Last week I talked to a beachgoer in Vermillion who had a brown lawn. We may have been starting into a drought.
With the rains we have had leads my conclusion into another direction. Question is whether your lawn is still brown or not?
Years ago when I would work on lawn fertilizer estimates I remember seeing spots all over the lawn that seemed organized and followed along certain paths. Initially we might say that being careful with a bag of fertilizer is only logical.
Too much fertilizer on my lawn will leave chemical burns. The best time of the year to apply fertilizers is when the likelihood of a good rain is possible. For me spring fertilizing is the best.
Apply granular fertilizers after having read the directions. If we have a spill remove the fertilizer excess as quickly as possible.
The brown chemical burns will appear if use too much. If we spill the size of our fist, we’ll be all right. Larger areas need an application of water to drench the area.
During a visit to my parents years ago, I saw a brown patch problem in a number of spots over their lawn.
I asked my dad, “What happened?” He replied, “Roundup!”
My dad spot-sprayed his yard with this herbicide and left all kinds of brown spots over his yard.
Non-selective herbicides applied to grass will kill the grass off in a few days.
Always use caution when using any form of chemicals on our lawns. If we have used a compound with a preemergent product as a part of the mix don’t reseed our lawn until the preemergent dissipates.
The preemergent prevents grass seed from germinating.
One of my clients years ago asked me to come by and look at her lawn. There were a few brown patches in her yard. I hadn’t met her new female beagle. She made herself known as we talked about what was causing brown patches in her yard.
We went to the spots and yes it was her dog.
Once I visited a client in his newly built home with a newly installed landscape. I saw some brown patches that ruined the entire look of the beautiful new yard.
He was working outside, and I asked, ”What happened?”
He said, “I don’t know.”
This new area had some brown patches. As I looked about an inch or more under the surface of the lawn, I saw construction debris and rocks. We cannot build a lawn on rocks and construction debris.
Armyworm or Spodoptera frugiperda is a moth that attacks our lawns and can leave them brown and distressed.
I wrote about this insect and how they can damage our lawns a few years ago. Be it known that they leave brown patches in their wake of damage.
These insects do not overwinter here in Ohio. They have not adapted to our cold winters. This means that when they come up here from the south they are just visiting. Imagine the storms that come up here from down south bring the rain and this insect.
This insect is a moth and a member of the Lepidoptera family.
Brown Patch or Rhizoctonia solari from where my original question comes, answers the question.
“Why do I have a brown patch in my yard?” Answer is “Brown Patch.” Sounds like an Abbott and Costello comedy routine, right?
First Brown Patch has a circular pattern of brown grass on the turf. This dead area on the lawn actually looks sunken.
The center of the area may look a little less affected. Normally we can look at the discoloration of the blade of grass when inspected.
Infected blades will have a dark brown edge and as we look toward the middle of the blade and down the blade, we will see irregular grayish colored leaf spots.
On close inspection if we are looking at recently completely dried blades of grass, you can still see variations in color. For this disease to do well we will need 85-degree F days and humid nights above 60 degrees F.
These are most of the reasons for brown patches in the lawn. Future columns will go into greater depth to help us solve the challenges we may see in our own lawn.
I hope you have a great stroll through your lawn and garden. If you have any challenges let me know at ericlarson546@yahoo.com.