Reading through your post and what you have done is not exactly the tips/advice/ or the lawn care guides info.

Those sprinklers are awful at evenly applying water. Your pictures look like tou have a few issues.

Shade areas
Grass looks to long
Some fungus issues

Answer a few questions

1.A how many inches will your sprinkler put down in 15 min
1.B. Soil test
2. When was the last time new seed was put down ,

3. How big have the trees and shrubs around the property grown over the years

4. IIRC you posted pictured else where on the forum that looked like grass was trying to grow over a walkway. What other areas might have “hidden” stuff under side

( note my friend was struggling with his lawn in house he inherited, he completely forgot about the pool. They got rid of the pool when he was a young boy. They just caved in the sides and filled with rocks and sand ) it would dry up every summer)

So your first step is to figure out exactly how much water your putting down

At the moment your tossing all sorts of stuff around in hopes something lands in the right spot.

Maybe Im wrong but I would do this

Do not water any more until you get these.

Amazon.com : 10 Pack 1.5" Rain/Sprinkler Gauge, Wide Mouth, Bright Yellow, Outdoor Water Measuring Tool : Patio, Lawn & Garden

Amazon.com : 10 Pack 1.5" Rain/Sprinkler Gauge, Wide Mouth, Bright Yellow, Outdoor Water Measuring Tool : Patio, Lawn & Garden

www.amazon.com

Get a rain gauge also

Then set your mower to 2” -3” or so and mow that lawn , rake up all the left overs.

Then figure out the shaded areas.
Shaded areas just dont do well .
you need to find grass types that have a better chance of growing in the shade.

Apply fertilizer Sta green 13-13-13 is plenty good enough , then water it in

 

Answers to your questions:

- I have purchased those very yellow water gauges. I when I started out at 45 minutes in each zone once a day, they barely came up to the first bottom mark. I had to increase the watering to 90 minutes every day to get to a 1 inch accumulation by the end of the week. Does that sound correct to you? I can't possibly be right. From this I'm am fairly certain that the oscillating sprinkler I'm using is not an even spray and is likely missing hitting exactly in the yellow cups which is why I had to sprinkler so much longer to get a 1" accumulation for a full week. Several local irrigation companies have told me that 15-20 minutes a day every two days may still be too much water but should be in the correct area. I could post the pictures of the yellow cups and their accumulations, but the point is I've done it. So maybe these aren't great sprinklers but they do cover the most area which is why I've stayed with them. These are also the types mom used for the first 60 years at the house and at about 45 minutes every day of the summer. By most irrigation company recommendations, that's way too much which is how I ended up at 20 minutes in every zone every other day. Not scientific, but this seems to be the consensus on what's probably about correct.

- I have been replanting in those shaded areas with Scotts EZ Grass which does include the types of grass that grow in both sun and shaded areas. Shouldn't I be getting better results with that since it's a little bit of both types?

- Ferilitzer. As I said, I myself have used Miloroganite. My landscape company is using I don't know what. And I also don't control the height at which they cut. I supposed I could ask them to cut to a specific height, but I have no idea if they're actually doing it.

- And as I stated, the Arborist company that I had come take a look said they really didn't think I had any fungus type issues, certainly not serious ones. You think they are BSing me?

 

Do you live at this location where you can monitor things daily or are you trying to come up with something that will just work w/out having to monitor it?

 

I live at the property and monitor it daily but as I only work from home 2 days a week, I can only take physical actions on it 4 days a week including the weekends. I needed to gypsy rig an automatically systems which is why I layed out 4 sprinklers and hoses attached to a 4 zone timer.

 

I've posted here before. I've gotten advice. None of it is working.

To summarize:

• I live on Long Island
• Mom, Dad and Sister really took care of lawn up until this past summer
• Now I needed to take over
• We have a local lawn maintenance company that mows weekly, fertilizes in Spring and Fall, and cuts the bushes and hedges
• But they don't address or attempt to fix spot problems. If I ask them to do something specific, they'll do it, but they don't recommend specifics.
• We have manual oscillating sprinklers. This year I layed out four of them to cover all four zones of the front lawn and put them on a B-Hyve timer.

