Oh NO! ugh :( I feel so bad You try so hard to maintain your lawn, Do you ever Core Aerate? I swear by Aerating it helps, I didn't do it this past spring but will do it in the Fall, Also I will Give you a Good website to go on for Professional Products that are Generic and Stronger like the Pro's use if you want it, I am not wasting my money on Bayer or any of the other store brands anymore not enough Kick to them IMO, so you haven't had much Rain? but you have an irrigation system? Do you water in the morning's?

No, I've never core aerated, but was planning to this Fall.

We had over 4 inches of rain in May, so I did not water. This month we've had just a little less than 2 inches so far, and I watered twice in the last 5 days because temps were in the 90's and the lawn was looking thirsty.

I can't explain what exactly happened. While I'm 99% sure that's all fungus, if anyone thinks it could be something else, please advise.

What I don't understand is that there was only a small patch back in May, and I immediately treated the whole lawn with preventative, then again 3 weeks later. I guess you're right: the Bayer and the scotts are simply not strong enough....

To me it looks like drought damage and some fungal issues, def looks like it's going into dormancy to me, I have so many books on lawns and looking at yours and the pictures it seems that is what is happening, they say to go by the weather pattern if it's been Dry and Hot for weeks and you're seeing brown patches it's dormancy if you are getting hit hard with Rain and Humidity & seeing Brown patches etc it's def fungal

Joe Go on Youtube and Follow the " The Grass Factor " he is ahhmazinggggg and he answers emails, show him pictures etc. he will Help you!!!

& Aerating is HUGE! I don't care what others say on here I do so so much reading on lawns I plan on taking some classes this fall for Horticulture again, I have such a passion for it!

Looks like lack of water/drought stress induced dormancy to me. In the closeup you took I don't see any signs of fungus.

Follow up video:

So as I explain in the video above, I think lawniac is right; probably drought stress.

The question is: what to do about it now?

I don't recall is that fescue or KBG or mix?

KBG, rye, fescue mix seeded in 2014.

Umm I said drought stress First just saying and definitely some fungus in there

Yes Lisa, I know...

:)

Just because I'm a girl don't pick on me Lol

I'm not picking on you I'm just jealous of your lawn.

Pass on your secrets please. I won't tell a soul. It's only the internet after all.....

Lol Joe, it's Sodded first of all back in 2008 it's a thick thick lawn, It's my Life it should look good, which is why I wigged out last summer when I first got the dollar spot, I never had it with my new sod since 2008, so I researched the shi# out of it and talked to a lot of Youtuber's who have channels now I know how to Halt it, and Bayer wasn't cutting it, You NEED to Aerate your lawn, wait till you see the results after, it lets your lawn breathe, and You should water in the AM ( learned my lesson ) doing it at night never late used to water @ 6 but Heard it's so bad, with all the Rain haven't used my new Timer yet and sprinklers, but like I said earlier, The Grass Factor is one of the smartest chemist on Youtube with Lawns, Look him up!!! He answers emails and has Live chat

I emailed that guy my video today. thanks for the tip!

You're very Welcome ;) That's what friends are for!

I was just looking up some articles. One particularly mentioned KBG facing south on a slope, which is what I have.

Deep and infrequent is a relative term. I'm being rather polite now.

It's all subjective and that should be a disclaimer on every single one of the posts certain posters make about the merits of it.

Our soil here in Pittsburgh is like clay, my parents in Massachusetts is like sand so I can see what mishmosh was saying

When you were applying the fungicide were you applying it at the preventative rate or curative rate? I like using the granular because of how easy it is to use but liquids are cheaper and don't have to be watered in. Domyown.com has good stuff like eagle 20 that you can spray but is only systemic for 14 days. The bayer and scott's disease ex is systemic for 4 weeks and should of worked for you. Those are the same ingredients in some expensive fungicides like heritage, Banner, and Clearys. After alternating between products my yard bounced back but then got hit with drought stress. Got some rain and more to come good things to come.

I bought my Generic for Banner maxx off their site, and I couldn't use the new scott's one for Dollar spot the active in it won't work on it, but it is Broad spectrum which is good for other diseases, so I went with the Professional grade and will spray next week when the rain is over,Also Dollar spot isn't a root fungus so would make sense to spray instead of using Granular like I had twice this yr!

