Southern Area Warm Season Grass Kill

14 years ago

Here in the southern, part of the country, particularly coastal states we have an extremely cold and long winter with lots of white stuff. In many areas record setting cold and snow falls. This has reeked havoc with are warm season grasses.

I am a sod farmer just north of the Dallas Ft Worth area, and I lost several acres of Saint Augustine grass. Not a huge problem for me as I can fix it, but it has brought up a lot of questions I see here, on other forums, and a flood of questions and inquiries at my business.

If you have noticed there has been a lot of questions about spring green up and dead grass recently on the forums, so I thought I would take a minute to discuss it, and open up a thread for Q & A.

Before you panic, keep in mind the extreme weather we had this winter. It has significantly delayed spring green up. Here just north of Dallas the Saint Augustine is just now starting to show signs of spring green up which is about 6 weeks later than usual. Bermuda grass here has just gotten green, barely, but still too cool to show much signs of growth. The Zoysia is still waiting and only sprigs of green here and there.

So do not panic if your lawns have not greened up yet. Day time temperatures need to be consistently in the 80Âs, which in my area has not happened as of yet, very unusual as we normally hit 90 this time of year.

Unfortunately for some of out friends with Saint Augustine, Centipede, and a few other very sensitive varieties of warm season grass, you might of experienced some winter kill for which there is no recovery from. If you see others with similar grass in your area greened up and your has not, it is likely your micro-climate area experienced some hard freezes that killed the grass.

So I will open it up to you guys for Q & A

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (7)

mojo6911
14 years ago
I planted some St. Augustine sod last summer and it started greening up about 3 weeks ago and is now almost 100% greened up, except for a few places. It seems to be spreading, as well, which is good. I fertilized it with some 15-5-10 as it was about 50-70% green. I plan on applying the same fertilizer sometime in late June, is this a good idea or should I delay it? I know St. Augustine doesn't get that hungry.

Secondly, I planted some Sahara late last year in the front yard and it has greened up, but there are a lot of places where it died from the winter. Should I wait this season to let it fill in, or should I overseed in a few weeks?
texas_weed
Original Author
14 years ago
SA is fairly hungry but not as much as Bermuda. Sa needs fed about every 45 days vs 30 for Bermuda.

For the Sahara at least wait until it gets a bit warmer, depend on where you are at. You want day time highs in the 90's and soil temp at 70 or above. If at that time the areas are large, go ahead and over seed with more Sahara.

