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| I figured it was time to post a pic and see what the experts thought was happening to my lawn. We have had some high temperatures lately, but what is happening in the picture has been an issue each year. I had the lawn aerated this spring and also put down some scotts turf builder fertilizer mid April. About two weeks ago I put down Bug B Gone Max using the recommended settings. Previous years I have tried putting down grub-ex, but I have not put any down this season (I just recently realized that Bug B Gone doesn't do anything for grubs).
Is this grubs? Do I need to fertilize? Suggestions? I never had any lawn issues at my previous house, and this is my 3rd summer trying to get this lawn looking nice!
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Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by damon8albarn none (My Page) on Thu, Jun 21, 12 at 21:42
| Oh and I'm watering my lawn three days a week early in the morning for about 15 minutes in each zone. |
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- Posted by lou_midlothian_tx z8 DFW, Tx (My Page) on Thu, Jun 21, 12 at 22:39
| You're watering too often and not long enough. Try and find out how long it takes to hit 1 inch mark ( use tuna cans) and do that once a week. What you are doing is basically "misting" grass blades and not really going deeply into the ground. One inch of water (600 gallons per 1000 sqft) will saturate 6-8 inches into the ground. |
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| I agree, watering should be done at 1" doses to induce the roots to root deeper. Short waterings cause roots to stay shallow and are more subsceptable to heat and drought. Determine the problem by eliminating possible causes of your problem. Get down and look for bilbugs. See if the turf pulls up easily--grubs. Pour some soapy water on a spot and look for worms--webworms. Look at the blades--are there leasions?-diseases. Get a soil test from Logan labs and see if it reveals any major deficeinies. If all that fails, most likely the soil is thin, high magneseum content, very sandy or has stone below the surface that is causing dry spots- condition the soil and adjust watering. |
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- Posted by damon8albarn none (My Page) on Fri, Jun 22, 12 at 10:43
| Thanks for the tips. I'm going to test each zone of the sprinkler system and adjust accordingly. Makes a lot of sense, the dead areas probably have really shallow roots and can't handle the rise in temperature. We got some much needed rain yesterday and normal temperatures today. Hopefully it bounces back soon. I'll look for everything else this weekend and report back. Thanks again! |
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| Damon8albarn, not sure about your area, but in St. Louis County, water costs about a penny a gallon. So getting one inch of water to saturate 6 inches deep into the ground for a 1,000 square foot area (600 gallons like Lou said) costs me $6 dollars per 1,000 square feet of lawn. Luckily, I've only had to water the entire lawn twice so far this season. During a 3-week drought between May 8 and May 28, it rained just once for a grand total of one-tenth of an inch of rain--basically nothing for 3 weeks. 17 days into that 21-day drought I applied roughly an inch of water everywhere. Since then, I've raised the cutting height for my bluegrass and fescue to 3.5 inches from 3.25 inches. That quarter-inch increase makes a world of difference. (Many folks raise the cutting height of their bluegrass and fescue during the hotter months.) The zoysia's cutting height remains unchanged at 2 inches except, because of the drought, I didn't cut the zoysia for 15 days (I had been cutting it every 7 days before the drought). So for that first mowing after the drought I cut the zoysia at 2.25 inches, but we're back to a zoysia cutting height of 2 inches again. Unlike the cool-season grasses, most folks don't raise the cutting height of their zoysia during the hotter months. Zoysia likes the heat as long as it's getting rain or sprinkler water. Both times I watered the lawn so far this year was related to that 3-week drought. I watered the entire lawn 17 days into the drought (probably could have watered earlier but I kept hoping for rain). The second time I watered was about 5 days after the end of the drought. Since the end of the drought, we've been experiencing an abundance of rain again, thankfully. |
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- Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Sat, Jun 23, 12 at 14:20
| If it happens every year it almost certainly is not grubs. Grubs are more like locusts in that the come and go with the blowing sands of time. They are not an annual expectation. It almost looks like you have different clumps of grasses in the yard and only one type of grass is affected. Then over in the shade there is no affected grass. I'm thinking you have fescue mostly and that is what is thriving in the shade. Then you have patches of another type of grass or even a more yellow form of fescue elsewhere scattered around. Yes your watering isn't right. Fix that as described above. How many times a year do you fertilize now? How high/low are you mowing. If you have fescue you can raise it all the way to the top and it will do much better. You won't mow anything for awhile until it all gets up to the new height but it will be much happier at a higher level. You wasted your money and time on the bug b gone. Not only that but you have harmed the beneficial micro arthropods in the soil. Those microscopic insects are critical elements to healthy soil. What I'm saying is please don't apply something that has -icide in the name unless you know you have a specific problem that the -icide addresses. There are visual tests you can do for grubs as well as less harmful approaches to taking them out. |
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