[Pelican]

I've got a problem here at my home and at a client's as well. I lost some areas of my lawn last year and I attributed it to the dry spell we had. I reseeded this spring and got pretty good growth going, but then we got warm and humid weather going. The spots came back and are worse than before.

We had an unuaully high amount of rain through about mid-July this year, the within 2 weeks of that subsiding we got 100°+ temps for about 2 weeks. The photo below is what I am left with. Temps are back to the 70s and 80s now with occassional rain, but these spots seem to be getting worse.

The damage is to the blades of grass, the roots are intact so I'm ruling out grubs. The grass is brittle and when you run your hand across it, it turns to powder. If I scrape at the roots, I can raise them but they look dead too.

Any ideas on what is going on and how to treat it? Thanks!

[P-Train]

Looks like summer patch or brown patch:

http://www.ampacseed.com/disease1.htm

You can buy a fungal treatment in liquid form. I would go to a place like Lesco and see if they have a small quantity. I think a quart of the concentrate stuff is around $300 or something and if you don't treat lawns then that's a lot of money on YOUR lawn!

Or go to a box store like Home Cheapo and get it there. This time of year try to only water in the mornings as watering during the heat of the day can cause it to get worse. Do the treatments on the lighter side when you mix the chemical. It’s better to do it several times than to burn more of your lawn once.

[cutntrim]

I was guessing Chinch Bug damage. All the rain earlier in the summer may have masked the damage that they were causing, and only showed up big-time once it got drier.

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/...7-031.htm#fig4

[Nebraska]

Same scenario all around here with the weather and the resulting fungus. We've been aerating, overseeding, and educating on proper horticultural practices (water & mow height)

Personally I have the same issue in a portion of my back yard. I am letting nature take it's course and it seems to have begun repairing itself (new shoots from within the affected area) within a 2 week time frame; providing it has a chance to dry out. The same time frame as the others we have provided fungicide, aeration, &/or overseeding on.

[Pelican]

Thanks for thr replies. It's been raining here again for the past 3 days, I'll try to investigate this further once it stops.

[Mark Oomkes]

Try to get some closeups of the leaf blade.

Could be either a fungus or pest, sod webworm could do that as well. Have you noticed a lot of moths when mowing?

I have some in my lawn as well, starting to come back slowly, I'm blaming it on basically no fertilizer and\or watering during our drought in June. I still think I had some pests killing it off though. There's only some areas that look like this.

I've been trying out Nature Safe fertilizer. Supposedly it works through the soil and gets grass growing better\stronger\etc by activating the nutrients in the soil instead of just feeding the nutrients to the plant itself. We'll see how it goes. Completely organic as well, but a little on the dusty side.

[Dan]

It might sound silly but if you want to save some bling to starve off a fungus you can use dish soap but you really have to put it down heavy like 3" per foot mixed of course 1 soap to 3 water. Ive learned so much from my grandparents, the above I have seen work many times.

[Pelican]

It finally stopped raining! I went out side this morning and saw what looked like hairy cobwebs about 3 to 4 inches in diameter. The grass at the base of the cobweb is brown.

I also have some spots where the grass is matted down and looks dark green and slimy like clippings when they rot.

Any ideas?

[Hamons]

The grey cobwebs are mycelium - probably of Pythium and the greasy dying areas are another classic symptom.

Your rainy weather inspired a fungal orgy in your yard and the mycelium are the fruiting bodes of your fungus.

No tmuch you can do -- Hope for dryer weather dries out and do some overseeding. Spray a fungicide at short intervals during seeding since irrigation will promote more disease growth.

Start a rigurous preventaive program next season or you will have it again!

I like subdue maxx for pythium.