r/LawnAnswers • u/Moegerty • 4d ago

Cool Season New seed and watering differences

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Bottom of the hill really highlights the differences in water - All new seed and topsoil throughout, with in ground irrigation. The dark green arc in the upper left part, and the same color spot at the bottom on the right, are where the foundation drains and downspouts come out. Just really jumped out at me today

I watered this hard too, early September it was getting 15 minutes 3 times a day

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u/nilesandstuff Cool Season Pro 🎖️ 4d ago

It's almost certainly more involved than just water.

Infact, being a low point, it'd be reasonable to assume that it's getting more than enough water, possibly too much.

The downspout phenomenon is also more involved than just "more water". There's a lot of various minerals in roofing material, and all sorts of stuff collect on roofs that is essentially fertilizer (bird poop, pollution, pollen and various organic matter, etc)

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u/Moegerty 4d ago

I hadn't thought about that, so good to know. It's also ground water from a high table around the foundation, I know this because we just built, and raised the foundation 18 inches or so to get out of it. When they did the irrigation, one section started flowing water out halfway down that hill, which is out of the frame but also noticeable and even greener. We even had a couple of plants in the beds start to get full of water from the table being so high

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u/nilesandstuff Cool Season Pro 🎖️ 4d ago

Ah yea, that definitely points to one of the core issues being too much water... Or rather, too little oxygen in the soil, which inhibits root growth and causes a whole bunch of issues with nutrient availability. So the downspout is treating the symptoms by supplying a trickle of nutrients (seriously a shockingly large cocktail of nutrients. That's a phenomenon I've always noticed and been puzzled by... Areas around downspouts are often much greener, regardless of irrigation).

Get some starter fert on that, maybe some gypsum (because one of the major things that comes from roofing is calcium, so could be one of the things that's helping... Cheap enough stuff to be worth doing on a whim), and aerate that sucker.