Suspect you waited too late last year to seed the Bermuda and the root system was too shallow and froze this season. Just a guess though. Where are you at??
Related Discussions
Warm or Cool season matter when selection of the best grass seed?
Q
Comments (29)
Taken last night, just for you. http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/1174/bermudafescuecomparison.jpg That brown grass on the top is bermuda as of yesterday. Not a green blade in sight. The grass adjoining that space is fescue and look how beautiful and dark green that is. Bermuda does not hold a candle to that color which is why fescue is used so much in professionally designed landscapes. Bermuda doesn't just "show the winter season" as you put it. It's brown in fall, winter and spring. And if it's dry summer, it's brown in summer. Heck, you're in Athens, you know it snowed here this week. Bermuda will not be green for some time to come. The only green bermuda you see is the lawns that have been taken over by weeds, which is most of them that haven't used pre-ermegent in the fall. Believe me, you don't want to be stuck with a brown, weed infested, ugly lawn while everyone else has a gorgeous lush fescue or thermal bluegrass lawn. You're in Athens,GA I'm sure you've heard of the term "Gnat line" being used. Well warm season grass is for areas "below the gnat line".
...See More
Tips For Planting of Warm-Season Crops
Q
Comments (16)
Ezzirah, You're welcome. I've found I have a lot better gardening success when I focus on giving each plant what it needs and that's especially true of vegetables. They just won't perform if they are too hot or too cold or too wet or too dry. Susan, I remember "spit baths" too. lol The cold doesn't scare me. I have an order of 5,000 square feet of floating row cover scheduled to be delivered tomorrow, so I can do as I please (within reason) and just cover it all up. Now I won't have to decide which plants get covered and which ones don't. I still will have to decide which plants get the premium 8-degree frost blanket (I only have 120 s.f. of it), the midweight 4-degree row cover, or which ones get a more lightweight covering that gives about 2 degrees of protection. However, at the present time it is a moot point because there's nothing in the ground now that can't survive freezing temperatures although it is always in the back of my mind that the minute I put tender vegetation in the ground, frost will come swooping in unexpectedly to try to kill the plants. My problem is that I have nine thousand things going on at once and I can't even seem to find the time to get anything planted. Between the fires and company coming to visit, animals needing attention and care, a lawn that needs mowed and weed-eated and watered and a house that needs cleaned, and so on and so forth, I've barely stepped foot in the garden the last 4 or 5 days. Tomorrow, I'm going to get up, go straight outside and get busy planting and I'm not going to let anything distract me. Next week's cold spell bothers me a little and would bother me more if I were further north. I'm so far south and the soil temps are averaging above 70 at planting depth, so a brief dip at night won't bother my plants because I can cover them. I sure wouldn't even contemplate putting tender plants into the ground if my soil temps were still low or if I didn't have a way to cover up and protect them. We need for the cooler weather to return and hopefully it will give some of us some rain. The humidity here is so low today (right now it is 16%) that my skin feels like it is cracking, and we need moisture in the worst way. Part of my "to do" list today is to water the soil around the foundation of our home and outbuildings. That's usually more of a summer type task. Dawn
...See More
Washington DC Warming to Southern Plants
Q
Comments (23)
I don't like global warming, because I already live where it is too hot. Some short term problems for all gardeners in all parts of the country: With longer growing season: More bugs. More plant diseases. Also, some traditional old reliable plants in northern areas may not perform as well as they did. (We can't grow a lot of things in the Deep South such as Hostas, Peonies...there are a lot of them!!) More serious: Loss of trees. This more of a concern in zone 9. We had a very warm fall, and the leaves on our trees were not falling. If San Antonio were to become frost free, I think many of our deciduous landscape trees would decline and die. That's scary. Fortunately, we got some decent cold weather and the leaves have finally fallen from our trees.
...See More
Warm season grasses blooming in spring
Q
Comments (60)
Seems like things are returning to normal around here after an early spring. The flowers most recently coming into bloom are pretty much in line with last year's dates. Lots of rain around here lately, which has been really helpful with all the planting I did this year. Most things are standing up pretty well, except things like the Coreopsis lanceolata, but that's not too surprising. I've had to stake the one snaky Liatris punctata that's managed to survive here, and a couple of Culver's root plants whose stems were beaten down by a storm. My hell strip planting always leans toward the south, like it's on a north- bound train moving fast. I suppose some of that could be sun-related, but I suspect it's more about predominant winds, which get funneled down the north-south street next to it. You really notice the lean after storms. It makes me appreciate the things like the Cheyenne Sky switchgrass that don't seem to be affected by it and continue to stand up straight. I have some seed-grown Salvia azurea on the south side of the house, under the eaves where it's drier. Bumblebees love it. My plan is to have enough stuff in front of it so that I don't have to bother cutting it back in May/June, but I haven't gotten to that point yet. It works pretty well I think in a fairly dense planting, especially with grasses like the bluestems that stay low early on and allow the sun to reach the Salvia. I imagine it would be nice with late-blooming sunflowers of some type.
...See More
mojo6911
14 years ago
Yeah, It was put in about mid August, a month too late. I live in the DFW area and have never seen a winter like this one. I think it killed off a lot of the thin areas.
texas_weed
Original Author
14 years ago
It was put in about mid August, a month too late. I live in the DFW area

Well you were more than a month late to seed Bermuda. Normally here in North TX right about now would be the time to get it done, but not this year. The weather has not warmed up enough yet.

Wait a week or two, or until the day temps are hitting 90 consistently. Then get it down if you need too. However if the bare or thin spots are small in diameter, say a foot or two, they will fill in on there own. To encourage that to happen do just what you should to prepare for seeding. Loosen the the soil up, mix in some compost (Back To Earth is great), and keep the area moist. IF you want rip up some sprigs from other areas and plant them to help fill in quickly.
hannity
14 years ago
I just overseeded with Sahara today. I had quite a bit of winter kill, but I'm rockin and rollin along now.
mojo6911
14 years ago
Another question for the great texas_weed.

If I decide to scrap the idea of common bermuda and want to sprig some Tif419 sod, how does this sound?

Scalp the yard and bag the clippings
Spray the entire area with Roundup
After a week, rake out the dead grass/weeds and respray with Roundup to kill any newly germinated weeds
Buy two pallets of Tif 419 to sprig 2000 square feet
Cut the back each piece of sod into small sections to sprig

Will this spread over one season?
texas_weed
Original Author
14 years ago
Should if you keep the row spacing to 1 foot.

Southern Area Warm Season Grass Kill

Comments (7)

mojo6911

texas_weed
Original Author

Related Discussions

mojo6911

texas_weed
Original Author

hannity

mojo6911

texas_weed
Original Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Southern Area Warm Season Grass Kill

Comments (7)

mojo6911

texas_weedOriginal Author

Related Discussions

mojo6911

texas_weedOriginal Author

hannity

mojo6911

texas_weedOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

texas_weed
Original Author

texas_weed
Original Author

texas_weed
Original Author