Post by Ron on Jul 15, 2012 18:59:00 GMT -6
If your lawn in like mine, it was yellow/brown weeks ago. At first I thought it was dormant but the prolonged and high temps seemed to have killed it. so I decided to try a little experiment.
I made a 2 foot diameter hoop of Romex wire and laid it on the grass. Starting on July 9, I watered that circle twice a day with the equivalent of a half inch of rain with each watering. I watered it at 5:30 am and 5:00 pm (an inch of rain every day). I have been photographing the spot every day for 7 days and seven inches of water. The spot I picked has two small clover weeds that seemed to stay green but as of yet, there is zero change and zero green-up in the grass. In the photos, the only thing that makes the area within the circle look different is that the ground is darker though the grass from all the watering.
If you’re thinking a few days of real rain will bring you lawn back to life, you may be disappointed. An online search explained how the “Crown” at the base of the grass (if its still alive) can be revived with water to bring grass out of dormancy but if the crown is dead, so it your grass. Your only option at this point is to re-seed your grass in the fall and start over. Here are the pictures I took. You can see the clover is the only thing that survived.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Roughly half of my lawn appears to be dead. There is no rain in the forecast, just more upper 90's and sunshine. Other ornamentals and trees have now begun to die as well.
Here is a short video of the lawn.
I made a 2 foot diameter hoop of Romex wire and laid it on the grass. Starting on July 9, I watered that circle twice a day with the equivalent of a half inch of rain with each watering. I watered it at 5:30 am and 5:00 pm (an inch of rain every day). I have been photographing the spot every day for 7 days and seven inches of water. The spot I picked has two small clover weeds that seemed to stay green but as of yet, there is zero change and zero green-up in the grass. In the photos, the only thing that makes the area within the circle look different is that the ground is darker though the grass from all the watering.
If you’re thinking a few days of real rain will bring you lawn back to life, you may be disappointed. An online search explained how the “Crown” at the base of the grass (if its still alive) can be revived with water to bring grass out of dormancy but if the crown is dead, so it your grass. Your only option at this point is to re-seed your grass in the fall and start over. Here are the pictures I took. You can see the clover is the only thing that survived.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Roughly half of my lawn appears to be dead. There is no rain in the forecast, just more upper 90's and sunshine. Other ornamentals and trees have now begun to die as well.
Here is a short video of the lawn.