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greatplainsturf

Yellowing Grass?

greatplainsturf
9 years ago

My lawn is a tall fescue kentucky bluegrass mix. I've been noticing lately that some of the grass is yellowing in amongst the dark green. I don't know if it's just one of the grasses doing this or what. I fertilize regularly and just did 10 days ago. Anyone know what this is?

{{gwi:115563}}

Comments (5)

  • pauL4645
    9 years ago

    That's what happened if you put too much fertilizers in your lawn.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Help for firtilizer burn

  • greatplainsturf
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    It's not burning from nitrogen. It was this way before I recently added some 20-10-10. Before that it had not received anything sine may. 46-0-0 then. What fertilizer is it too much of?

  • dchall_san_antonio
    9 years ago

    First of all most people writing in on this forum would be dadgum proud to have a lawn that looked that good.

    Since you are picky enough to see the nuance in color, and you seem to be fertilizing just the way we would tell you to, you might look into getting a soil test from Logan Labs in Ohio. If you get the $25 test from LL, then post it here and morpheuspa will interpret it for you and answer question after question until you are exhausted. If you get the test done at OSU or your county extension agent, then he will spend his time picking it apart and chastising you for not getting a good test from LL. Maybe it's not quite that harsh but many of us have been around the lawn forums for well over a decade. Logan Labs is THE place to get your lawn soil tested and morpheuspa is THE guy to interpret it for you. Search this forum for some of the soil tests he's done and you'll see what I'm talking about.

    In the mean time, I would suggest that if you have not tried an organic fertilizer in the past year or two, try one now and see if that doesn't resolve your color issue. Sometimes after years and years of never using organic fertilizers, and perhaps after using the occasional fungicide or insecticide, a lawn soil can become biologically unbalanced and "unhealthy." Organic fertilizers provide the food the soil microbes need to rebalance themselves. Once you do that, then the chemical fertilizers seem to become more reliable for you. Or you could stick with organic fertilizers like Morph and I have done.

    And since he will expect me to post a picture of his lawn to show you how the organics work, here it is...

    {{gwi:81154}}

    Here are the basics of his lawn care regimen: water deeply once a week or less often if the grass looks good. Mulch mow at the mower's highest setting once a week. Fertilize in late spring with soybean meal and/or Milorganite, fertilize in early September with the same stuff, and winterize after the grass stops growing with a high N, fast release chemical fertilizer. He uses no insecticide unless there is overwhelming visual evidence of living bugs/grubs. He does use preemergents in the spring and might spot spray the occasional weed. He will give credit to the organic fertilizer but he also swears that the Logan Labs soil tests are responsible for the color and condition. It is really hard to argue with his results. If that is what you're looking for to get your lawn back into perfect shape, start with the soil test and organic fert.

  • morpheuspa (6B/7A, E. PA)
    9 years ago

    >>If you get the test done at OSU or your county extension agent, then he will spend his time picking it apart and chastising you for not getting a good test from LL

    Depends on the test. I'm finding that we've now seen several Clemson ones and I'm hard pressed to give any good information. Sometimes, like UMass, I can work with it.

    Sometimes I'll tell you the test is not necessarily inconsistent, but I don't have the four hours to sit down and do the research on how they did those numbers.

  • morpheuspa (6B/7A, E. PA)
    9 years ago

    As I look at the original photo, the color is consistent with low nitrogen (which shouldn't be happening ten days post fert), or low iron if it's a direct problem.

    One thing I might try is to apply Milorganite at bag rate to drop a good amount of iron. The next rainfall or watering should see the color change unless...

    ...the third possibility is stitched in P. annua or other grassy weed. We'd need a closeup of the paler grass to be sure of that. If it grows at a different rate, that would be a good sign something's up.