Lg. dead areas in Tall Fescue lawn

[coolbrze]

We have a potential client in Northern VA (zone 7) w/ a couple lg. dead spots in his Tall Fescue lawn. Lawn is irrigated via sprinkler system & was plenty moist when I checked it out. There are 2 lg. spots, one in the front about 500 sq. ft. & the other in the back about 300 sq. ft. I noticed a lot of sm., quick moving spiders in his turf & quite a few sm. holes that I believe the spiders inhabit. The rest of the lawn looks great, any ideas why these areas are dying out? Would you recommend top-dressing w/ compost, seeding, & strawing in a few weeks or is there another problem at hand?

[White Gardens]

My first thought is too much water and you've got a disease issue.

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[RigglePLC]

Brown patch disease is possible. Also, check for grubs, and chinch bugs. And look carefully at the pattern of brown and the irrigation system and shade and shadows. It is possible it died out during a hot spell, but then the owner started to water. The areas not completely dead then recovered. Or...maybe there was an area of a less heat-resistant grass. A cheaper TTTF or a patch of bent or ryegrass.

[maynardGkeynes]

Was it sodded within the last couple of years? Spots like that are quite typical in sodded lawns where the sod does not root properly.

[White Gardens]

Originally Posted by maynardGkeynes

Was it sodded within the last couple of years? Spots like that are quite typical in sodded lawns where the sod does not root properly.

That's rare though. Usually it's bad prep work that leads to something like that.

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[maynardGkeynes]

Originally Posted by White Gardens

That's rare though. Usually it's bad prep work that leads to something like that.

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Unfortunately, I see as much or more bad prep work (meaning none), as I do good. It's like, for most of these guys, "what's prep work?" Obviously, not applicable to the people I meet on this board, who are pros.

[coolbrze]

Thanks, the damage looks like grubs will check for those 1st.

[maynardGkeynes]

Originally Posted by coolbrze

Thanks, the damage looks like grubs will check for those 1st.

It always looks like grubs, but rarely is. And, when you inspect, just because you see a few grubs, don't assume that is the problem. Even healthy lawns have some grubs. It's probably fungus or heat stress, soggy watering, as others have surmised, or if sodded recently, poor root penetration due to poor prep. Even under the best of circumstances, TTTF is going to have problems like this in a hot summer like we just had. I really don't like TTTF in our area, and prefer KBG or the new hybrid KBG, like Solar Blue Blaze, from Scotts. Address the irrigation issue, scrape & aerate the bare spots, seed, fert, move on.