The first step to create long term solutions is to identify the culprits that are causing the problem. One of the most notorious agents in causing localized dry spots is bicarbonate build up on the soil surface. Bicarbonates often combine with sodium, and are regularly introduced to the turf environment through irrigation water. Bicarbonates seal the soil surface by making calcium insoluble, reducing the rates of water and air movement into the soil. In circumstances where the bicarbonate level is very high, one can actually feel or even hear the sealing of the soil surface — it will feel and sound as if you are walking on crepe paper. The real problem here is that this blocking of air and water negatively impacts the life activity of micro-organisms underneath these sealed off areas. Soil microbes generate a substance that behaves like a wetting agent to coat the soil colloids, allowing water to move past. When the microbial populations are eliminated in these isolated spots, the soil becomes hydrophobic, and becomes very difficult to re-wet, even with wetting agents.