It looks like it's about 2 weeks behind compared to other years but my 'Sapphire' st augustine is coming back with force now that it's warm. I guess it's not quite cold susceptible as I had thought, maybe a bit more cold hardy than Floratam. Still, I had a lot of winter kill that I had to remove. Still much better than Raleigh (very susceptible to fungal disease) and Palmetto (prone to SAD virus). Looks like maybe Palmetto got wiped out by hard freezes due to being weakened by virus??? Sapphire seem to be strongly resistant to fungal disease and SADV.

Check the weather for the next week. A lot of the area is going to have another week of rain that might help. A simple hose end timer and sprinkler setup is pretty cheap and will water the seed for you. Do a search for sprinklers for small lawns and you can find some examples of what I'm talking about. GrassFast and products like that which are sheets are expensive and really meant for for slopes where you don't want the seed to run off with the rain or irrigation. There are other products like paper mulches you can buy for much less. There are also specially coated seeds like Scotts new water saver stuff but none of those items will let you go a week without watering. I never heard of grass fast but I've seen pennington seed mats at home depot. As everyone else has said, fall is the best time to seed in this region but if you don't mind spending some money on seed and a sprinkler you'll need anyway you might get it to fill in a little bit but you'll probably need to do it again in the fall. It's not like we're talking about the whole lawn and hundreds of dollars worth of seed here. I'd throw some down and see what happens.

Hi, I really have no idea what is wrong with my fescue. I had similar problems last year in late summer and large patches of the lawn died. I had several lawn care companies out and no one was able to tell me what the issue was except charge me $50 a pop to spray with fungicide which didn't really do anything. To make a long story short, I started reading this forum, fired the lawn care company and took measures into my own hands. I aerated last fall and this spring, spread peat moss, overseeded, cut at highest setting and spread corn gluten meal in the fall, winter and spring. I had hoped my problems would be over, but the issue is back earlier than last year. This year has been cool and average precip. I'm not watering in evening. Any help?

Hi, Thanks for replying... I am in Southern New Jersey. I fertilized with Scott's Weed and Feed (or whatever they call it) in the spring. The lawn in fescue that I planted in the spring two years ago and then heavily reseeded last fall. It came in great but is quickly dying as a result of this fungus. Last night I aerated the whole lawn. I also bought 240 lbs of cornmeal, which I read is an organic solution to this type of fungus. I didn't put it all down last night becuase it got dark out. I'm planning on finishing tonight. I've read the dollar spot fungus is caused by: 1.) Low levels of nitrogen; 2.) Dry soil?? 3.) Excessive thatch. I believe my N levels may be low becuase I fertiziled early in the season and I don't think Weed and Feed has much slow-release nitrogen in it. As for the soil moisture, I was watering 15 minutes per zone in the early morning. When I noticed the brown spots, I upped it to 20 minutes per zone. When that didn't work, I began watering in the evening too (same amount of time). I only watered in the evening for about a week before I realized I had a fungus problem and turned the sprinklers off completely about two weeks ago. I'm compltely confused becuase the problem has gotten worse both with more water and less water. Before I turned my sprinklers off, I mowed in the evening and noticed that the ground was really wet even though the sprinklers hadn't been on since the morning watering (which started really early but I have eight zones so it takes a while). Since turning off the sprinklers, the problem has continued to get worse too. This morning I have huge areas (about 10ftx8ft) compeltely covered in the white webbing shown in the picture. Anyway, my plan is to finish putting down the cornmeal tonight. Then set my sprinklers to 30-45 minutes per zone twice per week in the morning. I'm going to try to start the watering early enough so it's done before mid-day, but not too early so that the water sits pre-sunrise for too long. Any other input or suggestions. I'm really disappointed with my lawn. I've put a ton of time and a good amount of money into it and it looks like crap. In addition to this problem, I have weeds and crabgrass invading. I put down crabgrass preventer back in Feb/March, but it seems to be ineffective in certain areas of my lawn. Kevin