So they go off one at a time. Initially I was running them for 45 minutes in each spot every day of the season as this was consistent with what worked for Mom for the past 60 years. But this seems to have been too much and I've not cut it back to 20 minutes in every zone every other day.

• I started developing brown yellow spots all over the lawn.
• I tried watering less, watering more, mixing very tiny portions of Urea with large portions of water and throwing it on the brown/yellow areas
• But nothing gets those spots to return to green.
• I fertilized myself with Milorganite which is supposed to guarantee it won't burn the lawn. Well it burnt the lawn, bad. I followed the spreader and bag directions
• I've had a Arborist company come for a free evaluation.
• While they did not actually test the soil, they indicated they do not see any indications of a soil issue, grubs or disease.
• They didn't really think I needed aeration.
• They want to sign me up for their season package to pretty much just doing everything other than mowing. So that would leave me with two companies handling

my lawn, and no one really addressing the spot issues or explaining to me what's happening.
- I want to understand what is happening exactly so I can eliminate and manage it, not just throw money at it randomly.

What I ended up doing was digging up all the brown yellow spots in their entirety and germinating with Scotts EZ Seed.
It mostly worked. I got 90% of the lawn green again within 2-3 weeks. Just a few spots wouldn't grow. I suspect birds ate the seeds in those areas but am not sure.

• My regular lawn maintenance company fertilized.
• And about 3 weeks later I've got brown yellow spots all over the lawn again and it hasn't been particularly hot during that period, it's been in the 70's and very low 80's.

I have no idea what's going on or how to avoid it again. In particular, I want to know why nothing I do short of pulling up the brown/yellow grass spots in it's entirety
and replanting fixes the issue, tempoarily. Shouldn't Brown Yellow spots in most cases be able to be brought back under these conditions?

Here are the photos as it stands now. Again. The lawn was almost completely green again after the Scotts EZSeed came in a few weeks ago. And now this again.
20 minutes watering in each zone every other day. It's can't be or under or overwatering this time.

View attachment 57352
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Since your using ine sprinkler head you can do a poor man's down and dirty sprinkler audit.
You can stick the entire sprinkler head in a 5 gallon bucket and see how long it takes to fill that bucket. Adjust all the nozzles straight up so they spray to the side of the bucket. This will get you a rough idea of your GPM gallons per minute out put.

now set up your sprinkler , mark off and measure where the water reaches.
measure it and figure out how many square feet the sprinkler actually covers.

i have a similar sprinkler but lack the water pressure to get it to cover the 1500 ft2 it says it can.
More like 750 for me thats on the widest spread in both directions.

once you get your gpm you can do a rough calculation

1” a week over 1000 ft2 is 620 gallons

my out put for that type of sprinkler used by itself is 5 gallons per minute
So a rough calculation 1/2” 310 gallons total
@ 5 gpm = 62 min of sprinkler time

I water 2x a week 1/2” each time thursday and sunday

takes me a few hours dragging sprinklers around to cover 18,000 ft2

All that said . Slow down , simple stuff first , stop jumping around

Takes a little time and patience from this to this using the cool season guide and tips from many

 

I'm going to report the response about the water accumulations and sprinklers that I responded to in another post here:


- I have purchased those very yellow water gauges. I when I started out at 45 minutes in each zone once a day, they barely came up to the first bottom mark. I had to increase the watering to 90 minutes every day to get to a 1 inch accumulation by the end of the week. Does that sound correct to you? I can't possibly be right. From this I'm am fairly certain that the oscillating sprinkler I'm using is not an even spray and is likely missing hitting exactly in the yellow cups which is why I had to sprinkler so much longer to get a 1" accumulation for a full week. Several local irrigation companies have told me that 15-20 minutes a day every two days may still be too much water but should be in the correct area. I could post the pictures of the yellow cups and their accumulations, but the point is I've done it. So maybe these aren't great sprinklers but they do cover the most area which is why I've stayed with them. These are also the types mom used for the first 60 years at the house and at about 45 minutes every day of the summer. By most irrigation company recommendations, that's way too much which is how I ended up at 20 minutes in every zone every other day. Not scientific, but this seems to be the consensus on what's probably about correct.

