No, and not likely. Observation is your best guide.

+1 Yardtractor.

One, there's rain in the forecast again for tomorrow. Two, we're lucky that a month of rain won't do much to already established roots unless they sit in unoxygenated water and die.

Mine's now gone a record four days without water (record for this summer, anyway) and looks great. It actually looks better than it did before we got this break--we desperately needed some sun!

Mine looks ok but there are a lot of dead blades visible after mowing that many other people have reported. I was hoping this stretch of nice weather would perk it back up but that's not the case. That in combination with a creeping bent grass problem I thought I eliminated last year has me frustrated. It's back with a vengeance. At least it's only in the back yard.

I chewed on this a little more.

Much of the problem with 3 times a week watering is that there's usually not much water going down at once. In the rains we had, they were not only constant, they were heavy. The entire soil profile was completely saturated, unlike abnormal watering.

Even four days of very sunny, very hot weather hasn't dried out the soil. I was weeding this evening in the gardens and still dampening the knees of my garden pants. I checked what's typically the driest soil in the grass (southwest face outside of the runoff from the gardens and near a tree) and that's still damp as well.

My "dry spell" is about to end very spectacularly in the next hour as a huge thunderstorm rolls in. We actually don't need it.

The next time I mow, I'm sure I see the dead blade problem again. A few days of decent sun aren't going to reverse that.

Dchall, you should take a photo of your neighborhood one Tuesday morning.

I'm not concerned that it's a fungal problem...just a not enough sun problem I guess. But if it gets worse I'll revisit that theory. The rain is only 50% chance here these couples days...hopefully it holds off, especially because my tomatoes did develop a fungus . Wrong forum to ask for help on that...but if anybody has advice I'll take it...

Corn meal for the tomatoes. Dust it around the base of the plants. Many plant diseases live in the soil and splash up on the plants when it rains. You haven't had rain have you????? ;-)

Also soak some corn meal in water, strain out the corn meal, and spray every surface of the plant with that water. There will be a slight amount of corn dust that adheres to the plant. Supposedly that helps. You don't need to soak the corn in the water, just wash the dust into it.

Ok so the aforementioned brown grass blades are becoming a problem in a couple areas. I did the screwdriver test and it went in just fine, so I don't think the soil is dried out (and the surrounding green grass doesn't look stressed). So now I'm concerned its a disease. Here are pics:

That's very not right and starting to resemble melting out in those patches: http://www.turffiles.ncsu.edu/diseases/Melting_Out.aspx

Except without the liquid look. Regardless, I do think it's fungal, so I might try a fungicide.

Thanks...any fungicides in particular that you'd recommend? Any words of wisdom, or just follow directions of whatever I buy? This will be my first use of fungicides.

Since I can't positively ID this, I think I'd get something that lists brown patch on the label as well.

(Cough) I confess to treating brown patch with the Ortho Rose Pride I had on hand, which is definitely not rated for it. It worked. I only used it because I already had it mixed for the zinnia and it has a limited lifespan once in the sprayer.

1 Tbsp of baking soda in 1 gallon of water with 1 tsp of any non-anti-bacterial dish soap would also work, but that's extremely wide-spectrum. For limited areas and patches it would be fine as the surrounding natural fungi will re-penetrate pretty easily.

Due to lack of time, I think I'll go with the baking soda concoction since I already have that. Is Bonide Turbo Sticker an ok substitute for dish soap? Is this safe on tomatoes too?

Baking soda is safe on anything, even if you immediately pluck it off the bush and eat it right there. We use the stuff in, among other things, baked goods and you can safely (and tastily!) eat grams of the stuff at a time. A quick records check shows exactly zero poisoning events from eating baking soda since records have been kept.

Actually? I'd avoid Bonide Turbo Spreader Sticker on tomatoes and simply use Dawn liquid or whatever liquid soap you have kicking around. The ethoxylates in the sticker aren't great for you, and recommended consumption is limited to 6.5 ug per day. You're better off using liquid soap, and it doesn't interact with the baking soda in the slightest.