Yellow/Brown Spots in Yard - Ask Extension
Hi, am having a problem with my lawn. Hope someone might have some ideas. Live in Eagle River Alaska just outside of Anchorage. Established lawn been ...
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Yellow/Brown Spots in Yard #139826
Asked July 10, 2013, 3:36 PM EDT
Hi, am having a problem with my lawn. Hope someone might have some ideas. Live in Eagle River Alaska just outside of Anchorage.
Established lawn been in at least 10 years. I purchased house middle of last summer so this is my first entire season with it.
Lawn has been doing beautifully. Nice deep green, consistent color pretty and thick. Suddenly in last week yellow/brown spots have begun to appear randomly in the yard. The blades of the grass where the spots are appear completely dead and brown for the top half of the length and green below that. Not sure if the dead portion is traveling deeper down the blades.
I have not tested soil yet. I did apply lime to the lawn last fall and once in May. We had a record hot June with no rain but I did water the lawn every other day for a few hours. Actually had some mushrooms pop up during the "drought."
Couple things that have occurred last few weeks. I fertilized the lawn with Scott's Green Max with Iron. My possibly misguided intention was to try to deepen the green color of the lawn.
I usually keep the lawn cut at about the 3" setting on my Honda Lawn Mower. We have now gone other direction and have had a very wet July. I had not been able to cut the grass every 3-4 days like I normally do and the grass got very long. (I normally do not catch the clippings) The sun came out for a couple hours and I decided to jump on this opportunity to mow. For some reason I thought it might be a good idea to cut it a little shorter so I set my mower to 2.5" ( I have no excuse I know really bad idea) and bagged those clippings.
This is when I first noticed the yellow spots in the lawn. They appear to be getting worse. I love working in my yard but I am afraid I have hurt this beautiful lawn.
Established lawn been in at least 10 years. I purchased house middle of last summer so this is my first entire season with it.
Lawn has been doing beautifully. Nice deep green, consistent color pretty and thick. Suddenly in last week yellow/brown spots have begun to appear randomly in the yard. The blades of the grass where the spots are appear completely dead and brown for the top half of the length and green below that. Not sure if the dead portion is traveling deeper down the blades.
I have not tested soil yet. I did apply lime to the lawn last fall and once in May. We had a record hot June with no rain but I did water the lawn every other day for a few hours. Actually had some mushrooms pop up during the "drought."
Couple things that have occurred last few weeks. I fertilized the lawn with Scott's Green Max with Iron. My possibly misguided intention was to try to deepen the green color of the lawn.
I usually keep the lawn cut at about the 3" setting on my Honda Lawn Mower. We have now gone other direction and have had a very wet July. I had not been able to cut the grass every 3-4 days like I normally do and the grass got very long. (I normally do not catch the clippings) The sun came out for a couple hours and I decided to jump on this opportunity to mow. For some reason I thought it might be a good idea to cut it a little shorter so I set my mower to 2.5" ( I have no excuse I know really bad idea) and bagged those clippings.
This is when I first noticed the yellow spots in the lawn. They appear to be getting worse. I love working in my yard but I am afraid I have hurt this beautiful lawn.
Anchorage County Alaska
Expert Response
The quickest way to get information on your lawn is to contact Pam Compton, IPM technician with the UAF Cooperative Extension Service Mat-Su District office in Palmer. She can be reached at<personal data hidden>. I don't know the fertilizer ratio for Scott's Green Max with iron but iron is used to control moss in lawns. At rates high enough to control moss, iron will cause grass blades to turn black before turning green again. The lawn could be responding to a combination of close mowing, moisture stress and iron. It will be important to let the grass recover as it goes into Eagle River's short fall. Future mowing should be 3 inches high or higher.
