July lawn report

July is known for hot days with afternoon showers. We have seen a fair share of dry spots appearing in lawns from the stress of the heat and we wanted to address some things to look out for this month to keep your landscape healthy.

Most of the calls that we have been receiving have been related to brown spots in the lawn. The term brown spot can be vague and without putting eyes on the lawn it can be hard to diagnose the root cause. Knowing the turf type that we’re working with, and recent service history can help point us in the right direction. We also want to rule out environmental factors such as too much shade or holding water. All our grass types need at least 6 hours of sun a day to thrive, clearing out overhead limbs and adding sand to low spots will go a long way.

Roughly half of the “brown spot” calls we have been receiving have been correlated with not enough water in the lawn. In June we received a fair share of rainfall, and our lawns got used to the excess moisture. It only takes a week or two without rainfall in this heat to begin to see drought stress. This can be visible in all grass types causing the grass blades to lose color and wilt.

Other causes of “brown spots” could be mowing, fungal, or insect related, and this is where knowing your grass types comes into play. Bermuda lawns are notorious for showing brown areas the day after mowing. This is because only the top half of the blade has green foliage, if too much of the blade is cut off at once it will expose the brown underside. This is typically not a major concern as it will recover with the new growth and can be avoided with more frequent mowing. St. Augustine is still experiencing grey leaf spot fungus which can cause discoloration and wilting. You can identify the fungus by looking for spots on the individual grass blades. Lastly, you want to check for insects any time you’re seeing discolored areas. We will cover a few at-home tests in the next chapter.

If you are really wanting to be sure of your diagnosis, there are a few quick tests we recommend doing the next time you have a discolored area appear in your lawn. First, look at the area overall, making sure it is not a defined circle and does not have spots on the blades to rule out fungus.

Next, you can test for insects by dumping a bucket of dish soap and water on the area to bring mole crickets to the surface or hammer a cylinder into the area and fill it halfway with water to bring chinch bugs to the surface.

Lastly, if you have ruled out fungus and insects you can flood the area with the hose. If it is drought stress it should begin to perk up within a couple of days. If you have a fungal or insect issue, we recommend having it treated immediately.

Insects will continue to be a topic of discussion until the late fall. This time of year, we have a high activity of insect damage on both lawns and trees and shrubs.

We have started to see the early signs of Sod webworms which we will be discussing next month. Keep an eye out for moths in your lawns at dawn and dusk as they are typically the early signs of an infestation.

White flies have also begun to make their presence known in viburnums. We have been seeing higher numbers of white fly infestations, and it is still early in the season. Look out for white flies swarming the underside of your bushes to try to catch them early on. Hope everyone has a great remainder of the month.

Zach Deloach is the owner of Lawn Doctor of Beaufort County.