Question on Grub and seeding here on Long Island?

[flyerman]

Can someone help a newbie homeowner? Please. I had a decent lawm all summer then started getting some brown spots late August. Now in late October I have patches of no lawn it seems from grubs. What should I do at this stage of the game? Seed? (Is it too late?) Wait till Spring? If I can seed now. How do you seed? I know it sounds stupid but I never had to do a lawn before now. It seems my grass I was told is Zoysia. What do I pickup at Home Depot? All and any help would be very helpful.

 

[Microbe]

Whats up man? Sounds like you have a couple of issues. First off I run my own Turf Managment and Design company out of Oceanside Long Island. I've had many situations needing my help and yours seems quite similar. Yourself being on lawnsite is unique to me, I'm glad that others closer to me have similar interests.

Seems like before you go out to Home Depot and spend a hundred bucks on lawn products that might or might not work, think twice and spend your money on a professional who you feel comfortable with. There are many Physical aspects of turf managment, as well as costly machienes to ensure results!

I can almost guarentee that the brown spots are not from grubs. This summer was considered to be the 2nd hottest summer witht he least rain. The sections are from burn, or scortch. If you would like, thatch the area's either with a rake or blade rake, use a weezle to open the patch's up, seed area's using zoysia seed, or buy plugs. I think there like 15 bucks for a small tray of plugs at retail nurseries. This should work... for the time being..

How large is your lawn? Have you ever considered eliminating the zoysia and growing beautiful grasses such as ryes, dwarf tall fescue, or bluegrass? Hope the info comes in handy.......

 

[marko]

Hard to say if it was grubs or not. Typically the grass starts dying a little later than Aug, but as stated before, it was a bad summer. My bet is either a fungus or possibly sod web worms. The did a lot of damage around here this year.

It is too late to overseed now. I would wait until right before the first snow, or spring. Careful of zoyzia plugs. Once it is established, its tough to get rid of. Soil has to be very warm for it to come out of dormancy. Dont forget to not use a pre-M next spring if you do overseed.