Tire Tracks in Turf
-This is a part of the article entitled “Mowing in the heat” by Dr. Kevin Frank.
“Last year I witnessed several incidents of tire tracks on turfgrass simply from mowing during the hottest part of the day. Typically tip burn happens when mowing occurs on heat or drought stressed turf. When the turf is close to wilting and you apply any sort of impact, especially from hot black tires on mowers, you will likely get tip burn. The plant hasn’t been killed and will recover rather quickly.”
It appears that you have some tip burn in your lawn. The causes for this problem are anything that will put pressure on dry, stressed turf: footsteps, lawn mower tires, automobile tires, or our fertilizing equipment. This only happens to dry, brittle turf in sunny areas. The same principal applies as in the article; the turf looks bad but will recover. Adequate watering will speed up the turf’s recovery.