I really don’t get this

Wanted my front lawn (not huge, about 650 sq feet) to stay looking nice through this brutal summer so I watered it by hand 1 inch every 5 days or so. The rest of my lawn pretty much shut down and went crispy once the heat wave of mid June began and stayed like that until mid August.

Now the front section looks sickly and brown and just awful and everything else greened right back up and looks good!

Did I water TOO MUCH? Is this a fungus I’m dealing with? Grubs?

I put down a curative dose of Disease X prior to going on vacation on August 16 along with some Ironite and when I got home this Sunday, it looked even worse than before!

I think this section of lawn has a lot of rocks as each time I stick a lawn sign in, I feel a ton of resistance. It also may be compacted pretty badly, I plan to have it core aerated soon but am not sure what to do here.

If I grab a section I can pull it up almost like a carpet and the roots seem non existent. It all feels spongy and loose. Did the watering on top of heavily compacted soil backfire on me?

I’m in SE Pennsylvania and it’s cool season tall fescue type grass.

It just seems like the more I screw with it, the worse off it gets, the backyard which I literally did NOTHING to looks and feels far healthier.

HELP!!!

Neighbors hate me for it. I cut mine with the highest mower setting. Stays green a lot longer than theirs. Theirs looks like a golf course green height, but almost always brown.

I forgot to put that in my OP but I was cutting mine the highest my Honda mower goes (4 in) and made sure my blades were sharp too

I’m done with it at this point. Neighbors let their yard go. All that invasive shit went into mine and it became overwhelming. My beautiful St. Augustine of 15 years went to shit within 2 years. I water the property, adequately, but as soon as I have the cash I’m xeriscaping the entire thing with rocks, and no more grass. The day I can sell the mower and weed eater, both Hondas, will be a day of days.

PASig - Maybe Army worms?

Your poor soil is responsible for the poor appearance of your turf. Rather than coring, consider top-dressing with a compost+sand+soil mix to thicken the root base. With coring, you are just bringing more poor soil to the surface. Yes, it should loosen things up a little, but growing grass on a compacted clay soil is like growing it on linoleum.

The other thing, you encouraged growth during the season when the turf wanted to rest. This caused it to grow shallow roots that did not penetrate the soil making the matting that you observed. Turf has a natural growth cycle and trying to force it into an abnormal situation rarely works out well. Encourage growth (watering and fertilization) during the cool weather months of Fall when the turf is naturally trying to build strenght to get through the Winter. Start your seeds in late July to mid-August when uncut grasses develop and sow their seeds. Yes, it seems too hot and dry at that time to foster germination, but the seed will wait until it feels ready and the end result is superior. Also, the seed is less subject to competition from the existing stand at that time.

I doubt you have a fungus problem, cool nights with overnight dampness are what leads to fungus, and you'd probably notice some sliminess if fungus has set in. Tall fescue is, generally, pretty resistant to most turf fungi.

I noticed while mowing the other day that my yard is beginning to develop sections of different colored grass. Instead of the usual green I've got sections where the grass is turning a copper color and other parts where the grass is starting to turn a late autumn brown while the rest of the yard looks green.

quote:

Originally posted by ggile:
I noticed while mowing the other day that my yard is beginning to develop sections of different colored grass. Instead of the usual green I've got sections where the grass is turning a copper color and other parts where the grass is starting to turn a late autumn brown while the rest of the yard looks green.

Does the brown get on your shoes when you walk through it? If so, it’s rust. Fungus. Not really detrimental.

If it’s coming up like an area rug I’m putting my money on grub damage.

[quoPASig - Maybe Army worms?te]PASig -
Have your soil tested. Take a pic and have your County agent take a look. You would see army worms. Grubs are possible as well.

I'm probably not that far from you and I gave up on grass in July. Most of it went brown and never recovered. Some died completely leaving dirt patches. The creeping charlie is filling in nicely though. Even my Amish neighbors, who meticulously care for their lawns, are dealing with dead patches. Tough summer.

IMO, calling it "lawn" sets high expectations.

Mine is a "yard."

