My otherwise good looking lawn has brown grass, almost looks like straw ,
mixed in with it not in any particular pattern. A few weeks ago, the entire
lawn was a deep dark green. Now some is green and some is this brown grass
or the edges are brown. Any ideas/explanations. Could it be the unusual
amount of rain we have gotten along the north east. Any observations
appreciated. Thanks

John

"john" wrote in message
news:gsPqg.64343$9c6.32010@dukeread11...
My otherwise good looking lawn has brown grass, almost looks like straw ,
mixed in with it not in any particular pattern. A few weeks ago, the
entire lawn was a deep dark green. Now some is green and some is this
brown grass or the edges are brown. Any ideas/explanations. Could it be
the unusual amount of rain we have gotten along the north east. Any
observations appreciated. Thanks

John

What kind of grass?

How much rain?

Your lawn may have some sort of fungus.

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
...

"john" wrote in message
news:gsPqg.64343$9c6.32010@dukeread11...
My otherwise good looking lawn has brown grass, almost looks like straw
,
mixed in with it not in any particular pattern. A few weeks ago, the
entire lawn was a deep dark green. Now some is green and some is this
brown grass or the edges are brown. Any ideas/explanations. Could it be
the unusual amount of rain we have gotten along the north east. Any
observations appreciated. Thanks

John

What kind of grass?

How much rain?

Your lawn may have some sort of fungus.

Chinch or fungus.

Mike Robinson wrote:
"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
...

"john" wrote in message
news:gsPqg.64343$9c6.32010@dukeread11...
My otherwise good looking lawn has brown grass, almost looks like straw
,
mixed in with it not in any particular pattern. A few weeks ago, the
entire lawn was a deep dark green. Now some is green and some is this
brown grass or the edges are brown. Any ideas/explanations. Could it be
the unusual amount of rain we have gotten along the north east. Any
observations appreciated. Thanks

John

What kind of grass?

How much rain?

Your lawn may have some sort of fungus.

Chinch or fungus.


From the description and without seeing it, impossible to say. In hot
weather, it's normal upon close inspection to see some brown/dead
blades in cool season grass evenly distributed throughout the turf.
The tips of the blades could be brown from mowing, more so if the blade
is not sharp. The overall turf still looks good though.

On the other hand, if you have scattered patches where the grass is all
or mostly brown, then it's either disease, fungus, or insects. Take a
sq ft sample of turf at the boundary area to a local agricultural ext
service, if there is one in your area.

"Kyle Boatright" wrote:
"john" wrote in message
news:gsPqg.64343$9c6.32010@dukeread11...
My otherwise good looking lawn has brown grass, almost looks like straw
, mixed in with it not in any particular pattern. A few weeks ago, the
entire lawn was a deep dark green. Now some is green and some is this
brown grass or the edges are brown. Any ideas/explanations. Could it be
the unusual amount of rain we have gotten along the north east. Any
observations appreciated. Thanks

John

What kind of grass?

How much rain?

Your lawn may have some sort of fungus.

Most lawns in N Ohio have at least a little red thread disease since the
dew point went up to 70. (to be expected) A feeding helps control it most
times but a fungicide will make it be gone fairly quick. (expensive)

Chinch bug and webworm are on the prowl now too, here in N Ohio.

ps. now is the time to prevent grubs.. in case anyone forgot

--
http://NewsReader.Com/

"Mike Robinson" wrote:
"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
...

"john" wrote in message
news:gsPqg.64343$9c6.32010@dukeread11...
My otherwise good looking lawn has brown grass, almost looks like
straw
,
mixed in with it not in any particular pattern. A few weeks ago, the
entire lawn was a deep dark green. Now some is green and some is this
brown grass or the edges are brown. Any ideas/explanations. Could it
be the unusual amount of rain we have gotten along the north east.
Any observations appreciated. Thanks

John

What kind of grass?

How much rain?

Your lawn may have some sort of fungus.

Chinch or fungus.

