Diseased Grass or Grubs?

[Achillez26]

Hello,

New homeowner of less than 1 year. Live in Northern Illinois. My grass in the front yard looks terrible. See pictures. I've been told by people I either have grubs, or some sort of grass disease. I pulled up a chuck of grass to check for grubs, but didn't see any. Does that mean I need a disease? Any particular one?

Looking for advice as to what is wrong with the grass and what I can put down to fix it. Right now I think I am going to put down some Scotts DiseaseEx, then get my lawn aerated and thatch removed, then plant new seed. Does this sound right?

Thanks for you help.

[andy10917]

It's tough to help you - you don't know the grass types and the pictures are showing the dead grass and nothing about where the disease(?) is active. Look for lesions, cottony stuff, or spores at the edges of the dead grass, but in the live grass.

That all said, it does look like fungal disease, but without descriptions of the onset and progression in an unknown type of grass, we can take little more than a guess. That doesn't look like grub damage to me. Without an ID, we can't say which fungicide is right for that disease - different fungicides treat different diseases, and random choices are wasteful of your time and money.

What other info can you provide? Do you have a cooperative extension that you can get to this week that can help ID the disease (if that's what it is?)

[Achillez26]

I didn't see any of those things on the edges of the dead grass. And I don't know the exact grass type. I did plant a mix of grass seed late last year in a few spots and it looks similar, but not sure. The mix had mostly Fescue grass seed. Not sure if that helps at all. I know I don't have much info here, but if nobody has any other suggestions, I am going to try and spread some Scotts Disease Ex granules this weekend and see if it stops the spread. I even Googled cooperative extension and I came up empty for my area. Again, I know this is limited info, but this is all I have. Thank you.

[gardenpants]

Came up empty on extension offices? Did you check this page? https://web.extension.illinois.edu/state/findoffice.cfm

[Achillez26]

Thank you. I found a location and they believe it is patch disease based on my pictures and directed me where to get my soil tested. Thanks everyone!

[andy10917]

Do you mean "grass tested" or "soil tested"? We interpret soil tests for members free here, with a 1 year plan, but ONLY if the test is from Logan Labs - as volunteers we can't know the lab tests used by every lab in the country, so we did a shootout and Logan Labs was selected. If you want the interpretation and plan, go to the Soils Forum and read the sticky posting at the top.

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

I'm going to assume a disease and give you my standard tip for watering which should prevent disease in the first place.

Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall.