What kind of grass is it? Where are you located? What grass height do you mow to? What kind of watering schedule do you have?

seems like a combo of grasses, looks like a lot of Kentucky (from where i overseeded) but the old owner put down a lot of fescue, which im sure gets burned up in the summer- i have spots of that - (but the dead blades appear to be the Kentucky)

north east, northern new jersey

usually cutting to about 3"

we had quite a cool, rainy spring... this is the first real warm dry week - in the 90s. watering with 'rachio' on a daily schedule based on weather... but early in the mornings 30 minutes in the front part

thank you!

i might add that we have some tall fescue too - and that too might be some of the dead in the photos

Funny, I am also in NNJ.

I went through the same thing as you a few years ago with renovating the lawn from the previous owner. I also have KBG.

When you de-thatched last Fall, did you put down new soil or seeded the existing dirt?

look at that! small world.

i did not put down new soil, just used spreader to overseed. thinking next year to add some extra nutrients. my PH is 6 1/2, even in the dead areas. so it doesnt seem like the lawn is deficient

as you know its been hot the last few days. my meter says soil is WET for my green grass, and WET in 90% of the dead spots. I have kind of a clay like soil, but ill have to do some more tests to know for sure.

i'm afraid to water, because if its fungal, the water could just aid it spreading. right?

learning a lot more about grass than i ever expected!

(side question - what seed did you go with? and are you happy?)

Need a closeup of the grass from like 3", preferably from the area that's right in the center of picture 5 where there's dead and green mixed.

Hi j4c11!

hope this helps. so beyond the glaring dead patches (at first i thought because we have deer that sit on our lawn) i discovered that its spreading and mixing. i have pulled back some of the grass, and the roots are starting to come loose on the dead (not grubs)

not sure which kind of grass is being affected. the white granules you see are most likely fertilizer from my Scotts summerguard, put down two days ago.

havent done a soil test yet, but my area appears to have a lot of clay

i bought bayer fungus control, ready in case i need to use.

I don't see any sign of foliar disease and your watering regimen should provide sufficient water. The only thing I can think of based on the description and the pictures is summer patch.

If I look at the initial pictures posted, specifically picture 1 and picture 3:

If I draw a line from the reddish shrub (barberry?) straight to the front street in picture 1, clearly we see the damaged lawn. If I do the same thing in picture 3, I can still make out that patch to some degree.

Can you take a picture from the same angle as picture 1 (lawn before move)?

I'd be curious to see how they compare.

I've got some spots that look exactly like that in the TTTF renovation that I did last fall. I thought it was fungus - possibly from seeding too heavily in that area last fall. Fungicide didn't have a real effect. I took a manual core aerator, popped a few plugs, and that's when I started to notice these small, black/grey fly-looking insects buzzing around the area.

I spread a light amount of fertilizer, and then sprayed it with Bayer Advanced Complete insect killer. The spots began to recover within 3 days. It's been about a week now and you can hardly tell that those spots were giving me problems earlier.

I think those insects were likely hatching inside the fescue plants, eating the tissue, and then repeating the process. The insecticide I used was systemic --- absorbed into the plants ---, so hopefully it will keep the next brood under control as well.

j4c11, would summer patch kill the grass, i thought it just browned the top - seems like the root system is coming up (its new lawn, maybe the heat is taking its toll?)

Joe BigBlue, yes i can take a picture later today. i found these from last year -

found this spot on my lawn last year - never knew what to make of it - have not seen again - not sure if this is revealing of anything

*heres another group of old shots of the property - its really amazing the luck i've had this year - but that middle area is mainly where the problem has been re-appearing. we were overrun with weeds

then after weed and feed treatments:

Yep, summer patch is a root disease, it works underground and destroys the roots. The grass will pull out easily since the root is gone. Frequent watering makes the disease worse, because it results in shallow roots.

Try probing the dead area with a screwdriver, see if you encounter any big rocks or anything like that. Probe a healthy area as well see if it feels the same.

Does anyone notice in the very first picture of the thread how the damaged grass goes in a straight path and continues past the sidewalk to the curb?

I'm no expert, but clearly there's something in that particular stretch....maybe some pipes or whatnot underground?

those are great ideas thanks. i can check for a pipe - i also wonder if old owner used some treatment on the bushes, and it leached into the middle part of the lawn - which is the lowest point... and property slopes towards the curb.

1. i am a novice when it comes to grass type - does anyone know what i have exactly? are you seeing KBG and TTF alone?

2. i have clay-ish soil, and our RAINY RAINY spring really helped the lawn thrive... but also left the soil super wet. Now that we are in 94 degree days, should i water 30 min every 4 days?

just want to come up with a great watering plan, as i see it makes a huge difference

Yes, we had a great deal of rain in the last month here in NNJ.

The best advice I got here was: walk on your grass; if it doesn't come back up and stays flat, and starts to feel dry to the touch, it's time to water.

Last summer I nearly killed my new lawn because I tried to follow the "deep and infrequent" method to a fault: I ignored any signs of drought stress and I was lucky I was able to catch it so the lawn survived.

It was 94 yesterday, and will be again today and tomorrow. Yesterday I watered for 45 minutes around 1 o'clock because the grass started to stay flat when walked on.

I will check it again today around the same time. If it stays flat I'm going to water it again.

Mind you: my grass is primarily KBG, and it needs more water than other grasses, especially when it's hot.

(At least this is what I think I've learned; if I have something wrong here someone please correct me).

just want to come up with a great watering plan, as i see it makes a huge difference

Did I see someone looking for watering help? Here is what I have put together over the years in several lawn care forums.

Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall.

However, there is some recent discussion about summer watering in the transition zone...which is where you live. That was the same link posted by Joe BigBlue at the beginning of the replies. I'm not sure how the Rachio is programmed, but if you are watering every day, something is not right.

Here is a picture of morpheuspa's KBG lawn compared to his neighbor's KBG lawns.

hello everyone! just wanted to update. discovered a few things. Neighbor uses 'lawn doctor' and he was nice enough to step across the yard and inspect the lawn. he didnt think it was a lawn fungus. (either way, i put down a bayer preventative treatment). What we discovered was my spreader wasn't fully closing, and when i made passes over those problem areas, i must have stopped, or turned, and there was a 'drop of fertilizer.' doesn't explain the original spots, but it shows that they were further damaged by the spreader (i swapped it at home depot). the other issue might be that some sprinkler heads weren't reaching all the spots. the lawn grew nice and thick under my short time here... and some heads werent really at turf level. So the combo of extra fertilizer and not soaking it in, might have caused a bunch of the problems. i patched a few spots (we have a family party coming up), looking at installing new heads (first time) and ill re-assess in the fall. thank you to everyone! to be continued!