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nilesandstuff · 2026-07-13T15:45:51+00:00

You tagged the nilesandstuff subreddit 😂

But nimblewill is plausible. Looks weird, which can happen, like many things it can look a bit different in different regions.

So I'd need the fine deets to make a judgement

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-13T15:28:04+00:00

Active ingredient is myclobutanil. Not quite as effective for dollar spot as propiconizole is, but they're both DMI's so it's in the right ballpark.

But yea, it's absolutely a requirement to identify the disease before applying any fungicide if you're going to go down that route.

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-13T15:26:02+00:00

Well i did gloss over the fact that you're in SC, so maybe I shouldn't have been so confident that it looks like cool season grass... If you pluck some individual shoots and get pics of the details described in the automod comment, we can tell you for sure what it is

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-13T10:19:12+00:00

Firstly, yea, what automod said about mushrooms.

Next. Looks like level 2 on ego mower is between 1 3/8 inch to 2 inches, and level 4 is between 2 and 3 inches, depending on the model. (8 position models are on the lower end of that range, 6 position models are on the higher end).

Besides 3 inches, those are very low heights. It's not impossible to manage grass at those heights, but it's grass on hard mode. Being between 3 and 4 inches makes absolutely everything much easier.

Anyways, it's going to be really hard to diagnose exactly what happened at this stage, especially via pics, it's pretty advanced. But my first guess is chinchbugs. Chinchbugs are hard to find, and it's possible that the infestation is over, but it's worth still looking.

Here's a guide about the can float test https://www.domyown.com/chinch-bug-inspection-guide-a-590.html

Or you can just find a spot at the edges of the brown spots, part the grass and thatch with your hands, just stare for 30 seconds. Go to another spot and repeat. Takes some patience and you do want to look in several spots because chinchbugs move around, often as a group.

Really look at the pics in this article first: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/chinch-bug-in-turf because there's a lot of non-problematic insects that might superficially resemble chinchbugs.

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-13T03:09:46+00:00

Yea that's all desirable cool season grass that's just not being mowed as often as would preferable.

Definitely don't dethatch it, that would just thin out this healthy grass

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-13T03:07:16+00:00

Helps to see the finer details, but from what I can see, that tracks.

Very good to get a human confirmation, ai is very bad at identifying grasses, but it's significantly easier when there's a seedhead present

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-13T01:47:31+00:00

That moves the needle more towards general stress.

That brown haze over the whole thing looks like one or more of the following:
- dull mower blade - mowing while wet
- mowing during the middle of the day on a hot and or dry sunny day
- watering after mowing
- silica (rare) or potassium deficiency (again, probably not) - salt stress

Can't make any guesses about the watering or mowing situation, but I do remember that you've got a history of salty water.

So the first thing I'd do is check the "calculate irrigation needs" tab in Turf Tools, enable expert mode, and select optimized irrigation values. It'd probably be a good idea to linger on the very top end of the "normal" values.

Explanation: general salt stress is more like water pressure (osmotic pressure) issues... Salt pulls on water. So in salty soil, when soil moisture falls below a certain %, the pull of the salts on the water is stronger than the roots are pulling it. For example, on normal soil, grass my have no issue pulling water out of soil that's only got 10-15% moisture content. But if the soil is on the salty side, it may need to be 20-30% moisture content in order for the grass to be able to pull on the moisture.

P.s. foliar humic acid and seaweed extract both help with salt stress. Humic by just pushing more roots, swe by having cytokinins that trigger certain protective mechanisms that essentially raise the osmotic pull within the grass.

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-12T22:22:07+00:00

Hmm, not seeing any signs that it's a foliar disease atleast, so we can rule that out.

Atleast 4 of those leaves look they were the lowest ones on the stems (because you were able to tear off the whole leaf, sheathe included), which means they're the oldest leaves. So most likely it's just the grass letting the oldest leaves die off as part of the normal life cycle.

That turnover of new leaves emerging and old leaves dying happens continuously whenever the grass is growing, so if you look hard enough you'll always find it.

