Brown lawn spots, how to fix

9 years ago

I'm a first time home owner as of recently and I used some weed and feed at the end of spring and the grass really greened up and started growing. This summer I fell ill and didn't really take care of the lawn, just mowed it when I had the strength and that's about it. About 3 weeks ago, these spots just seemed to appear over night in my yard. I tried watering the area extra but that didn't seem to help and I tried doing the coffee can and water trick to look for chinch bugs but I didn't see but maybe one in the few areas I checked. I have noticed more weeds popping up in the yard and the grass is growing much much slower. I don't want to fertilize again in fear of really killing these brown patches. I'll add some more pictures below. I don't know what to do, looking for suggestions.

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Jase-on
Original Author
9 years ago
Close up
Jase-on
Original Author
9 years ago
Another close up
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Okay Rancho Santa Fe, elevation 200 feet, 5 miles from the beach, west of I-5, is not considered inland. You live where you can grow fescue and get away with it, even in a drought. But before we get into that I'd like to probe the prairie grass idea. Here's a picture of a mix of prairie wheatgrasses along with blue grama and strawberry clover.That lawn is in Salt Lake City - basically the high desert where it rarely rains and the soil is terrible. He starts watering in late June and mowing a few weeks later. I believe he mows and waters about once a month. The trick is that he actually seeded the lawn with those varieties of grass. Mostly those grasses are sold to farmers as forage for livestock. The farmers are mixing with other plants and virtually never seed it densly like you would for a lawn. When the plants are grown close together and mowed regularly they look like a lawn. In your location I'm not sure they would ever go dormant. That's my pitch for that. I'm not married to the idea but some people see it and decide to convert. If you lived over the mountain in the hot desert I would lean a little harder. In your area I think you could grow St Augustine and possibly never water it. You get enough morning fog and general cool humidity that St Aug would love it and remain green year round. St Aug is a coarse bladed type grass that spreads to fill in thin spots. Your current grass is very likely one of the Marathon varieties of dwarf fescue. Fescue is a bunch type grass typified by the clumps of grass you see. Those are individual plants that only spread as much as you see. The rest of the clumps have died for some reason. You are also close enough to the ocean that you could grow Kentucky bluegrass. In fact I'm half wondering if you already have KBG and that's what we're seeing out away from the dead zone. The soggy soil is something that needs to be addressed. With your temps you should almost never be watering more than once every 2 weeks. I'm very serious. If you ever get temps in the 90s (think Santa Ana winds) then consider going to once per week. When the temps drop into the 70s then go to once every 3 weeks. You can't go from your current schedule to an infrequent schedule all at once. You'll have to wean your grass off the frequent watering. In fact your dead lawn problem might be a disease caused by continual watering. Could you take another picture at a distance of 3 inches? Get in at the fringe where there is both green grass and dead grass. And if you can take it on a cloudy day or in the shade the pictures come out a lot better.
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Jase-on
Original Author
9 years ago
Another area, fungus popping up
dchall_san_antonio
9 years ago
This is classic fungal disease. See the circular shape? The appearance of the grass is dry which makes you want to water more. The fungus loves the additional water and sends up the mushrooms. When the mushrooms come up in a circle it's called a Fairy Circle. So the fungus is actively growing and causing the circular spot in the yard. The mushrooms are simply the fruit of the fungus.

You're watering wrong to begin with. The second clue was that you're getting more and more weeds. Weed seeds require frequent watering to sprout. It sounds like you're doing just that. The third clue was the pictures showing the grass blades with fungal lesions on them.

This time of year you can probably just leave it alone and it will not return next year. If you want to do something safe that will knock out the disease, apply ordinary whole ground corn meal at a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet over the entire lawn. Then stop watering for the rest of the year. When you start watering again, water deeply (1 full inch all at one time). Then don't water again until the grass looks wilty. In the spring that might be a full month. When you water again apply the full inch. Just get used to applying a full inch from now on. And let the grass go several weeks between waterings. When it rains hard, restart your calendar. You should be able to go several weeks at a time except during the hottest heat of summer. Then you might have to water as much as once per week. And if you think this is crazy, it has been proven to work in Phoenix...and (almost) everywhere else.
Jase-on
Original Author
9 years ago
Ok I'll turn off the sprinkler system (I currently water Monday/Wednesday/Friday) and try the ground corn meal. Thanks for the suggestions!
Mitter
9 years ago
Looks like the start of grubs damage
Jase-on
Original Author
9 years ago
What can be done about grubs? I just did a lot of work in the garden and noticed a lot of grubs.
capt08
9 years ago
Hey Jase-on, got this from the FAQ section on this website:

http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/lawns/2000052853026568.html
dchall_san_antonio
9 years ago
The problem with that being grub damage is that grub damage shows up in September. Grubs also do not leave fungal lesions on the grass blades or lead to mushrooms.

Here's how to check for grubs. Dig up 1 square foot of grass. If you find fewer than 12 grubs, you don't have a grub problem. If you find an uncountable mess of grubs, then you HAD a problem last May, June, and July but you missed it. The grubs stopped feeding at the end of summer and the damage would normally have appeared in September. The grubs you see in the soil are still alive but not feeding. Killing them now might be satisfying to you but it is a waste of time and money. Furthermore, if you use a chemical insecticide on the grubs, you will also be killing an entire class of microbes living in your soil. Your soil needs all the interactive species of microbes to be considered healthy. Killing them off is never a good idea. You could recover from the spray by applying compost...which is another costly headache. You can avoid all that by not doing treating the grubs this time of year.

Brown lawn spots, how to fix

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