Different Types of Grass?

[solbes]

Guess I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to grass. Anyway, we bought our house about 8 years ago. The yard had no sprinkler system and was sodded directly over sand.

We worked pretty hard to overseed and moved sprinklers alot until we installed a system in that first fall. I overseeded with Scotts mix for the first 3 times. I believe the mixture was mostly Kentucky Blue Grass with some fescue and rye added as well. Lawn looked awesome for many years.

What used to be mostly the dark blue, wide bladed grass has been slowly taken over by a lighter green very thin bladed grass. What type of grass is this? The lawn is still very thick. But it doesn't mulch as nicely, look as good, or stand up as well after being walked on as the wider bladed grass. I've even tried overseeding K. Blue Grass a few times and it hasn't seemed to change anything. Anything I can do? It only seems to take hold in the sunny areas.

[lindy rig]

Does it kind of grow at an angle? It may be some type of bentgrass but just totally guessing.

I have also wondered what types of grass are best for foot traffic / high use areas.

[hotrod1]

My guess without a picture would be that the darker grass you had was the perennial ryegrass which gets a dark color and is the best for high traffic. and now the Fine Fescue or Kentucky Bluegrass has matured and taken over.

It could also be bentgrass which has a fine texture and is light green, but usually first appears in small patches of the lawn and spreads unless you seeded an area with bentgrass.

If you can get good pictures it would help i.d. the grass.

[solbes]

I'll try to get some pics this afternoon after work. Thanks for your responses.

[solbes]

Here's the wider bladed grass that we've had all along. Zoomed in pretty far to show the differences.

And here's the stuff at the same zoom that's been taking over. It looks all right zoomed in this far, but it's really fine stuff with the naked eye:

[LwnmwnMan2]

Is it in patches? Or is it all over.

Bentgrasses (poa annua) will usually work in patches, like a tumor and get bigger.

If it's all over mixed in, I'd say it's the fescues taking over.

Do you have a picture of the whole yard, not so zoomed in?

That second pic, looks to me to be a fescue.

[paul pachowicz]

Lawnman, I don't understand your saying that Poa is a bentgrass. Poa is a annual bluegrass. If he had Poa Anna at those heights, it would be white with seed heads.

[hotrod1]

It looks like fine fescue to me.

poa annua is actualy annual bluegrass.

I would say it is definately not bentgrass (agrostis). I can try and get pics of the bentgrass in my lawn.

Yeah, maybe a zoomed out picture would help.

[hotrod1]

If it is fine fescue and it is in shaded areas, you would probly have to spray a Round-up type herbicide to get rid of it. Bluegrass does best in sunny areas, Fescues do better in shade.

If it is in a sunny are, keep up with the fertilizer and water and mow frequenty to slow down the fescue and push the bluegrass to take over. Fine fescu doesn't like to be cut.

[LwnmwnMan2]

Lawnman, I don't understand your saying that Poa is a bentgrass. Poa is a annual bluegrass. If he had Poa Anna at those heights, it would be white with seed heads.

You're right Paul, I meant bluegrass. I had it stuck in my head from hotrod's previous note about bentgrass.

[solbes]

Started out kinda patchy, but now it is pretty prevalent everywhere. I'm not going to go through the trouble of a complete kill with Roundup and starting over, but I would be interested in trying to swing the balance back to the Bluegrass. I'll try some of those things mentioned above, thanks for the suggestions.

One thing I used to do was water the [PoorWordUsage] out of it and fertize a min of 4 times. Now I'm down to minimum watering per zone to keep it green and 3 times/yr fertilize. Maybe try swinging back the other way for a couple of years and see what happens?