Question
About 6 weeks ago I soded my lawn, 8 pallets to be exact. I tilled and fertalized the soil befor I laid the grass, I put down Floratam Hybrid. It did great for the first three weeks and then started to decline. Its getting yellow underneath and the green grass blades have brown spots on them. We have been watering on a daily basis in the morning or evening when its not so hot. I though about calling Truegreen to look it over because I dont want to loose my $900 lawn investment. What should I do?

Sean Withers

Answer
If the soil under the sod is saturated/soaked then you need to water less often. If the soil under the sod is dry, then you are not watering long enough. You want the top 1-2" of the soil to be consistenly moist (but not dry and not soaking wet/saturated).

If in doubt, it is probably a good idea to have a professional look it over.

You can check if the sod is rooting by pulling on one edge of a piece. If it comes up then it is not rooted. If it has rooted completely then you may need to change your watering pattern from frequent/shallow applications to infrequent and deep applications.

A mature lawn (fully rooted) should be watered infrequent but deeply, such as once or twice per week for 1-2 hours to throughly wet the soil to a dept of 10-12". Then it should not be watered again until the top few inches start to turn dry. This will encourage the grass roots to grow deep in search of water and that will make the lawn more draught tolorant and capable of handling with insect, disease and hot temperatures.

Initially you need to do the transaction from frequent/shallow applications (which are used right after sod is laid, until the turf has rooted) to deep/infrequent applications. This should be done gradually. E.g. initially start by watering every 2nd day but a bit longer than you do today. Then every 3rd day for upto 45-60 minutes. Then finally once per week unless it gets really hot in which case you may want to stay with twice per week. The goal, however, is to water infrequently, but deeply when you do water.


If your lawn has rooted well into the soil, I suspect your problem is lawn disease and/or root problems caused by too much water. Reducing watering and letting the top 1/2" of soil get somewhat dry between watering is recommended.

If the sod has not rooted then you need to adjust the watering pattern to ensure 'consistently moist' soil without it being too wet or too dry. If the sod is in rapid decline it is difficult to say if it can be saved, but it usually can.

In any event, a professional may help at this point in time.