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From Crown Lawn to Brown Lawn

6K views 27 replies 5 participants last post by  MarkAguglia 
#1 ·
:D Hi,
First post on this forum. I look forward to contributing! I just started getting serious into lawn care this year and recently into wanting a more organic lawn care schedule after following some great channels on YouTube. (Grass Daddy, saw the link on your shirt which brought me here!)

In spring, I was actually dominating.

I had used Scotts Crabgrass with Halts in early May (too late) and Scotts Turf Builder Weed and Feed (never again)in early June. By July 4 I had better researched how to care for my lawn and put down Milorganite. I irrigate 2x per week, mow tall, but summer and the humidity this season has my lawn brown and out! I live in Western NY and its been an incredible humid year. Looking for some summer advice on how to turn this brown back to green.

It doesn't look like a rust fungus to me but a tree out front on my property had a rust fungus I treated with a fungicide and another newly planted tree is now turning brown also.


Backyard shows the current state best:








Thank you for all and any help! :mrgreen:
 
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#2 ·
Welcome to the site. Looking at the images (the black dots on the right side), it looks like leaf spot https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/BP/BP-103-W.pdf but it could also be summer stress. The 04Jul Milo might have caused more stress. The milo has nitrogen that encourages growth when the lawn is trying to survive the heat. How your weather been?
 
#3 ·
Hi g-man,
Weather has been extremely humid for the past month or more. It was hot and dry in early June and since been extremely muggy. I got a nice dark green up from the Milo except in all of the brown spots which is making my lawn look patchier than ever. Is there a good granual fungicide I could put down? Or is that not the right next step? Thanks
 
#11 ·
MarkAguglia said:
How can I tell for sure if its a fungus and if so what kind? Would trying the Bayer hurt if it isn't fungus? I could take better photos today if needed too.
Sorry, I've been busy at work today. Use this tool to identify the type of fungus. http://turfdiseaseid.ncsu.edu/

BrettWayne said:
Just seen g-mans previous comment and he's got a good point . Not really sure if it is a fungus so the bayer probably wouldn't hurt anything but would be wasting your money and time if it isn't a fungus ..
So here is the deal with applying fungicides. They tend to kill everything, the good, the bad and the ugly. It is kinda like taking antibiotics. It could kill all of good bacteria in your guts and give you diarrhea. Using too frequent causes the body to build resistance to it. Therefore, I avoid the use of fungicides until I see no choice. This means, I confirm it is a fungus and/or it is getting worst before I apply. I try to encourage my good fungus on the lawn to fight off bad fungus, so I dont want to kill the good stuff with a fungicide. So it hurts, but it is more of a long term hurt. Virginiagal posted some really good info recently around this. Some of us use organics (cracked corn, milk, alfalfa etc) plus Serenade (a good bacteria) to further fight off the fungus.

MarkAguglia said:
Ok, found some blades of grass on the lawn thatI gotta believe is a fungus.
Use the tool above to compare images. The leaf on the left on both images has the signs of brown patch to me.
 
#14 ·
Hey Mark,

I was in a similar situation not too long ago with fungus, and I used information from g-man and Virginiagal to work through it. I ended up electing to not use a fungicide. I stopped watering for a bit. Then I noticed, in another thread, that g-man was trying to prevent fungus by mowing shorter. I followed suit. At this point the fungus isn't gone, but it is a heck of a lot better. FWIW.
 
#16 ·
Looks like I've got some morning reading to do. 😁 thanks social port!

My plan for today was to mow shorter, bag the clippings and see how it looks after that. My lawn is still mostly a nice dark green so id like to see if i can ride it out before having to use a fungicide.
 
#17 ·
I posted some info June 17. It's on page 4 now (I haven't figured out how to copy a link to a thread). I had an idea of combining biofungicides with synthetic (when necessary) and choosing a synthetic that's effective but less harmful to the mycorrhizae.

I had brown patch in June. Neither cracked corn in April or repeated Serenade since early May prevented or cured it. The affected areas were not extensive and some grass has grown back! That's pretty successful in my experience with brown patch. The grass is thinner now than in its prime in May. The brown patch was a stress. This July heat is a greater stress. I will be happy if some survives. I have never used synthetic fungicide and did not see anything I wanted to use in those lists I found. Some grass will survive, some will die, and I will overseed this fall.
 
#18 ·
Some other things to do:
Irrigate in the early morning (ideally before sun comes up), not in the afternoon or early evening. Try to keep the grass blades as dry as possible as long as possible.
When you lower the cut, do it gradually. The lower cut will allow it to dry out but you still want enough grass blade left to enable photosynthesis.
Air circulation helps. If there are overhanging branches, you might consider doing some trimming.
 
#19 ·
Yeah I had been watering late at night all spring and summer and recently read thats a big mistake. I've been doing it early mornings since. I'll try bag mowing today at 2.5" (typically do 3"). I'm going to ride it out instead of using any chemicals because I'm still raw and dont want to make any bigger mistakes since my lawn actually still looks pretty decent.
 
#20 ·
If you want to drop hoc now, be careful. I would mow at 3in and then wait 3 days and then mow at 2.5in bagging the clips. Don't go from unmowed (~3.5in) to 2.5in since it will stress the lawn. Baby steps. It is best to do these adjustments after mid August.

I recommend having the herbicide at hand and a daily walk around the yard. Look for signs of growth or spreading and/or mycelium. If it starts getting out of hand, then you will notice it early and have the stuff to react.
 
#24 ·
Virginiagal said:
I posted some info June 17. It's on page 4 now (I haven't figured out how to copy a link to a thread). I had an idea of combining biofungicides with synthetic (when necessary) and choosing a synthetic that's effective but less harmful to the mycorrhizae.

I had brown patch in June. Neither cracked corn in April or repeated Serenade since early May prevented or cured it. The affected areas were not extensive and some grass has grown back! That's pretty successful in my experience with brown patch. The grass is thinner now than in its prime in May. The brown patch was a stress. This July heat is a greater stress. I will be happy if some survives. I have never used synthetic fungicide and did not see anything I wanted to use in those lists I found. Some grass will survive, some will die, and I will overseed this fall.
Is this the post?

http://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=450
 
#26 ·
I have a very old mower (its going on 30) its highest setting is 3" and goes down in halves to 2.5", 2, so on.

g-man, there's quite a bit of brown in there but the grass that is nice and dark green hides it pretty well I guess. Most prone probably just see the green, I focus on the brown. Lol
 
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