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I suggest you get in touch with your local extension service and ask them for lawn growing advice. Maybe they have a local Master Gardener program as well.
Soil testing for ph is important. All plants have a ph range which promotes healthy growth.
I use very little fertilizer. An application with a crab grass preventer in the spring. I also apply a lite dose of fertilizer mid fall.
Too much fertilizer promotes growth when cool season grasses wish to go almost into a stage of dormancy. This can push a lawn and encourage disease.
I also mulch my lawn (Honda mower) when it is below 80 degrees on average. I use a quality tall fescue (Pennington) which is a solid performer in my area. I cut long at 3 - 3 /12 inches. This practice promotes deeper roots and a healthier plant (tall fescue).
I deep water early morning (every three days) so lawn is dry at night. A damp lawn on hot humid nights can promote disease.
Avoiding plant diseases has a lot to do with proper plant culture. You can learn a lot for the Fact Sheets which should be available from your local extension service. Also a lot on line, look for edu behind site name. Below are two examples. There are many more from other states.
I wonder if anyone has had this problem, and what can we do about it, if anything?
We have centipede grass, for the most part, and it’s only the centipede that is affected. It has been very dry and hot (100 degrees for several days) here in coastal GA. For the past few days, we’ve finally had some good soaking rain. Yesterday morning, we woke up to big random areas of brown patches. All the neighbors have the same thing to various degrees.
I wonder if anyone has had this problem, and what can we do about it, if anything?
We have centipede grass, for the most part, and it’s only the centipede that is affected. It has been very dry and hot (100 degrees for several days) here in coastal GA. For the past few days, we’ve finally had some good soaking rain. Yesterday morning, we woke up to big random areas of brown patches. All the neighbors have the same thing to various degrees.
It looks like a fungus to me but I don't know grass disease. Call the master gardeners, link below, they may only need the photo via email. Possible this happened to more people in the state.
Quote:
Originally Posted by harry chickpea
Find a local master gardener for verification.
Agree. It may be the only way to get a correct diagnosis.
It looks like a fungus to me but I don't know grass disease. Call the master gardeners, link below, they may only need the photo via email. Possible this happened to more people in the state.
Agree. It may be the only way to get a correct diagnosis.
Interesting article on the do's and don'ts in fertilizing centipede grass. Perhaps you fertilized too early and with a high nitrogen content. (Food for thought)
At this point it does not matter what it is.
You were given a good advice to test your soil pH. https://extension.uga.edu/publicatio...20Food%20Plots
You may need to lime. To me looks like your lawn is very thin- not enough grass even in unaffected areas
Here is your solution: instead of spending money on chemicals- spend your money on grass seeds every fall to thicken your lawn. Some grass blades will die, but if you have a thick lawn- the weeds can’t take hold.
Learn how to care for your grass
Pennington has good seeds , especially in premium category https://www.pennington.com/all-produ...entipede-grass
Right now it is getting very warm- try to do the best you can to seed the brown patches with grass seeds, even if it is annual seeds- you want the grass to cover your soil, protect it from weeds.
Just rake it and make sure seeds have a good contact with the soil, if rain is in the forecast - seed before rain. https://www.homedepot.com/p/StarPro-...Q&gclsrc=aw.ds
In the fall get a good fresh( check for a germination test date on the label on the bag with seeds) Don’t buy those moisture control encapsulated seeds- waste of money- you need seeds not to pay exorbitant per pound cash for cheap chemicals in the bag. One is lucky to have 50% of actual seeds in that bag, but you pay as it is 100% seeds. https://www.thelawninstitute.org/pag...eason-grasses/
Find the premium grass ( usually takes longer to establish) for fall.
Right now find the least expensive fast germinatingfreshgrass seeds to cover your soil, usually called contractors mix or landscape mix- junk annual seeds but germinate fast and cover soil fast
Unless of course you can afford good premium seeds from the start, annual grass will die- so next year you need to cover the soil again
.......... Yesterday morning, we woke up to big random areas of brown patches. All the neighbors have the same thing to various degrees.
If you and all the neighbours had the same thing showed up on all the lawns in the neighbourhood at the same time then logic dictates that it's not a disease and it's not from fertilizers. It's a fungus.
Or else vandals came overnight and sprayed the entire neighbourhood with something really, really nasty.
There's no way all the neighbours fertilized their lawns at exactly the same time and with the exact same kind of wrong fertilizer. So it's not fertilizer. And there's no way that all the neighbour's lawns can all have the same disease nor have it manifest all at the same time during one night. Funguses do that but diseases do not.
There can be only two explanations for it. It is either a fungal infection, which is the only thing that can manifest that fast overnight and effect all neighbours lawns at the exact same time - or else vandals attacked your neighbourhood that night and sprayed everybody's lawns with some kind of extremely virulent, fast acting toxic chemical.
Again logic dictates that of the two choices it must be a fungal infection because why would vandals go to the expense of wasting money on such a clearly expensive and hard to attain chemical (hard to attain because it's so toxic) and go to all the time and effort to covertly spray the lawns of everyone in the neighbourhood at night and risk being caught on security cameras or by witnesses or the police? That wouldn't make sense.
So gentlearts, I think it's probably a safe bet for you to go around the neighbourhood and tell all your neighbours that the problem with their brown patchy lawns is that "There is a fungus among us."
But you really should consult with a master gardener for confirmation, be sure to tell him all the facts in chronological order, including letting him know that your neighbours all got the same problem on the same night.
And don't tell the master gardener "thanks for playing" because, while you may think it's funny, it isn't. It is rude and insulting and it's something you have often said in other threads when people gave you answers that you didn't approve of. The garden forum is not some kind of game show.
If you and all the neighbours had the same thing showed up on all the lawns in the neighbourhood at the same time then logic dictates that it's not a disease and it's not from fertilizers. It's a fungus.
Or else vandals came overnight and sprayed the entire neighbourhood with something really, really nasty.
There's no way all the neighbours fertilized their lawns at exactly the same time and with the exact same kind of wrong fertilizer. So it's not fertilizer. And there's no way that all the neighbour's lawns can all have the same disease nor have it manifest all at the same time during one night. Funguses do that but diseases do not.
There can be only two explanations for it. It is either a fungal infection, which is the only thing that can manifest that fast overnight and effect all neighbours lawns at the exact same time - or else vandals attacked your neighbourhood that night and sprayed everybody's lawns with some kind of extremely virulent, fast acting toxic chemical.
Again logic dictates that of the two choices it must be a fungal infection because why would vandals go to the expense of wasting money on such a clearly expensive and hard to attain chemical (hard to attain because it's so toxic) and go to all the time and effort to covertly spray the lawns of everyone in the neighbourhood at night and risk being caught on security cameras or by witnesses or the police? That wouldn't make sense.
So gentlearts, I think it's probably a safe bet for you to go around the neighbourhood and tell all your neighbours that the problem with their brown patchy lawns is that "There is a fungus among us."
But you really should consult with a master gardener for confirmation, be sure to tell him all the facts in chronological order, including letting him know that your neighbours all got the same problem on the same night.
And don't tell the master gardener "thanks for playing" because, while you may think it's funny, it isn't. It is rude and insulting and it's something you have often said in other threads when people gave you answers that you didn't approve of. The garden forum is not some kind of game show.
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Great advice. I agree, if it happened to everyone then it's some sort of fungus. He's emailed the master gardeners, hopefully he'll come back to let us know what they say.
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