Brown Spots!

What Causes Brown Spots?

Brown spots can be caused by a number of factors. Lack of water is the most common, followed by disease. Because Utah’s climate is so arid, there aren’t that many disease problems in our lawns. The number one culprit of brown spots in your lawn is lack of water.

There are a number of reasons one area on your lawn may not be getting enough water. You may have sprinkler heads that are not functioning properly. Poor uniformity in your irrigation system can cause one area to get less water than the rest of the zone.

Check for broken sprinkler heads, heads that are misaligned (a good indicator is a wet sidewalk or street), or obstructions such as trees, shrubs or landscape rocks.

If there are several brown spots within one zone, you may have an overall design problem. Fixing a design problem is costly and labor intensive. If you must replace your system, please consult with a professional irrigation designer. However, if the system seemed to work at one point, you most likely have poor pressure in your system. Call an irrigation professional to help you correct this problem.

For a monthly maintenance check, print this checklist of things to look for in your irrigation system. Print this list, turn on your zones, and mark the problems on the sheet. This way, you will have a record of system maintenance problems!

Coping with Brown Spots

No matter how much maintenance you do on your sprinkler system, no one’s irrigation system is perfect. It is impossible to design a sprinkler system that is 100% efficient. Don’t feel so bad.

After getting the system as uniform as possible, you may still have brown spots.

At this point, you have three choices:

1-Over-water your lawn, thereby wasting a valuable resource,
2-Hand-water the brown spots when needed, increasing your maintenance time
3-Plant something else there that doesn't need as much water.