Such is life for cool season grasses in the transition zone. What is your watering schedule?

Without an irrigation system, I water usually only during periods of extreme stress. Neighbors have told me that our lawn (before we moved in) was always the best even though it was never watered.

I have some varieties of TTTF in the lawn that seem to be much more robust, but I have not been able to identify them. There is a section of lighter green wide blade fescue that almost looks like Zoysia. I have seen this or similar grass on commercial properties. It gets full sun near the street and thrives. The darker green grass that is doing fine now looks like KBG (boat shaped leaves).

I would accept the whole "transition zone" stuff but I see some properties that look great so I know it's possible. I'm frustrated because I am spending $1,000+ on treatments each year but am not getting the results I want.

I know the feeling. I do the same dance every year in NC.

Are those properties that look great grass or weeds. Crabgrass looks fantastic in the summer if you cut it.

Direct sun and the timing of that sun makes a huge difference. I have a section of lawn that gets shaded by the neighbor's house for about 2 hours between 1 :00 and 3:00 and it stays green while the rest of the strip goes brown. I get a clear line between green and brown exactly where the shadow falls.

You need to check for fungus. If there's enough water it's the most likely culprit, spreads like fire in a thick lawn.

I am also finding that KBG does well in full sun, possibly better than fescue. Given enough water I think it would make it through the summer. I have a mix but I'm considering letting the bluegrass take over.

Lastly, if you check NTEP tests, all fescues do poorly between June and August. Quality drops from 7-8 to 3-4 even for the best cultivars. It's a cool season grass, it's going to struggle.

Thanks for the insight.

We lived in Petersburg (southern Piedmont, south of Richmond) and the house had a centipede lawn which I loved. That is about as far north and inland that I think it will survive. We had a few cold winters that knocked it back, but we had a few summers where it really thrived. It is one of my favorite turf grasses.

I am thinking the problem I have now is a fungus. We have had rains of biblical proportions this spring and the lawn never really dried out. Could a fungus affect the lawn uniformly, meaning the same effect is seen pretty evenly throughout? There are some variations in degree of damage, but I think that is due to variations in types of fescue.

Every year about half the growth dies and forms a thatch that I then break my back in late August removing by hand (one acre!!!) before aerating and overseeding. I have seen KBG lawns in Chicago and other northern climes that are much better than what we see around here.

The commercial properties I have seen are definitely improved TTTF. Our lawn is virtually free of weeds.

At the first sign of yellowing in early May, I applied Ironite but did not see one bit of improvement. I was certain that would provide at least a temporary but visible effect.

Fungus could definitely affect your entire lawn uniformly. I am battling a case of it as we speak, yellow/brown lesions on the grass blades. Some blades die out completely.

Next year I will be applying fungicide as a preventive starting May, I'm not sure if the battle can be won now. I am definitely going to try though, just spent $150 on Propiconazole and Azoxystrobin.

Boat shaped blades? Like this...

No. I don't think that looks like KBG. That looks like some sort of Bermuda or other warm season grass. Mine looks similar to fescue, with single blades (I forget what you call the growth pattern above) that taper to a point. It's really dark green, with absolutely none of the die off/brown/yellow blades that has permeated my fescue. I bought some KBG Midnight from Seedland and that may be what I am seeing. My worry about using KBG throughout our lawn is keeping it going all summer. The lawn is just too expansive to try to keep watered manually all summer.

I will look closely at the blades tonight to see if there is some pattern to it. My lawn guy recommended Heritage from Southern States. I may go ahead and apply that this weekend.

Heritage is azoxystrobin. Remember to alternate with propiconazole so the fungus doesn't develop immunity. Or apply both.

Here is an article from NC State on brown patch in tttf. Have you seen lesions on your grass blades? Are the damaged areas sort of circular? Even if your present problem isn't brown patch, your grass is suspectible to it and you should consider following the advice on mowing height, watering times, etc. Since you have a lawn service, have you talked to them about the problem? They probably offer a fungicide program and may have chemicals not available to homeowners. I am trying a preventive program this year (always have brown patch) using Serenade every 7-10 days. So far no brown patch. I do have dead brown blades mixed in with healthy green shoots and I think that is probably younger, less well rooted tttf saying "It's too hot, I'm checking out." As long as there is still good green grass there, I'm not concerned about seeing some brown blades. I am mowing at 3 inches and the grass dries out from morning dew faster than it did when I mowed at 4 (last year). However I think I will go to 3.5 or 4 inches when temperatures are consistently in the 90s. Another causes of dying grass in June is poa annua, which naturally dies then. Did you have poa annua mixed in with your grass? My theory on why some people don't have brown patch problems and some do is that it's a soil borne disease and some people are lucky not to have the rhizoctonia fungi. Also tttf that has been established for a number of years has deeper roots and is just generally more resilient so it does better than tttf in its first year or two. KBG has its own fungal challenges. It generally needs full sun so may not do well in the shady areas.

