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Complete lawn rookie needs helping identifying grass type

7K views 38 replies 8 participants last post by  adamlantelme 
#1 ·
Hey there,

My name's Adam Lantelme, I live in Denver and am just stepping into the lawn beautification game. And by that I mean I'm on a journey to getting a great looking lawn.

This may be long, but the most important question I have is what kind of grass do I have? I believe I have Kentucky Bluegrass but am not entirely sure.

For reference -- I'm going to include a YouTube link and some screenshots that will detail what I'm about to ask, but I'll also leave this in text format too.


====

I purchased my home (first home) in Dec 2016 which had sod freshly laid in November.

Last summer I didn't do much with it since the lawn looked great. I watered generously every day.

As you'll see in the video, this year it's starting to bite the dust. In March all the grass next to the sidewalk died. Even though it snows I don't get plows in my neighborhood so I doubt it's got anything to do with road salt.

In April and May I put turf builder down on it (even spilled some which you'll see in the video) took thatch out by hand as best I could several times, had it aerated, power raked, fertilized and I mow it every 10 days without taking much off the top. I've been following a lot of Lawn Care Nuts advice if anyone knows about him.

Since then I've watered the entire lawn for about 8 minutes (I have a full coverage inground sprinkler system) every single day since May 20.

I want to reseed the dead and dying areas and then get a protocol going to keep it nice.

So, if anyone can tell me what kind of grass I have, that'd be awesome. If you have other feedback about the lawn I'm open to hearing it, but I just need to attack my biggest problem today.

*** I said fungicide - I meant fungus.




 
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#3 ·
Tough to tell what type of grass. I am guessing its KBG and PRG mix. If that is the case, you could overseed it with PRG in the fall.

Or, have you fertilized? Put down some milo and give some good water. If it is KBG is should fill in.

I would also adjust your watering schedule. Watering everyday isn't the best unless it is brand new. You should switch to a good soak (1 inch total ideally, either from your sprinklers or mother nature. You can measure with a rain gauge or some tuna cans) once a week. This will cause your roots to grow deeper in search of water. Every day babies it and its much more likely to be less resilient.

You also might want to check the soil by the road/sidewalk. In Denver I am assuming you get some snow/road salt dumped there that has lead to the dying grass. Might be a good idea to figure out if there is an issue and amend before you try to plant anything there.
 
#5 ·
gm560 said:
Tough to tell what type of grass. I am guessing its KBG and PRG mix. If that is the case, you could overseed it with PRG in the fall.

Or, have you fertilized? Put down some milo and give some good water. If it is KBG is should fill in.

I would also adjust your watering schedule. Watering everyday isn't the best unless it is brand new. You should switch to a good soak (1 inch total ideally, either from your sprinklers or mother nature. You can measure with a rain gauge or some tuna cans) once a week. This will cause your roots to grow deeper in search of water. Every day babies it and its much more likely to be less resilient.

You also might want to check the soil by the road/sidewalk. In Denver I am assuming you get some snow/road salt dumped there that has lead to the dying grass. Might be a good idea to figure out if there is an issue and amend before you try to plant anything there.
Hey, thanks so much for the reply.

Yeah, I did fertilize, back in April. Not sure what kind was used and not sure that it matters.

I've heard about that kind of a watering schedule so I think I'll adjust over to that. It's been abnormally hot here (103 yesterday) so would that still be a good idea on once a week?

Regarding the grass against the sidewalk, I'm not sure that's the issue for me. We don't get salt/plows where I live, and last summer the grass was fine there. Plus, most people on my street don't have the issue.

Since it's a bit hard to tell if it's PRG or KBG, would do a mixture and seeding in the fall be a worthwhile pursuit?
 
#11 ·
adamlantelme said:
gm560 said:
Tough to tell what type of grass. I am guessing its KBG and PRG mix. If that is the case, you could overseed it with PRG in the fall.

Or, have you fertilized? Put down some milo and give some good water. If it is KBG is should fill in.

I would also adjust your watering schedule. Watering everyday isn't the best unless it is brand new. You should switch to a good soak (1 inch total ideally, either from your sprinklers or mother nature. You can measure with a rain gauge or some tuna cans) once a week. This will cause your roots to grow deeper in search of water. Every day babies it and its much more likely to be less resilient.

You also might want to check the soil by the road/sidewalk. In Denver I am assuming you get some snow/road salt dumped there that has lead to the dying grass. Might be a good idea to figure out if there is an issue and amend before you try to plant anything there.
Hey, thanks so much for the reply.

Yeah, I did fertilize, back in April. Not sure what kind was used and not sure that it matters.

I've heard about that kind of a watering schedule so I think I'll adjust over to that. It's been abnormally hot here (103 yesterday) so would that still be a good idea on once a week?

Regarding the grass against the sidewalk, I'm not sure that's the issue for me. We don't get salt/plows where I live, and last summer the grass was fine there. Plus, most people on my street don't have the issue.

Since it's a bit hard to tell if it's PRG or KBG, would do a mixture and seeding in the fall be a worthwhile pursuit?
I think you could cut that weekly 1 inch into biweekly half inch. If the lawn looks stressed you could give it another drink.

Yea I think overseeding in the fall would be worthwhile. The one thing I would say is do your best to figure out why you have dead spots before throwing more seed at it. If there is something like buried concrete as other members have mentioned or large rocks under the soil and you don't fix the underlying problem, whatever you plant there will probably die, too. The aforementioned screw driver test is a good idea.
 
#15 ·
I performed the screwdriver test and there doesn't seem to be anything significant under the dirt. I did run across stones quite frequently, but if I moved the screwdriver a teeny bit it passed right through.

