Do you happen to live to the northeast of Springfield...sort of near that gigantic limestone quarry? I have a feeling that you could apply 1,000 pounds of sulfur per square inch from now on and never change your pH enough to make a difference. First you would have to dissolve all the limestone. Which means you'll have to adjust your expectations a little - but not much. When iron hits calcium at high pH numbers, the iron binds to the calcium and will not release to the plants. When the pH drops a little the iron is released and available to the grass.

I'm an organic kind of guy so the first thing I look at is what the soil microbes can do for you. When they are well fed they can acidify the soil right at the root zone. That's where you need it. But when you get a gully washer of a rain storm, the excess water will wash that acidity out leaving you with something like what you have. We get that in Texas (limestone quarries everywhere). If you have something like we have then in the spring you will never know it was yellow. Something happens in the soil over the winter to release the iron. My belief is the microbes are busy acidifying the soil. It happens every year, so it's nothing I've done.

One product we use down here to counteract the effect of the rain washing through is to apply green sand. Green sand is a complex assortment of minerals that has the consistency of sand and a dark olive drab color - hence the name. At a rate of 40 pounds per 1,000 square feet it will correct the soil and green up the grass. I would not use it at this time of year, because I'm certain your lawn will look great in April regardless of anything you try now. But keep that in the back of your mind.

Your normal fertilizer schedule should be once in May, once in September, and once after the grass stops growing in the fall. Keep that in mind when talking to lawn maintenance companies. Weeding should be done on an individual basis. That means they spot spray the weeds and DO NOT apply a broadcast type of herbicide over the entire lawn. In addition to what the company applies, I would encourage you to apply at lease one dose of an organic fertilizer. On this and many other forums we use raw animal feed like soybean meal, corn meal, alfalfa pellets (rabbit sized), cottonseed meal, or whatever kind of ground up nut, bean, or seed you can find at your local feed store. The application rate is 15 - 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. What this does is feed the microbes living in your soil. If they are not happy, then you will not be happy with your lawn. Once a year is enough, but I use it exclusively about 5 times per year. You can do what you want with that. Most of the serious grass gurus in the forums are 90-100% organic with fertilizer.

You said you did not over or under water. Since you were just establishing a new lawn I'll let that go. As the weather warms up in the spring, you should water approximately once in March and April. In May, as the temps get into the 70s go to once every 3 weeks. When the temps get into the 80s go to once every 2 weeks. When it's in the 90s all week, go to once per week. When you water apply a full inch all at one time. Set out some tuna or cat food cans and time how long it takes your sprinklers to fill all the cans. That is your watering time. Mine takes 8 hours but my neighbor's high flow system takes only 20 minutes. Your time likely will be between those extremes. That time will be how long you water EVERY time you water from now on. That's the secret to infrequent watering and infrequent watering is the secret to having very few weeds. DO NOT LET ANYONE TALK YOU INTO WATERING A LITTLE BIT EVERY DAY. Here's an incentive picture for you on that topic. The picture was taken in July. Most everyone waters once a day except one.

Thanks for your reply - it's much appreciated!

We actually live on the other side of Springfield from the limestone quarry. We're in the southwest area near the city of Battlefield. But I know exactly what limestone quarry you're talking about! It's called Springfield Underground, and it's currently used for storage, warehousing, and office space.

We haven't lived in Springfield for long, but I was recently told by someone at a local seed store that most people have more of a problem with overly acidic soil than the alkaline issue we have. He said he didn't remember the last time he had to special order elemental sulfur for treating a lawn. That's what makes this even more confusing!

It's interesting that the grass in your area greens up each spring without fail. I'm hoping that will happen here too.

I appreciate you sharing your experiences with green sand and other organic soil treatments. The watering guidance will also come in handy. We've been on the deep/infrequent watering bandwagon for a while now, although I have to admit to watering twice a week during the hotter parts of the summer. What's odd is that my brother-in-law and uncle both water daily, and their lawns both stay pretty green during the summer. Their root systems may be pretty shallow though!

Thanks for posting a photo of your lawn - it's beautiful! Very nice work!

I wouldn't read too much into that yellow color just yet. As sunlight and temperatures started to drop, a new lawn will go dormant far more than an older lawn will. Looking at it, my first thought was that it looked like spotty dormancy.

Unsurprisingly, the section that's doing best has two flanking brick walls. Any sun that touches them radiates back to the lawn as heat, and keeps doing so all night long.

Overall, a pH of 7.4 is no barrier to a gorgeous lawn, but some color problems will certainly happen. You can always use Milorganite to feed the lawn (it has tons of iron), which will help immediately, plus build up iron in the soil slowly over time.

