The first thing that has to be done is to determine whether or not your sod is actually dead or just a dark brown color. Unfortunately, if your sod is dead, it’s dead and there is nothing you can do about it. Dead sod cannot be brought back to life.
However, your sod may just be very unhealthy and is turning brown. Sod can be damaged by many things. Among the things that can damage your lawn are:
- Too much water
- Too little water
- Fungus
- Weeds
The good news is that, in general, sod that is merely turning brown and not dead can be revived. There are a number of steps you should take in order to revive your sod. The two main causes for your sod turning brown are under-watering and fungus. The following steps will help to turn your brown lawn into green, thriving, healthy sod:
Check with your lawn care professional to make sure you water your lawn the correctly. Typically, for new sod you should water approximately 3 times per day with each watering lasting between 10 and 15 minutes during the first week. The intensive amount of watering should then be eased off as time goes on.
Inspect the lawn. If you find that water is pooling on the surface of the lawn in the areas that you have unhealthy or brown looking sod, decrease the amount of water that you put in that area of your sod.
Put additional water on areas of the sod that have a blue-gray color as these areas are sunburned and require more water.
You can check the condition of your lawn by using a screwdriver or another similar long and thin tool. Stick the screwdriver into a healthy area of the lawn as well as one of the areas that appear brown and unhealthy. If the screwdriver slides into the green healthy sod more easily than into the brown sod, the brown area of sod has been under-watered. Add more water to these areas.
If the screwdriver requires approximately the same amount of force to go into the green and brown areas of the lawn, most likely your lawn is suffering from a lawn fungus. You can correct this by treating the lawn with a fungicide according to the manufacturer’s recommendations.
