Patches in Lawn

My lawn never looked so bad after winter , the lower photo showed how it looked in April . Large patches of unhealthy non growing grass. I scarified it with a slitting type scarifier , reseeded and top dressed with a mix of top soil and sharp sand . I fed every 4 to six weeks with Wilkos lawn seaweed fertiliser applied with a watering can. Mid summer the lawn looked great very healthy even and green .
Now I am getting patches back in a few places . The grass seems to discolour and just fade away. I have hand raked it and spiked it with no results.
An ideas ? Is it disease , pest or nutrients ?

TIA

 

Hi Harry,
Have you got more photos of how it is now ... overall and close up would be ideal and I'll try to help.
Kris

 

Exactly same as mine @HarryS
Looks really good in spring and early summer after that rubbish.
I think that is because it's full of annual grasses that die just off

 

Thanks Kris . I will mow this weekend and take some overall and patch photos. I took the one below of the fault in its earliest stage ,but the photo does not show the colouring very well.

 

John , they are not puppy wee marks , but the great holes in it are puppy Molly's work ! It looked like the 18th at Wentworth 4 weeks ago - looks like a building site now !

 

My first thought is that it's a fungal disease, but some close up pics will help to confirm it.

 

Hi Kris , mowed the lawn and took the photos below . Close ups of the problem and the length of lawn where the problem is. It seems to be in about 4 or 5 spots in a straightish line . On the plus side they are not spreading or getting any worse but raking spiking reseed and top dress seems to have no effect . Would I be better digging the sections out next spring replace 3" of top soil and returf ?
TIA

 

Yes, certainly looks like a fungal infection.
Might be Red Thread, but the pics aren't really close enough to identify accurately as there are a few that make the grass go like that. The circular patches are the give-away but I'd need to get down and have a proper look to identify.
I've seen a flush of it recently as the dry spell in August weakened the grass, and then the slightly damp September helped it to bloom.

Unfortunately, your options are very limited as you need a license to apply effective treatments because most of the DIY remedies have been withdrawn from sale.
Some folk say that you can try to grow it out with a liquid nitrogen feed but I've never seen that method work well. Worth a try though.

You can either put up with it (as it probably won't do any long term damage), or contact your local lawn care company who will be able to safely treat it for you.

 

they sell the stuff on ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_o...ead+lawn+tratment+for+sale&_sacat=0&_from=R40

 

Yes, that's based on trifloxystrobin, but there is a lot of resistance to it from the disease, so may not be as effective as you might think.

 

Thanks for the reply Kris . I don't really want to put any treatment on the lawn now , as we have a new puppy. Could I dig these patches out next season ? There seems to be 4 , just over 1 square metre in total. I could dig out replace top soil and returf ?

 

I would try to just grow it out with a good organic feed then. That will be harmless to the puppy.
An application of liquid seaweed would also help keep the trace elements replenished.

No point in replacing bits and and re-turfing. It's a fungus so spreads millions of tiny spores all over your lawn, so you'll never eradicate it that way.

Best method is to keep the grass as healthy as possible. Mow it long (at least 3cm), keep thatch to a minimum (by scarifying annually), aerate it and hope for the best. It may improve as the weather changes, but if you don't treat it, you can be certain it will come back again when the conditions are right.

 

Cheers Kris , I'll feed it with my seaweed lawn feed as soon as we get some rain to moisten the turf. And follow instructions as above next year.
Thanks for all the advice , its appreciated. Tricky devils lawns !