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| A little background.....I first attempted to plant grass seed in this area during the summer, and after 3-4 weeks the grass died out. I attributed its death to the extremely hot weather we had over this summer and weed take over of the area.
So I decided to try and plant again during the fall. Prior to seeding I completely raked over the area and got rid of all the weeds, and I sent my soil in for a test. The test came back with a PH of around 5.5 so I added lime to the area. I then seeded the area with a "Contractor's All Purpose Mix", and put down Starter Fertilizer. I watered twice a day for 15 minutes for the first couple weeks, and then I switched to watering once a day for 30 minutes. I plan on reducing my watering to every other day at the end of this week. For the first 4 weeks the grass grew beautifully. I was pretty excited. The grass was around 4 inches so I took a couple days off from watering so the soil would be dry enough to mow. I mowed the lawn very carefully, and the grass continued to look good for a couple days after mowing. Over the last 3 days the grass looks like it is starting to die out again like it did during the summer. Except this time there is no heat, and there are no weeds! I don't know what is going on, and I'm going crazy trying to figure out the cause. Can someone please help me out? Thank you,
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- Posted by nearandwest 7 (My Page) on Wed, Oct 3, 12 at 15:59
| What I am seeing is turf disease development, which is not uncommon on a new seedling plot. I would recommend that you treat your entire lawn immediately with Heritage G fungicide, because I cannot tell for sure if that is pythium development or not. Heritage G is pricey, but very effective and can be found at the John Deere Landscapes store. If you wanted to take a gamble that it is not pythium blight, and might actually be a sclerotinia disease or dollar spot, you could use a less expensive material such as Immunox from a big box store. Heritage G controls pythium, Immunox does not control pythium. Treat now and catch it early. The choice is yours. If it were me, I would spend the extra cash and treat with Heritage G at the curative rate now and 14 days later for full control. Then I can go watch football on Saturday and Sunday without any worries on my new grass. By the way, that turf looks awfully pale. Are you feeding it? |
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| Thanks for the reply. The last time I fed it was when I put down the starter fertilizer. I'm almost to week 5 now and was planning on fertilizing again around week 6-7. Should I fertilize earlier? The grass didn't turn pale until a few days ago when the spots started to show up. |
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- Posted by nearandwest 7 (My Page) on Wed, Oct 3, 12 at 21:43
| Get the fungicide out first, then worry about feeding. |
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| That grass looks awfully long for new turf. Most seed producers recommend mowing new grass when it hits 3 inches. If you let new grass get too long it will lay down on itself and disease will spread faster. Cut that grass down to 2 inches and bag the clippings. |
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- Posted by nearandwest 7 (My Page) on Wed, Oct 3, 12 at 22:57
| Yeah, I can agree with that. Mow it first, and collect the clippings. Mow later in the day when the grass is dry to reduce the potential for spreading the disease. Make sure your mower blade is sharp! Remember to wash off the mower after use, and wash it off in an area where the water runoff will not go onto the area you mowed. Keep the mowed area dry after mowing. Then, apply Heritage G over the entire area where the mower was used. Follow all label directions carefully. |
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| It may not be a fungus problem. When you put down seed, many of the seedlings will sprout, but they can't all survive. There's not enough ground. What you may be seeing is the death of some of the seedlings due to overcrowding. The reason why I think this may not be a fungus problem is that it seems to be evenly distributed across the grass. Fungis problems tend to be isolated. It won't hurt to treat it and I may be wrong. What kind of grass did you plant? In general, it's not a good idea to plant contractors mixes. They're generally inexpensive quick lawn mixes. Many contain rye grass. In the future, I recommend getting a tall fescue mix from vigoro, pennington or scotts. |
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- Posted by Ibanez540r none (My Page) on Thu, Oct 4, 12 at 11:23
| It also looks like there is quite a bit of Fine Fescue in there. Is there area full sun? The fine fescue could be dying off from too much sun.. just a thought.. ..and I disagree with Kidhorn. Vigoro, Scotts, and some of pennington mixes are just as bad as any other "contractors" mix. Go to your local garden center. |
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| "..and I disagree with Kidhorn. Vigoro, Scotts, and some of pennington mixes are just as bad as any other "contractors" mix. Go to your local garden center." It's not the particular brand that's the issue, it's the type of seed. The OP should be planting tall fescue, not rye and creeping red fescue. In the washington/baltimore area the common types of tall fescue sold are Vigoro, Scotts and Pennington. Any of which would be superior to a contractors mix. |
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- Posted by Jackallenss none (My Page) on Tue, Oct 9, 12 at 6:12
| Hi beddy3484, I also disagree with Kidhorn. Vigoro, Scotts, and some of pennington mixes are just waste of time and money... |
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| Jackallens, So you think the OP should go to Australia to pick up some seed instead of Home Depot or Lowes? Which particular mixes from Vigoro, Scotts, or Pennington are a waste? They make many different fescue mixes with varying cultivars. Are they all a waste? or are there particular cultivars to avoid? |
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- Posted by Jackallenss none (My Page) on Tue, Oct 9, 12 at 23:52
| Hi kindhorn, According to me mixes from Vigoro are not suitable for lawn seed. I got information from bellow blog . For more information go through this blog : http://seedsuperstore.wordpress.com/2008/07/04/top-10-list-of-seed-to- avoid-in-2008/ |
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| Jackallenss, The author of the link is complaining about labelled bags of grass seed that don't specify what's in it. The purchaser has to read the contents carefully to know what they're getting. If the bag is labelled tall fescue, it will contain tall fescue. All the more reason to avoid something called 'contractors mix'. It's not clear what it contains. I think what you and Ibanez don't understand is pennington, scotts, etc... don't actualy produce grass seed. They buy it from seed farms and package it. They sell many different cultivar mixes, so you can't say their seed is good or bad, you can merely state that a particular cultivar that their bags contain may be good or bad. What they have in their bags tends to vary from year to year based on availibility and price. When I buy seed, I always read the label. While I haven't memorized the stats for every fescue seed, there are a few common ones that do well for me and I tend to buy them. For example, scotts uses wolfpack and tar heel. Both have done well for me in the past, so I'll look for them. I've had bad luck with rebels, so I avoid it. |
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