Thanks for the thorough and thoughtful response, Becky.

The lawn overall is well-established and what I consider to be in great shape. That is why I get so frustrated every year when this happens. I am cutting the grass as high as I can (I actually have my mower rigged on one notch beyond the highest setting since I'd like to go even higher). I am not sure the actual height but it is probably about 3.5 inches, maybe four. Except for periods of very heavy/rapid growth in the spring, I am not cutting off more than one-third of the blade. I keep my mower blade sharp.

I will look closely at the grass blades to see if there are spots or what would appear to be fungus. Mostly what I see are brown shoots from base to tip mixed in with the green blades. The grass overall looks weak and yellow. The color just is not healthy like it was a month ago. It has not been hot yet but as you know we had a ton of rain in May (too much).

I have applied Milorganite and Ironite this spring, in addition to the service's application of slow release nitrogen. I have had really good response to the Milorganite in the past. I understand it's hard to overdo it since it's really more of a soil conditioner and is not high in nitrogen.

Milorganite is a fertilizer. If you apply at bag rate, you get about 3/4 lb of nitrogen/K. VA Tech recommends no nitrogen in summer. The grass will show signs of nitrogen deprivation, though (yellowing, thinning). If the grass isn't growing or is going dormant (which it may if you don't water), don't apply anything. I've read that the normal life of a blade of grass is 40 days. As long as the roots and crown are in good condition, it should produce new blades. That growth slows down or stops in summer. What you're seeing may be normal dead blades. Is the grass plant that the dead blades are attached to still green or is the whole plant brown? Besides your lawn service provider, you can also consult with VA Tech Cooperative Extension offices. Each locality has one.

Two comments if I may. 1) photos always make it easier for people to give you advice and comments, and 2) if you are having problems you can't solve, it is always a good idea to get a soil sample from Logan Labs and post the results in this forum. If you haven't had a GOOD soil test done, you will probably learn something you didn't know before, and that may be something that helps you with the yellowing issue.

If you do take photos, be sure to take some overall pics, plus close ups. Get 3 or 4 inches away from the turf on a cloudy day or in the shade so that the sun isn't creating too much contrast.

Two other possibilities for poor performance: debris underneath and low TEC soil that leaches nutrients. You can check for debris and rocks by sticking in a screwdriver and seeing if you encounter something hard. A soil! test will let you know if your soil doesn't hold onto nutrients well. The solution there is to spoon-feed (lower rates more often) and increase organic matter. With all the rain in May, nitrogen may have leached away. Maybe try some Milorganite and see what happens.

FWIW-

I live in the RVA area as well. I planted Titan RX last fall, too, because it was on the top TTTF cultivars for the area according to Va Tech. Sadly, it isn't performing very well. The Jonathan Green Black Beauty Ultra Mix (not on VA Tech's list or even the NTEP trials) that I planted in February this year in a test plot, on the other hand, is doing amazing.

The Scotts EZ Seed TTTF/KBG mix I have been experimenting with is outperforming the Titan RX; I think the seed used in the EZ Seed bags was a mix of TTTF and KBG; TTTF - Endeavor, Faith & Wolfpack II, and KBG- Appalachian & Thermal Blue Blaze (a hybrid type).

I am starting to notice some of the spots in my Titan RX lawn are getting brown in some areas. I don't use fungicide or anything like that. Given the weather we have had, I wouldn't be surprised that it's disease.

RVA weather this spring:

April-late May: Rain almost every day; 50s - 65 degree temps; 100% humidity.

Late May/early June: No real rainfall; upper 80s/low 90s degree temps; 100% humidity.

Today was the first day I think where it's been in the 70s that I can remember. Maybe it was back in December?

Wet months+ cool temps & no sunshine followed by a hot, sunny yet dry period (with high humidity) = recipe for problems.

Your younger grass from the fall probably hasn't developed very deep roots yet. The constant wetness from our record breaking May rainfall didn't help much. You fertilized before or during that time it sounds like, which means a lot of top growth was occurring, but the leaves were constantly wet. This seems like a recipe for problems. Sadly, I followed your recipe this year myself.