I think when rye goes brown it is dead, whereas when KBG goes brown it is probably just dormant. So depending on how much rye you have additional watering might not help much other than to maybe let KBG fill in some. I would resist the temptation to water the bejesus out of the lawn to try and "catch up" with the drought. It doesn't work that way of course.

My lawn is starting to show signs of problems like I had before but this year I decided to get more data. It is hard to solve a problem without information. I'm going to sample the damaged area and send it down to Rutgers for analysis. I think someone in this forum did that last year. It costs a good $100 or $150 for the test, but then you know what you are dealing with. I'm going to wait until I have more well defined damage (hopefully I won't!).

I might do a video like yours as well, Joe, just for information sharing.

Sounds good daniel.

and that person was me.

:)

Oh cool! What was the name of the office you contacted for that analysis? If I recall, didn't they tell you what they thought you had back then? Do you have that old thread handy? It would appear that whatever that was has no bearing on your current problem.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/question-regarding-soil-test-dsvw-vd~4757114

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/a-yearly-guide-for-cool-season-grasses-from-rutgers-dsvw-vd~4826669

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/soil-test-results-are-inopinions-appreciated-dsvw-vd~4770460

Here are all my threads regarding Rutgers....

daniel-

It's funny, because after reading them again, I'll be honest: I did not follow their schedule for fertilizing. I don't know who, but someone suggested other time frames, and I followed suit. Maybe that was a mistake in the first place.

I didn't see anything regarding testing for fungus. It may have been someone else who posted that. I recall that there was a particular department within Ag that did those tests and they needed a pretty good sized sample. I'm sure I can call them and figure it out.

Personally I don't care what NJ law says about late fall fertilizing. I'm doing it anyway. I think the law is there because if the landscapers with 100 customers do it after the ground freezes because the customer has paid for it then there will be too much runoff. Since there is no chance that I will winterize when the ground is frozen there's no danger to the environment. Last year I tried Andy's "little bit each week" method of winterizing.

@Joe it seems you have two options. 1. Increase your watering frequency and see what happens. If your problem is drought stress then your lawn will be back in great shape again and that will confirm it. If it continues to decline then it wasn't drought. 2. Sample the affected area and get it tested. Maybe it isn't even fungus and will test positive for something else (what I don't know).

Joe did the guy from YouTube get back to you yet?

Hi Lisa

No not yet.

He will, if not send it again, he get's swamped with emails, but he's so nice, his name is Matt Martin he is the biggest chemist on YouTube and so humble

@Lisa I have a feeling if you ask the question for Joe you'll get a quicker response!

No doubt; she's definitely prettier than me.

Lisa is prettier than "Joe from Joisey." Certainly not a high bar...

LOL.

True.

But she is.

OK OK I'm sure Lisa would rather talk about fungus...

Lol You two!! I Love talking about Lawns ;) not so much Fungus :x but mine seems to be growing out for now the few spots I had, so after buying the expensive 14.3 Banner Generic I am going to Hold off and do an application of Milo a week earlier than it's supposed to be on the 4th of july! wed last day of rain for awhile, and 90's for 4 straight days my Lawn is going to get hammered, I have the sprinklers ready Bwahahahaha ;)

Joe did Matt Martin ever respond to you??? curious to see what he said, LMK how it's going

No Lisa he did not.

Lawn today:

Looks Good now, Have you been watering a lot? and It's going to be in the 90's for 10 days out of NO where and sun everyday, I have my Timer on and water @ 4:30 am for 45 mins, How often do you water? and have you had rain

Hi Lisa-

Yes, I watered twice last week for an hour each time, and we had 2 rain storms come through later in the week.

We've got the 90's coming for the next 7 days also; I'll be watering. I'm going to try to do an hour every other day if possible.

As long as we water in the mornings, we should be good

Hey Lisa-

Matt emailed me back; here's what he said:

Hey joe, hard to tell from the video, but could be a multitude of issues:

what fungicide are you using? i heard you say preventative every 3 weeks.

also, couldbe billbug damage or cinch bug damage. do a soap test and see what comes to the surface. if insects, try permethrin or lambda-cyhalothrin

if disease, could be $ spot, could be pythium, could be summer patch. use that to dial in which specific fungicide to use.

also could be water issue like you mentioned.

use a rain gauge to accurately measure how much water you're putting down

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=309NLcntoU0