Or both and webworm. doomed lol

--
http://NewsReader.Com/

Steveo wrote:

Kyle Boatright wrote:
john wrote in message
news:gsPqg.64343$9c6.32010@dukeread11...
My otherwise good looking lawn has brown grass, almost looks like straw
, mixed in with it not in any particular pattern. A few weeks ago, the
entire lawn was a deep dark green. Now some is green and some is this
brown grass or the edges are brown. Any ideas/explanations. Could it be
the unusual amount of rain we have gotten along the north east. Any
observations appreciated. Thanks

John

What kind of grass?

How much rain?

Your lawn may have some sort of fungus.

Most lawns in N Ohio have at least a little red thread disease since the
dew point went up to 70. (to be expected) A feeding helps control it most
times but a fungicide will make it be gone fairly quick. (expensive)

http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/bakingsoda.html


Chinch bug and webworm are on the prowl now too, here in N Ohio.

ps. now is the time to prevent grubs.. in case anyone forgot

--
http://NewsReader.Com/

Jim Ledford wrote:
Steveo wrote:

Kyle Boatright wrote:
john wrote in message
news:gsPqg.64343$9c6.32010@dukeread11...
My otherwise good looking lawn has brown grass, almost looks like
straw , mixed in with it not in any particular pattern. A few weeks
ago, the entire lawn was a deep dark green. Now some is green and
some is this brown grass or the edges are brown. Any
ideas/explanations. Could it be the unusual amount of rain we have
gotten along the north east. Any observations appreciated. Thanks

John

What kind of grass?

How much rain?

Your lawn may have some sort of fungus.

Most lawns in N Ohio have at least a little red thread disease since
the dew point went up to 70. (to be expected) A feeding helps control
it most times but a fungicide will make it be gone fairly quick.
(expensive)

http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/bakingsoda.html

Oh yeah baking soda will cure the red thread disease, and your daddy's
gout.

--
http://NewsReader.Com/

"Steveo" wrote in message
...
Jim Ledford wrote:
Steveo wrote:

Kyle Boatright wrote:
john wrote in message
news:gsPqg.64343$9c6.32010@dukeread11...
My otherwise good looking lawn has brown grass, almost looks like
straw , mixed in with it not in any particular pattern. A few
weeks
ago, the entire lawn was a deep dark green. Now some is green and
some is this brown grass or the edges are brown. Any
ideas/explanations. Could it be the unusual amount of rain we have
gotten along the north east. Any observations appreciated. Thanks

John

What kind of grass?

How much rain?

Your lawn may have some sort of fungus.

Most lawns in N Ohio have at least a little red thread disease since
the dew point went up to 70. (to be expected) A feeding helps control
it most times but a fungicide will make it be gone fairly quick.
(expensive)

http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/bakingsoda.html

Oh yeah baking soda will cure the red thread disease, and your daddy's
gout.

--
http://NewsReader.Com/

Or leave it since it won't kill the grass.

"Mike Robinson" wrote:
"Steveo" wrote in message
...
Jim Ledford wrote:
Steveo wrote:

Kyle Boatright wrote:
john wrote in message
news:gsPqg.64343$9c6.32010@dukeread11...
My otherwise good looking lawn has brown grass, almost looks
like straw , mixed in with it not in any particular pattern. A
few
weeks
ago, the entire lawn was a deep dark green. Now some is green
and some is this brown grass or the edges are brown. Any
ideas/explanations. Could it be the unusual amount of rain we
have gotten along the north east. Any observations appreciated.
Thanks

John

What kind of grass?

How much rain?

Your lawn may have some sort of fungus.

Most lawns in N Ohio have at least a little red thread disease
since the dew point went up to 70. (to be expected) A feeding helps
control it most times but a fungicide will make it be gone fairly
quick. (expensive)

http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/bakingsoda.html

Oh yeah baking soda will cure the red thread disease, and your daddy's
gout.

--


Or leave it since it won't kill the grass.

