Am I doomed to disease??? (TTTF, 7A, Central NC)

4 years ago

last modified: 4 years ago

Hello all - I am hoping to avoid major problems in my lawn that I experienced last year.

I renovated Fall of 2016, had a great lawn through May of 2017, and by July it was a disaster. I assume it was all disease (brown patch), but I also had a mole that I couldn't kill at the time and thought that may have been a factor - but I still put my money on disease.

I did not use a fungicide early enough last year. My first app wasn't until July 1 after it quickly went brown on me in a fairly large patch.

THIS IS LAST YEAR in eary MAY.

And this is by JULY AND AUGUST of last year.

So last year I nuked it all again (2nd year in a row) and seeded with the same seed from SeedSuperStore - which is claimed to be a Brown Patch resistant blend.

This is my lawn as of TODAY.

Overall:

UP CLOSE OF PROBLEMS - this is pretty typical all over. I used Heritage G near the high rate just over a week ago when I noticed that we were about to have a week of nothing but rain with no break from the heat and humidity.

Today I used a liquid app of propiconazole at 2oz per 1000. I plan to get Eagle as well for a different mode of action in about 7-14 days - or sooner if it would be better.

I have fertilized twice this year. Once with a starter fert in late Feb and about month later with Milo.

I've read that pushing too much fert can promote disease as well. Should I hold off on my planned app of milo this weekend?

I keep the lawn cut as tall as my mower will go (4") and I clearly stripe it regularly.

Is this practice of striping and keeping it long during the humid months a bad idea?

Should I cut lower (3"?), no striping, and bag everything?

What can I expect based on what is seen here?

If the fungicides do their job and I follow the proper schedule, do I have a chance of the lawn staying somewhat healthy until fall aerate and overseeding? Any other steps I can take right now to keep any problems mitigated? For my sanity I reeeaaaalllly do not want to have to redo everything... again!

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Comments (5)

Lisa
4 years ago
I didn't see you used Fungicide till now Lol I think you should be okay!! ( fingers crossed ) That looks like summer patch what you had last yr, it's nasty!! I had it back in 2007 and ripped out and sodded!
CEZ
Original Author
4 years ago
Any other thoughts or opinions?

I actually used Headway, not heratige.

I only aerate in the fall. Would aerating now help with drainage and keeping it dryer at the base?
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Wow, I was surprised to see this thread still alive. Here's the recap on what happened last year: The 2007 June-July-August heat and drought combined with a vacation basically killed the TTPR after it had been fantastic in the fall and spring, so when I was deciding whether to repeat the experiment by overseeding (really starting over) in year 2, I decided to change to the more drought/heat tolerant TTTF and try to find some cultivars with a thinner blade and dark green color. Of course, this spring of 2008 has been plenty wet and not too hot thus far, so any cool season grass would likely be doing very well at the moment, as is the TTTF. I will try to post some pictures soon. It has been filling in nicely, but is still clearly in year 1. It has a lot of maturing to do. One thing for certain, the TTPR grew MUCH faster that the current TTTF - I sure do not miss the cutting 3-times a week I had to do last spring. I now have the annual weeds under control and my current plan is to aerate and overseed again at labor day with some more TTTF. Last summer demonstrated that TTPR in the transition zone is water dependent, which made it a high-maintenance, and generally poor chooice for the drought last summer.
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rcnaylor, If you read carefully, I did mention that we (NC) had one of the hottest/driest summers on record. We set record highs every other day during the month of August, rain was MIA. We experienced a Phoenix-like summer, which is VERY unusual for NC. The record highs were in the 100's not 90's. To put this into perspective, our average high during the month of July is 87F, and the average low is 67f. Those temperatures are acceptable for PR to survive. I was also referring to the strip of grass which some of you have seen many pictures. That strip is in nearly full sun. My backyard, about medium shade I will say, is comprised of mostly TTPRG, some KBG, and some Fine and tall Fescue. I only lost about 5% of the entire area. Grubs did NOT eat any of the roots unlike the front yard. Anyway, my point is that Gryd mentioned that PR browned easily during the summer. I said to him/her the soil because despite the hot summer conditions mentioned above, my PRG lasted until the 2nd week of August - that's is 2 weeks again from fall seeding. That tells me how heat and drought tolerant PRG is. BTW, I have decided NOT to overseed my KBG lawn with PR. I figure it's too late anyway. Even for PR to get establish. In other words, it'll have to do until next spring. As far as tall fescue, I personally do not care for its looks too much. It doesn't provide anything that KBG already has. I'm not concern about drought because I water whenever the law needs it. I'm not concern about heat either. The newer elite KBGs have outstanding heat tolerance, not a problem here in Central NC even under Phoenix-like style summers. I'll be willing to bet that KBG can grow further south of here. Anyone from Jacksonville, FL who wants to try KBG? I have extra seeds I can send down there for testing. It's Midnight KBG. Let me know.
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lawniac
4 years ago
Keep calm and stay the course. Here's my thoughts:

- Do not aerate right now, it will be a disaster of epic proportions. You will kill the fescue, break the pre-emergent barrier and bring up all the weeds.

- I'd hold off on Milorganite, it's about 40% fast release N and you don't need that right now. If you want to fertilize for quality, use either a 100% organic (corn/alfalfa) or spoon-feed something like Lesco 21-4-11 that's almost all slow-release.

- Sounds like you're hitting it pretty hard with fungicide, I don't think you need anything else for at least a couple of weeks. Understand that damage to the grass blade that has already taken place isn't going to be get repaired, you'll have to wait for the grass to grow and the damaged portions get cut off.

Overall it looks pretty good. Personally I'd lower the cut to 3" to get some air flow in the canopy. Stick to the fungicide apps every 2 weeks through September. With fungicide and proper watering it should get through summer just fine.
CEZ
Original Author
4 years ago
Thanks for your reply.

I asked about aerating since poor drainage is one cause of excessive moisture - and when I put my hand down to soil level it is very moist. The soil isn't well draining on its own at all.

My main concern was that I was worried that once a plant had disease it was a gonner. I am very inexperienced when it comes to fungus and pests and am slowly learning as I experience these issues and how to treat them.

With the problems I had last year, the brown patches continued to grow despite a strong (albeit late) fungicide program.

In doing a lot more research since posting I'm learning if caught early enough with curative rates that the turf can 'grow out' of the disease. So here's to hoping for that!

We unfortunately have a solid week of rain every day...
lawniac
4 years ago
If you're having problems with drainage, a wetting agent will definitely help.

https://www.intermountainturf.com/turf-care/wetting-agents/cascade-plus-16g.html

Am I doomed to disease??? (TTTF, 7A, Central NC)

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Lisa

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Am I doomed to disease??? (TTTF, 7A, Central NC)

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Lisa

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