Sod Maintenance?

Question

I had Sod installed on February 9th. Since then it has grown nicely even though there are a few (3) brown patches remaining. I just mowed the lawn last Thursday and cut it to approx 3.5 inches (3" from ground). However, I noticed underneath the beautiful green grass is appears brown. Is this normal? if not, how do I treat it?

Answer 1

Your question needs more information for instance the brown underneath does that mean the top of the thatch layer or are you talking about an area somewhere around the crown.
l -leaf tip
l
l
l - crown
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx -top layer of thatch
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx - thatch layer
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx - soil
The crown is the heart of the grass plant ( kill the crown you kill the plant). It is where the roots and leaf begin. The top layer of thatch is the dead and decaying grass clippings, leaves, ect... This area of turf depending on its thickness can get very dry. If this layer gets to thick you will notice that your lawn will appear thin and a little brown when under the stress of drought conditions. Many fertilizer nutrients will even get bound in the thatch layer and not get to the root system and cause the problem. There also could be an insect or a fungus causing the problem. When you mow- Do you mow off more than the top 1/3 of the plant? Sometimes it's not the highth of the grass but how much are you cutting off that will stress the plant - don't mow off any more than the top 1/3. It is also very important to maintain a sharp blade. Mowing with a dull blade will tear off the tops instead of the clean cut of a sharp blade. A dull mower will aid to stressing turf and thinning the lawn. Now a few things you need to do. Crawl around in the lawn and first try to pull up the sod in the real bad areas. If it lifts up like a bath mat you will see the bugs underneath and then just grab one and take it to your local feed store/nursery if you can't identify it. If you notice on the leaf there are blotches or spots or maybe even a red color thread you might have a fungus. In which cut out a hunk of sod and take that to get it identified. Now take a close look at the tips of the turf and the cut, are they for the most part clean cuts? If you see ragged edges you need to sharpen that blade. Now take a knife (and don't use a kitchen knife if you are married and want to remain that way :-) , and cut out a sample of sod to check it's thickness. Around an inch or less is probably a good range, when you get up to two inches in thickness you will be fighting every year to save your lawn from any number of problems. If thatch is a problem an it should not be as you just layed this in Feb., simply aerate your lawn. Core aeration followed immediatly by verticutting the core plugs, then raking up the thatch. Now after all this investigating you may find that you may have simply cut off more than the top 1/3 and that left larger dead clippings that would create perhaps the visual of a problem. If this turns out to be what happened then shame on you because you should have mowed a couple days sooner. Inother words your ok.

Answer 2

Have you been watering it? You can get dead grass near the ground, that is normal. The brown spots need to be repaired or have grass seed spread. good luck.

Answer 3

It can be perfectly normal depending on the climate you live in. Try setting your mower's cut length just a little higher. It could just be that it needs a little extra water because of the warmer summer months.