How to Identify Poor Sprinkler Coverage
Since 99% of brown spots in a lawn are watering related, the first step in diagnosing the problem is to determine if the brown spot is receiving adequate water. We always like to eliminate poor sprinkler coverage and improper watering before we conclude the issue is a lawn fungus. Step one is to measure the water output of your sprinkler system using rain gauges.
To do this your will need two identical rain gauges or two exactly same sized flat bottomed and flat sided dishes (Tupperware dishes). Put one of the dishes in the brown spot and another flat bottomed and the other dish in a green spot of the lawn. Run the sprinklers. After the sprinkler cycle is completed you will probably notice that there is a difference between the amounts of water in the green area dish versus the brown area dish. This is because the sprinkler coverage is not as good in the brown areas as it is in the green areas. Obviously the fix to this problem is to make a sprinkler head adjustment for better coverage.
If you have difficulty diagnosing what is causing the brown spots in your Boulder or Fort Collins area lawn please contact Organo-Lawn and schedule a sprinkler system audit with one of our lawn care experts.