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As of a few weeks ago, I've noticed that my lawn has started to get a lot of white blades in it. When I look down close to the ground, the base level seems to be almost all white. What is this? Is it just thatch, or is the grass unhealthy? What can I do about it?

The lawn had a moss problem earlier in the year, and I applied an organic moss killer and raked it all out, and reseeded the worst parts. The grass has more or less recovered, but now has developed these white parts.

Grass with white blades

Close-up of lower levels of grass

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Grass renews itself quickly, and these white blades of grass appear to just be old grass that has been replaced by new grass. This is usually more noticeable when the grass was dry, such as when it didn't rain for a few days, then it renews itself with new, fresh grass. It doesn't appear that there is anything to worry about.

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There looks to be quite a lot of thatch in your lawn, so scarifying in autumn is probably a good idea. Otherwise, check the sharpness of the blades on your mower - it looks as if they're probably fairly blunt, and the ends of the grass blades are not being cut cleanly.

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  • Does the end of the grass blades not being cut cleanly have to do with the thatch/white blades in the lawn?
    – ejderuby
    Commented Jul 23, 2019 at 17:32
  • Certainly the overall appearance of white/yellow - if you look closely, the ends that have been cut in the photo are clearly whitish tan in colour. You might get that effect in winter if you cut it when there's a sharp north wind blowing, but it usually indicates blunt mower blades. It may be that some of the blades of grass died back because of it,or its just a build up of thatch, which happens anyway. Do you do regular lawn maintenance other than cutting?
    – Bamboo
    Commented Jul 23, 2019 at 17:37
  • Not much regular maintenance really, no. I've put a lot of work into restoring the lawn after the moss. I raked out the moss and reseeded in April/May. I raked it out thoroughly, which should have been enough to clear the thatch, I think. Some of the mossy parts were pretty bare after the raking, and definitely not covered in thatch, so could it have developed all this thatch in just a few months?
    – grassnoob
    Commented Jul 23, 2019 at 19:06
  • Unlikely - if you think the blades on your mower might not be very sharp, get that sorted then cut the grass and see what it looks like then. And post another photo if there's still a major problem...you didn't notice an issue other than moss in spring?
    – Bamboo
    Commented Jul 23, 2019 at 20:32
  • Yeah the blades are likely quite blunt. I inherited the mower from the previous tenant over a year ago and haven’t done anything with the blade. I’ll replace it and see if things improve, and post another photo. Thanks for the tip!
    – grassnoob
    Commented Jul 23, 2019 at 21:31

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