NJ Lawns Community

Hey everyone, I'm in Ridgewood and I'm stressing big time. Last weekend I put down Scott's Turf Builder granular fertilizer on my front lawn (about 2500 sq ft) and now I have these horrible yellow and brown streaks running through it. My lawn is mostly tall fescue and I can't tell if I over-applied or if it's burning. Looked at the bag and I think I might have gone a little heavy in some areas. Is my grass dead?! It's been about 5 days since application and it doesn't seem to be getting better. First time dealing with this and I'm really upset honestly. Any advice from the pros would be amazing. Thanks!

Oh man, you definitely hit it too heavy. I've seen this happen a dozen times in the area. Scott's Turf Builder is great but that stuff is concentrated. The yellow streaking is classic nitrogen burn - your grass isn't dead probably but it's stressed bad. How much did you put down exactly? The label says 2.82 lbs per 1000 sq ft for established lawns and you said you did about 2500 so that should be roughly 7 lbs total max. If you went heavier than that you're gonna see burn marks. Go water it heavily tonight and tomorrow morning - like really soak it. That will help dilute the excess fertilizer. Don't mow for at least a week.

LawnLover - where were you applying when you noticed the burn? Also which Scotts product exactly was it - the regular Turf Builder or the weed and feed combo? And are you on irrigation yet? I'm in Fair Lawn and I can tell you most of my customers up here don't run their systems enough after fertilizing. You need like at least an inch of water applied within 24 hours of spreading granular. If you haven't watered yet that could be your main problem - the granules just sitting on the blades burning them. Get those sprinklers going ASAP.

Just want to say as someone who's been doing lawns in Bergen County for 15 years - I don't recommend Scott's for tall fescue specifically. Tall fescue likes way less nitrogen than KBG anyway. Most of my properties that are fescue I've moved to Milorganite or the Espoma organic line. Way harder to burn accidentally. Also timing matters - you shouldn't be putting down heavy fertilizer this time of year in late May anyway. We had weird temp swings in Ridgewood the last two weeks, soil temps were fluctuating and that makes burn worse. Might want to get a soil test done at Rutgers cooperative extension - they're in New Brunswick but they'd test your sample.

Thanks for the quick replies everyone. I used the regular Scott's Turf Builder with Summer Guard actually. Just checked the bag and I think I put down closer to 10-12 pounds maybe? I wasn't measuring - just going by eye. Definitely realize I f-ed up now lol. I haven't watered yet because I was traveling for work and my wife said she thought I wanted her to do it but didn't tell her to. Oops. Should I still water now even though it's been 5 days? The streaks look kind of purple-y now too which is making me nervous.

Purple-ish? That's actually bad news - that's possibly potassium deficiency showing up or fungal activity kicking in from the stress. Do NOT wait anymore - water immediately. Like Ivan said get an inch on it. After that I'd recommend a light fungicide application just in case -something like chlorothalonil or thiophanate-methyl. Hit it with some seaweed extract too that helps with stress. Does your lawn have good drainage? Because if water is sitting anywhere it'll make things way worse. Are these streaks in low spots or all over equal?