More water is key. Clearly you have some hot sunny spots. These need more water. An irrigation system redo is in order. Tall mowing is not enough. Be sure to put the hotspots on separate zones so you can routinely give them a bit extra.

So true, it is common for neighbors to have secret elves that water their grass at night. You may need to go with a full-on irrigation system. You can't win if you don't compete.

A locally owned small lawn company would be helpful. Try to find someone who will spray the nutsedge, and maybe even the poa annua. A fall pre-emergent might help the poa situation. Don't bother to bag--there is just too much seed produced. You need a lawn company with long experience. There is a chance you have more ryegrass than fescue or blue. Perennial rye is not suited to hot weather. Gray leaf spot is troublesome. If you plant a mixture--at times the rye out competes the other elements of the mixture at first.

You can now get products for nutsedge at garden stores. Should be safe on grass if directions are followed.

 

To the op, could your grass have developed a fungus in the spots you mentioned? In our lawn brown patch does a number on the sunniest areas every summer in spite of using fungicides.

 

This year in NJ, starting around mid July, has had a lot of rainy nights with high temps & humidity these are conducive conditions for lawn diseases. There was that one storm that brought hail around 8pm. I went outside afterwards and it felt like a steam bath. When I went outside the next morning it was the same humid & hot. You could see mycelium on the grass.

Here is some info: http://turfblog.rutgers.edu/?p=978#more-978

We have those conditions now high today 95 & going down to 75 overnight and there is a chance of early evening showers.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/lumberton-township-nj/08048/weather-forecast/2192049

The above is a possibility and your lawn condition could be a result of any number of possibilities. When you get up tomorrow look up close to see if you see mycelium.

 

I haven't checked in morning for mycelium but I did see what looks like it, but not on top of the lawn like the google image searches for "mycelium lawn" look like. What I saw was a much more minor sort of fuzz under the top of the grass. Could be a fungus. There is some moss growing on the edge closest to the house under the porch overhang. However, the dead areas (or on the verge of death and possibly dormant) are mostly where the sprinklers don't reach. I am going to flush the sprinklers and replace with better heads. If that doesn't work, I'll put out sprinklers and a hose and timer all fall and all next year. Doing it manually this summer I guess I didn't do enough and in a blink of an eye it seemed it fried. I'm still going to ask those yards how they have no sprinklers yet have such nice lawns.

riggle, I did plant some rye, maybe %7 at most and the same for KBG vs the rest ttff. For now on I'm doing all tttf for its drought resistance. I installed about 6 pallets of KBG this spring with someone and it looks amazing but I don't have the irrigation system to trust doing KBG in full sun despite the soil is very compost-y and should make for good rooting, not sandy or clay-like.
I did buy nutsedge killer but then I realized surrounding areas are possibly dormant, so I ended up pulling it manually. It seems to have really slowed down though recently, and I see it going to seed everywhere in other peoples' lawns! Apparently scotts and/or true green etc don't spray for it because I have neighbors with those contracts and they are riddled with yellow nutsedge, and the lawn's aren't dormant to justify possibly not spraying it at risk of killing the dormant lawn. I know that overall there's no spray to kill it permanently as of yet, all one can do is spray/pull the topgrowth and eventually the nutlets should die. That or dig the whole area out but the nutlets can be up to like 3 feet deep. If it didn't grow so fast, I'd just give in a make my lawn ALL yellow nutsedge, I have actually read of this.

anyway, thanks for the input.

 

Here is a nutsedge control product, Dismiss (with sulfentrazone); it is a fairly new product. I would not worry about injuring the good grass, whether it is dormant or not.
http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/dismiss-turf-herbicide-p-1517.html

You are right to avoid any rye in the mixture. It can crowd out the slow-germinating bluegrass in the critical first year.

Kentucky bluegrass is not really a tender grass. Slow germination, however the top-drawer varieties should do fine. And KBG has the advantage of strong creeping ability--it self-repairs. It should recover better than fescue after a dry spell turns most lawns brown.
Tall fescue does not creep--although some new cultivars claim to have limited creeping ability, (rhizomatous tall fescue varieties).

In any case, be sure to include 10 to 20 percent Kentucky bluegrass in any tall fescue mix. It adds density and self-heal properties to the turf.