I set the sprinklers up on the timer and layed out 4 different sprinklers in the interest of attempting a poor mans "irrigation system". While I live at the property, I only work from home 3 days a week. And the other house occupants can no longer drag the sprinklers around from place to place which is why I set up 4 sprinklers and 4 hoses ties to the timer so I could more or less get all the areas covered automatically without having to drag one around the entire lawn every day. If you look at one of the pictures I posted earlier in this thread, you'll see I gypsy rigged the oscillating sprinklers so they sit on a supports that are pushed into the ground. Initially they sat on the ground and killed the grass underneath them, so I rigged the supports so they can stay where they are. When the lawn mower contracters come, they pull them out and drop them aside, and when I come home I put them back where they are supposed to be.

 

One thing I notice from the pictures is it looks like you planted some fine fescue and that grass type is very weak, based on my experience here. It also sucks to mow it. Don't rule out insect problem. Checked for compaction problem (screwdriver test)?

I don't water my lawn much but my understanding is you want to water deep and infrequent.

You could send some soil samples for analysis to gain some knowledge about any deficiencies or to gain more information about what could have going on. You will learn about the type of soil you have, organic matter, PH, etc.

 

And just a note those type of sprinklers at least the ones I have dump a lot more water at the end of the swing and change directions. Mine will dump an inch easy less than a half inch closer to the base. I don’t really use mine for anything other than a real narrow section around my house because I can adjust the swing just right to fit the area

 

Since your using ine sprinkler head you can do a poor man's down and dirty sprinkler audit.
You can stick the entire sprinkler head in a 5 gallon bucket and see how long it takes to fill that bucket. Adjust all the nozzles straight up so they spray to the side of the bucket. This will get you a rough idea of your GPM gallons per minute out put.

now set up your sprinkler , mark off and measure where the water reaches.
measure it and figure out how many square feet the sprinkler actually covers.

i have a similar sprinkler but lack the water pressure to get it to cover the 1500 ft2 it says it can.
More like 750 for me thats on the widest spread in both directions.

once you get your gpm you can do a rough calculation

1” a week over 1000 ft2 is 620 gallons

my out put for that type of sprinkler used by itself is 5 gallons per minute
So a rough calculation 1/2” 310 gallons total
@ 5 gpm = 62 min of sprinkler time

I water 2x a week 1/2” each time thursday and sunday

takes me a few hours dragging sprinklers around to cover 18,000 ft2

All that said . Slow down , simple stuff first , stop jumping around

View attachment 57361
View attachment 57360


Takes a little time and patience from this to this using the cool season guide and tips from many
View attachment 57363

Those oscilating sprinklers are not that great for even watering for sure.
You should randomly place 6 of the cups on each side of the swing and get a average.
Measure the area the sprinklers actually cover.

What is it exactly that you think is happening? Those brown yellow areas ARE NOT GETTING ENOUGH WATER? The same result happened when I ran them 90 minutes in each zone every day. You think they still were not getting enough water with that watering pattern?

 

If your sure these areas are dry and not getting enough water you may need to shift the sprinkler around to get more even coverage.

If its the same area all the time look to see whats under it.

I still think its a good time to just start over

I would simple mow a bit lower than normal
Rake up all the dead grass and debris . Mow again to get what you missed or stands up after mowing and raking.

Feed your lawn
Inspect for bugs and probe the areas for problems below the soil

here is area thats missed by my drag and spray irrigation system. I did not have time most of the summer to hand water this area.
week ago sunday I put down 1” water , 10x10 area 62 gallons or so Yesterday (Fri - Sun) we gor 2” rain
Its recovering well already

 

Everything you've said about this lawn company has been questionable or negative. But it's usually nature of the beast. Ask them to mow certain height, I'd say 3" during growing season, talk to you before fertilizing with the rate and you should know the bag NPK and sq footage of it. Maybe post a sign in a plastic sheet that reminds them of this with your phone number. They are probably introducing new weeds into your yard from the bad yards. And during July, Aug they shouldn't be mowing every week.

Honestly your progress looks great so far. Only thing is I'd get new sprinklers like gear driven and maybe a lawn tractor that uses the hose as it's track. I'd rake up the dry areas, add compost and new seed. But honestly your progress is on track.

