# Nutsedge/brown spots. Marathon 2



## Arek (Dec 31, 2019)

Hello.

I live in riverside Southern California. 45 miles inland from Orange County beaches. 
I installed marathon 2 sod two years ago. 
This past year I had double with nut sedge weed and can't seem to get rid of it. 
I also have brown dead spots in my yard. 
The water coverage is head to head and I fertilize. I tried to reseed the dead spots with no luck 
I taken soil samples to my local nursery and they recommend fungus repellant and again no luck. 
I am confused and need help. 
If you can recommend anything I much appreciate it.

Question:
1. Is there a way for once and for all get rid of the sedge weed, aka nut grass?

2. How can I repair those dead spots

3. How do I prevent browning in my yard.

Tall fescue marathon 2. Sod installed two years ago.

Thankyou


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## wors (Feb 2, 2019)

What is your irrigation schedule?

There is bare soil around irrigation heads in some of those pictures. It's tough to see from the pictures if all of the lighter color grass is nutsedge. Can you take a picture closer to the lighter green grass/nutsedge and take a picture of it pulled?

Nutsedge likes damp soils. SedgeHammer herbicide works great to kill nutsedge.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

I've had great success using Image for nutsedge. I personally prefer to spray with a pump sprayer vs a hose end sprayer. Also, order some marking dye so that you can tell exactly where you sprayed where you haven't. as an added bonus you'll feel really cool spraying blue or green chemicals.

Last year the Image took out several large patches and some randoms of sedge for me.


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## Arek (Dec 31, 2019)

wors said:


> What is your irrigation schedule?
> 
> There is bare soil around irrigation heads in some of those pictures. It's tough to see from the pictures if all of the lighter color grass is nutsedge. Can you take a picture closer to the lighter green grass/nutsedge and take a picture of it pulled?
> 
> Nutsedge likes damp soils. SedgeHammer herbicide works great to kill nutsedge.


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## Arek (Dec 31, 2019)

wors said:


> What is your irrigation schedule?
> 
> There is bare soil around irrigation heads in some of those pictures. It's tough to see from the pictures if all of the lighter color grass is nutsedge. Can you take a picture closer to the lighter green grass/nutsedge and take a picture of it pulled?
> 
> Nutsedge likes damp soils. SedgeHammer herbicide works great to kill nutsedge.


I notice the soil is very damp still from the rain this past weekend. I have clay soil and the past couple year I put lots of gypsum to break it up.


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## wors (Feb 2, 2019)

Thanks for the pictures. It's nutsedge for sure.

Has it been wet the past few months from rain and or irrigation?

Have you taken a soil test recently? Gypsum is usually applied for calcium while not increasing the pH.


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## Arek (Dec 31, 2019)

wors said:


> Thanks for the pictures. It's nutsedge for sure.
> 
> Has it been wet the past few months from rain and or irrigation?
> 
> Have you taken a soil test recently? Gypsum is usually applied for calcium while not increasing the pH.


I took soil in the my local nursery. They said it was fine in regards to the ph level. My soil is real clay like and hard to drain.

Do you have any recommendations to get better drainage ?

What you recommend take care of the nutsedge. ?

I've asked around before about the nutsedge and nobody can give me an answer.

I love learning about my lawn and determined to treat it and have it flourish. I didn't want to call one of theses lawn services. Even they didn't give me an straight answer. 
I cut back my watering. Before during the spring and summer I would water five minutes everyday at 5:30 am.


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## wors (Feb 2, 2019)

I would suggest reading the soil fertility section and selecting a reputable lab to get a good soil test. Post the results and someone should be able to give more guidance on fertility needs.

https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=3124

If the soil is still moist and wet then skip the days watering. Most subscribe to the deep and infrequent method. That's putting down 1" of water when the grass needs it. With all the sedgegrass it seems you are way over watering. The clay will retain water much better than a sand soil.

I suggested Sedgehammer to treat the nutsedge. Gilley11 suggested Image. Do you have a Siteone Landscape Supply? They should carry Sedgehammer or another herbicide that would take care of it.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Outside from the sedge issue, you do have a fungus issue. It looks like brown patch, but I'm not sure.

Try to measure how much watering your irrigation gives in inches. Place a straight container (eg. tuna can) in the zone. Run the irrigation for 10-30 minutes until you get 0.5in inside the can. Then set the system to run that amount of time only when the lawn needs it and not daily. Daily watering gets the grass wet and encourages fungus (moisture + heat).

By the way, who take cares of your neighbor yard?


