TURF TIP
06/20/2007

Lawn blemishes exposed by drought

Maintaining lawns and other turf areas is fairly straightforward in the cool and wet weather of the spring and fall, but things get tougher once the heat and drought set in. We are currently seeing a wide variety of problems, all of which are enhanced by the dry conditions. Problems that we are seeing include:

• -Mower/spreader tracks in the dry turf
• 
  -Browning/thinning/drying turf next to sidewalks or in hotspots, often with gravel or sand left over from construction.
  -Browning/thinning/drying turf in the middle of lawns from construction debris left behind before seeding lawn.
  -Patches of lawns browning in roughly arc-shaped patterns from improper functioning irrigation heads
• 
  -Overall browning of irrigated lawns when insufficient water is applied to keep up with transpiration in hot, dry weather.
  -Patches of creeping bentgrass, Poa trivialis , or Poa annua browning and thinning in an otherwise green turf. These grasses are more susceptible to drought than the desired grasses. Unfortunately, these weeds are extremely difficult to identify when they are dried up and shriveled making it difficult to actually determine the cause.

Zac Reicher, Professor/Turfgrass Extension Specialist

Send corrections, suggestions, and comments to biehlj@purdue.edu