Knowledgebase
What are these circular grasslike spots in my lawn? #875690
Asked July 02, 2024, 3:01 PM EDT
I live on 6 acres in Oakland County and seeded the 3 acres around my house with a 1/3-1/3-1/3 class A mix 7 years ago. Last year in a drier hard packed area I began to notice these darker green grass circles about the size of a dinner plate in my lawn. When I cut my grass at 4" in the summer they look like divits from a distance because the grass is fine bladed and lays down at that length. Now several have spread into the lush perfect area of my lawn. What is it? In one of the pics you can see where I pulled some grass out of the center. It seemed to pull out blade by blade and not connected in any way.
Bentgrass? POA of some kind? Any ideas or suggestions would be awesome. Referral to a local expert would be appreciated if not? I can't let it spread into my entire lawn. There are probably close to 100 spots in the one area already.
Thank you.
Oakland County Michigan
Expert Response
I’d suggest he send a sample to Plant and Pest Diagnostics."
More info on the above suggestions and grass ID features:
https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/AY/AY-41-W.pdf - roughstalk bluegrass ID & control
https://extension.psu.edu/lawn-and-turfgrass-weeds-roughstalk-bluegrass-poa-trivialis-l
https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/TURF-63-W.pdf
https://lowinputturf.umn.edu/video-identification-tips-fine-fescues
https://extension.psu.edu/the-cool-season-turfgrasses-identification
Turfgrass feature ID - OSU
You can contact MSU Plant & Pest Diagnostics (Plant & Pest Diagnostics-MSU). Go to the 'contact us' tab and send in photos to their email address asking for turfgrass identification OR, as recommended, send in/deliver a turf sample for their review and turf species determination.
Here is an article on taking good turf photos to aid in identification: GRASS PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS FOR ID-MSU
I hope this results in an answer.