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## Arek (Dec 31, 2019)

g-man said:


> Outside from the sedge issue, you do have a fungus issue. It looks like brown patch, but I'm not sure.
> 
> Try to measure how much watering your irrigation gives in inches. Place a straight container (eg. tuna can) in the zone. Run the irrigation for 10-30 minutes until you get 0.5in inside the can. Then set the system to run that amount of time only when the lawn needs it and not daily. Daily watering gets the grass wet and encourages fungus (moisture + heat).
> 
> By the way, who take cares of your neighbor yard?


Thankyou for the reply. I will measure the water for half inch. 
Do you recommend a half inch per week, or how would I know when it needs it. 
I will definitely not water every day.

My neighbor hired true green lawn service and now she has a Gardner.


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## Arek (Dec 31, 2019)

wors said:


> I would suggest reading the soil fertility section and selecting a reputable lab to get a good soil test. Post the results and someone should be able to give more guidance on fertility needs.
> 
> https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=3124
> 
> ...


Thankyou for your reply. 
I will cut back the watering daily and only water when needed and give it an inch as you recommend. 
Yes I have a site one where I live and I had seen the sedgehammer.

Where the brown spots I have now, do you recommend overseeing ?

Thankyou


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## wors (Feb 2, 2019)

Yes, I would reseed those areas or replace the with sod.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

In the peak of summer for your weather area, I think you will need around 0.5in every 2-3 days. I cant find Evapotranspiration info for california right now. One of the univ had the data online, but the google search is not finding it.

But the easy answer is to look at your lawn. When it starts to turn slight blue/gray, it needs to be watered. In spring/fall it could be every 7 days or whenever it rains.


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## tgreen (Oct 20, 2018)

Agree with @g-man post above. Nutsedge looks like only part of the issue. Your second set of pics look a lot like gray leaf spot. Southern California weather is a lot different than mine but I question whether fescue is the right choice for your location. Are you familiar with warm season vs cool season grass? I wonder if you'd be better with a warm season. Looks like a lot of your fescue is gone or on its way out. What do most people grow in your area?


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## Arek (Dec 31, 2019)

tgreen said:


> Agree with @g-man post above. Nutsedge looks like only part of the issue. Your second set of pics look a lot like gray leaf spot. Southern California weather is a lot different than mine but I question whether fescue is the right choice for your location. Are you familiar with warm season vs cool season grass? I wonder if you'd be better with a warm season. Looks like a lot of your fescue is gone or on its way out. What do most people grow in your area?


Thankyou for your reply. I am considering changing my grass but first I wanted to exhaust all possibilities on maintain and having a thriving fescue yard. I think the fescue is to sensitive. The local nursery sold me on this grass saying it's ideal for our environment.

Have you had success changing out a lawn and if so do you have any recommendations. Thankyou


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## Arek (Dec 31, 2019)

tgreen said:


> Agree with @g-man post above. Nutsedge looks like only part of the issue. Your second set of pics look a lot like gray leaf spot. Southern California weather is a lot different than mine but I question whether fescue is the right choice for your location. Are you familiar with warm season vs cool season grass? I wonder if you'd be better with a warm season. Looks like a lot of your fescue is gone or on its way out. What do most people grow in your area?


I was thinking about going Bermuda. I've noticed if I have heavy traffic on my tall fescue it just doesn't look good and takes a few days to repair.


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## tgreen (Oct 20, 2018)

If there are people successfully growing tall fescue in your area then stick with it. Based on your second set of pics, I think you may have gray leaf spot which would explain the dead areas. GLS is a nasty disease and new tall fescue is particularly susceptible. If it is GLS then that's your main issue, not the nutsedge. You need to get the disease under control.

The only way to know for sure is to send a sample to a turf pathology lab. I did a quick search and looks like the below is in your area. I'd call them and see if they'll test it. Let us know the results.

https://turfgrass.ucr.edu/index.shtml

Here is the first of 3 vids I did on my experience with GLS. If you fast forward through it I show what it looks like: small lesions, die-offf at the tip, corkscrew looking dead grass, etc. A lot like what a couple of your pics look like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAPTQXge25s&t=7s


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Arek said:


> What you recommend take care of the nutsedge. ?
> 
> I've asked around before about the nutsedge and nobody can give me an answer.


Did you see my post above?

You can find this in most every home improvement store.
https://www.imageforweeds.com/all-products/kills-nutsedge-concentrate


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## Arek (Dec 31, 2019)

Gilley11 said:


> Arek said:
> 
> 
> > What you recommend take care of the nutsedge. ?
> ...


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Gilley11 said:


> Arek said:
> 
> 
> > What you recommend take care of the nutsedge. ?
> ...


This is not safe for cool season lawns.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Good catch, thanks!


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