Pale green/yellowish might be lack of nutrients - brown sod is lack of water. Give a little tug on the brown spots and see if they pull right up. If so, I'd give the builder a call an tell him you'll need a yard or 2 of sod to replace a couple dead spots. If the sod is rooted in the browning spots, do a little extra spot watering there and it will probably recover.

Thanks, the sod seems to be rootted... I will just give it a little extra water and wait a little. This is my first tiem using automatic sprinkling. It is so easy, I have a fear of overwatering and paying a fortune. I just need to find the right balance. I think I may need to water a little heavier, then back off as needed. I think I was going the other way and water only a little and trying to give the lawn ONLY what it needed.... It would be SO easy to waste a lot of water with an automatic system.

mark

try running the sprinkler zone that covers the area that is brown. My guess is that the sprinkler head may not be covering the spots that are now brown.

I used to think all of WA was as wet as the Seattle area, but there are areas that are basically desert. If I remember, the SE corner is one of the drier areas. Is that right?

Many people tend to set the timers on their sprinklers at the beginning of the season and then forget about them. I test mine at least once a month. Sometimes sprinkler heads get partially or completely clogged or get stuck and spray one area instead of the entire zone they're supposed to cover.

One thing that is a little tough to gauge is the true coverage you'll get. I water during the wee hours of the morning (1 AM to 5 AM), but I test during the day. There's better water pressure when I water than when I test, so I may not be adjusting exactly as I should.

To get a good test of your watering rates, do the tuna can test. Set some tuna cans around the lawn and run the sprinklers as you normally do. Measure the water in the cans. The goal is about an inch of water a week, preferably all at once (although I think it's tough to keep a lawn in good shape in the desert with once a week watering).

If most of the lawn is in good shape, I would hand water the brown spots. Bring the hose to the brown spot, set it on the ground, and let it run at a little more than a trickle, but not so much that it puddles for about 20 minutes to a half hour. Do that about once everyh two weeks. That's a lot better than increasing the water you give the entire lawn.

You're right on how easy it is to overwater. Almost everybody in my area has automatic systems. Everything I've read says that the biggest problems faced by Utah lawns is too much water, and I believe it--my next door neighbor waters so much there are dead spots in the lawn, and I have to shut down one of my stations due to overflow from their lawn.

If you really want to cut down on watering, you could consider replacing your KBG with wheatgrasses. Western, Streambank and Thickspike are natives and all are rhizomatous (thickspike and streambank are similar except that thickspike prefers sand vs clay for streeambank). Crested wheatgrass is an import. Most crested wheatgrasses are bunchgrasses, but newer varieties (such as roadcrest and ephraim) are rhizomatous. Another drought tolerant grass is sheep fescue (I've seen conflicting reports on whether this is native or imported).

Check areas that are brown by looking for air getting underneath causing roots to dry out. What could be happening is that topsoil under sod became displaced causing an airpocket. Make sure all edges are butted together and add topsoil to fill these gaps and areas underneath sod if needed. Roll and water.

^^^He said in his follow-up post that the brown spots are rooted. Gotta be water. Water deep and infrequently.

Thanks, yes we are very dry over here. We had less than an inch of rain in May.. but today we are getting a nice, drizzle that is suppose to last all day.

What I did was use a sprinkler and watered just the brown areas, and they are already showing some light green life. Thanks for the help...I have been adjusting sprinklers sinced I moved in, but it seems like the pressure changes every time I check. Just need to find a median point and leanve them alone (my wife thinks I am obsessed with them..."why would you stand in the sprinklers for 30 minutes adjusting them?".. Well, it is 90 degrees out..why not play in the sprinklers?

thanks for the help. The weather is down into the 60-70s this week, I may add a little fertilizer to help...

mark

Do you have irrigation or are you moving a hose around? Either way, figuer out how long it takes your setup to put down 1" or water. Watch the grass closely. When it starts to show signs of stress, hit it with that 1" of water.

"I watered heavily the first 4 weeks, then when it seemed to be rooted I backed off to about 3 times a week, and last week due to heat, I was watering every otehr day."

You don't define your terms. For example, I don't know what watered heavily means, and I don't know for how long you watered any of these times, so please forgive me for guessing. I think you watered too much. By saying you watered heavily in the beginning was too much. It didn't need a lot in the beginning, only light watering - enough to make sure it didn't dry. And again, for how long do you water all the other times? Even to relieve heat stress, you don't have to water a lot or for long periods. Because I'm afraid you've been giving it too much, coupled with the rising temps, I think you have a disease like brown patch or something like that.

Please define your terms with specifics and tell us for how long you water each time, how much water that applies with your sprinkler system.

Also, please define the brown areas with specifics. Are they circular, inline, large, small, yellow, brown, pink, patchy? Describe them as best you can. And, observe/examine them for fungus activity. How many are there?