Help Identify - Brown/Yellow Dying Grass Killing My Lawn

14 years ago

ladies & gentlemen, please help me identify what is killing my lawn and how i can correct this damage...would be GREATLY appreciated, and will be in awe of your lawn care knowledge and might! (not joking)

i've gone from "the best lawn on the block" to, "hey, what's going on over there?"

i see some similar posts on here, but not with pictures, which i have included...once again, any help would be GREATLY appreciated...

at the beginning of spring, applied lime, and scotts turfbuilder, and have done a second turfbuilder application last week...since then, grass has brownish/yellow patches (per pictures), i have a scotts reel mower that has been sharpened, we have had very wet weather in New Jersey, pretty much 30 days of rain out of 60 days...i do apply for grubs, but never this early...

it seems that some of the neighbors have the same issue, but not 100% sure...i've tried to take a few pics to show the different views including one of the yellowing blade, which feels very hard...

Please help me...I'm stumped at what it is and what to do...thank you!

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Comments (10)

dchall_san_antonio
14 years ago
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Having said that, it looks like a fungal disease called leaf spot. 30 days of rain out of 60 is a pretty good clue. When the rain stops, the disease will likely stop spreading. I like to use corn meal to treat lawn diseases, but with all the Scott's products you have used, you'll probably opt for a chemical approach. But before you do that...

...when you pulled up the piece for the picture, did the roots not come up with it or did you cut them off for the picture? If the grass plant is chewed off at the base, you could have an insect problem (see the hammer and nail comment).

What kind of grass is it and how high do you normally mow? If it is fescue that's dying, it will have to be overseeded in the fall. If it is Kentucky bluegrass, it will come back by itself.
woodridgemanor
Original Author
14 years ago
dchall- the roots did not come up very easily, if at all, and with all the rain, i thought it was weird that the roots did not come up with it with ease...

i'm more than willing to try "corn meal", but have never done it before...i've just used Scott's by default...and i try to not over chemical the lawn, but sounds like i may have to apply a fungicide of some sort if that's what you are hinting towards...

the grass is a mix of perennial ryegrass and fescues....I cut at a height of 2 1/2" - 2 3/4", the highest setting on my reel mower...

would i have to wait to overseed? it really hasn't gotten that warm yet, and would hate to wait until the fall...

oh, and in all of my excitement, forgot to say, "THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!" with a little more information, you could be the hero of my block!!
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bpgreen
14 years ago
Another possibility with all the rain is that your grass has a temporary iron deficiency. It's not that there isn't any iron in the soil, it's just that the excess water is interfering with the ability of the grass to use the iron.
dchall_san_antonio
14 years ago
"When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." I think that came out wrong. I was not hinting at anything you said. I was setting up for what I was about to say. My hammer is corn meal, which in the organic world is recognized as a fungal disease preventer and cure. The nail is your yellow grass. When I see the yellow grass, I assume it is a fungal problem. I can see where that could easily be misinterpreted. Sorry.

YES, you have to wait until late summer to reseed. Why? Well you don't have to but if you want good results, wait. Seeding now will give you a yard full of crabgrass right away and later on, any grass that did germinate will die from the heat allowing the crabgrass to fully take over.

If you want to fix that for the future, you could seed in some Kentucky bluegrass in the late summer. It will spread to fill in weak spots where fescues do not spread.
woodridgemanor
Original Author
14 years ago
Excellent! Thank you for clarifying the points... I'm going to go head over to the feed store tomorrow to get a big ol' bag of corn meal and use in a test area/part of the yard. Funny you mention the kentucky bluegrass, as I did a mixture of that in the back with the ryegrass/fescue's and it is still looking great...

As far as the fungus, I think I'll wait for the rain to stop, which isn't looking to good, then evaluate...no sense in putting down a chemical to combat it, if the weather's not cooperating...unless anyone has another opinion...

Thanks again for all the advice! Is it wrong to get this excited about lawn care??
bpgreen
14 years ago
"Is it wrong to get this excited about lawn care??"

If so, there aren't many people here who would say so.
woodridgemanor
Original Author
14 years ago
So after taking some pictures to a local Turf "Expert"...he indicated that "dollars to donuts" it is Sod webworms (lawn moths)....going to take a flashflight out tonight and see if I can confirm before treating, but thought it might be useful to others, since "Browning/Yellowing" Grass is a pretty hot topic on this forum...

Thanks again to everyone who has given me their opinion...our block is anxiously awaiting the verdict!
organicnoob
14 years ago
I asked someone from Rutgers about what was wrong with my lawn. I thought it might be some type of bug like sod webworm or something like that. The response I got was that it was too early for insects but that was about a month ago. Read this information about sod web worms. It will give you info on how to indentify the damage, how to draw out the buggers and how to get rid of them. According to that, sod web worms seem to be a problem in hot dry weather and that's far from what we've had recently.

The first picture looks like this annual grassy weed I had last year as it was dieing.
woodridgemanor
Original Author
14 years ago
@organicnoob: thank you for that reference...Rutgers site has a lot of great resources...much appreciated. Wish I could really nail this down, since I don't want to treat for something I don't have...thanks again.
diannedad123
9 years ago
i have a about 1 and half acres and not sure if it is bugs or a fungicide, but it looked good when we moved in, but as time went on we stared notice that something was eating it on for some reason it stared dying out, that is a lot of land to pay someone and i rather do organic or natural because we go back there with the dogs, and it can get expensive to buy all scott stuff or have someone come do it Thank you I though about what you said about corn meal maybe it would help me

Help Identify - Brown/Yellow Dying Grass Killing My Lawn

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Help Identify - Brown/Yellow Dying Grass Killing My Lawn

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