Avoid older types. In both blue and fescue, ask for newer varieties that have been released by major grass breeders in the last 10 years. The modern types are more disease resistant, drought hardy, and darker green. Be sure any seed you sow is in the top 20 of the varieties tested in the most recent Rutgers NTEP test.

Bullseye tall fescue was outstanding last year.

http://njaes.rutgers.edu/pubs/fs1186/tall-fescue-varieties-for-nj-sports-fields.asp

Type in your zipcode to find a suitable mixture in this link. http://www.seedsuperstore.com/catalog/p-100002/ss5000-sunny-mixture?zip=08048&type=sunny

 

Here is what most likely happened. I have done 100s of these type jobs.

Considering where you are, it get hot and very humid in the summer. You just seeded the lawn last fall and it came in very, very thick I assume (like carpet). You water because it is hot and not rain to keep it growing.

The humidity and water is causing a fungus problem...its turning brown so you water more adding to the fungus problem.

I have had good success preventing fungus due to humidity and watering by aerating in the spring (3-4" deep cores) which give the grass some room to breath and also allows the soil to dry out faster preventing the fungus problem.

 

I've just realized that some of these lawns that are near perfect without irrigation are actually zoysia lawns.
the problems I had though were probably fungal and humidity issues and bad sprinkler coverage/flooding basically.

I never knew until recently just how common zoysia is in NJ because I always assumed it was a low growing grass like a putting green and never really seen it, it can safely be cut super short but most just cut it a normal height. And I'm just now realizing how common it is.

There are two other lawns I originally questioned though and they are definitely fescue and not watered, but might just be a very drought resistant strain of fescue was used many years ago and it developed good roots,
one is aerated and overseeded yearly also, but the other is not but they Do have sprinklers but they haven't used them in a long time because they are clogged or something from not winterizing but probably was watered routinely in the past making good roots that keep it healthy now even without watering.

the ones that are zoysia, I always thought were fescue because zoysia looks more like fescue than Kentucky blue IMO, but I know fescue doesn't even get excess thatch which was confusing because this zoysia is like standing on a foam sponge or something, now I know it's zoysia though, even though the zoysia seems to grow on top of itself and not really create the dense excess thatch layer I've seen in reference in many videos, the zoysia instead doesn't seem to have that obvious of a dense sub thatch layer, it's more like just discarded dead blades under new top growth.

 

Nutsedge likes wet. If you have nutsedge in the declining areas, I’d be surprised if lack of water is the issue. Has the nutsedge thrived all Summer or did it sprout only after rains came?

For irrigation, ten minutes twice a week is next to nothing for a typical turf irrigation system. The precip rate is likely somewhere between 0.5 to 1 inch per hour. So maybe not enough water in the heat? Precip rate should be measured, especially in the declining areas. My bet is you need to run the irrigation closer to between one or two hours total run time per week.

Interesting problem regarding the water. Nutsedge points to wet but irrigation run time points to dry. Might be worth buying an inexpensive soil moisture meter just to get a comparison between the good areas and the declining areas. Too dry and it goes dormant or dies. Too wet and you get fungus and healthy nutsedge.

 

Nutsedge likes wet. If you have nutsedge in the declining areas, I'd be surprised if lack of water is the issue. Has the nutsedge thrived all Summer or did it sprout only after rains came?

For irrigation, ten minutes twice a week is next to nothing for a typical turf irrigation system. The precip rate is likely somewhere between 0.5 to 1 inch per hour. So maybe not enough water in the heat? Precip rate should be measured, especially in the declining areas. My bet is you need to run the irrigation closer to between one or two hours total run time per week.

Interesting problem regarding the water. Nutsedge points to wet but irrigation run time points to dry. Might be worth buying an inexpensive soil moisture meter just to get a comparison between the good areas and the declining areas. Too dry and it goes dormant or dies. Too wet and you get fungus and healthy nutsedge.

I was just bumping this 2 year old thread because I remembered it when I recently realized zoysia being more common than I thought, and some of those near perfect non irrigated lawns are zoysia.
It 'aint as dark green as KBG or TTTF or PR, it kinda looks like freshly cut %100 Crabgrass but damn is it self sustaining and thick, maybe some ironite would green it if compatible, or pH adjustment, but I read concerns about ironite but they mighta recently changed the chemistry.

