[flats642]

The slight brown spot you can see on the bottom left of the picture has me stumped. It appears to be a bit dry, but if I water it heavily, only a slight improvement can be seen. I've tried some fertilizer and water with not much difference.
I've never had a problem at this spot in the yard before, so it makes me think it's not the soil.

I just started mowing it with a reel mower a few weeks ago. Could it be related to that?

I am about to put down my first application of PGR. Should I wait to figure this brown spot out first?

Any ideas or advice would be much appreciated.

 

[Spammage]

@flats642 have you checked the area for subsurface debris? Longer grasses tend to deal with this better, so cutting short may be allowing something under the soil to get hotter and deplete the moisture quicker. A screwdriver is a good tool for this.

If you don't find debris, then the soil may be hydrophobic. After irrigation, use your trusty screwdriver again. You should be able to easily push it into the soil to the handle. If not, then s surfactant may be needed.

Also, are you sure you raised the height of cut beyond where you scalped the lawn? After scalping, the remaining brown stems will have to be covered over by new green growth, but this can't happen if you try to maintain at or near the scalped height.

 

[flats642]

Thanks! I will be checking it out with a screw driver. I don't think it caused by scalping.

 

[flats642]

@flats642 have you checked the area for subsurface debris? Longer grasses tend to deal with this better, so cutting short may be allowing something under the soil to get hotter and deplete the moisture quicker. A screwdriver is a good tool for this.

If you don't find debris, then the soil may be hydrophobic. After irrigation, use your trusty screwdriver again. You should be able to easily push it into the soil to the handle. If not, then s surfactant may be needed.

Also, are you sure you raised the height of cut beyond where you scalped the lawn? After scalping, the remaining brown stems will have to be covered over by new green growth, but this can't happen if you try to maintain at or near the scalped height.

You were right on with the screw driver. Second stab hit a brick. I only found one brick but in general the brown spot is about much denser soil. I really don't want to dig up the yard at this point. Thinking of trying some pelletized gypsum. Any luck with that or anything else I could treat it with?

Thanks again

 

[Spammage]

@flats642 I would hit it with a little shampoo through a hose end sprayer - maybe 2 oz baby shampoo if you are only doing the brown area, otherwise 4oz per 1000sf. Then put a soaker hose on the area to slowly saturate it. If it is just hydrophobic, that should work for you. Check your sprinkler heads to make sure the area is getting proper coverage too.

 

[Iriasj2009]

+1 on what spammage said.
I had the same issue and I used a pitchfork to open up the soil and then sprayed the area with shampoo and drenched it with water a couple times. Greened up like never before.

 

[flats642]

I can't wait to tell my wife I'll be shampooing the lawn with a pitchfork in hand. :shock: Thank you both for the great ideas.