Please help with lawn.

[rjose6935]

So my wife and I bought our first house about this time last year. We are in MA. My lawn was terrible when we moved in and i thought a year of the scotts treatment would work but then again i dont know anything about lawns. I dont really have the money to have someone else do it so i was hoping to get some advice. In general the lawn has all these light colored spots (about 3ft in diameter) and a ton of crabgrass. It just seems like i need to plant more grass so the grassy like weeds do not have as much space to grow, though I am sure the answer is not that easy. Anyway ill post some pictures see what you guys think. Im sure the right answer is get a soil test? If so is now an okay time of year to do so? Also, the crabgrass has got even worse since I took these pictures.

[kirk1701]

Looks like you got a case of brown patch or red thread.

1. Stop mowing
2. lay off the nitrogen that will help it spread.
3. With all this rain this year your bound to get some disease but cultural practices will also make it worse. If you water do it in the mornings not in the evenings.

[rjose6935]

Looks like you got a case of brown patch or red thread.

1. Stop mowing
2. lay off the nitrogen that will help it spread.
3. With all this rain this year your bound to get some disease but cultural practices will also make it worse. If you water do it in the mornings not in the evenings.

I'm not sure what you mean by nitrogen. Also what can I do to make sure I have less crabgrass next year? I already tried scotts halts and that didn't work. It just seems so thin, if this is the case do I just overseed this spring?
Posted via Mobile Device

[turf hokie]

The brown spots Looks like maybe some bentgrass? I am having a bit of a hard time telling from the pic. Lood likr bent from the overall pic, but looks like some old fungus damage in the close up pic. But if it is bent is going to be an ongoing issue, unless you are willing to spray those areas with round-up and reseed.

The light green is definately crabgrass.

I dont know what you timing was on the Halts but I know some of our early rounds were washed out this year. Maybe try to applications next season to elongate the window of control. It is not too late to treat post-emergently in your area. Try some weed-b-gone plus if available at home depot.

[MnLefty]

Hard to tell for sure from the pictures, but it looks like you're mowing pretty short? 1.5-2 inches? If so, bump that mower up to at least 2.5 or even 3. I would consider an aggressive aeration and overseed this fall with a quality bluegrass/ryegrass blend.

[rjose6935]

Will do on the mower height. Can you point me in the direction of where to get a quality seed?
Posted via Mobile Device