# Fall 2020 planted tall fescue lawn..................



## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

All was going well. Then we recently had a 3 days of temps in the low 80's and the lawn is yellowing and browning. Gave it a big drink - 2 hours under the sprinkler which as measured in my rain gauge was equivalent to 0.6 inches of rain.

Strangely, other areas are still healthy and green. Does this look like anything other than water and heat stress? Our town has imposed water restrictions of watering lawns no more often than once a week.

See pics below:


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## maltycolgate (Mar 3, 2021)

I have the same issue. I'm on a fungicide program so I'm just running my irrigation more than usual. It's been a dry spring so I'm trying to "pretend" it's been a really wet one!


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

maltycolgate said:


> I have the same issue. I'm on a fungicide program so I'm just running my irrigation more than usual. It's been a dry spring so I'm trying to "pretend" it's been a really wet one!


@maltycolgate Thanks for the reply. I don't use any fungicides and spring rainfall has been on the dry side of normal until about two weeks ago. I gave the lawn a big 2 hour drink 3 days ago at the first sign of trouble.


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## jimmythegreek (Aug 7, 2020)

I have the same thing everywhere in the back Reno. Its tttf and kbg all premium sss stuff. Looks like hell already just fired up sprinklers last night. Funny the mutt mix front lawn which is a northern mix who knows what is green amd healthy and looks better.


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

jimmythegreek said:


> I have the same thing everywhere in the back Reno. Its tttf and kbg all premium sss stuff. Looks like hell already just fired up sprinklers last night. Funny the mutt mix front lawn which is a northern mix who knows what is green amd healthy and looks better.


It seems that ever since I moved here, I can grow grass just fine where there is some shade, but grass struggles in full sun. I'm guessing the microclimate and soil where you planted your "mutt mix" is generally more grass friendly.


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## maltycolgate (Mar 3, 2021)

jimmythegreek said:


> I have the same thing everywhere in the back Reno. Its tttf and kbg all premium sss stuff. Looks like hell already just fired up sprinklers last night. Funny the mutt mix front lawn which is a northern mix who knows what is green amd healthy and looks better.


I did a reno (late in the season) on a small area in my front yard and it's looking like the above pictures. Since I'm on a fungicide program, I'm thinking it just simply hasn't received enough water. It's been a very dry spring here.

The young roots aren't as developed as the older grass.


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

maltycolgate said:


> jimmythegreek said:
> 
> 
> > I have the same thing everywhere in the back Reno. Its tttf and kbg all premium sss stuff. Looks like hell already just fired up sprinklers last night. Funny the mutt mix front lawn which is a northern mix who knows what is green amd healthy and looks better.
> ...


What type of soil do you have? When I lived in NJ, I had mostly clay and growing a lawn there was like shooting fish in a barrel. I never fertilized or watered, the grass still grew and I still had to mow it! Now that I live in MA, I have sandy soil which drains like a sieve! I added about 3 inches of compost to that area in the pics before I seeded last fall in the hopes that would make it hold water and nutrients better. Oh well.


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## jimmythegreek (Aug 7, 2020)

I have clay under it but have a few inches of good topsoil and I topdressed both the front and rear early fall. I'm a contractor and did a full redo out back. Finished my pool build and harley raked all the existing rear dirt, then added 20yds topsoil amd 10yrds compost to about 2ksqft in back. Planted sss premium mixes amd been fighting fungus since. I also did underground irrigation front and rear. The front is many overseeds of various sun mixes and looks green and great today. The back is getting worst, looked good with spring rains but I have little faith for this summer even with water. If the kbg and tttf dont impress me this season I'm gonna go back to a northern mix. I just hate any clumping grass so gonna have to do some research. In reality you can have any grass type or blends and have the best lawn on the block, as long as you take care of it. I'm starting to second guess the value in premium seed and the ratings. I've never fought fungus and browning on any lawns I inherited and I did way less work on them


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## maltycolgate (Mar 3, 2021)

Deadlawn said:


> maltycolgate said:
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> > jimmythegreek said:
> ...


I have rocky clay soil, in a subdivision that basically had all the good soil scraped off when the houses were built.


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

jimmythegreek said:


> I have clay under it but have a few inches of good topsoil and I topdressed both the front and rear early fall. I'm a contractor and did a full redo out back. Finished my pool build and harley raked all the existing rear dirt, then added 20yds topsoil amd 10yrds compost to about 2ksqft in back. Planted sss premium mixes amd been fighting fungus since. I also did underground irrigation front and rear. The front is many overseeds of various sun mixes and looks green and great today. The back is getting worst, looked good with spring rains but I have little faith for this summer even with water. If the kbg and tttf dont impress me this season I'm gonna go back to a northern mix. I just hate any clumping grass so gonna have to do some research. In reality you can have any grass type or blends and have the best lawn on the block, as long as you take care of it. I'm starting to second guess the value in premium seed and the ratings. I've never fought fungus and browning on any lawns I inherited and I did way less work on them


There is that old saying: Plant a $5 plant in a $50 hole and you will soon have a $50 plant. I suppose the same could be said for turf grass. I'm convinced it's all about the soil.

