Grass turning Yellow

[Adam_M]

I've got a spot of my lawn, the spot where my inevitable summer decline starts. I'm hoping we're early enough to head off whatever is going on.

Grass was planted in September 2022, and isn't even close to needing cut yet. I've actually sent this patch of grass to Rutgers in previous years and their advice was in a nutshell there are no pathogens whatsoever, Elite KBG is too high maintenance, plant TTTF.

So, I'd obviously rather stay with KBG, but I'm open to anything to avoid my annual fall ritual of a late August/Early September rapid unplanned renovation.

We've had plenty of rain, but not an excess. Also, the grass on the other side of my house looks great. I've went as far as testing the soil in these areas separately and we found they were similar, but the soil in this area that fails is just more extreme.

Any Suggestions?

[lVlrBoJang1es]

Have you done the screwdriver test?

Does water seem to sit on the surface and not permeate into the soil?

I see your comments on the soil, but little detail is given. Have you tried digging into the soil in that area to see what the composition looks like compared to other areas?

How long have you lived here - possible that a tree was removed in this spot long ago? A shallow burried septic tank/tire/treasure chest full of pirate loot?

[Adam_M]

The soil is the spoils from my basement during house construction. Yes to the screwdriver test, the soil is remarkably uniform in the entire area. No rocks, and there was never a tree there. It is on a slight (and by slight, mean literally a few inches) knoll, but the problems spread to about 6k of lawn adjacent by the end of the summer.

It is actually developing a bit of a horizon after almost 10 years of work - about 1.5 inches before it hits the subsoil which is essentially crushed shale that degrades into clay.

It seems that this soil doesn't hold N very well despite a high TEC, so it may need a other hit, but I'm only a couple weeks from the last one so going to hold off on that. I'm not convinced that is the answer though, because this bit is treated the same as the rest and always degrades first.

[MorpheusPA]

You just gave us the answer, I think. 1.5" doesn't hold a lot of water, and hotter weather taps it fast. You can either water a little bit very often, let it go yellow, or work on that clay (that probably isn't clay, but a compact silt; I'd have to see an isolated soil test of it).

I'd suggest BLSC (Bestlawn Liquid Soil Conditioner); spray baby shampoo or Suave shampoo on the soil at 2 oz per thousand square feet per month to loosen it up. Mix in kelp as well to get bacterial action moving in the lower layer to open it up even more. It'll take time, but....

Similarly, in late May, an organic feeding wouldn't be out of reasonability and would also continue to work through the summer. It'll also help slowly transform the soil.

[Adam_M]

Occam's razor eh? Water.

So, I just pulled a plug from the problem area (and it always starts here, but varying on the year, I can lose the entirety of this area - ~6K), attached.

And oddly enough, I do have both a soil test from the problem area (the 6K, not this specific spot - although take it somewhat with a grain of salt as my numbers bounce all over the place), attached (from a couple years ago), and a soil particle analysis - so yes, I suppose a significant plurality of this is silt.







For more context, I lost the 6k area last summer and replanted last fall, so this is young grass. It still isn't tall enough to be cut - the rest of my lawn has been cut multiple times, of course. Is this all related?

Does that mean we're looking at BLSC + a ton of water (frequency, not necessarily quantity)? I've actually tried to water, but (obviously - if that's the issue) missed the signs of when to start. I water the first day I notice it turning slightly blue-gray - perhaps that's too late? Any other signs to look for?

And regarding feeding, Andy has me on a balanced fertilizer for remediation, and I'm about due for the next drop. Should I hold on that and drop milo instead? I can also source 10-20-20 and drop at 5lb/k to cut the synthetic N in 1/2 if that's a better option. What do you think?

[MorpheusPA]

That's a clay loam, not clay, bordering a sandy clay loam and pure loam, not at all a bad place to be and not at all unmanageable. Magnesium is a tad higher than I would like to see for that soil with potassium a bit lower, probably making it tight and water-refusing, so I'd go for the soap/sodium laureth sulfate/baby shampoo applications plus organics.

As far as the balanced application....do both. Drop the balanced now, and drop the Milo about three weeks later.

Blue-gray is actually correct, although it depends on your eye. I hit mine at the first moment the color changes in the first patch, then app enough water to go a week to ten days. Yours may only hold enough to go four days.