Brown spots in new ready lawn - only 1 week old (see pics)

[kiwi_lad]

Happy holidays everyone!

It's summer here in NZ and I've had a new ready lawn laid on 18th Dec.... most of it looks really good.... green and growing well! However on the northern side of the house where it gets all day sun there are a number of brown spots (and some are very large!)





I've watered the grass twice a day as instructed (approx 20 mins each time).

I think it could have been over watered?

The brown spots appear like rotten grass.

The grass company that provided the lawn and laid it are on holidays until 14th Jan...... I want to revive these dead spots but am unsure what to do? I've removed a lot of the dead grass spots being careful not to remove any new grass shoots in between.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

[cynthia_h]

By "ready lawn" (oh, these different varieties of English!), were these rolls of turf that were laid down on the soil? (known in the U.S. as sod )

It may be that, in the brown areas, the roots haven't taken hold, despite the watering, *or* that somehow they're suffering from a fertilizer burn....It's difficult to tell from the photos.

What I see in the close-up of Photo #2 looks like crisp grass, which is why I suggest fertilizer burn. If this is a possibility, I suggest a light application of compost (approx. 0.5 cm), to be watered in as it allows during those already-prescribed watering intervals.

Otherwise, I'm not sure what to say, unless there could have been underlying (and subtle) soil variations that the grass is telling you about.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[rainbowgardener]

I don't really know either. Do you have a dog? Sometimes if dogs pee on the lawn, it can leave burned spots like that. I wouldn't really expect it to happen that quickly, unless there were spots in the soil underneath that had accumulated a lot of pee.

But my suggestion would be to get back in touch with the people who put down the sod. Hopefully they will know what is going on and have some suggestions for you. Since this is happening so fast after it was laid down, perhaps they will take some responsibility for making it right.

If the ground wasn't levelled correctly first or the sod wasn't rolled/ tamped down correctly, there could be some spots where the roots on the sod piece never made contact with the ground underneath, which would result in that area dying. That should be their responsibility to take care of.

[ReptileAddiction]

What are you using to water it? If it is a sprinkler it might not be reaching those areas.

[kiwi_lad]

Hey - thanks for your replies.

Yeah in NZ it's called ready lawn or instant lawn.. What you call sod in the US.

I'm using a oscillating sprinkler. I don't have any pets.

I did see some lumps of fertiliser and where there are dead spots there is still some so it cold be a burn...

I'll just keep watering as I'm meant to, take progress pics etc... And have to wait till he grass experts are back from summer holidays...

[gumbo2176]

Hey - thanks for your replies.

Yeah in NZ it's called ready lawn or instant lawn.. What you call sod in the US.

I'm using a oscillating sprinkler. I don't have any pets.

I did see some lumps of fertiliser and where there are dead spots there is still some so it cold be a burn...

I'll just keep watering as I'm meant to, take progress pics etc... And have to wait till he grass experts are back from summer holidays...

Even if it is burnt from too much fertilizer or other such issue, your mention of the grass experts being on summer holiday tells me that your grass has time to recover and even if those spots are dead, the surrounding grass should take over in time and fill in those areas.

[kiwi_lad]

That's what I'm definitely hoping for!

[kiwi_lad]

Well these spots are completely dead now - I caught up with our grass guy today now that they're back from summer holidays. He advised it's due to not enough water. I watered it twice a day for 20-30 min at a time but.... maybe it musn't have been enough for a couple of the spots as we had some really hot days after it was layed.??

Anyway he's going to put some new patches in for me so I'm really happy with the outcome

[gumbo2176]

Well these spots are completely dead now - I caught up with our grass guy today now that they're back from summer holidays. He advised it's due to not enough water. I watered it twice a day for 20-30 min at a time but.... maybe it musn't have been enough for a couple of the spots as we had some really hot days after it was layed.??

Anyway he's going to put some new patches in for me so I'm really happy with the outcome

Ah, another satisfied customer. That's what counts the most. Thanks for the update.

[Tony777]

Hi. I feel like I am having the same experience as you. I am in Wellington and laid new turf/sod in November. It was all growing well but then I dropped it to watering once every two to three days. It now has dead brown spots but I don't know if it is due to water shortage. Did your lawn come right after you started watering it more?

[imafan26]

I don't think you were watering enough. Grass is a water hog if you are watering by hand, you were not watering enough. You need a sprinkler or sprinkler system. If you have a sprinkler you have to keep moving it. When you first put in a lawn, you need to water up to 4 times a day and you need to do that until the grass is established, then back down on the watering. For me that was about 6 weeks then I cut down eventually to every two days. Depending on the season and the type of grass you have you need to put down the equivalent of an inch of rain every week. To test that use the tuna cans and see how long your sprinkler takes to fill the cans an inch.

The patchy brown spots could also have been not just not enough water but not having good contact with the soil in those areas which would be why they browned out faster. The sod needs to have good contact with the soil. The installer should have known that when it was laid but there may have been low spots in the soil where the grass did not have good contact. Those low spots are not that easy to see just by looking at bare soil. That is why it is even more important to water more until the grass roots can establish in the soil.