What is in the "Northern Mix" you used? I'm guessing it's a mixture of all three commonly used cool season grasses - PRG, KBG and TTTF. I am also guessing the success and failures you had in different areas has to do with the soil and conditions, not the grass seed you used.


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## jimmythegreek (Aug 7, 2020)

The northern mix front is what's left of what was barely there after taking out 5 trees and i used my miniX to pull the stumps. I used scotts northern mix amd some other sunny mixes from site one in a pinch cause I was too busy to order seed. The soil is good all around and the funny thing to boot is I have a spot in front center that is where the biggest tree was. Last spring it settled a little and had a tiny bit of poa in it. I ripped a 5ft oval out, replaced soil amd seeded it with leftover tttf from siteone I had from a customers job. I had a handful of the mixes left on bags I threw down too bit very little. Wouldmt you know it, I was cutting the grass yesterday amd that little apot has some brown spot starting that is likely fungus or needs water hasn't rained in 10 days. The rest of green amd really nice overall, I have the front zones off on irrigation. I use the seed head benchmark on soil nutrients. When younuabe good healthy dirt you will have seedheads on your kbg amd the front is loaded with a 2.5" cut not fully removing them. I have some spots in back too amd kbg was introduced in the fall Reno only. It's the tttf that's not doing well overall, I see good green kbg in the bad spots. I dont get it. I threw down diseaseX last weekend gonna do the other AI this week


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

@jimmythegreek Hmmm. My guess is the roots on those trees you took out are now rotting and proving organic matter and free nutrients. This reminds me of when a neighbor took out a huge sweetgum tree on the property border, then the grass in that zone was jumping out of the ground!

I have to wonder what is going on with your TTTF vs. KBG. TTTF is supposedly the most heat, drought and disease tolerant of the cool season grasses. I am wondering two things.

First, TTTF doesn't need as much N as KBG, so I'm wondering if you overloaded it going into the hotter, drier weather where grasses go into survival mode. More feeding only stresses grasses at this time. Of course this wouldn't explain why my TTTF is struggling since I only gave it an early April feeding of Espoma organic balanced fertilizer and nothing since.

Second, TTTF cultivars are now much more shade tolerant than they used to be. I have to wonder if this means they are less full-sun tolerant as well, after all, you can't have everything. My TTTF is doing great in the part shade areas of my yard.

Do you have any pics you can share of the areas you think are fungus damage? Are you sure that's fungus damage and not grub damage or drought stress?


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## M32075 (May 9, 2019)

Since I over seeded with TTTF my battle with fungus is non stop. In the backyard I would stay the course let the fungus knock out the TTTF and let the KBG fill in to replace it.


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## maltycolgate (Mar 3, 2021)

Deadlawn said:


> maltycolgate said:
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> > jimmythegreek said:
> ...


Update: I watered a lot more than usual (due to the dry spring catching me off guard) and, combined with the rains we've received this last week, my problem area has greened up nicely.

This leads me to believe a reno has to be watered more than established grass, even the following season.


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

maltycolgate said:


> Update: I watered a lot more than usual (due to the dry spring catching me off guard) and, combined with the rains we've received this last week, my problem area has greened up nicely.
> 
> This leads me to believe a reno has to be watered more than established grass, even the following season.


This is what I am thinking. Tall fescue does have the ability to send down deep roots, but it appears to take a couple of seasons to do so.

Your experience also seems to debunk the idea of fungus. If the problem was a fungus, I would think wet would be more of a problem, not dry.


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## Lawn Whisperer (Feb 15, 2021)

I'd say about 2-3 years for new lawns to get deeper roots along with a couple of fall overseeding.


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## maltycolgate (Mar 3, 2021)

Deadlawn said:


> maltycolgate said:
> 
> 
> > Update: I watered a lot more than usual (due to the dry spring catching me off guard) and, combined with the rains we've received this last week, my problem area has greened up nicely.
> ...


It was ants.

You can see some of the dead grass on the side of the pictures. Extra irrigation helped the roots that survived, but it seems ants did a lot of damage to the soil. I can easily lift up areas that they've destroyed.


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

Hmmm. I definitely have ants in the lawn. Granted that to a degree, they are beneficial to the soil as they keep it from getting too compacted. And mature grass has deep enough roots to not be negatively affected. But I presume that baby grass plants with shallow roots are being stressed by constant tunnel building within their root zones.

Irrigation seems to be keeping it alive though there is minimal to no top growth.


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## Deadlawn (Sep 8, 2020)

Update: We had an unusually wet July. I counted over 10 inches in my rain gauge. All was well. Then I was away for 3 weeks and wouldn't you know it, the area received only a half inch of rain during that time! So I returned to a patchwork of about a 50/50 brown and green lawn. Tropical storm Henri is moving up toward our area now, so we're receiving plenty of rain again.

Watch this space.


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