Speaking of wet grass leaves, you probably had to mow a few times when they were wet, right? I know I had do. Unfortunately, it's something that has to be done and there's no getting away from it. Just know that mowing when it's wet isn't good for the turf (or your mower..) and can result in damage that can serve as entry points for disease. Moreover, clippings tend to clump rather than mulch, and if those clumps fall from your mower deck they will smother the turf (and can also be a hiding place for pests).

Sounds like lawn disease buffet to me. It also sounds like you fertilized again with Milorganite once things started looking funny. That's exactly what I did. Probably not the worst thing in the world to do, but I don't plan to add any more fertilizer until September.

So, I've got all the problems you have, plus... The areas that do look nice in my front lawn are about to die. Damn gopher or mole or something is tunneling all over the place. Yarrrrgh.

May your lawn fair better than mine has this year. :-/

Thanks to everyone for the great advice. I will try to post some good pics this weekend to help clarify things.

I mowed last night and things were worse than I had expected. The entire lawn is an unattractive light green, with clearly developing areas of brown die off. There was lots of growth since mowing 6 days ago. I recycled the clippings again, making second passes where necessary to grind things up nice and fine.

It's really looking like a fungus to me. There are brown areas on the leaves, with some leaves entirely brown.

I was again amazed at how dark green the small section is on part of my lawn. I wish I knew what the grass is - it has fared so much better than the rest of the lawn. There is no die off whatsoever, and it is as green and lush as in April. It is in partial shade. It is definitely not fine fescue but either some sort of TTTF or KBG.

The TitanRX at first was a joy - I thought I had found the holy grail because it developed so well in the spring and within a month had developed a carpet-like turf, but started to turn yellow around May 1 and looked awful by June 1, which it has done every year. But if I am dealing with a lawn-wide fungus problem, perhaps that can be solved.

I've never heard good things about Scotts products from professionals. The few times I've used their seed, I've been unimpressed.

I have used various types of the Jonathan Green seeds with varying results, though it seems to get high marks for the most part.

Does anyone have experience with seed from Trinity here in Richmond? There are located off Commerce Road. In talking with the guy there and describing my property, he recommended a three-way blend. I have put down several hundred pounds of their seed. Unfortunately, when I overseeded, I used several different varieties at the same time, so I don't know which ones did well and which ones did not.

From what I have read, the Milorganite is pretty mild and fool-proof and that it can essentially be applied at any time, even during the summer. When I've used it in the past (including in August), I do recall a very good response within a week or so - some greening with additional growth and overall improvement in texture.

I'll get a soil test to see if that is part of the problem.

I have gotten seed from Trinity because they have a blend that has varieties recommended by VA Tech. It had Bullseye, Hemi, and Skyline last year. I'm happy with it. They are a wholesale operation and cater mainly to hardware stores and landscapers but they sell to individuals too. Here is VA Tech's list of recommended seed.

Yes, I recall that the mixture they had has all the best recommended varieties. I forget how I originally found them. I work downtown so it's easy for me to run over there during the day and pick up 150-200 pounds of seed.

UPDATE: I talked with my lawn care guy, described the problem, and he is certain it is brown patch. On his recommendation I plan to get 3 bags of Heritage G from Southern States and apply it on Saturday. The stuff is not cheap - about $60 a bag. But if it solves this problem, I will be happy. I am thinking I need to plan to apply this stuff every spring before problems develop.

It's going to get even more expensive when you have to re-apply in 14-28 days.

I was told that Heritage is a longer-acting formulation. Let's hope it is. The four ounce bottle of the liquid is over $150. The granular formulation is only a small percentage of active ingredient - it's mostly inert carrier. With the money I am spending on this lawn, I'd be better off installing Asto-Turf!

Awwwww, c'mon! It's your hobby!

Will you be able to post pictures?

Applying fungicide as a preventive measure is a bad idea. The soil absolutely depends on the health of beneficial fungi in the soil. When you kill them with a fungicide it would be like wiping cattle, hogs, and chickens out of the food chain. We'd be eating bugs for protein. Once you get the disease under control and the grass seems to be greening up, I would suggest a light dusting of compost to restore all the beneficial microbes. At the same time apply an organic fertilizer to feed your new microbes.

If it interests you, I have successfully fought off fungal disease every year since 2002 by using ordinary corn meal. It was the first and only thing that worked on my lawn back then, so I've continued to use it. As corn meal decomposes it attracts a predatory fungus that feeds on the disease fungus. It takes 3 weeks to work. The application rate is 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet.