 

Everything you've said about this lawn company has been questionable or negative. But it's usually nature of the beast. Ask them to mow certain height, I'd say 3" during growing season, talk to you before fertilizing with the rate and you should know the bag NPK and sq footage of it. Maybe post a sign in a plastic sheet that reminds them of this with your phone number. They are probably introducing new weeds into your yard from the bad yards. And during July, Aug they shouldn't be mowing every week.

Honestly your progress looks great so far. Only thing is I'd get new sprinklers like gear driven and maybe a lawn tractor that uses the hose as it's track. I'd rake up the dry areas, add compost and new seed. But honestly your progress is on track.

I've researched other lawn maintenance companies in my area, both local and national franchise. This gist is that none of them really want to deal with your specific issues.
They want to drive up and do the same thing they do at everyone elses house and get the heck out of there...in and out in under 10 minutes. If I thought I could find someone that would really deal with my spot problems, I'd probably look closer at them. Plus the ones I'm using are the only ones who will trim my hedges which is a big job. So I'm probably with them for the long haul.

It never occurred to me that this company could be bringing in weeds or virus's from other people's lawns. What do you do about that?

We've tried the lawn tractor and hose bit. The front lawn is on a incline and it won't work.

I'd LOVE to find better sprinkers than the oscillating ones I have now (I have to take them back and replace them at Home Depot every few weeks as they stop Oscillating), but I haven't found anything better. It seems ALL sprinklers break, stop their circular patterns and have to be fixed. I'd be willing to pay more for good ones, but I haven't found a single above ground sprinkler than reviews say's hold up over. They seem to all stop pivoting or circling during the course of the season, which is the same thing the Oscillating ones do.

I've been considering getting a power rack or rack/cultiator/thatcher, and even a lawn and leaf collector to make picking up the dead grass easier.

 

I've posted here before. I've gotten advice. None of it is working.

To summarize:

• I live on Long Island
• Mom, Dad and Sister really took care of lawn up until this past summer
• Now I needed to take over
• We have a local lawn maintenance company that mows weekly, fertilizes in Spring and Fall, and cuts the bushes and hedges
• But they don't address or attempt to fix spot problems. If I ask them to do something specific, they'll do it, but they don't recommend specifics.
• We have manual oscillating sprinklers. This year I layed out four of them to cover all four zones of the front lawn and put them on a B-Hyve timer.

So they go off one at a time. Initially I was running them for 45 minutes in each spot every day of the season as this was consistent with what worked for Mom for the past 60 years. But this seems to have been too much and I've not cut it back to 20 minutes in every zone every other day.

• I started developing brown yellow spots all over the lawn.
• I tried watering less, watering more, mixing very tiny portions of Urea with large portions of water and throwing it on the brown/yellow areas
• But nothing gets those spots to return to green.
• I fertilized myself with Milorganite which is supposed to guarantee it won't burn the lawn. Well it burnt the lawn, bad. I followed the spreader and bag directions
• I've had a Arborist company come for a free evaluation.
• While they did not actually test the soil, they indicated they do not see any indications of a soil issue, grubs or disease.
• They didn't really think I needed aeration.
• They want to sign me up for their season package to pretty much just doing everything other than mowing. So that would leave me with two companies handling

my lawn, and no one really addressing the spot issues or explaining to me what's happening.
- I want to understand what is happening exactly so I can eliminate and manage it, not just throw money at it randomly.

What I ended up doing was digging up all the brown yellow spots in their entirety and germinating with Scotts EZ Seed.
It mostly worked. I got 90% of the lawn green again within 2-3 weeks. Just a few spots wouldn't grow. I suspect birds ate the seeds in those areas but am not sure.

• My regular lawn maintenance company fertilized.
• And about 3 weeks later I've got brown yellow spots all over the lawn again and it hasn't been particularly hot during that period, it's been in the 70's and very low 80's.

I have no idea what's going on or how to avoid it again. In particular, I want to know why nothing I do short of pulling up the brown/yellow grass spots in it's entirety
and replanting fixes the issue, tempoarily. Shouldn't Brown Yellow spots in most cases be able to be brought back under these conditions?

