# Grass laying down after foot traffic and won't stand back up



## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

Anyone else have the experience that after foot traffic, the flat-laying grass does not stand back up again, even if you use a blower on it? I'm guessing this is due to the heat stress that we've had over the past few weeks. So far, one day after traffic/blowing, and it's still just horizontal/matted down no matter what I do.


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## john5246 (Jul 21, 2019)

yes, you should water it


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

john5246 said:


> yes, you should water it


The thing is, it's not like it was totally dried out or anything...we got over one inch of rain the night before this traffic. I blew it upright the best I could that night. I then watered it by hand again the day after (yesterday, 8/9/19) because it looked wilted being horizontal and was still quite matted down. This watering just matted it down totally horizontal again, and I wasn't even aggressive with the hose. We'll see what happens over the coming days after it dries out again...if it stands back up or not. I plan to mow later, which I'm not convinced is the greatest idea since it's more stress, but I plan to do it anyway after it dries out (and will take the HOC down a bit).

I'm thinking more along the lines of heat stress than drought stress...we had about 6 weeks straight with highs around 90 until recently, and cool season grass just doesn't like that. But it wasn't until the traffic that it matted down.

I think now that it's been hydrated, I need to let the soil surface dry out a bit.

But I'm not convinced that it will stand itself back up again, until the old, matted growth is fully cut off over the next couple of weeks and new growth replaces it. This whole situation coincides nicely with my upcoming planned fertilizer application, which should help out.


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## davegravy (Jul 25, 2019)

@Green I have the same issue in a bunch of areas, all of which are high percentage fine fescue. Don't seem to have the issue in the coarser turf. Mine's bent over at such an angle I'd need a very low HOC to actually cut it. I've watered a bunch and it's not perking up.

Pretty sure it does this every summer, or most of them, but every fall it perks back up.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

davegravy said:


> @Green I have the same issue in a bunch of areas, all of which are high percentage fine fescue. Don't seem to have the issue in the coarser turf. Mine's bent over at such an angle I'd need a very low HOC to actually cut it. I've watered a bunch and it's not perking up.


Thanks. This is mostly TTTF and KBG in a Northern mix. A lot of the worst of the matted areas are young grass (seeded in May) and areas that have herbicide stress, but even the mature TTTF is laying down a lot more than I expected. As expected though, the fine fescue is matted the worst in many spots.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

So, I figured out that some of the wilting is probably from sun burn from a tarp, because today I'm seeing browning in sections I didn't even know were affected. Hopefully it's just the leaf tissue that was directly in contact with the tarp that will brown out. And thankfully it wasn't 95 degrees and full sun. I think it would have been a total loss in that case. It was 85 and partly sunny, so hopefully it will end up just being minor leaf burn/wilt/matting.


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## CPA Nerd (May 8, 2018)

Same. The fine fescue does it even in spring and fall, and the other grass, assuming kbg does it only in summer when dormant. It all always comes back. I don't bother blowing it or raking it back up anymore.

When I am expecting a lot of foot traffic, I make sure to mow it a day or two before so it's at least not overgrown.


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## troksd (Jul 27, 2018)

FF is genetically dispose to lay over, even when cut low.


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## john5246 (Jul 21, 2019)

Green said:


> john5246 said:
> 
> 
> > yes, you should water it
> ...


i noticed the exact same issue yesterday,it is from heat stress, the part of the lawn that gets shade is doing great


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

I mowed it today and it's a bit better. Took that section down from 4" to 3.75. I last mowed the day before the traffic at 4". I think it'll take 2 more mowings, fertilizer, water, and drying out and time to recuperate. Hopefully the brown burn marks don't get any worse over the coming days.


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## social port (Jun 19, 2017)

@Green, my very young stand of TTTF had heavy equipment running on it last spring. After a day of that, I thought the grass was done. 
I used a leaf blower and did some raking. I tried my best to straighten it up, but it was in bad shape.
I eventually used air-8 and did some heave aeration on the target areas. It recovered over the summer.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

social port said:


> Green, my very young stand of TTTF had heavy equipment running on it last spring. After a day of that, I thought the grass was done.
> I used a leaf blower and did some raking. I tried my best to straighten it up, but it was in bad shape.
> I eventually used air-8 and did some heave aeration on the target areas. It recovered over the summer.


Sounds good. I think we just answered the question "why bother with humic acid?" I'm going to give it a go along with the Milorganite fertilizer if I have time. I have a few spots I might have to poke a fork in and aerate, but not that section I don't think. I also have the Anderson's Ultramate humic acid, which has KOH in it like AIR8 (bought it last year, but it's discontinued now and I don't think their current version, K-Mate, has the KOH anymore).

As mentioned, there are a few burn spots from the trap tarp and a piece of power equipment, but it's diffuse for the most part. Hoping they don't progress any worse tomorrow. Probably should not mow the burned area yet, at least until I know how bad it is. I guess it partly solarized the grass.

I need to get the front recovering again, so I can hit it with the final Round of Poa Triv herbicide, which will burn it again... :shock:


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## KoopHawk (May 28, 2019)

Rake it to stand it up. Mow it. Water it. Stay off of it. Good as new.


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

I think that you are on the right track. I recall reading some research posted on TLF or another site which referred to nutrition and botany in general for turf with regards to "flop" regardless of HOC and cultivar. I cannot remember off the top of my head, which article/study covered the subject, but the gist was that macro and micronutrients/deficiency alone, could affect flop. I think that blowing/raking/lower HOC could help. I would also recommend to bag at least once at the lower HOC to help stand the grass up, and to equalize the height in general. A little fertilizer couldn't hurt either. If you can't find the study/article I'm referring to, I would add a triple number fertilizer to hedge your bets.


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