Any advise

Grass Freak – posted 28 June 2006 14:56

LOCATION: Live in Bishop GA, 10 miles south of Athens.

GRASS: Have Bermuda (419 I think) lawn established July 2005.

SOIL TEST: completed this month (everything OK, no N calculation, PH 5.4).

WHEATHER: hot and humid conditions that have occurred the past couple months (90+), we FINALLY had 1.5 inches of rain fail Monday after have hardly zero the past 45 days.

PROBLEM: Last fall my lawn was flawless and beautiful. February I added pre-emergent, March added 10-10-10. When the greenup began in March I noticed a few placed where it hadn’t greened up well as the rest. In april I added Scotts Weed and Feed. In May added 34-0-0 then 2 weeks later added a fungicide (due to the County Extention agent advising I had rust). This past weekend I noticed Jap beetles chewing all over my roses, so yesterday I spreaded insecticide (thinking grubs).

Yesterday while I was using the spreader I surveyed my lawn and I would say 25% looks DEAD in different places. I water twice per week (40 minutes each station) but the area just will not recover. I had planned to give it another shot of N but I think this may damage it more.

I’m thinking in need to water, water, water and put some type matter over the dead areas to promote growth.

Any advice?

Grassguy – posted 28 June 2006 19:46

Do you have thatch accumulation over 1/2 inch?If so remove it. Also invest in a hand held soil core plug remover so you can extract cores from the bad area of turf to see how deep the irrigation is percolating. Thatch will inhibit water infiltration and invite insects and disease.

Grass Freak – posted 29 June 2006 08:41

GrassGuy, thanks for the advise. My lawn is about 10,000 sq/ft. When the sod was laid, I don’t think the contractor tilled the area and just laid it on hard “georgia” clay. I’ve been thinking of aerating using a rented core machine, but with hot weather I’ve heard heard it may damage the lawn. About a month ago, I used a pitchfork and spend about 3 hours forking the no-so-green areas I mentioned in the spring. Do you think that even though I water as I do, the hot weather as done this? I’ve seen several lawns in my neighborhood with the same problem. By the way, I cut my lawn about 2-2.5 inches high (any problem with that?)

Grass Freak – posted 29 June 2006 08:45

forgot to add, this weekend I though about pitchforking the area again, then putting a layer of topsoil/manure mixture over the problem areas. Any advice about that?

easygrass – posted 29 June 2006 09:12

use a good organic compost, and you could add some worm castings to your mix and if you can get some liquid humus spray the lawn with it.

also here is a good web site

www.soilsecrets.com

Grassguy – posted 29 June 2006 22:05

As I mentioned before, Pull a soil core about 4 to 5 inchs deep from the problem areas to see if the soil is bone dry. There is no sense in guessing what the problem is. If you pull a core and it is bone dry then you know that the irrigation is not reaching the root zone. Thatch as well as hard as a rock worthless clay soil will impede the infiltration of irrigation to the root zone. You probobly have a shallow root system which makes the drought tolerant cultivar not so drought tolerant. what did the soil test read pertaining to the potassium and phosporus? high, low? You can core aerate your lawn without any problem in the growing season once you determine what the problem is. I’m guessing hard dry clay. Core aeration is ineffective in very hard and very wet soil. If you could get a good deep core aeration(3 to 4 inchs)the hit it with 2 lbs per 1000 of 34-0-0 and water thoroughly you would see improvment. What time of the day do you irrigate? You also need to find out what the prefered PH is for your cultivar, 5.4 is a little acidic. The most nutriens are available at 6.5 – 7.0. I am guessing that the lack of moisture to the root zone to be the main problem.

Grass Freak – posted 06 July 2006 14:23

Thanks for the advice GrassGuy. We just had more rain over the last 4 days than the last 3 months. I’ve noticed several of the problem areas starting to come back good. If you have a chance, review my newest entry on Sod Installment and give me some pointers. Thanks

bwmaier – posted 13 August 2006 18:05

Part of the problem where you see what appears to be “dead” grass may actually be the bermuda going dormant as a result of the hot, dry summers. I live in Paulding Co. and have been having similar problems (however, I do not have a sprinkler system). Fortunately, there was over 2″ of rain that fell over the past few days which will help revive the part that goes dormant. This has definitely not been a good year for lawn care in GA.