Nope, just makes it look sickly for the most part. I can prevent most of it
with Bayleton. (expensive)

--
http://NewsReader.Com/

Nope, just makes it look sickly for the most part. I can prevent most of
it
with Bayleton. (expensive)

--
http://NewsReader.Com/
Yea its one of those annoying, expensive, but not deadly things.
We have been seeing a lot of red thread and chinch in southern ontario right
now.

Martin wrote in message ...
I have a similar problem. In addition to the straw appearance, my lawn
seemed to have stopped growing. I also noticed numerous spots where
animals had apparently "core aerated" the lawn, probably in search of
grubs.

For reference, I'm in Southern New Jersey and have an irrigation
system.

Based on not wanting to repeat last year (described below), I applied
the following:

- Spectracide Grub Stop at the recommended rate.
- Bayer Fungus Control. I kind of miscalculated, and put down about 5
lbs. per 1000 ft**2 instead of 3.

The lawn seems to be growing again.

I have a problem like this every year. Last year, I had a lawn service
fertilize. During early spring, the lawn looked great - check the
photo from May, 2005. However, it had to be cut three time a week. By
late July it was awful. My theory was that the service applied too
much nitrogen, causing all top growth and no roots.

Martin. Without wanting to sound offensive, why do so many Americans
seemingly hire people to care for their lawns? It just seems bizarre to me.
I may understand if people had really big properties and needed gardeners
but this doesn't seem to be the case. Can you shed some light on it for me
please.

rob

I have a similar problem. In addition to the straw appearance, my lawn
seemed to have stopped growing. I also noticed numerous spots where
animals had apparently "core aerated" the lawn, probably in search of
grubs.

For reference, I'm in Southern New Jersey and have an irrigation
system.

Based on not wanting to repeat last year (described below), I applied
the following:

- Spectracide Grub Stop at the recommended rate.
- Bayer Fungus Control. I kind of miscalculated, and put down about 5
lbs. per 1000 ft**2 instead of 3.

The lawn seems to be growing again.

I have a problem like this every year. Last year, I had a lawn service
fertilize. During early spring, the lawn looked great - check the
photo from May, 2005. However, it had to be cut three time a week. By
late July it was awful. My theory was that the service applied too
much nitrogen, causing all top growth and no roots.

I had the lawn core aerated last fall, and overseeded at that time,
and in early spring. In shady areas, I used Poa supina grass. I
applied starter fertilizer in May.

The lawn looked pretty good until a couple of weeks ago - the June
2006 photo. As I said, it seems to have bounced back a little.

Any suggestions about what could be going on? The bad spots don't seem
to correlate with sun/shade or any other obvious factor. One thing I
noticed is that in a spot where two trees were removed last year, the
grass is growing well and is very green. (I had the soil tested a
couple of years ago, and it was OK, but this makes me wonder.) I don't
know whether to fertilize or not to.

Martin

On Wed, 5 Jul 2006 22:01:54 -0400, "Kyle Boatright"
wrote:


"john" wrote in message
news:gsPqg.64343$9c6.32010@dukeread11...
My otherwise good looking lawn has brown grass, almost looks like straw ,
mixed in with it not in any particular pattern. A few weeks ago, the
entire lawn was a deep dark green. Now some is green and some is this
brown grass or the edges are brown. Any ideas/explanations. Could it be
the unusual amount of rain we have gotten along the north east. Any
observations appreciated. Thanks

John

What kind of grass?

How much rain?

Your lawn may have some sort of fungus.

You can fert again with a summer fertalizer, also check for chinch bugs. An
easy way is to take a can, cut both ends off, and fill it with water on the
grass until it stays full, come back in an hour and look for tiny bugs
floating on the surface, if they are there then apply an pesticide to
eliminate them.

Mike Robinson wrote:
You can fert again with a summer fertalizer, also check for chinch bugs. An
easy way is to take a can, cut both ends off, and fill it with water on the
grass until it stays full, come back in an hour and look for tiny bugs
floating on the surface, if they are there then apply an pesticide to
eliminate them.


Hmmm, unless you have some kind of miracle can, in far less time than
an hour, the can will be empty.