# New member - Lawn issues



## Reaper (Jul 11, 2017)

Hi guys,

New member here, pretty new to DIY lawn care. Moved into my first house in December 2015; I've always mowed the lawn since we moved in but I had a landscaping company fertilize in the Spring/Summer/Fall of 2016. Decided I did not want to pay the $70 a pop for the fertilization so I've been doing it myself this year.

First treatment was Scott's Lawn Food in mid-April, 30 days later did Scott's Weed and Feed, 35 days from that I did another round of Lawn Food. That was mid-June.

I noticed starting around the end of May that a couple patches of the lawn were browning and just not growing in like the rest of the lawn. As you can see in the below pic, the rest of the lawn is growing nicely and is a nice green color, but the two trouble areas are obviously not doing well. I don't think it's a water/sun issue as the entire side of the lawn where the brown is gets the same amount of water and sun, so I would the browning would be the entire side instead of just patches. And we've had an unusually heavy rainfall this Spring. I should mention that when the landscapers did the fertilizing last year, the lawn grew in well and stayed green for pretty much the entire season [I'm not sure what products they used].

The picture of the edge of the lawn I just started noticing this past weekend. Never noticed this before either.

Any ideas what this could be and what would be the fix? I would like to get these areas back to match the rest of the lawn.

FYI - I have no idea what type of grass I have.

Thanks!


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## J_nick (Jan 28, 2017)

It looks more like fescue to me. Could you get a close up picture. Does it stay green during the winter or does it turn tan/brown. RI is pretty far north for Bermuda.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

Welcome to TLF! I thought you might be a spammer because you listed bermuda as your grass type in Rhode Island. :lol:

I'm going to move this over to the cool season subforum. I think they will be able to give you better advice. :thumbup:


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## Reaper (Jul 11, 2017)

LOL thanks guys. I thought picking Bermuda would be funny, I changed it to Fescue for the time being. I will try to get a close up shot tonight.


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## social port (Jun 19, 2017)

I'm still a novice, so take this for what it's worth. I agree that your grass looks like Fescue. Based on your description and the pictures, I would narrow the culprits down to grub worms or fungus.
Closer shots of the problem areas would be helpful.
Someone will come along to provide a more definitive answer. You're in good hands.


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## GrassDaddy (Mar 21, 2017)

I am in RI as well, we have had a lot of warm wet weather. It could be lawn disease. Take some photos of the brown blades, and some overall closer photos with both good and bad grass.


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## Reaper (Jul 11, 2017)

Thanks, GrassDaddy. Will do that tonight. What part of RI are you in?


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## GrassDaddy (Mar 21, 2017)

South county, you?


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## Reaper (Jul 11, 2017)

Cowesett


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## Fronta1 (Jul 11, 2017)

Could it be nitrogen burn?


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## ales_gantar (Apr 13, 2017)

I guess, but am not certain, that it is some sort of fungus. I have similar stuff, and always do, when seeding before august 15.


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## Reaper (Jul 11, 2017)

How do you get rid of it? Fungicide?


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## ales_gantar (Apr 13, 2017)

Last year and the year before I just waited, and it went away, today I sprayed, but we had a storm some 2 hours after I sprayed.


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## Reaper (Jul 11, 2017)

Here are some close up pics. If it's fungus, what is the best remedy / best fungicide for that?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

^ to make sure it is not your camera or my phone, is there a red tint to the damage area? It looks redish on my phone, but you need to physically look at it. If it shows some red, then it would likely be red thatch fungus.


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## Reaper (Jul 11, 2017)

I don't see a red tint.


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## j4c11 (Apr 30, 2017)

The grass looks drought stressed to me.


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## Reaper (Jul 11, 2017)

This is the edge of the lawn. Just happened this past weekend, looks like it just died.


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## j4c11 (Apr 30, 2017)

That grass is very fine bladed. It's either badly stressed tall fescue rolling up from lack of water or fine fescue. So is your lawn tall fescue or fine fescue?


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## GrassDaddy (Mar 21, 2017)

It's looking more like heat stress or fertilizer burn. I checked out your rainfall and its 0.68in for the last month.

https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KRIWARWI10#history/s20170611/e20170711/mmonth

Even though it has rained a lot, the actual amount has been low. So if you skipped watering because of rain it could be part of the problem.

It also could be your sprinklers arent putting enough water out. My old sprinklers took 6 hours to water so I thought I was watering enough but wasnt.


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## Flying Aces (Jun 7, 2017)

My vote is heat stressed. The grass being stressed along the driveway is a good sign of that bc the driveway radiates a lot of heat.


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## Reaper (Jul 11, 2017)

Thanks for the replies guys.

The conclusion confuses me tho... If the grass isn't getting enough water, then why is the rest of the grass surrounding the affected area (which gets the same amount of sun and rain) not experiencing the same issue?


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## j4c11 (Apr 30, 2017)

Reaper said:


> Thanks for the replies guys.
> 
> The conclusion confuses me tho... If the grass isn't getting enough water, then why is the rest of the grass surrounding the affected area (which gets the same amount of sun and rain) not experiencing the same issue?


Let's back up a little - do you have fine fescue or tall fescue? It looks like fine fescue to me and it's normal for it to go brown in the summer in full sun.


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## Reaper (Jul 11, 2017)

I have absolutely no idea what type of grass I have. But I do know that this did not happen at all last season.


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