Do you know why this has happened?

Question

my grandad just put lawn weed and feed granules on our garden grass and now we have lots of brown patches dotted around all over the grass he says he spread the stuff evenly so we don't have a clue why this has happened?has this happened to any of you? if so what did you do to make your grass green again?

thanx in advance

Answer 1

One of two causes, Either gramps didn't do as good a job as he thinks, and the fertilizer went on too strong in spots, or those brown spots are weeds dying.

Answer 2

What many people do not realize is the the stuff sold as "weed and feed" should, in reality be named "plant killer and feed". The "weed" portion in the title is a chemical formulated to kill certain weeds but sometimes they are formulated to kill certain lawn grasses also! Sometimes also, weaker patches of the lawn can't handle the stress of the weed killer. I'll include the name of two in particular on the chance that  your grandad used one of them. Scotts Bonus-S for Saint Augustine and Scotts Plus-2 for Bermuda are two weed and feeds for very specific lawn grasses. The "Bonus-S" feeds Saint Augustine grass while killing weeds AND Bermuda grass while the Plus-2 does the opposite, feeding Bermuda while killing weeds and Saint Augustine.

After a lot of years selling weed and feeds as a garden center manager and hearing sad stories such as yours, I became a staunch advocate of "If you want to feed the lawn do so with a good fertilizer and if you want to kill the weeds in a lawn do so with a weed killer and forget about mixing the two!". Even better, much better, look into using weed PREVENTERS at the proper time of year to kill the weed seeds before they have the chance to pop up in your lawn. These work only on seeds (including flower/vegetable seeds) and won't harm anything already sprouted and growing. They are much, much safer around existing plants as the weed and feeds are also dangerous/deadly to OTHER plants in your landscape such as trees and shrubs!

ps...picture me hitting me in the head - ranger c pointed out the other very real possibility that those brown patches are the remnants of once green weed patches. Frequently, when weeds are mowed along with the grass they blend with and look just like grass to the un-trained eye!

Answer 3

Go with Peter's answer, because we had the same problems with weed and feed and we started doing what he has suggested here. We got this same explanation from our local Cenex store and went with it. Now we don't have any of those big unsightly brown patches anymore.