What I'm noticing is these dead spots are expanding.

The grass next to the sidewalk sloughs right off and the dirt underneath is turning to dust.

The same is true of dead spots in the middle of the yard?

+++
EDIT I found the turfgrass disease ID threat from NC state. If the lawn is nomix which ones should I select?
 
#16 ·
For the NC State, use perennial ryegrass, Kentucky bluegrass, fine and tall fescue.

I watched your video and got dizzy. Between seconds 0:01 to 0:09, there are three different areas. On the top near the house, at the bottom a dark/black area and towards the edge of the sidewalk. Which one are you concern the most?

The first thing to check is your irrigation. You mentioned 8min cycles and that's seems short. Do the tuna/straight wall container test and check 1) how long to get 1/2in full and 2) even coverage (do multiple containers all get 1/2in?.

Which area is expanding? Could you post some images of the edge between green and expanding?

Are you watering in the am only?

Have you noticed an increase in bugs when you mow? Did you applied a grub control this year?

It seems that I have more questions than answers at this point.
 
#17 ·
g-man said:
For the NC State, use perennial ryegrass, Kentucky bluegrass, fine and tall fescue.

I watched your video and got dizzy. Between seconds 0:01 to 0:09, there are three different areas. On the top near the house, at the bottom a dark/black area and towards the edge of the sidewalk. Which one are you concern the most?

The first thing to check is your irrigation. You mentioned 8min cycles and that's seems short. Do the tuna/straight wall container test and check 1) how long to get 1/2in full and 2) even coverage (do multiple containers all get 1/2in?.

Which area is expanding? Could you post some images of the edge between green and expanding?

Are you watering in the am only?

Have you noticed an increase in bugs when you mow? Did you applied a grub control this year?

It seems that I have more questions than answers at this point.
Hey g-man,
Sorry about the bad video, I've made a new, less frenetic one.

I'll do the tuna test tomorrow and I'll set up 10-12 containers to check coverage. We've had quite a bit of rain over the past few days which is why I held off. And yes, I was only watering in the am.

Regarding grubs/bugs. I see very few bugs or traces of bugs in my yard at all.

 
#18 ·
I'm not an expert here, but that looks dry as all get-out. Watering deeper, and less frequent encourages the plant roots to drive into the soil deeper, so as to better tolerate drought stress. Pretty sure the 8 minutes every day was for getting your new sod roots to begin establishing, after a bit, that's supposed to get longer, and less frequent. There's several recomendations in this thread for 1" of water, applied weekly, and it sounds like you're on the right path to that with the tuna can test. (as an idea, In my yard, decent pressure city water with above ground gear drive sprinklers, it takes me about 2 hours in each location I move the sprinklers to put down an inch of water.)
With regards to seeding dead/thin spots, like the area along the side walk, make sure to break up that soil with a garden weasal or something before re-seeding it this fall. (do you use a snow blower? be sure to put up markers along the driveway and sidewalk over the winter to prevent the traffic of your blower over the frozen grass, that's real tough on your sidewalk edging)
 
#19 ·
So I see 3 possibilities. 1 )You have Poor irrigation qty or evenness. 2) you had grubs or 3) you had a fungus.
I used past tense in two of those since they are no longer active or at play.

I think you really need to ensure your irrigation/watering is correct first. The video shows too many dry areas and I see one head (1:47) that looks green around it but not 1ft in front. That's indicative of no head to head coverage. Nozzles are bad at spray water near them, but good at spraying at a distance. The head to head concept is that another nozzle sprays the area around the initial one. For example in your video, the nozzle at 1:47 should get water from the nozzle at the left corner. If you turn on the irrigation and dont see water landing on top of that nozzle, then that's a problem.

My current assumption is that the nitrogen you applied was at a high rate. That force the need for more water, but the water as not even/uniform so you see areas that are very green and full (the got water), but not everywhere. Lets focus on water/irrigation for now and make sure it is right before we work on other areas.
 
#24 ·
Alright, ran the test. I have 2 zones for my front yard and ran both for 45 minutes. I think in total I have 11 or 12 sprinkler heads between those 2 zones. Can't remember exactly.

First thing I noticed is the problem spot I dug my hands into (not the one against the sidewalk) in the previous video was being blocked by a reed grass installation and wasn't receiving adequate hydration (I've now removed it).

As I looked through the yard I saw some cans got around an inch, and some got closer to 1/3 or 1/2. As expected most of the cans filled on the lower end were in the dead zones and the ultra-rich green zones were quite full. Though this wasn't always the case.

The entire area against the sidewalk was soaked and each can had close to an inch in there. So I'm still not sure how that died.

I've created another video just showing the irrigation in the morning.

https://youtu.be/utndZwjlX54
 
#25 ·
So, 45min gave you areas at 1in and 1/3in. You were doing 8min cycles, which I think explains the dry areas.

Option 1) water for 2hr so the 1/3 areas get closer to 1in. This is a wasteful option since other areas will get 3in.

Option 2) address the uneven pattern. In zone 1 the 360 do not have head to head. They don't even come close to watering to the middle. Those nozzle look to be like the ones used for shrubs instead of lawn. You could get the part number and look online. Also look if they have an adjustment for distance.

Did you had this irrigation installed or it was done previous owner? Do you feel comfortable going to the next steps to fix it?
 
#26 ·
I agree. And these were installed by the previous owner. I'll check to see if I can adjust the distance.

I'm more than prepared to fix it. My plan now is to water for 45 min to an hour for the rest of the summer and hit the dry areas with a hose. And I'm definitely comfortable with changing those heads out. I can wait for fall/winter after I've winterized to take care of them since we have plenty of warm days after October.
 
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