UPDATE: On Saturday, 6/11, I applied four bags of Heritage G to about 24,000 square feet of lawn. By my calculations, each bag should cover around 7,000 square feet for the heavier "curative" application rate.

Attached are photos of the lawn with the best close-ups I could get. I also included some shots of the healthy green area that appears to be some other sort of grass. It is definitely a turf grass, not a weed. Any ideas?

Baseline - October 2015:

May 2016:

Nice grass in mixed sun/shade:

If you're not watering it's going to be tough to make it through the summer. Especially with a first year lawn. You're going to be caught in an endless loop of not making it through the summer because it's not mature enough and not being able to get a mature lawn because you can't make it through the summer. Rain is just not going to cut it, even when it looks like it rained a lot, you look at the stats and find out you barely got half an inch.

I feel your pain, I'm struggling with a hose and sprinkler on a first year lawn as well in NC, but I only have about 7,000 sq ft. I spend many evenings after work watering in sections.

Also in Chesterfield - Those pics you posted are exactly what my lawn looked like last year. I too have lawn service (VA Green) and spend TONS of time and effort. So when it was all perfect one minute then that, i was upset. Turned out to be fungal. Virginia Green upsold me on the "Estate" package that treats fungus. Two weeks later, the brown areas were gone and it was back to perfect. Now this year since i have that higher package, I dont have to worry about it coming back. And with 2 acres of just grass ... It looks great! The point of this post was to recommend VA Green over True Green which i've seen terrible things from here. Also to sucker you in to subscribing to their fungal package like me so I'm not the only one ha.

The below pic was covered in brown last summer, just everywhere. Now its this after just 2 fungal treatments.

Not to insult anyone's lawn service, but their contaminated mowers are a big part of the reason you have fungal problems to begin with. They just carry that junk from yard to yard & I see it every year in my dads neighborhood--One service does 70% of the homes & they all have the same issues at the same time, while the rest dont. I'm sure it works well for their budgets too. Nice of them to charge you extra for fixing it though!

Great advice all around. I have had Virginia Green come out on two separate visits to give an estimate for package treatment, and both times I just wasn't willing to dip into my retirement for the sake of the lawn. It was going to be several thousand dollars a year which I could not stomach. Funny you mention TruGreen. I was out at Innsbrook and noticed the turf looked really good so I tracked down the guy in charge of it (TruGreen). I have not set anything up with him yet.

Can I expect to see an improvement after applying the Heritage or are the brown areas likely gone until fall?

I also was wondering if I was spreading around fungus with my own equipment. I use different equipment on the front (Husqvarna all-wheel drive for the front hilly area) and a Cub Cadet in the back which is level.

You will see an improvement in the sense that it's not going to continue to get worse. The brown areas are likely gone, unless they're brown from lack of water, in which case they're dormant. I get the sense from the pictures that some spots are drought stressed. Good news is, dormant grass is not going to be affected by fungus.

Any fungal lesions/brown spots on the grass blades will not heal, the grass will have to grow and those portions will get cut off when mowing. It's tough because the grass slows down or even ceases to grow during periods of heat.

Where we live, TruGreen doesn't mow...they just do the chemicals. It sounds like the OP mows his own grass since he was talking about the settings on his mower.

For the amount of money these people want to charge you just to apply some fertilizer and fungus control, you're better off getting a used riding mower, a tow behind spreader and sprayer and doing it yourself, save you a boatload of money.

Any ideas on what the healthy grass might be? It gets same water and sunlight as everything else.

Hard to say, when you click on the picture it comes up very small. Can you upload the full resolution one to postimage.org and then post a link to it?

VA Green shouldn't be thousands, unless you get them to do your aerating and seeding. I own all my own equipment for that so I just pay them the $120 (and thats for a HUGE yard) or so per treatment 10ish times a year. And while typing this I realized that IS in fact over 1000 haha. Still, worth it.

Their proposal included aerating, seeding, and some level of service that was not their top tier Estate package. It was just going to be too much.

UPDATE: I put down Heritage G about 9 days ago and I think I am seeing some improvement (sorry, no photos). If anything, it's not getting worse, the yellow blades have turned to brown and withered/reduced, revealing more dark green, so the grass really is looking much better. It continues to grow vigorously, and I am hopeful the brown areas will diminish. I plan to hit the lawn with the Heritage G as a pre-emptive strike next April, before things go south.