Here are the photos as it stands now. Again. The lawn was almost completely green again after the Scotts EZSeed came in a few weeks ago. And now this again.
20 minutes watering in each zone every other day. It's can't be or under or overwatering this time.

View attachment 57352
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View attachment 57348
View attachment 57346
View attachment 57351
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Looks like triv grass to me loves shade n water goes dormant in the summer

 

You got fune fescue in the first 3 pictures that is dead, that stuff doesn't like sun in my experience.

The rest of your grass probably got fungus, there are some blades on those pictures where you can see some. Post some close ups of the blades.

I would go to unitedseed or twincity and get some good grass seed.

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www.thegrassmaster.com

 

Hunter pgp-adj 3/4"rotor 2 pack less than $20. Orbit 58197n zinc step spike base 2 pack about $25. 2 pack of brass male on both sides 1/2" reducer to 3/4" about $7 to connect the 3/4" Hunter head to the 1/2" spike base. Teflon tape. Make sure the reducer has a hex on it so you can get a wrench on it.

 

Hunter pgp-adj 3/4"rotor 2 pack less than $20. Orbit 58197n zinc step spike base 2 pack about $25. 2 pack of brass male on both sides 1/2" reducer to 3/4" about $7 to connect the 3/4" Hunter head to the 1/2" spike base. Teflon tape. Make sure the reducer has a hex on it so you can get a wrench on it.

Thank you very much. The reducer regulates the pressure, correct?

 

I built a similar system using these. Not quite as far a throw, 25- 30', but less work.

Amazon.com

 

I looked at these but if you read the reviews, it seems that almost everyone initially likes them, but agrees that inevitably they are going to stop rotating and start leaking.

You’d think some company could create one that lasts even if you have to pay a premium for it.

 

Is the reducer this?

 

Is the reducer this? View attachment 57402

Yes. 3/4" side screws into the bottom of the hunter head. Then you take the hunter head and screw it into the spike 1/2" spike. Teflon tape both male ends of brass reducer before you screw them together.

 

Good for you and thanks again for your help. BTW do you have particularly strong water pressure at your home to be able to get 40-50 feet sprays?

 

I live on Long Island like you what we pay for water the pressure better be good 😂

 

Ha! Mine isn’t terrible or bad but I wouldn’t say it’s particularly powerful either. But I don’t really go around comparing either so I don’t really know how to gauge mine. I know to date the Oscillating sprinklers were the only way for me to get 45 foot coverage, even if it is uneven.

 

3/4 in. Plastic Water Pressure Test Gauge

 

A few questions. 1) do you know the grass type of your lawn, eg, tall fescue, perennial rye, etc. 2) you said scott's EZ seed but what is that seed? There should be a label on the product. 3) Are the areas that are dying the same areas that you recently seeded?

I don't think that's poa triv. I do think it could be a fine fescue (someone else mentioned this I think). I also think it could be pythium.

 

I don’t really know what my lawn grass type is.

Scott’s EZ Seed is Tall Fescue.

i wouldn’t say that only the reseeded Scotts EZ Seed is what turned brown and yellow again, but some if it did, some of it didn’t.

 

Good for you and thanks again for your help. BTW do you have particularly strong water pressure at your home to be able to get 40-50 feet sprays?

I live on Long Island like you what we pay for water the pressure better be good 😆 😂

Ha! Mine isn’t terrible or bad but I wouldn’t say it’s particularly powerful either. But I don’t really go around comparing either so I don’t really know how to gauge mine. I know to date the Oscillating sprinklers were the only way for me to get 45 foot coverage, even if it is uneven.

They do cover a lot of area the problem with oscillating sprinklers is they lay no water. You need to run them for hours to get a half inch of water

 

OK. I can't say with 100% certainty what's going on but here are a couple things to consider. 1) some of that looks like a fine fescue (this includes things like creeping red fescue, chewings fescue, hard fescue, etc.). You often find these in a shade mix. It doesn't hold up well to the heat. 2) I would focus on the tall fescue you are seeding. If you are seeding that now you should be fine. If that is dying then please post pics of those specific areas with the new seed.

 

You are right when you say it’s hard to find somebody that will come in and tackle particular issues.
From what you describe, you’re stuck between a lawn cutting service that will throw down basic fertilizer when it thinks you need it. Lawn service that will put down what they think you need when they want to.

