Brown Spots on Lawn – Patches of dead or dying grass in your lawn- giving weeds a chance to infiltrate your lawn. Here are some reasons.

• Small Brown Spots on Grass in Unexpected Places
• Brown Spots on Lawn Appear after Mowing-
• Brown Spots on Lawn in Mid-Summer
• Brown Patches on Grass Appear in Hot, Wet Weather
• Broad Brown Patches on Grass
• Brown or dried spots on Lawn
• Brown spots due to excess thatch on Lawn
• Brown spots on Lawn because of Diseases on Grass

Reasons for brown spot on your lawn / grass

• Small Brown Spots in Unexpected Places  - are usually from dog urine because it cantain high concentrated levels of nitrogen which will burn your lawn / grass. Sorry but you will have to train you dog to pee elsewhere. there is no easy fix for this.
• Brown Spots Appear after Mowing – The likely cause of this one is a dull mower blade damaging the ends of the blades of grass causing them to die and turn brown. Easy fix it to sharpen your blade on a grinder or take it in and have to sharpened. You should sharpen you blade a few times a year as part of your lawn mower maintenance.
• Brown Spots in Mid-Summer - This could be a pest control problem. Check your surrounding areas for other sings. Look at the leaves of your trees and bushes to see if they have been eaten into a lacework, this could be Japanese beetles and or grubs. Good news is there are sprays that will take care of this.
• Brown Patches Appear in Hot, Wet Weather - Hot and wet are breading grounds for fungus and mold. Part of proper watering is not to over water and you know this but check to see it the areas you water dryout. The foliage, including grass blades, should drying inbetween watering. Something like brown patch fungus in circular patterns and can get pretty wide. This is another easy fix. You will need to treat you lawn with a fungus control product every couple of weeks until the problem is gone. Change you watering habits to allow your lawn to dry inbetween watering.
• Broad Brown Patches - This is usually our own fault trying to feed our lawn with too much fertilizer and burning the grass. I hate when this happens. You try to do the right thing only to wast money and time ending up with the opposite of your goal of having a dark green lawn. The fix is to dilute the nitrogen in the fertilizer buy watering. This is gong to take some time.
• Brown or dried spots - This one can baffle a lot of us especially if you did not plant the grass your self. I am talking about compacted soil. If your grass looks brown and dried out but you have check to see that it gets enough water or at least as much as other green areas, you might have compacted soil. Compacted soil can be caused being too rich in clay, compressed by excessive rain, or too much traffic in that area. The treatment depends on the reason for the compacted soil. If your soil it too rich in clay in just that area, you should remove the top layer of clay and bring in the right soil then replant your grass. If the compacted soil is a result of excess rain, then you should aerate the area. In order to resolve the problem of compacted soil, first find the reason it is compacted.
• Brown spots due to excess thatch - Excess thatch is an additional spongy layer that can affect lawn health and result in brown spots. Thatch is simply debri that settles at the base if the lawn. This is a normal occurance but excess will can cause it to not receive adequate mowing, nutrients and water, and cause browning conditions.
• Brown spots because of Diseases - There are particular diseases that can increase brown spotting in a lawn. Rhizoctonia Yellow Patch, Sclerotinia Dollar Spot, Rhizoctonia Blight, Typhula Blight, Stripe Smut and Pythium Blight are a few of these. Determine the witch one you have before applying the solution. Apllying the wrong product could damage your lawn even more.

Best Time to Water is Early Morning

• Best time to water during Summer 4am-7am
• Best time to water during Winter 6am-8am

Why you water Early Morning

• Avoid watering during high heat times
• Minimize evaporation by watering early morning
• Lower the chance of wind drying out moister and effecting sprinkler spray by watering early morning
• Allow foliage time to dry during the day / sun with early morning watering
• Drastically reduce risk of lawn disease by setting the time to water in the early morning
• Plant foliage needs time to dry before the sun burns the foliage.

Why not to water at Night

• Prolonged moisture on foliage and lawn surfaces makes them susceptible to fungus and diseases
• During winter the moisture on foliage increases the possibility of foliage freezing during low temperatures

Why to Water at Night or Early Evening Watering

• Watering in the evening is helps plants that prefer cool weather. The water will cool the soil after a hot day and helps prevent the plant from prematurely going to seed.

