Question
About midways into the summer large brown patches appear in our lawn.  What can we do? I live in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina were the temperature is very hot during the summer.

Thanks for your help.


Answer
Hi Jean;
This sounds like it could be Brown Patch, a fungus.
Saturate the area well with water with baking soda disolved in it. Put enough to soak down at least to the root ends to kill it all.
It could also be shallow watering.
If you water every day for instance, you are harming more than helping.
the roots have to come near the surface to get water, the heat gets them and they die.
This is what eventually causes thatch buildup.
I always water to a depth of at least 6 inches to encourage the roots to go deep. A deep root system protects fro heat, cold, and drought dmage.
Rewater when the top two inches are dry, but if you don't get it watered that day, a couple of days won't do that much damage. there is still moisture down where the roots can still get it.
Our summers here in north Texas gets up into tripple digits for a good opart of the summer.
We ave a lot of 110 and higher days.
When the temp gets up to the 110-115 range, I will water at night, so the grass can soak up a maximun amount of water before the sun comes up high enough to evaporate it all.
I water with a soaker hose. When you use a sprinkler, and the temp is up in the upper 90s and higher, half or more of the water evaporates before it reaches the ground.
I lay out my soaker hoses, thrn on the water and set the timer ( a gadget I bought at Home Deptot and attached to the faucet) for an hour and a half.
That is how long it tkes mine to start to run off on the sidewalk. It turns off, and I let it soak in for an hour or two, then turn it on again. I keep doing that untill I get it wet at least 6 inches deep.
Watering early in the morning or in the evening, after the sun has set and the ground strts to cool off a bit.
That saves a lot on the water meter.
Also, watering with a sprinkler in the heat of the day, your lawn in under a canopy of water, which is one of the best little mediums for magnifying the heat rays.
You could be steaming your grass.
Your lawn will also tell you when it is thirsty.
I have St. augustine, and some Burmuda.
The Burmuda blades start to lean over and droop, and the st. augustine blades fold in ha;f vertically, and look more like sticks.
That exposes less leaf surface to the drying sun and conserves it's water.
I water deeply, and then when I walk over the lawn and see these signs from my grass, I turn on the hose.
I measured the depth of the wettness, with a water meter, then I would walk over it.
When it is dry, your foot feels the hard ground, like walking on a hardwood floor.
When it is wet a few inches down, it is still like a wood floor, but you know there is some water there.
When it is wet 6 inches down, it is like walking on a soft carpet. You can feel your foot give.
When you get that down pat, you can just walk across your yard and tell if it needs water and about how much.

Re-evaluate your watering practices, and try to baking soda at the first sign of a brown patch.
It could also be army worms.
when you see some brown, look to see if there are some tiny worms working there.
With organics, you don't have to worry about army worms, or any other insects.
My lawn critters eat them all. I don't have grubs, army worms, aphids, ants, or any other unwanted insects. My toads. lizards, grass snakes and beneficial insects eat them all. The birds eat some, and since I don't allow any poison used on my lawn, trees etc, I don't even find a dead bird in my yard.
I spend far less time, and hardly any money at all, and have a much better lawn and garden than I even had when I was using chemicals.
I don't have to worry about my grandchildren or pets or the neighbors' chldren or pets, or some little stray being harmed by anything in my yard.
I highly recommend an organic program, for more reasons than just preserving the earth.
Since I switched to organics, my Asthma is about 90% better.
I seldom have an attack, and when I do, it is very light.
Charlotte