I can't take credit for that lawn. I can only take credit for posting the picture every week or so. I should have mentioned that the picture is from morpheuspa's lawn. Note that he didn't mention it. He's a little shy and too polite to mention it ;-P

Since there is limestone in the area, you undoubtedly have been blessed with some of that soil. It could be the fill used for your house came at least partially from the quarry area. I would not do anything to it without a more complete soil test.

I'm sure MU has very nice people working there, but the best soil test you can get is from Logan Labs in Ohio. If you want much more information about your soil, send them $25 and your soil. They will email you the results in a week. Then post the results here as you already have, and morpheuspa will tell you what to add, why, when, how much, how often, and where to get it. Take a look at some of the other soil test posts here in this forum for a better idea of what he can do for you. The MU test is not enough of a test and likely does not have the same level of quality that Logan Labs has. I say that with some confidence because the internet lawn forums have been testing the test labs for several years.

@morpheuspa - I'm so relieved that you think the pH might not be the cause of our yellowing lawn! We've noticed that all the newly sodded lawns in this neighborhood are also starting to turn yellow, although none seem as spotty as our lawn or as extreme as our neighbor's lawn. I've also noticed at least one established lawn starting to yellow a bit, but I didn't know whether to attribute this to alkaline soil or something else. I always use my brother-in-law's lawn as a benchmark, so I was alarmed when I compared the color a couple of months ago and saw that his was still fully green.

If you don't mind, I have 2 related questions:

• When we fertilized the lawn on November 1 with a good dose of nitrogen and iron, we expected that it would help green up the yellow areas, but this didn't happen. That's when we started to suspect a pH issue, but perhaps it was just that dormancy was already setting in, so the grass couldn't use the nutrients properly. Is that what you think happened?

• If the yellow grass is actually just dormant, what texture should the grass have? Crispy or wilty? Moist or dry?

Thanks so much for your help!

@dchall_san_antonio - Thank you for the lab recommendation! I'm hoping to take another soil sample later this week (if the ground isn't frozen solid), and I will definitely send it to Logan Labs this time. It sounds like we can get a much more thorough test at a similar price.

Regarding the pH, on Saturday I was told by a lawn treatment company that they NEVER need to use sulfur around this area because EVERYONE has acidic soil. That's exactly what the guy at the seed store told me!

Could we have done something wrong when taking the soil sample that could have impacted the pH of the soil? I'm starting to wonder whether something went wrong with the testing.

If that's not the case and the alkaline pH turns out to be correct, I think it's likely that the fill brought in during grading wasn't native to this area. However, it seems unlikely that they would bring in truckloads of dirt from a different region. Perhaps the fill is actually subsoil that has a different pH than the typical top soil in this region. So confused!

Occasionally you can have had some very bad luck with soil tests done locally. I once sent a sample from my compost pile and the results were for the standard soil of my area. It said it was low in organic matter, high calcium, and pH of 8.0. My compost was pure organic matter, so they never tested my sample. Logan Labs can't afford to make mistakes like that. They don't have any preconceived idea about what the sample should be. When the Logan Labs test comes in you will have a better idea about how knowledgeable the seed store guy is. When you send it in tell them you are growing fescue as a lawn.

• When we fertilized the lawn on November 1 with a good dose of nitrogen and iron, we expected that it would help green up the yellow areas, but this didn't happen. That's when we started to suspect a pH issue, but perhaps it was just that dormancy was already setting in, so the grass couldn't use the nutrients properly. Is that what you think happened?

Either that or the lawn simply went dormant after it was fed. Very young lawns, with limited root systems and nutrient storage, generally don't risk staying up over the winter. Similarly, even established lawns won't if they aren't properly fed--or if the weather gets very cold. Mine will go partially to sleep if the lows drop under 15 for about a week. My neighbors' tend to drop when lows go under freezing.

The exact species and cultivars of grasses used also have an impact. Rye tends to look fantastic during winter. KBG, not without a lot of care. Fescue is in the middle. Any of the three can give you a nice winter lawn (mine is still dark green and it's pure KBG), but it does vary.

• If the yellow grass is actually just dormant, what texture should the grass have? Crispy or wilty? Moist or dry?

It's not that different from living grass, really, and will depend on the weather. The only way to determine if it was dormant is if it comes back in spring, green and happy. You should know that by April.

While dormant (dead) grass tips will pull off much more easily than living ones, I don't recommend doing this. That can damage the crown or the root systems, resulting in a dead sprig of grass.