How to identify a dry patch on the lawn

As a sod farmer, I’m often asked, how I can identify a dry patch on my lawn?

So what I’ve done, I came to this sod field. I found a dry area in our sod field, so we can take a look at it. So right here to the left, you can see a nice area of fresh grass that looks good and if you spin to the right here, you’ll see a small spot that is actually drought stressed, it needs water.

So feel free to come here a little bit closer, so we can explain what’s going on here. Ok, so if you look at this grass right here, this grass really looks good. You’ll see how this blade of grass is actually folded out, it’s ready for the sun, it’s good to go. If you come over here, you’ll see grass that’s the same grass just a few inches apart. It’s funny how this transition from this large grass to this grass over here is just such a difference.

This sole starting right here going this way, there must a little sandy pocket or something like this here, so the actual water is leaching out faster this area, but if you look at this blade, you can see how this blade here just folded together, what it is doing is it’s actually creating less area for the sun to hit, so it’s not getting as hot, not drying out as quick, and actually this grass over here in this brown area it’s sucked up like that it’s in survival mode, it’s trying to just live at this point. It needs water that bad, but if we come back here to this nice striving area, you can see how these blades of grass here are nice and wide, they are broad, and they are just ready for the sun and ready to grow and continue to grow.

So that’s how I would identify a dry patch in my lawn. I would look for a nice green area like this and I would see some brown patchy areas where the leaves are actually folded together, and you can identify it in that way.