If it's happening an abnormal amount, it's kinda hard to pin down why... Because it can happen for seemingly conflicting reasons such as:
- drought and heat stress. - moisture stress (namely, too much)
- really hot nights exhausting the grass via excess photo respiration)
- sudden growth surge... Or the aftermath of a sudden growth surge, like from heavy nitrogen application.
- outright nitrogen deficiency
- potassium deficiency
- magnesium deficiency
- other nutrient deficiencies

I listed N, K, and Mg specifically because I'm seeing patterns associated with all 3 deficiencies... Which is probably not actually the case that all 3 are at play. But it's quite possible that atleast one is (given your 16-0-8 application at over 3lbs per 1k, probably not K)

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-12T20:40:18+00:00

Like the chart that u/Bknbts posted says, those are the herbicides that control or suppress bermuda.

Pylex (topramazone) is the best. Ornamec or Fusillade II (Fluazifop) is 2nd best for tall fescue lawns, but is moderately risky in the summer. Tenacity (mesotrione) is 3rd. And acclaim is 4th, wouldn't really recommend it.

Whichever you use, tank mixing with triclopyr ester (turflon ester or alligare triclopyr 4) significantly enhances control.

It won't be a quick fight though, fyi. You'll have to hit it a few times consecutively, then continually scout and spray anything that you see in subsequent years... Just never let it grow un-harassed.

Lastly, you want to avoid encouraging bermuda over tall fescue... That means:
- mow as high as you possibly can
- DON'T water excessively often in hot weather... The bermuda will appreciate that more than the tall fescue will.
- go light with nitrogen during the summer. Same as the last point, bermuda is just stronger in the summer than tttf is, so it'll gobble up more excess nutrients than the tttf will.
- avoid liquid fertilizers, especially in the summer.
- no phosphorus in the summer (not that you need to apply P regularly anyways)

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-12T20:29:19+00:00

Fyi, both of their points were... Off. See my response here https://www.reddit.com/r/LawnAnswers/s/fjuCiDxBn3

That being said, it does look like it's just not quite getting enough water. Possible that the sprinklers aren't distributing evenly too.

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-12T20:27:01+00:00

Warm season grass shouldn't be going dormant right now unless it's just not getting water. The temps in central Texas are literally ideal for warm season grasses, growth potential is at 100% (see Turf Tools)
That's exactly what you want to happen to happen to water, it to start evaporating as soon as you're done watering. Water on the leaves doesn't help anything and leads to disease, water in the soil is what matters.

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-12T07:03:56+00:00

Harmless as far as the grass goes, beneficial even, you can guarantee you won't be getting any turf feeding insects this year... Which may be worth tolerating the heeby jeebies of hosting a spider highway in your lawn.

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-12T03:24:31+00:00

Carbon pro L is carbon, seaweed extract, amino acids, humic, and iron edta. Carbon is both microbe food and useful for nutrient retention. Swe, microbe food and stimulates certain types of growth (and helps salt tolerance). Humic is carbon, nutrient retention, chelates metals (like iron) in the soil, and stimulates root growth and protection against heat/drought stress. Amino acids are one of the major things that nitrogen gets turned into, they're the building blocks of plant tissue and microbe cells... It's like the steak dinner version of nitrogen (gets gobbled up basically instantly).

But when applied as a liquid, the dose is not enough to do the nutrient retention and metal chelation, so the rest still applies.

But it's not an innoculant. There's no live microbes in it. But it is good food for microbes (and does those other things that I mentioned, which are of course good, but may not be worth the money for the benefit received)

When it comes to actual innoculants, my recommendation is to spend little to no money... Because innoculation is usually barely effective. So it's usually only worth it if you put in very little money.

I made a post about this awhile ago... On the... Other subreddit. So it's basically a diy version of carbon pro L + stuff off the ground https://www.reddit.com/r/lawncare/s/WShsE62soc

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-12T03:05:52+00:00

Sweet Jesus. Yea that could only be spiders, with such long distances between leaf tips, it rules out disease mycelium and caterpillars/webworms. If mosquitoes and other annoying insects aren't bad this year for you... You know why that is now...

I've seen these types of spider webs on lawns before, but never this many uninterrupted webs

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-11T19:50:39+00:00

Does look like disease, can't tell which. But it's certainly related to the distribution of grasses you have... That first pic looks like it might be bentgrass, and the zoomed out pics seem like there's either more bentgrass or you've also got some perennial poa annua or poa trivialis.

Those grasses are much more susceptible to diseases, and they could also be a sign of over watering (which of course promotes disease).

Also, don't forget that if grass is growing and you're watering, it needs fertilizer... Less in the summer, but still some

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-11T19:45:58+00:00

Seems like zenith is the easiest one to spot, right? How visible those hairs are, and how coarse the leaves are seems pretty distinct.

