here is the second picture

Well that's strange.

Can't tell ANY difference in the soil underneath? I guess that still doesn't explain the individual squares being afflicted.

So it is down, and thoroughly rooted......With bermuda, I put this in my "Oh well" category and forget about it. It'll fill in if your maintenance practices are good.

How do you water? Amount in inches, and how often?

How do you fertilize, and how often?

What height is your mower set? And how often do you mow?

I can't tell any difference in the soil underneath

I water once a week and put an 1" down on it. in June I probably watered a little more than that because we only had 1" of rain and over a dozen days above 100*.

fertilized that area for the first time on June 1. put out 15# of 34-0-0 on that area (1500 square feet) and another established section of the yard (roughly 3000 square feet). hit the entire front yard (8000 square feet) this past Sunday with about 25# of 34-0-0

I alternate mowing with a honda rotary at 1.5" or a scotts classic reel at 1.25". I can't really go below that due to the lawn being a little bumpy. I plan on leveling next spring

I can't figure it out and apparently no one else can either

I don't know what it is either but I'd argue against the bug and fungus problem. How in the heck does a bug or fungus know where one piece of sod starts and the other stops?

The only thing I can come up with is the screw driver test to see if there is some unseen difference in the soil underneath. Unlikely that there's a difference if you didn't see anything with the Mohawk. Also, just like the bugs, a soil problem won't know where one piece of sod starts and the other stops.

I got nothing. This is a job for TexasWeed.

the only logical thing I can think of is that maybe 1/3rd of a pallet had some underlying issues that didnt show up for awhile (which I'm not even sure is possible). we actually noticed that the top 1/2 or so of one of the pallets looked a little "different" when we got them but they blended in and looked fine for 6 weeks. then they turned yellow and started thinning. we just got 6" of rain over the last two days which is more than we had in April, May, and June combined. I'm interested to see what happens to these spots over the next week

update on my sod. I'm assuming the pallet that those yellowing/thinning pieces came off was a little stressed when they were put down and a month of ZERO rain and 100* days stressed them a little more. I guess I just wasn't watering as much as I needed to. We've had nearly 8 inches of rain in the last two weeks and those areas are now filling back in and have greened up to match the rest of the lawn. now I have another issue.....

I dont know if the massive amount of rain did it but the soil under the sodded areas of the lawn settled more in the last two weeks than it did from the time I laid it (in early April) until just before the rain. by the time the lawn dried enough to mow it was almost 2.25" tall. I mowed at 1.5" and came back a few days later and took it back down to 1.25". Then I put my 25" mclane on it and tried to cut it at 1". I gave up after a few hundred square feet because the mower was beating me to death with all the bouncing around it was doing. on top of that, I think it got knocked out of alignment as it was leaving a 3" wide strip in the middle of each pass that it didnt even seem to cut at all. its just too much work to mow it with my scotts classic this time of year and my honda rotary won't go below 1.5" without scalping a good bit of the yard.

I need to level in a bad way or else I'm going to be stuck mowing at nearly 2" the rest of the year. I also need to get my mclane checked out. I've read all of the leveling posts and have also gotten advice from a local course superintendent. My main concern is getting the grass low enough at this point in the year where I could get a better view of the depressions. Can I get by leveling with the lawn at 1.5"? my second concern is that my front lawn is 8000 square feet. How many man hours will that consume? I put down fert on the 1st of each month so I'm coming up on that in a week. I was hoping to get some leveling work in this year so I'd be ahead of it next spring. This weekend will be the last chance I'd have. Should I just hold off until next spring when I can really scalp it down?

Finally, I need some help with math. If I'm covering 8000 square feet with 1/4" of sand, am I looking at only 6 yards of sand?

Did you till before you laid your sod? If yes, it will continue to settle, so I'd wait.

If no, I'd wait anyway. It's new sod. Take care of it really good this season, and get it well established. It is only going to get hotter from here on out. I wouldn't scalp it now.

Did the mower blade hit the ground at 1.5"? What I see most of the time is the green top growth being cut off and people call it un level. This condition is caused by letting Bermuda get too tall and not from unlevel soil.

Yes, I made the mistake of tilling before putting it down. I learned my lesson on that

Mower blade is fine at 1.5". Once you drop it a notch (which is 1.25") it will leave numerous circles in the yard from scalping. Dropping it another notch leaves the majority of the yard scalped. It can handle 1.25" with my scotts reel but I'm not interested in pushing that thing around 8000 square feet in 100* weather

"Mower blade is fine at 1.5". Once you drop it a notch (which is 1.25") it will leave numerous circles in the yard from scalping. Dropping it another notch leaves the majority of the yard scalped."

The absolute flattest most smoothest lawn on planet Earth would exhibit the same crop circles if you allowed the bermuda to grow to 2" and then tried to take it to 1.25".

sorry, I didnt clarify that. The only time its been 2" this year was after a week straight of rain. I can maintain it at 1.5" with my rotary and it won't show any circles. It will make circles on the lowest two notches even if its being cut from 1.5" or lower. Earlier this year I mowed it at 1" with my scotts reel and came back immediately after with my rotary so I could bag it. It still left circles while set to 1.25"

Missing my point.

You are describing symptoms that could occur on the flattest of lawn's if they were trying to decrease the height.

If the flattest putting green in the world went from .185" to .125", it would probably scalp.

I would wait until next season so you can see exactly what you are dealing with. When people don't describe the mower blade actually striking the Earth, I question how lumpy it really is.

You have not finished learning your lesson on rototilling If you read all the leveling topics, then you should realize you have another three years of the soil settling before that finally stops. For now I would keep a 4-cup plastic container with sand to help fix the holes as they develop.

The higher your grass when you level it, the more sand you will need to do the job and the worse it will come out. Imagine trying to apply a level coat of sand in a shag rug versus a Berber rug.