Other Watering Tips

• Water the day before you cut your lawn to help your lawn recover and it helps to prevent brown tipping. A sharp blade will help with the brown tipping and white edges.
• The best time to water outdoor plants is in the early evening. This allows the water to be absorbed into the soil without the sun causing it to evaporate right away.
• Ideally watering first thing in the morning is better for your plants. That way the sun has a chance to dry off any excess moisture on leaves and such. This prevents a fungal problem from developing.
• Another bonus is that your plants will have the moisture they crave during the heat of the day, instead of waiting until after the heat has passed
• Frequent, shallow waterings lead to shallow roots. Shallow roots lead to more rapid stress under drought or hot conditions.
• Too much water is as bad as, or worse than, too little. Rate of water application should be no more rapid than the rate at which the soil can absorb it.
• Fertilizer spread around plants (including lawns) does absolutely no good at all unless it is dissolved in water. Therefore, fertilizers have to be watered in, and soils have to be moist to get the full effect of the fertilizer application.

Sandy Soil

• If your soil is sandy allowing water to drains fast, you might need to water more and water more frequently
• Sand is easy to dig, but does not hold water well.
• Sandy soil drys out quicker but water will get to the bottom of the root zone very quickly

Too Much Water or Over Watering

• Watering your plants too much can have of negative effects on them.
• It can lead to fungal damage that could end up destroying the plants. -Over watering could also cause lots of weed to grow in your garden using nutrients the plants need. Excessive growth of weeds could choke out and kill lots of your other plants.
• Too much water or over watering your plants could mean that you actually drowning them

How Much Water and How Often

• Shallow soils, less than a foot deep, won’t hold much water, the water will run off quickly. You will have to water a shallow soil more frequently, but for a shorter duration.
• plant’s roots spread one and a half to four times the width of the canopy or foliage and are within the top two to three feet of soil. This is called the root zone. This would be the target watering area.
• Shallow or compacted soils can affect the depth and spread of the root zone, as can improper watering. Some times we can not apply water to the entire root zone, but this should be your goal as much as possible.
• At a minimum, you should water at least half of the root zone, ensuring that much of the water is applied outside the canopy drip line. To maintain a healthy, well-distributed root system, it is important to wet the same area of soil to the same depth every time you water, varying only the seasonal frequency (days between watering). Light, frequent watering creates shallow, weak root systems and an unstable plant. Water applied faster than the soil can absorb it leads to puddling on the soil surface and runoff. Over time, this can result in surface compaction of clay soil that reduces air and water penetration, and root growth.
• The soil should be allowed dry between watering.
• How often you need to water is dependent how quickly the soil dries out.
• Soil texture and plant rooting depth will determine the length of time you need to water.
• Deep, less frequent watering encourages deep strong root system that can tolerate longer periods of drought.
• During the warmer months, irrigate at night or early mornings as talked about earlier
• Check your plants regularly for signs of water stress looking for wilted, curled or drooping leaves, yellowing or loss of older leaves, or dead branches.
• Signs of excess water will show symptoms like brittle leaves remaining on the plant and not dropping off, wilted tips on the ends of shoots, soft and even smelly foliage, and the presence of algae or mushrooms.

Watering Grass

• How often you water a lawn depends upon how much water it takes to soak the root zone, the type of grass you have and the weather.
• How long it takes for the water to soak the soil in the root zone of your grass
• Most grasses have a root zone 6 to 12 inches
• Soil type plays a role in the length of time it takes the water to get to the root zone. It takes longer for water to penetrate through clay-type soils than it does sandy soils but clay soil retains moisture longer than sandy soil so the amount of water should be close to the same but how you deliver it will differ such as frequency and length of watering cycles.
• Test how deep the water soaks in. Water for 15 minutes and wait 18 to 24 hours. Dig a hole to see how deep the water soaked in. you will also notice the depth of the root zone. water longer or less depending on what you find. I will dig a few holes to test different areas of the lawn because some areas are shaded and some are sloped.