It is very tough to find people to do what you want and when you do generally expensive.

For example, around my area, it is very hard to find somebody that just mows grass.

Irrigation can be a pain in the butt.
I run an assortment of heads on the spikes.
I have rain heads of several types from rotary fix spray, soaking spray adjustable.
I find all the heads on Clarence towards the end of the year right around the buck
Eileen towards the rain because they have both half-inch and three-quarter inch fittings.

Amazon.com

 

If you want to go cheaper, you can use PVC pipe with a PVC threaded T to mount the head. There are multiple threads here with that setup.

 

I went totally ghetto with a couple of mine. They're strapped onto wooden stakes with velcro cord wraps. 😂 I used a 3/4" swing elbow to a 3/4" nipple to a garden hose thread adapter on those 2. It works for the end of the line.

There's a lot of options when it comes to building your own!

 

Just a few Ideas

 

I have had some of these all metal ones for acfew years jow. Might be Gilmour brand or ACE hardware branded? i forget
They get dragged around 2x a week and run for 10 hours a week , they live in the bushes until I need them.
Theyvshould last a very lont time.
My last 2 had the round bases and I got ten yearw out if those.
Av

 

I had no luck with them sadly I would get a season maybe two

 

This may be anectodal but my picture above is showing my back yard being watered by the quick snap sprinklers.

This is how my side yard looks. (it's just across the driveway from the other picture) It was being watered with oscillating sprinklers.

Now mind you, there were some other factors at play. A harsh herbicide (but that was also applied to the other back yard area) and a very annoying mole that undermined everything along the fence.

But what I think caused most of the damage was drought stress. The fence at the left gives it a little shade so along the fence it's green. Towards the back I had a different oscillating sprinkler and it had better coverage.

I had the sprinklers set up on the driveway.

Towards the front the edge of the driveway was getting missed and along the fence the "tallest" part of the "rainbow" got to the fence but since it's arched it didn't get everything.

Add that to dry conditions and the idiot mole digging everything up and I have a mess to deal with.

As you can see I've switched to different sprinklers. They're a temporary solution with some random rain bird and orbit sprinklers I had laying around but the coverage is much better.

I still need to fix them because the fenceline is covered now but there are a couple of missed "triangles" along the driveway.

 

Thank you. This helps.
Let me ask you a novice question:
Is it always necessary to reseed after raking away the brown yellow grass?
Is there a way to know if it’s just the dead grass at the surface that is unsalvigable but once removed the existing grass roots will regrow?

I can’t believe every time a spot turns brown yellow you have to completely pull out everything and reseed. Is this just the way it is?

 

Brvideo,

Let me say that everything begins and ends with the soil. I have a business in Colorado Springs. I have a biological program. Let me know if you want to know more. I can help you.

 

I lived on Long Island (North Shore / Miller Place - not sure where you are but it looks INLAND) for 16 years until recently. The soil was loomy and sandy 6 houses from the bluffs 145 feet above the Long Island Sound. Previously in clay soil for decades in Bucks County PA. In NY/LI I had a 5 zone irrigation on an acre (44k sq ft) that was about 15k sq feet of lawn. Both homes I was almost 100% hybrid perennial ryegrass. (Tri-Rye) no thatch, shade/sun and it was wonderful for traffic and full mulch cutting.

After all the pages here and all the pictures......you seem almost violently obsessed with watering, over and under, and constant??? You should not be scheduling watering, it shoudl be a REACTION to a out of season or time of year drought or because of a LACK of precipitation. If your type of grass may need that water but it appears your soil and your constant watering do not like it and disease and rot and death are the sign!!!!

Get a few tuna can's and mark an inch on them, put them around your yard. Get a rain gauge or find a weather station or something and monitor it. figure out how much water your type of grass needs a WEEK in a specific season...... IF you ***don't get it * Water ONCE per week. Water for a full let's say INCH - then you are done. This will build roots and not promote disease, mildew, insects. Grass has been growing for billions of years and millions of years on Long Island.......weekly, monthly, yearly X amount of rain. Watering is an EXCEPTION not the rule......unless you are trying to create or maintain and ""ARTIFICIAL" environment or unatrual setting. With lawns that means seeds, water, sun, fertilizers, chemicals, and MONEY.

