New lawn and new home owner with lawn problems

13 years ago

SO we judt got a new home and the yard was all clay and weeds UGH ! so we first got the sandy hard clay smoothed out and then trucked in black/sandy soil in and a guy that my real estate agent payed for, came out and put down kentucky/rye grass mix and raked it in ! fast forward 3 weeks ! the grass is comeing in nice ! i was haveing a hard time stopping water run off and accumulation because of the clay soil not draining fast enough so i have a few spots that are kinda bare butin other spots it came in nicely ! so now after 6 weeks the more bare spots started turning yellow/brown/kinda red and looked to be dyeing in some areas ERRRR.So i figured well maybe it needs fertalizer and hey its fall so why not get some scotts fall/winter fertilizer and some more scotts bluegrass and just over seed and so on.Well now my grass just looks bad and nothing i have done has helped here are some pics that maybe you can tell me whats wrong.My neighbor said dont water at night in this area because we get fungus bad.hmmm well i did water at night sometimes at 3AM.Because uts hard to keep clay/sandy soil moist ! its always to dry or to wet.SO i think i have a fungus and i herd you can mix milk and water and it will kill it ? i am game because thats a cheap way to do it ! and i have spent way to much allready LOL.I wonder if i got this fingus because he didint use any fertalizer at all ? or maybe its that and the clay soil ? here are some pics ! PLEASE PLEASE HELP i am at my witts end.

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Comments (10)

alexh1000
13 years ago
If the tips are yellow it's fungus but if the whole blade is yellow it's probably overwatering and you may have both problems.

Clay soils genrally hold water very well unless you have clay "crust" which will repel water. You need to run a spade into the soil periodically to check the soil moisture and fine tune the watering. If you have a crust the only only solution I know of it to topdress with compost but i would not do that until the grass is healthy since it will stress it somewhat.

The fungus is easily eliminated by avoiding night watering and mowing until the yellow part of the blade is gone. You don't need a chemical solution as it does not spread. If I water at night I always get the fungus.
alexh1000
13 years ago
BTW,

Ideally you would aerate and then top dress. Topdress alone will take a long time to resolve a crust issue if it works at all.
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pontiachotshot
Original Author
13 years ago
Ok so its a fungus for sure than ? see the problem is that its spreading to my healthy part of the lawn now :( so i do think i need to spray some milk around probly weekly from now on. what do you think about that ? i do understand the water at night thing and i will no longer do that !!! but how ever what if it rains out ? it rained VERY hard last night.I cant mow at this minute because i put new seed down about a week and a half ago.I have VERY weird land LOL see in some areas my grass is CRAZY NICE !! but it other spots it's horrible.And the yellow grass is spreading all over my lawn now.some areas of my CLAY/Black dirt yard have cracks in the ground from drying out, but other areas are moist LOL.

should i but some golf shoes with spikes and mow my yard with them on to aerate the lawn ? i am very new to this and i have chinese neighbors that look at my yard every day like they are judges of the neighbor hood LOL and my yard looked good when i started but now its crappy i have gotta get rid of this fungus.I realy dont wanna pay 30$ for a bag of BAYER fungus killer so milk is the cheap way out.
pontiachotshot
Original Author
13 years ago
DO you think i i over fertilized it ? in the back yard their are yellow stripes were i went with the spreader ? but i was haveing the yellow problems before the fertilizer but it was just in spots here and their ! now its in long lines like i used to much fertilizer.I wonder if its a combo of over fertilizeing and fungus now ? LOL
alexh1000
13 years ago
really hard to tell for sure but typically fungus in my area is reddish/yellow.

You may have multiple problems. The problem with newbies is that they want to solve problems with chemicals (I was one of the worst offenders). The worst time to add fertilizer is when a grass is stressed and excessive nitrogen will show up as patterns matching the application method.

If you just applied the nitrogen within the last few days you can reduce the effect by watering heavily for one day but if you applied it more than a few days ago you are probably past the danger period.

Again, check the soil moisture at about 2-6" deep at several areas in your lawn each week. It should be slightly wet the day of watering and then let it go to slightly damp before watering again. Wet all the time just rots the roots and causes yellowing due to lack of nutrients. With most soils a twice weekly 1" watering in the summer is all you need.

When the grass comes back on it's own (and I'm almost certain it will) then evaluate the soil like I said and take any corrective action required. Guessing and throwing chemicals at it will probably make things worse.
dchall_san_antonio
13 years ago
I think a couple things are going on. First of all you are expecting a lot from a newly seeded lawn. Kentucky bluegrass will continue to look nicer for 3 full years. There is a saying that I rarely see here but it goes like this. "The first year it sleeps. The second year it creeps. The third year it leaps!"

You should not be trying to keep your soil moist anymore. The seed is already sprouted. Now you are working on developing the grass and roots. If you keep the soil moist all the time, the roots will grow about 1/2 inch deep. If you water deeply and then let roots look for moisture for several weeks, the roots will develop and grow deep. At this time of year I back way off on watering. We happen to be having freakishly dry weather right now so I'm watering weekly, but normally by this time of year I'm watering about once a month. Watch your grass, not the soil, to tell when to water. When the grass looks dry, then it was time to water yesterday. But water deeply when you do water. This time of year I shoot for at least an hour per zone. Your mileage will vary.
dchall_san_antonio
13 years ago
I think a couple things are going on. First of all you are expecting a lot from a newly seeded lawn. Kentucky bluegrass will continue to look nicer for 3 full years. There is a saying that I rarely see here but it goes like this. "The first year it sleeps. The second year it creeps. The third year it leaps!"

You should not be trying to keep your soil moist anymore. The seed is already sprouted. Now you are working on developing the grass and roots. If you keep the soil moist all the time, the roots will grow about 1/2 inch deep. If you water deeply and then let roots look for moisture for several weeks, the roots will develop and grow deep. At this time of year I back way off on watering. We happen to be having freakishly dry weather right now so I'm watering weekly, but normally by this time of year I'm watering about once a month. Watch your grass, not the soil, to tell when to water. When the grass looks dry, then it was time to water yesterday. But water deeply when you do water. This time of year I shoot for at least an hour per zone. Your mileage will vary.
dchall_san_antonio
13 years ago
That's weird. Double posting? Almost 2 hours apart?? In reverse order???
jordanz
13 years ago
Haha, freaking hacker!
bpgreen
13 years ago
"That's weird. Double posting? Almost 2 hours apart?? In reverse order???"

Nope. 10 hours apart in chronological order. One was at about 2 AM, the other just after noon.

New lawn and new home owner with lawn problems

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