What caused the brown stripes??????

[eggy]

I drove by one of my accounts on the way to another one and notice that in spots where my turf tigers wheels had been the grass was brown??? Any ideas what caused this I have never had a problem surface like that. She does have her yard sprayed and he was there three days before I cut any help would be great...

[Bobby]

Hey eggy,I don't know about Indiana, but down here, if you cut extremely dry grass, you'll leave tire tracks. Dead lines in the lawn.<p>----------<br>Yesteryear L/S<br>Hollywood Fla

[accuratelawn]

Happened on a couple yards last year. Dry grass. Careful, or you will kill areas of the lawn.

[Ocutter]

Eggy- Had the same problem. Customer was in the lower (grade) of the development. Ground was mostly damp. Drove a 52&quot; walkbehind on it and 1 week later dead stripes. I thought it was fert. but no. A few colleagues told me it could be one or both of these. 1- Stressed leaf blades break when ridden on giving dead appearance. 2- Compacted ground- Too much water and no air suffocates grass. I aerated last year and have not seen it since. Sell that to them!

[eggy]

Hey thanks for the input it was dry out but what is odd no other lawns showed the tracks...selling in lawn aerating has been in the back of my mind...at least I have something to tell the customer...thanks!

[mattingly]

The above replies sound like they know what they are talking about. Another outside possibility is that there is a fungus growing on the grass that was picked up on your wheels and caused the spread of it. I doubt it but it does happen to golf courses a lot. Its something people could be aware of in the future. This is notorious to happen when the grass is damp.<br><p>----------<br>Integrated Landscape Solutions<br>Lexington, KY

[Keith]

Here in Florida it happens when the grass is extremely dry. If the lawn has areas that have &quot;sunburn&quot;, you most likely will be ok. It is only the areas that are really dry and brown already. When the lawn begins to recover, the area the mower tires went over is damaged. With St. Augustine, it will usually fill back in on it's own. On non running grasses you may have to seed or sod the damaged areas. You just have to know when to stay off of the grass.

[Eric ELM]

I've also seen this happen, but as soon as it rains or it is watered regularly, it will come back in the northern states.<p>----------<br>&lt;a href=&quot;http://pages.prodigy.net/eric.erickson/&quot;&gt;Eric@ELM&lt;/a&gt;<br>The Grass is always Greener on the other side of my competitors fence

[richard2]

i have seen this happen when a lawn is mowed with dew, then afternoon sun does some frying- also damaged leaves happens alot as temps rise make sure blades on mowers are razor sharp..

[MWHC]

The streaks are caused by mower stress. The lawn is usually under other stress factors at the time. No water, extreme heat, soil compaction, etc. I rarely see this on lawns with sprinkler systems. When this happens we tell the customers to improve their watering practices.