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Lawn Starting to turn yellow-ish and grass blades appear to be dying

22K views 48 replies 21 participants last post by  rockinmylawn 
#1 ·
As the title suggests, my lawn here in the Boston area is starting to turn yellow because some of the grass appears to by dying. I've gone from this:



to this:



Here's close-up of the grass:









I out down pre-emergent in the spring, and grub-killer as we had grubs last year. Starter fert was the Lesco stuff (I'm not sure the ratios of the top of my head).

My lawn started off great this year, but concerned something is going on that I need to fix. Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions?

Cheers.
 
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#4 ·
Has it been raining a lot the last few weeks?
I would say fungus, possibly brown patch.
Lawn can recover from bp w/o fungicide if the weather cooperates.
Prevention is better than cure.
Water early in the day only. No more than 1 inch a week, including rain.
If you know hot humid weather is on the way, you can try a systemic fungicide. Personally, I use Immunox, but there are many. Rotate among fungided classes to avaoid resistance.
But again, best to prevent by proper watering regime rather than chemicals.
 
#5 ·
That looks a lot like my lawn. I bet other lawns in your area look the same? Point is that it's really hard to maintain that early to mid spring look. A lot of us spend a lot of time and a fortune trying to. I would say a couple things are going on. Looks like possible 1) brown patch which is extremely common on tall fescue and 2) possibly you've had a lot of water? It can suffocate the roots and cause some yellowing from chlorosis. I have the above two issues in my lawn right now and that is despite an application of azoxystrobin fungicide (scott's diseasex). It is incredibly unlikely you are going to lose your lawn or something disastrous. I would 1) stop fertilizing until late August/ early sept, a little milorganite or organic is ok if you want 2) watch the watering, try for about an inch once per week and water in the early morning and 3) if you want to spend the money you could put down scott's diseasex but I doubt that will take you back to what your lawn looked like in pic 1. Don't worry, either way, by September or so your lawn will look great again. good luck
 
#6 ·
Thanks @maynardGkeynes and @tgreen.

So, to give some more info, I have a Rachio for my irrigation. I did the tuna can test and set up the flow rates etc (hopefully) correctly to give ~1 inch a week. I originally had it to run every 3 days, but made it every other (2) days recently. Less water, more frequently.

That being said, that schedule hasn't run yet, as it's been skipped because of rain. According to Dark Sky's time machine, we've had about 1.6 inches of rain in the last 2 weeks. It last ran on Sunday, but probably doesn't need to for a while, thanks to the rain. Maybe I'll disable it for a few days, to ensure no more water comes from irrigation for a while.

I put down Milo on Memorial Day, I forget the rate though. I need to take better logs.

After @MassHole mentioned fungus control I read the fungicide guide here and checked out the Lawn Care Nut videos on fungicide. So I think I'll invest in something and put it down and hopefully that will help.

If anyone has any more specific recommendations for fungicide applications that are in the same area/situation, I'm all ears.
 
#7 ·
Kenny_Login said:
Thanks @maynardGkeynes and @tgreen.

So, to give some more info, I have a Rachio for my irrigation. I did the tuna can test and set up the flow rates etc (hopefully) correctly to give ~1 inch a week. I originally had it to run every 3 days, but made it every other (2) days recently. Less water, more frequently.

That being said, that schedule hasn't run yet, as it's been skipped because of rain. According to Dark Sky's time machine, we've had about 1.6 inches of rain in the last 2 weeks. It last ran on Sunday, but probably doesn't need to for a while, thanks to the rain. Maybe I'll disable it for a few days, to ensure no more water comes from irrigation for a while.

I put down Milo on Memorial Day, I forget the rate though. I need to take better logs.

After @MassHole mentioned fungus control I read the fungicide guide here and checked out the Lawn Care Nut videos on fungicide. So I think I'll invest in something and put it down and hopefully that will help.

If anyone has any more specific recommendations for fungicide applications that are in the same area/situation, I'm all ears.
Sounds good but be careful when doing research on brown patch. A lot of people will recommend propiconazole, myclobutanil or t-methyl. They are labeled for brown patch but do NOT work and may make the problem worse. Many choose these because they are cheap but fungicides and cheap don't go together. You either have to spend the money or don't bother. Here's an article and link on this topic to help

https://www.plantpath.k-state.edu/extension/documents/turf/Brown%20patch%20%20homeowners%202016.pdf

https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=9940&p=163036&hilit=brown+patch#p163036
 
#10 ·
I'm watching this thread, because I have similar-looking disease on a few patches. Interested in seeing if anyone IDs it definitively.

@Kenny_Login, how new is the lawn?

Also, I see mostly KBG, which you don't list as a grass type.
 
#11 ·
Green said:
I'm watching this thread, because I have similar-looking disease on a few patches. Interested in seeing if anyone IDs it definitively.

@Kenny_Login, how new is the lawn?

Also, I see mostly KBG, which you don't list as a grass type.
Me too
 
#12 ·
tgreen said:
Kenny_Login said:
Thanks @maynardGkeynes and @tgreen.

So, to give some more info, I have a Rachio for my irrigation. I did the tuna can test and set up the flow rates etc (hopefully) correctly to give ~1 inch a week. I originally had it to run every 3 days, but made it every other (2) days recently. Less water, more frequently.

That being said, that schedule hasn't run yet, as it's been skipped because of rain. According to Dark Sky's time machine, we've had about 1.6 inches of rain in the last 2 weeks. It last ran on Sunday, but probably doesn't need to for a while, thanks to the rain. Maybe I'll disable it for a few days, to ensure no more water comes from irrigation for a while.