Have you tore up patches on the transition from the dead lawn and healthy lawn to find the culprit? It's where you're most likely to find them.

Have you poured soapy water on the transition from the dead lawn and healthy lawn to find the culprit?


Did the patches of deadspots start near the edge of a sidewalk or driveway before spreading to rest of lawn? If so, good chance you have cinch bugs.

Have you been noticing day-time gray moths flying around the lawn near the dead patches? If so, it's a sign that sod webworms are what is destroying your lawn.

A few weeks ago, did you notice an unusual amount of night time moths? The moth that spreads the army worm tends to migrate north during hurricanes/tropical storms, and the remnants of Hurricane Debby hit your area about 2.5 weeks ago. They leave behind thousands of larvae which hatch into army worm. They eat through a lawn like an army.

It could also be grubs. I grew up in the Upper Midwest and this was a culprit for many dead patches. If a patch of grass lifts up like a carpet with no roots holding it down, you likely have an infestation of lawn grubs.

A liquid bifenthrin product will kill all but the grubs (grubs need carbaryl or trichlorfon). However, the reason I asked the cinch bug question is the little bastards have an aggressive hatch cycle and it takes multiple liquid insecticide applications to stop the lawn death. From the local talk radio lawn guru:

quote:

To treat for chinch bugs, you need to apply a liquid insecticide (a synthetic pyrethroid like bifenthrin, permethrin, cypermethrin or deltamethrin) three times over a 21-day period … or once every five to seven days … up to four applications at most. Sadly, most people who try to treat for chinch bugs use a granular insecticide or they only make one application of liquid insecticide.

.

The Anderson's also makes a product called DuoCide which contains both Bifenthrin and carbaryl. It's granules so you have to water it properly to be effective. Water lightly to activate the Bifenthrin to kill the surface insects, and then a couple days later water deeply to get the carbaryl down to the grubs.

Yup, grubs.

You prepared a nice, moist buffet for them to flock too when the other salad bars went dormant.

The dead giveaway is peeling up sections like a toupee. That means they chewed the roots off.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
IMO, calling it "lawn" sets high expectations.

Mine is a "yard."

LOL when I looked over all the weeds and grasses around the house out to the tree line I said "I can call this a lawn or I can call it a field. I'm calling it a field".

There are more flowering plants, buttercups in particular, this summer than I can ever remember. I imagine because of drought conditions the grass slows down while the weeds flourish. I can't remember seeing so many bumble bees.

quote:

Originally posted by Patriot:
Yup, grubs.
You prepared a nice, moist buffet for them to flock too when the other salad bars went dormant.
The dead giveaway is peeling up sections like a toupee. That means they chewed the roots off.

That sounds right...

quote:

Your poor soil is responsible for the poor appearance of your turf. Rather than coring, consider top-dressing with a compost+sand+soil mix to thicken the root base. With coring, you are just bringing more poor soil to the surface. Yes, it should loosen things up a little, but growing grass on a compacted clay soil is like growing it on linoleum.

That sounds right too...
Don't buy it by the bag at the big box store.
There are places you can call that will drop a scoop/load on your lawn and all you have to do is spread it out, rake it in with a garden rake.
It can really improve the soil.

Field & Turf Enhancer
https://store.stlcompost.com/p...d-and-turf-enhancer/

This message has been edited. Last edited by: chellim1,

quote:

Originally posted by Patriot:
Yup, grubs.

You prepared a nice, moist buffet for them to flock too when the other salad bars went dormant.

The dead giveaway is peeling up sections like a toupee. That means they chewed the roots off.

Crap

What do you suggest for a grub killer that I can get at Lowes or HD?

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Link Scotts Grub EX

I thought that is the stuff you put down in the spring to prevent them, but not to kill them in the fall after the fact?

It is a preventative, down here stuff grows 365/24/7 but we do have seasons, looked for intel on PA.

Link Penn State Grubs

Perhaps a Grub Killer such as BioAdvanced which we use as well for all the insects etc we get in Florida, mole crickets, grubs the dreaded sod web worm... Can be used any season.

Link Lowes

Link Bio Advanced