[DavidLawn]

Hello All!

Thanks in advance for giving this post attention. About 8 months ago I tilled and seeded my front and backyard with Tall Fescue. It grew in beautifully with the exception of some known areas of constant shade and improperly adjusted sprinklers that weren't tended to. Anyway, it has grown-in full and green, but recently I've noticed a change in the landscape.

I've noticed that in my backyard (mainly), there has been these developing areas of where the grass (tall fescue) is beginning to wilt, change it's shade of green and very very slowly die off. Those areas are too growing in size in abstract-like circles. I have applied Scott's Weed and Feed with no success and just recently I threw down some Scott's Fungus Treatment granules.

In one specific area, I dug up about 1/2" of top soil and re-layed seed with manure seed topper. The new grass in that area is extememly slow in it's new growth and I question whether it'll even be able to do so successfully.

I'm attaching several pics for what I'm citing above and hope that one of you experts has encountered this before. I will also add, that I have several wild hares(rabbits) that often roam my lawn late at night.

Thanks in advance!

David

 

[Pete1313]

Was there a tree by chance previously removed in that spot in the first pic? How close are those spots to to the other trees in your yard? Maybe competition for water/nutrients from roots of nearby trees or decaying roots from a previously removed tree. How has your weather been lately. How often have you been watering. I would also poke around that spot with a long screwdriver and see how hard the soil is there. See if the screwdriver does not go in easily. Lastly dig up a section of soil 6" deep in that spot so we can see what the profile looks like.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I would also poke around that spot with a long screwdriver and see how hard the soil is there.

or to see if something is buried like a rock or gravel.

 

[DavidLawn]

Thanks for the replies!

There have been no trees that were previously planted in any of the trouble areas.
Prior to seeding, I roto-tilled the heck out of the soil using a heavy duty Honda tiller (6"+ blades)
In most of the trouble areas the soil is pretty soft, as I was aerating the areas with ease.
Poking around the areas, there are a couple of spots that are hard to poke through suggesting rock and/or tree roots, but it's sparse and not consistent through-out.
Weather has been cool for the most part for SoCal (40 degrees nightly and 70 degrees on average daytime)
There has been tree/plant decay that was removed 8 months ago, but the decay (which showed signs of fungus) was over 25ft away. and there isn't a trail of issues leading from that area of decay to the trouble spots.

I'll dig-up 6" for a profile on the next trouble area I tend to.

Thanks again!

 

[Green]

How about animal urine, wild or pet?

 

[DavidLawn]

I have a small pet dog who urinates on the lawn occasionally and it often results in a small concentrated patch of dead grass that's easily identifiable as an animals doing, but this issue is too wide spread per each location to be a result of animal waste.

 

[social port]

The one time I did have a problem like you describe I found a sanitary sewer cover underneath.

Have you noticed any pooling of water in this area during a rainfall or during watering?

 

[DavidLawn]

None. Underneath the soil is just more soil. The tiller dug well into the soil 6+" and I didn't hit anything or uproot anything significant.

It's either a fungus in the soil OR is it another more resilient grass species taking over, since I'm noticing in some areas the sprouting of grass, but it's clearly a different species of grass with thicker blades than my tall fescue.

 

[g-man]

Could you take closer pictures? Try to capture the auricles, ligule and tip.

This is from Ohio State, but it actually good. https://buckeyeturf.osu.edu/pdf/01_turfgrass_identification.pdf

 

[chrismar]

My first thought, at least for images 2 and 3, is too much water. I have an area in my yard that looks similar, and that just so happens to be where the water collects, and stays, after it rains. It's very slow to drain and as a result the grass drowns and suffers.