I've read nutsedge doesn't necessarily like wet, but a soggy area in the grading does have it pretty bad but also some other dryer areas. I didn't get a chance to spray it this year because I was afraid the lawn was a bit dormant still and I would have to wait 4 weeks after sedgehammer to seed and wanted to do an earlier seeding but there was a couple heatwaves and 5 days rain and pushed the seeding back anyway.

I pulled sedge by hand a couple years ago and it seemed to control it but it came back pretty bad this year. It gets real slick too at the end of the summer it'll bolt at only about 3" tall whereas about 6 weeks prior it needs to be about a foot tall to seed. Seed heads I did hand pull this year though because I'm gonna try the no pre emergent approach next spring.

I didn't realize it typically takes about an whole hour just to get 1" water, thanks, I had timers on 30 mins this summer once a week and then every 4 days for about 6 weeks when it was the hottest, thinking 30 mins was about an inch considering if you put a shot glass out it seems to me it wouldn't take very long to fill an inch but I'll run a tests with bowls out.

I did sprinklers only 10 mins 1-2X a week 2 years ago according to what I wrote :

Then the summer heat hit and it slowly got worse. I do have underground sprinklers but they suck and apparently don't cover about %30. I watered about 10 minutes twice a week all spring and summer. Now I have areas that are brown. Some areas look like they could just be dormant but other areas are so burnt that the blades of grass as not connected by root.

but I don't use the inground sprinklers anymore, just hoses and sprinklers on a timer and the hose gets hidden by grass but the valves and everything are fine can refurbish the system with poly pipe is cheap and a just couple rotary heads could probably replace up to 6 existing misting heads.

Some of the old dead spots I wrote about 2 years ago were because the in-ground sprinklers didn't reach everything. Now the lawn is really good even with 30 mins of watering this year thinking that was 1", a few thin spots but I just gave it the royal treatment of scalp, bag, tine thatch, bag thatch, blow out all dead debris, aerate, seed, thin layer of brown thatch over seed like straw to hold moisture keep seed in place and deter birds, milo, and watering. All TTTF basically.
had I known about zoysia a few years ago when I basically tilled from scratch I woulda just plugged that.
Still might make the back Frankenstein lawn lol by plugging zoysia in Spring in some dry areas that were TTTF because back isn't watered anymore and I like thick clover brings bees to pollinate gardens but I don't like bare patches of nothing and can take free zoysia plugs from somewhere.. Just gotta make sure not to over fertilize the zoysia but I only use milo and it'll probably be fine with that even if spread heavy in Fall.

 

I don’t think zoysia is a best choice for NJ. It will go brown most of the year from cold and once you decide you don’t like it, very tough to get rid of. If you have existing KBG, maybe plug that instead? KBG will go dormant over a dry Summer without sufficient irrigation but it looks very good most of the year. Should grow very well in central Jersey. Do you have too much shade or what’s going on there?

 

kbg from what I've read always needs routine watering because of the shallow roots and not very safe to let go dormant in heat and drought. Which is strange that it is said to not like shade, I would think in shade it would be safer without water but I guess it requires a lot of sun for photosynthesis of energy first of all.

I'm not into watering forever, my plan is to water the TTTF for a couple years and then stop and it should stay alive even if it goes dormant but it might not even go dormant or brown since I cut it high like 4". I don't think I have any KBG left, it probably was in seed mixes I used a couple years ago then died out. KBG does look nice though and good rhizome action.

zoysia, a relative asked me about it in Spring. they said their neighbor had it and liked it. I looked into it, and, on paper, articles etc people warn about it as though it's a risk in NJ so I warned against it.
Articles say it can get winter damage I believed the most, let alone how dry it turns in winter that walking on it may kill a path and someone walking by can drop a cigarette on it and it start a fire, which is true but now that I realize there are more zoysia lawns here than I had thought, they are all great looking. I talked with a few owners and they said it's been there forever basically, so no winter damage. The long dormancy period I'm fine with just means less mowing needs but it does need to be mowed as much as any cool season grass during the mowing season.

It's pricey as sod instead of plugs, and there's a few weeks wait, I think Virginia is the closest farms but I might give it a try.

It'll do great in the lower half of the yellow zone.

 

no thanks on the zoysia
here in SW ohio it's very slow to green up in the spring-early to go dormant in the fall-and I just never liked the "feel" and look of it. I just seeded with this a few weeks ago and it's just about ready for it's first cut.