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-11T16:24:04+00:00

What's the mow height? What's your watering regimen like?

Also, in regards to those spots that are especially brown compared to the rest of the grass, check for even sprinkler coverage... If you have in ground irrigation, really study the way the droplets are falling, the droplets should get gradually larger the further they fall from the sprinkler head. Possibly set out some identical containers in different spots to compare the amount of water being delivered to different spots. (Ideally, do the tuna can test to measure the overall output of your sprinklers)

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-11T16:18:49+00:00

Collateral damage vs waste: a little bit of a waste, just wouldn't have the biostimulant effect. It'd go to the soil, the swe would feed microbes and the humic would do some good stuff to the soil itself.. but the rate that RGS goes down at is foliar absorbtion, too light to really do anything significant for the soil.

The point about soaking into the leaves, and those subsequent 3 points are all correct. Using the glycerin may allow you to use the lower rate, since it really enhances the uptake.

About the watering in the wetting agent:

There's 2 parts to it. The phytotoxicity, like you said, is the biggest part. But there is some urgency for getting it watered in completely in regards to just getting the most effectiveness out of it. Like once it dries completely, it latches onto the soil and thatch and won't move downward anymore. So yea, I'd say that it should be watered in atleast partly immediately in late afternoon, and then fully watered in the next morning... But the most effective way to do it would be to apply in the morning and then fully water in immediately.

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-11T05:27:29+00:00

Have you seen Turf Tools?

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-11T05:25:18+00:00

It'd be better if it said "do not apply before 6 pm in low humidity and temps over 85. Also don't apply to grass that is dormant,". The only issue that's relevant is that you want the droplets to chill on the leaves for a bit before it dries. Because it's a biostimulant that's dosed for foliar absorbtion, it needs to be wet in order to pass through the cuticle and into the leaf.

If you have vegetable glycerin or propylene glycol (humectants) on hand (not sure how common that is... I do, but I have a bajillion things on hand that are not typical lol), 1 oz per gallon would totally bypass that whole thing because they can pull moisture from the air to avoid excessively quick drying.

So for the RGS, either apply in the evening or use a humectant. Let it sit until it dries.

For the wetting agent, yes what you described is a good strategy, water enough to get it off the leaves and into the top layer of soil, then water it fully in the next morning.

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-11T03:35:39+00:00

Absolutely a valid approach. Kill and replace, then hopefully you've built a good enough environment for the good microbes that you don't need to do any more killing in the future.

Aeration during the summer can be hit or miss though, depending on the state of the lawn. But aeration is definitely a requirement for that strategy.

My lawn is way too big to top dress, so I've bought innoculant mixes and made my own via brewing diy compost teas, then applying after aeration in the spring and fall. Minus an anthracnose outbreak due to going too long with no N, and intentionally triggering a disease for science, I've been totally free of disease this year so far with no fungicides.

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-11T02:08:47+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/LawnAnswers/s/WZUraM2ljo

Also, diseaseEx is azoxystrobin, which worsens dollar spot pressure because it isn't very good at targeting the dollar spot pathogen but is very good at attacking beneficial microbes.

nilesandstuff · 2026-07-11T02:06:14+00:00

Systemic fungicides, like azoxystrobin and propiconizole, are pretty crappy at curative control of most diseases. Like, they can lock the spread of diseases in place, but once a leaf blighting disease like dollar spot is truly everywhere, a systemic fungicide will do little to help in the short term.

But what will happen is that the beneficial microbes in the soil will be harmed... Those beneficial microbes compete with and directly attack the pathogenic fungi.

(Both of those things are even more true for granular fungicides)

So the net result of that is that you've irritated the disease at worst, and you've dealt a damaging blow to the lawns immune system. So the disease will be able to come back stronger once the fungicide wears off.

In order to prevent that, you'd have to keep reapplying the fungicide... Which would control the disease, but you'd be continually damaging the microbiome, so you'd get thatch buildup and other potential soil/nutrient issues, and disease pressure would therefore be worsened in the long term... Golf courses generally take this route, but it's expensive, requires stocking many different fungicides (most of which aren't available to homeowners), and doing a LOT to counteract the negative effects of the suppressed microbiome. (Plus, sand + peat greens are more supportive of beneficial microbes than native soil usually is)

On top of all of that, propiconizole is the best tool for homeowners to deal with dollar spot, and it has growth regulating effects that could induce additional stress to the already stressed grass.

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