I put down Milo on Memorial Day, I forget the rate though. I need to take better logs.

After @MassHole mentioned fungus control I read the fungicide guide here and checked out the Lawn Care Nut videos on fungicide. So I think I'll invest in something and put it down and hopefully that will help.

If anyone has any more specific recommendations for fungicide applications that are in the same area/situation, I'm all ears.
Sounds good but be careful when doing research on brown patch. A lot of people will recommend propiconazole, myclobutanil or t-methyl. They are labeled for brown patch but do NOT work and may make the problem worse. Many choose these because they are cheap but fungicides and cheap don't go together. You either have to spend the money or don't bother. Here's an article and link on this topic to help

https://www.plantpath.k-state.edu/extension/documents/turf/Brown%20patch%20%20homeowners%202016.pdf

https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=9940&p=163036&hilit=brown+patch#p163036
I think the important thing to note about the K-State pdf you posted is that its says the homeowner grade formulations of those fungicides are not effective. I assume that to mean the stuff you get at Home Depot.

But the good liquid concentrate you buy will do the trick if you mix it up at the correct rates.

I used the curative rate of propiconazole last fall to solve a pretty nasty brown patch outbreak and it worked great.
 
#15 ·
Kenny_Login said:
@craigdt - yeah, I have to say, that jumped out at me too. I wondered what they considered 'homeowner formulations'.

I was all set to buy some fungicide, but now it left me a little confused.
Couple things, 1) if you say your lawn is predominantly kbg then that is not brown patch. The lesions in the pics with the wide blades look like tall fescue to me but if you say that's kbg then it's not brown patch. 2) propiconazole is proven to work well on dollar spot. If people have first hand experience with high rates of propiconazole on brown patch then I would give that a try. I used it several years ago before discovering azoxystrobin and propy didn't work for me. Let us know what you do and how it works.
 
#16 ·
@craigdt - it could well be tall fescue, that's what I had before, and scalped when I put down the Pennington seed. I'm starting to second-guess myself now on the seed. Maybe it was the Northeast Mix?

I also got a new blade for the mower today too. Looking at these pictures, I can see the blades aren't cut very cleanly.

I think I'll try the DiseaseX and see how that goes.
 
#17 ·
@Kenny_Login in the last month, how much nitrogen did you apply? And what source?

I don't think it could be brown patch since your original image shows no patch. I seen an even color response.

In your 3rd image from the top, I don't like the small black dots. Is it getting worst?
 
#18 ·
You aren't alone my friend! My lawn and every one of my neighbors is having this. I diagnosed mine as red thread. As you know we have had a CRAZY amount of rain here in Massachusetts. Because I have two lawns more or less. I treated one with Headway G and one with nothing 3 weeks ago. The treated lawn is doing very well the other not so much and it's completely the fungus. I just treated that area with Headway G. I made a video about diseases and there are plenty of others but I wanted to chime in since I am local to you and feel your pain! The fungicides take a little time to work 2-3 weeks but for me they have been good.
 
#20 ·
g-man said:
@Kenny_Login in the last month, how much nitrogen did you apply? And what source?

I don't think it could be brown patch since your original image shows no patch. I seen an even color response.

In your 3rd image from the top, I don't like the small black dots. Is it getting worst?
I see lesions on the wider bladed grass which I presume is tall fescue. The lesions don't look like dollar or leaf spot, although the only way to know for sure is to send it to a turf path lab. What other disease would cause lesions at this time of year to tall fescue? I have these same lesions in my own TF stand at this time of year but it doesn't show the classic patch look when viewed from a few feet away. I always assumed this was brown patch due to the scalloped shape of the lesions looking like classic brown patch. Thanks
 
#22 ·
craigdt said:
tgreen said:
Sounds good but be careful when doing research on brown patch. A lot of people will recommend propiconazole, myclobutanil or t-methyl. They are labeled for brown patch but do NOT work and may make the problem worse. Many choose these because they are cheap but fungicides and cheap don't go together. You either have to spend the money or don't bother. Here's an article and link on this topic to help

https://www.plantpath.k-state.edu/extension/documents/turf/Brown%20patch%20%20homeowners%202016.pdf

https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=9940&p=163036&hilit=brown+patch#p163036
I think the important thing to note about the K-State pdf you posted is that its says the homeowner grade formulations of those fungicides are not effective. I assume that to mean the stuff you get at Home Depot.

But the good liquid concentrate you buy will do the trick if you mix it up at the correct rates.

I used the curative rate of propiconazole last fall to solve a pretty nasty brown patch outbreak and it worked great.
+1
They key with both myclobutanil (Immunox) and propiconazole (Bayer) is not to use the hose end sprayers, which put out way too much water, with excessive dilution. With Immunox, I use a tank sprayer at 7oz per gallon/per 500 sq feet. I also try to spray when the leaf surface is dry. Note also that you have to work pretty fast to get the gallon to cover 1000sqf. People who use the hose end sprayers think they are getting more coverage, but it's mostly water. Neither myclobutanil nor propiconazole are good as a curative, in my experience, so you need to pre-treat. Neither is 100% effective if the disease pressure is moderate to to heavy. Then, I think Heritage G works much better. But, it's too expensive for me.
 
#24 ·
g-man said:
@Kenny_Login in the last month, how much nitrogen did you apply? And what source?

I don't think it could be brown patch since your original image shows no patch. I seen an even color response.

In your 3rd image from the top, I don't like the small black dots. Is it getting worst?
@g-man: I applied Milorganite on May 27th at 10lbs/1000sq feet. I'm not sure if it's getting worse, we have sun today, so it looks better. When it's overcast, it's easier to make it out.
 
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