I would ditch the fescue eventually or methodically.

ATTACK that death and thatchy mess and drive a core aerator around for an hour or two on your tractor !!!

SUPER SEED NOW in the fall!!!

I put this together in Buck County and then used it in Long Island/Miller Place/NY. SIMPLE, conservative, effective.

Okay, that's all I got.

btw a normal shot of my house in Long Island - since we had city water and they charged for SEWER based on consumption/metered fresh it was fairly expensive to water the lawn as well!!! 2020

Good luck!! (PS sadly I am in Venice FL these days with this huge weed they call a grass - St. Augustine and its really the same story down here - seed, feed, weed, water. A question of BALANCE.

~ Thomas ~

 

I lived on Long Island (North Shore / Miller Place - not sure where you are but it looks INLAND) for 16 years until recently. The soil was loomy and sandy 6 houses from the bluffs 145 feet above the Long Island Sound. Previously in clay soil for decades in Bucks County PA. In NY/LI I had a 5 zone irrigation on an acre (44k sq ft) that was about 15k sq feet of lawn. Both homes I was almost 100% hybrid perennial ryegrass. (Tri-Rye) no thatch, shade/sun and it was wonderful for traffic and full mulch cutting.

After all the pages here and all the pictures......you seem almost violently obsessed with watering, over and under, and constant??? You should not be scheduling watering, it shoudl be a REACTION to a out of season or time of year drought or because of a LACK of precipitation. If your type of grass may need that water but it appears your soil and your constant watering do not like it and disease and rot and death are the sign!!!!

Get a few tuna can's and mark an inch on them, put them around your yard. Get a rain gauge or find a weather station or something and monitor it. figure out how much water your type of grass needs a WEEK in a specific season...... IF you ***don't get it * Water ONCE per week. Water for a full let's say INCH - then you are done. This will build roots and not promote disease, mildew, insects. Grass has been growing for billions of years and millions of years on Long Island.......weekly, monthly, yearly X amount of rain. Watering is an EXCEPTION not the rule......unless you are trying to create or maintain and ""ARTIFICIAL" environment or unatrual setting. With lawns that means seeds, water, sun, fertilizers, chemicals, and MONEY.

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I would ditch the fescue eventually or methodically.

ATTACK that death and thatchy mess and drive a core aerator around for an hour or two on your tractor !!!

SUPER SEED NOW in the fall!!!

I put this together in Buck County and then used it in Long Island/Miller Place/NY. SIMPLE, conservative, effective.
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Okay, that's all I got.

btw a normal shot of my house in Long Island - since we had city water and they charged for SEWER based on consumption/metered fresh it was fairly expensive to water the lawn as well!!! 2020

Good luck!! (PS sadly I am in Venice FL these days with this huge weed they call a grass - St. Augustine and its really the same story down here - seed, feed, weed, water. A question of BALANCE.

~ Thomas ~

Thank you for your very detailed response. I genuinely appreciate the effort and detail.

Here’s the thing.

We’ve lived in this house for 65 years. We are in the Selden, Lake Grove, Coram area.

Mom tended the lawn for 50 of those years. She used the same type of Oscillating Sprinkler's I’m using. She watered 45 minutes in each zone every day Spring through Fall. This brown yellow dead grass never happened with that routine. Certainly nothing like I’m experiencing.

Moms gone. Sister took over. Same routine. Mostly same good results. A few occasional dead spots.

Sister can’t physically do the watering anymore so I set up the timers to automatically replicate the same routine they’ve been following for half a century and more in this same house with the same lawn with the same grass.

What’s changed now that I’ve taken over?

I did do the yellow measuring cups. 45 minutes every day didn’t get me 1 inch by the end of the week. Not even close. I had to do 90 minutes in each zone every day in each spot to get 1 inch by end of week. That just made it worse which is why I arbitrarily backed down to 20 minutes in each spot every other day. Best guess is the oscillating sprinklers aren’t evenly dispensing the water and hitting exactly into those tiny yellow cups so I’m not getting accurate tally’s with those.

Why did mom and sisters identical routine for 65 years work for them and what changed that it’s not working for me?