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lawnnoobie

Help, I can brealy mow the lawn. what is going on

Lawnnoobie
11 years ago

I have these large areas of grass that just don't seem to have the energy for life. The leaves are thin and they lay down they have alot more dead grass mixed in with them.. The areas are spreading, I have tried fugus sprays, grup poison and fertalizer but it doesn't seem to help.

Comments (6)

  • dchall_san_antonio
    11 years ago

    Can you rule out the playground effect? High traffic areas can be trampled down for years.

    But it does sorta look like fungus.
    Where do you live in Utah?
    When did you use fungicide last? What was the temperature?
    When were the last two times you fertilized and what did you use?
    How do you water (frequency and duration)?
    Do you know how long it takes your sprinkler to apply an inch of water? The only way to know is to put out several cat food or tuna cans and measure how long it takes to fill them.
    What kind of grass do you have?

  • Lawnnoobie
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I only have one litte boy and he really doesn't go out there very much just some on saturadys and evenings. I live in northern Utah, the last time I used fungicide was maybe in July, it was pretty hot probably in the mid to high 90s.
    I use scotts fertalizer the I used it 2 weeks ago and about 4 weeks before that.
    I haven't done the sprinkler test. In the picture the green spot inthe middle of the dead is an acutal rain bird. I have kentucky blue grass. I am just lost as how to fix this.

  • linda_utah
    11 years ago

    Food for Thought: When we first moved onto our property about 20 years ago, there were many spots that resembled what you show in your picture. After using everything I could think of on the grass with no improvement, I finally figured out my problem was ants. We have a large ant population here (sometimes I wonder how the soil supports us walking on it). The ants were either eating the roots of the grass, the blades, or both. Once I thinned the ant population down the grass grew just fine.

  • dchall_san_antonio
    11 years ago

    Good info.

    Be sure you have no leaks in your sprinkler system and that the sprinklers are throwing the water and not dribbling.

    The 90 degree F temp was too high to use any chemicals. That's why the fungicide didn't work. Read the label and you'll find you are very limited as to the times of year they claim it works. In Texas that time of year is about Valentine's Day. The rest of the time it is too rainy or too hot.

    Since 2002 I have been very happy using ordinary corn meal to kill disease in my lawn. Cracked corn works fine, too. Corn gluten meal is a similar sounding material but costs a lot more and does not seem to take care of the disease. Ordinary corn meal is what I'm talking about. Apply at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet and water it down (not in). Just wash it off the grass and you're done. Reapply in 3 weeks and any disease should be gone in a month. The corn is a biological approach that brings in microbes that feed on the disease microbes.

    This time if year you should be watering no more than once a month in northern Utah. That should be a deep watering of about an inch. When you get an inch of rain, then you don't need to water.

    I hate rain birds. The only advantage they have is being able to throw water upwind. My absolute favorite sprinkler is the oscillator. The new turbo oscillator sprinklers are great. I have five of them at two houses and will be getting a sixth next spring. They apply water very evenly and very slowly to allow it to soak in without runoff. For a rectangular yard like yours, they would be perfect.

    Mow at about 3.5 inches when you mow.

    If you want to use Scott's chemical fertilizers, follow the directions for timing. I think you went a little heavy in the past 6 weeks. If you want to apply organic fertilizers that frequently, GO FOR IT. You cannot over apply organics, and they just make the soil better and better. Generally lawns need nitrogen once in the spring and twice in the fall. The twice in the fall come once after the summer heat breaks and again right before dormancy. Your timing in the past 6 weeks seems too close together but it might have been exactly right. Just seems close together. One of the lawn gurus on another forum has tried to overdose with organic fertilizer. He's applied up to 50 pound per 1,000 square feet per week for every week of the growing season. The only thing that happened is his KBG lawn remained green deep into December and greened up again in January. From that experiment I say you cannot overdose with organics. Try that with chemicals and you'll sterilize your soil for years.

    If you want to take your lawn to the next level (once you have control over it), get a soil test at Logan Labs in Ohio. Their $20 test is much better than most university or county extension service tests costing up to 5x more.

  • Lawnnoobie
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thank you Linda, I will check for ants I haven't noticed any. dchall_san_antonio Thank you for the great information, I now have some more things to work on. I will start looking for a place that has organic fertilizer and I will give the corn meal treatment a try.
    Again thank you so much for the suggestions.

  • dchall_san_antonio
    11 years ago

    My favorite organic fertilizer depends on the year. This year it is alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow). You can get a 50-pound bag at your local feed store for about $12. Here is a picture from this forum from 2011 where the guy dropped some alfalfa into his zoysia lawn. He put it down in May and took the picture in June. It really works.

    {{gwi:79605}}

    Notice the improved color, density, and growth.