New grass has stopped growing

Some background:

1. I live in New England.
2. Had ~200 square foot bare patch on my lawn near my leech field (but not directly over it)
3. Did a soil test, PH was 5.5. Put a course of pelletized lime w/calcium to raise the PH a bit.
4. Around April 15th, I put down the recommend amount of Scotts new grass fert w/weed preventer
5. I waited a few days and then put down a very liberal amount of Black Beauty Ultra
6. This took about 2 weeks to germinate because the ground temp was still a bit too cold, but when early May hit and temps were consistently in the 70s' the grass filled in quite nicely very quickly.
7. The area where I planted gets full sun (8 hours)

But this is where my trouble started. When the grass reached about 1" in height (around mid-May), temps spiked into the high 80s and 90s which is unusually warm for this time of the year, and they've been in that range since (save for a few cooler nights).

When that happened I noticed the grass stopped growing and started yellowing w/ a few strands having browning tips, so I changed the watering pattern to be less frequent, and more deep. Instead of keeping the top 2" of soil moist like I was during the seedling phase, I switched it up to a daily watering at 8AM for 2 hours, which kept the soil moist to about 5" or so (I checked by digging out a section, which was cool and damp/moist-ish to the touch, but not wet (e.g. not enough to cause root disease).

This has helped improve the color, but realistically the grass has not actually grown. I've mowed the surrounding grass 3 times already but not once have I mowed the actual new grass. SOME species of the new grass has grown about 2-2.5" inches and is much darker than the grass that has turned yellow-ish. That species has slightly thicker blades, and is clumpier than the yellow-ish grass, so I assume it's some kind of a fescue (which is what the rest of my lawn is).

Not sure if it's July/August temperatures that came 2 months early, bad soil (I didn't check for anything other than PH), or over-crowding. I did put down a LOT more than I realized, already have a very thick, dense carpet of grass, even though that would normally take a couple of seasons to grow in, right?

Any insights would be helpful.

submitted by /u/phpdevster
[link] [comments]

from Home Maintenance Decor Design Construction http://ift.tt/28QKPXb
via /u/phpdevster