I've never heard of those diseases thriving on nitrogen. From the research I did on Brown Patch and TARR (which of course I deleted all my bookmarks from Texas A & M and a lot of other places, so I can't find them now to make my point!)it was due to compacted, alkaline soil, moving too short and the use of excessive high nitrogen fertilizer and of course water for the brown patch. Which is odd because we did not have a sprinkler at the time, really didn't fertilize at all but we were mowing to short and had compacted and what I believe to be alkaline soil. I found a study by 2 profs from Texas A & M who treated lawns with Take all Root Rot in Dallas by applying 1 cubic yard of peat moss/1000Sft which changed the PH of the soil. This controlled the TARR so that it did not spread. In another area they applied 40pds/100sft of Hu-More manure compost. The Hu-More compost was less effective over time, which surprized me. But then maybe it was the quality of the compost that effected the study. I will try to find this link for you. From this study I put down the peat moss as directed (I know most everybody here dislikes peat moss), sprayed compost tea on all my poor St. Augustine and applied 20pd/1000 corn meal which I found from this forum and The Dirt Doctor. The difference is amazing. I wish I had pictures for you. 3 weeks and BAM just like everybody said. The corn meal is weak, but let me tell you it did wonders on my grass. But maybe my St. Augustine was just that awful! I will put down greensand mixed with lava sand as Lou recomends to spred by hand. I will put down the compost in the really spindly thin but finally green St. Augustine. I was worried about applying SBM & CGM because I thought the high protein value which equals high N value that it would promote too much top growth and not enough root growth? Am I wrong??? I do want to win my contest and have the best yard on the street! Looks like I'll be busy 2nd week of August. :) Thank you for taking the time to answer my posts. Great link by the way, really liked the section on drought stress important in these parts you know. ~grassypants

I sympathize with your frustration. We have had a new lawn service every year. The last one moved to Tennessee during the winter without letting anyone know. The one the year before had a car accident and couldn't pull their trailer. We found out by tracking them down after they failed to show several times. Then there was the one that thought he could charge us for mowing in the winter when the lawn was dormant. This year I bought a self-propelled mower with front swivel wheels and am doing it myself. The mower will pay for itself in the first year. Cut height for grass depends on what you are growing. The St. Augustine in your yard is usually done at 2 to 4 inches. The Zyosa in my back yard is 1 1/2 to 2. I could just skip mowing the back if I set everything to 3". I also have an area over the septic that preferes to grow weeds, over grass. I have found that, if I cut it real low, it looks fairly decent without dousing it with weed killer. I have a lawn weed that grows low, stays green over summer, and is sorta springy under foot. I have no idea what it is, but I'll take it.

Its hard to say with any certainty what is the cause. The typical reason is related to being too wet or too heavy of a soil mix. Which based on your description was unlikely. There could be other reasons beyond that like a bad cutting (rot was not apparent but was already there), bad cut (not properly callused), and/or seasonal issues (too cool and not during growing season). Sorry but that may be the best I can say. My preference is to start cuttings in the springtime on a heat mat with natural light. IMO light is less important than warmth.

Thanks guys! Laura, my rodent problem is mostly squirrel. They just de-pot everything. I move the plants out of the cage only when they reach a size that can handle their roughness :) Rina, yes the GH set up is not ideal for light but I did not have much other choice and still has other pros. Thanks to that roof the temps are higher longer in the winter and cooler in the summer. I don't need to heat or fan or cover. I originally got it to protect my tropicals and for seed starters. Got tired of wheeling pots in and out of the dark garage on a daily basis in winter...So these are pretty much dormant when in the GH. I built a heated chamber in the corner with the least light for my seed starters that is also supplemented with some LED. The rest is filled with young seedlings up to 1-2 year old or so. So overall not too much of a problem for this usage but if it were my property I would definitely cut out a couple of skylights on that roof :).