i would not use synthetic fert(scotts) right now. your lawn looks stressed. are you watering?

Your statement is that you believe you water the lawn enough. How often do you apply water, and for how long each time? Have you folks had a lot of rain recently? What have the temps been like in your area in the past 30 days?

I am seeing disease activity in those pictures.

I don't use Scotts four step program.
I fertilize May 1st, end of August and middle of October.
Cool season grasses never looks that great in hot weather.
Please don't fertilize now unless you go organic!

What type of grass do you have?

Thanks all. The lawn was watered all the time. I do it every day for about 15 min in the morning (before 9am). The day temperature recently is about 65-80 degree. Yes we had rains in the last two weeks. What kind of problem? If this is related to the rain, my neighbors somehow do have it.

in 65-80 deg cool season grass should look great. i have fescue and our temps are in the high 90 everyday. my grass is showing no sign of stress and is dark green. i think you are watering wrong. you would see better results watering 1" once a week. 80 deg is not that hot.

jdo053103, does that mean I water too much? I do watering every day. But in the coming weeks it will reach out 80 - 90 degree. I never thought watering is the issue here.

-J

from personal experience, my lawn has better results from infrequent deep watering. find out how long you have to water to get 1" and do it all at once for that week. what type of grass do you have? my only experience is with fescue. do you know how much water you are putting down each time? is there runoff?

My grass types are (according to recent Scott's free estimation) Bluegrass, Fine Fescue and Rye Grass. Do you think I water too much or too less? I water 15 min every day if it does not rain that day.

Thanks,

-J

watering every day promotes shallow roots and creates the right environment for fungus and disease. it is better to water deeply once week as it will encourage deep roots, making the lawn better able to withstand periods drought and extreme heat. i am not saying that this is your lawns problem...you may have fungus or insect damage, i cannot tell from your photos. but, you should change up your watering schedule.

Well I'll say it. You are watering too frequently. Because they get a drink every day, your roots do not need to grow any deeper than the top surface of the soil. They stop there because there is no water down deep. Then when there is the slightest change in humidity, the soil surface dries out and the roots dry out.

Whereas if you watered deeply, the moisture would penetrate into deeper layers. As the surface of the soil dries out, the roots "realize" there is moisture deeper down and will grow deeper into the soil to tap the reservoir of moisture down there. But from where you are now, you will have to wean the grass off the frequent watering. Start by skipping a day of watering and see if the grass wilts. If not, then water the next day but water for twice as long. Then see how much you can skip before watering again for that same time (30 minutes). Every sprinkler system delivers water at different rates. Getting to 1 inch per week is sort of a goal, but it is also just the starting point. See how your grass grows at that rate. You might be able to go to watering every 10 - 14 days with your relatively cool temps. There are a lot of factors that bear on the situation.

I believe you have a disease process going on, so hopefully dropping way back on the frequency of watering will stop that without doing anything else.

Thanks all again. I will reduce the watering frequency. One question - if I water too much is there any fungus in the lawn? Do I need to use any chemical to control it or just try less watering frequency?

-J

Diagnosing specific fungus issues can be hard to do over the net. Treating fungus issues in the summer time is difficult because of the various restrictions on use. I might go looking for a broad spectrum fungal disease control product and read what the restrictions are for application. Look for restrictions on watering and temperature. All I know is that in South Texas it is darned hard to find a good time to apply.

With that in mind, I have been very successful using an organic approach to killing fungal disease. This can be done any day of the year with no fear. It will sound crazy but here it is: apply ordinary ground corn meal at a rate of 20 pounds (or more) per 1,000 square feet over the entire lawn. Corn meal works by attracting a predatory fungus called trichoderma (try ko DER mah). The trichoderma are undoubtedly attracted originally to the fungi decomposing the corn meal. Once those fungi are eradicated, then the trichoderma move on to tackle the disease causing fungi. This whole process takes 3 full weeks before you see any improvement. And again, you can apply corn meal any day of the year, rain or shine, day or night. It does not have to be watered in, but it has to be moistened. That will happen with normal dew or you can moisten it yourself.

"My grass types are (according to recent Scott's free estimation) Bluegrass, Fine Fescue and Rye Grass."

Not to be a cynic, but I could have made the same free estimate without looking at your lawn (although I might have added tall fescue to my guess, I mean estimate). Scott's probably offered to look at the lawn, but I'd be surprised if they did any real analysis. They know those are the most common grasses in the seed mixes they sell there, so they tell you that's what you probably have and they're probably right.

Hi: I apologize for taking too much time to get back to this thread. What I see in the photos is a fairly classic example of a turf disease condition called "melting out", which was formerly known as helminthosporium leaf spot. Apply a fungicide that contains any one of the following active ingredients: chlorothalonil, iprodione, or thiophanate-methyl. Those are the three typical active ingredients in products you will find at retail stores, or your local John Deere Landscapes/Lesco store. You will probably need to make 3 applications, 7-10 days apart.

Also, you need to stop watering every day, and follow the previous advice mentioned earlier in this thread on watering less frequently and applying more at one given time.

I will also add that here in central N.C., I am seeing positive results from using an organic approach to fertility, which I learned from dchall. You should give it a try, as detailed in his previous post above.