# Should I stop watering, nitrogen and mowing



## ricwilli (Feb 18, 2019)

I really don't know whats going on with the lawn. It's getting thinner. I water every other day. Should I stop watering, applying nitrogen and mowing for about a week or two?













The side edge and the hell strip edge


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## JeffR84 (Apr 25, 2020)

Have you checked for grubs?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Can you grab a core sample? I would check the soil for it to be dry. Check your irrigation to ensure that spot is getting good coverage.

Also, I'm doing 0.4in every 3 days on an established lawn.


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## ricwilli (Feb 18, 2019)

I think we may have found the problem. I can't even push in the core tool into the soil at all. I grab a flat head screwdriver and I literally had to use a hammer just to get it 1 inch into the ground. I thought that the compaction issues was just in the backyard. What are my options here? Is the lawn to young to do aeration?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Apply water. I doubt it is compaction. It is just dry. Get a hose and get the area wet.


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

^ +1. A lot of people confuse dry soil with compaction. Keep nursing that area with water. After a few days you'll be able to core sample or stick a screw driver in that area with ease.

And as g-man suggested, check your irrigation to make sure that spot is getting coverage.


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## ricwilli (Feb 18, 2019)

I will do what you guys are suggesting, but the sprinkler head is only 1 foot away. I appreciate the help and will report back.


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## CarolinaCuttin (Sep 6, 2019)

When was your last fertilizer application and what was the rate? How much irrigation did it get after application? This could just be a case of a lawn that is dry, but since the dry spot is right next to a head and I'm seeing what appears to be tip burn in these pictures, I wonder if there isn't something else going on.

@ricwilli


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## sam (Mar 10, 2018)

ricwilli said:


> I will do what you guys are suggesting, but the sprinkler head is only 1 foot away. I appreciate the help and will report back.


Have you watched that head run recently?


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

Just because it's next to a head doesn't mean it's covering that area. Often times areas around sprinkler heads don't get as much water. I would watch it the next cycle. Grab a tuna can or other container and put it on top of that spot. Measure how much water it gets.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

That head doesn't water that area. The mp nozzles tend to water more far away. There should be another head that waters that area. Go run the system, place a tuna can and watch it. Let rule out lack of water first.


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## CoopyHarry (Sep 26, 2020)

You can dump a 5 gallon bucket of water there every other day and see if it recovers after a little bit. Good for spot watering to see if it's a water issue


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## ricwilli (Feb 18, 2019)

The past two weekends I've switched over to Urea from AMS. Been applying .25 N weekly. I watered in the urea after 4 hours. This weekend I applied AMS and watered in right after. I checked for grubs and did not find any. I also applied 24 hour grub killer 2-3 weeks ago.

Did a water audit test this morning until the wife kicked me off the sprinklers as she has to do laundry. LOL. I ran the water for 20 minutes and I am putting down .1 of water to most of the lawn except the hell strip.

















There's a lot of air coming out of these sprinkler heads. Not to much water was coming out of this head. But as soon as I adjusted it a little bit, the right amount was coming out. This happened at the beginning to a few heads when I installed the system. I hope I do not have to keep doing this.


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## sam (Mar 10, 2018)

Any chance something else goes wrong when it's just running it's standard cycle overnight or whatever? Like a misconfiguration?

I still just find it hard to believe the ground would be rock hard unless it's either dry or unless it's literally a rock under the turf.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

MP should give you 0.4in/hr. 20min and getting 0.1in doesn't seem correct. How many minutes are you running the system every other day?


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## ricwilli (Feb 18, 2019)

I cut down to 20 minutes every other day because I was noticing melting out. I was afraid of the fungus spreading. Other then those spots, the rest of the lawn looks fine even though I cut back on water.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

0.1in every other day is not enough. The lawn is using 0.1im every day.


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## badtlc (Aug 22, 2019)

ricwilli said:


> I will do what you guys are suggesting, but the sprinkler head is only 1 foot away. I appreciate the help and will report back.


Heads are not designed to water their own base. Almost all sprinkler heads require 100% overlap with at least two other sprinklers. Those two adjacent sprinklers are the ones that water the base of the head in question.


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## ricwilli (Feb 18, 2019)

I understand that the best coverage is head to head coverage, which I have. But my rotors do indeed water right in front of the heads. I see it shooting down 2-3 inches away from the head. Not just straight out. 
I'm going to water each zone 27 minutes every day, once a day to see what happens. I'm hoping that I do not get any melting out again which led me to back off the watering.


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## CarolinaCuttin (Sep 6, 2019)

@ricwilli Why not hand water these areas to prevent getting the areas without stress from getting too wet? Are the areas too big?


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## sam (Mar 10, 2018)

ricwilli said:


> I cut down to 20 minutes every other day because I was noticing melting out. I was afraid of the fungus spreading. Other then those spots, the rest of the lawn looks fine even though I cut back on water.


Just my 2 cents 
Rather than cutting water maybe you needed to go deep and infrequent, and/or more fungicide, depending on your goals.

Going deeper would get your total water out, while going infrequent would reduces the fungal pressure

Maybe you were doing doing a frequent cycle for seeding, which is right, but then you'll have to deal with the fungus another way rather than cutting the total water per week


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## Jconnelly6b (Mar 4, 2018)

sam said:


> ricwilli said:
> 
> 
> > I cut down to 20 minutes every other day because I was noticing melting out. I was afraid of the fungus spreading. Other then those spots, the rest of the lawn looks fine even though I cut back on water.
> ...


nailed it


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## ricwilli (Feb 18, 2019)

Thanks all for the help. Learning lots from all these lawn tribulations. LOL. I've been watering more and the rain has helped. Below are updated pics of the state of the lawn.


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