Basics of Lawn Care After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct. Watering Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an hour in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds. You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in Las Vegas your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week. Mowing Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush. Fertilizing Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it. Too little is better than too much. At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide. ------------------ Okay it's me now. Looks like too watering too frequently. At this time of year once a week might be too often. I'd be looking at every 14 days or more. Don't feel the soil to determine the watering. Watch for the grass to dry out. If it is not drying out, then wait. Your soil should be dry and hard for many days before you water again. Your lawn is either fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, or both. With that location and the proximity of the shade, any Kentucky bluegrass will die out. That is a fescue area because of the wall blocking half the day's sunlight. With that in mind you should be raising your mowing height all the way to the top. The reel mower is not great for mowing high. Good for mowing low but that's not your grass. Do not seed this time of year. If you need seed, wait until late August. You cannot have grubs yet. The grubs show up several weeks after the June bugs swarm your porch light. If you don't have any June bugs, then you can't have any grubs. That's not a universal truth but it is fairly useful for most people. And on that line of thought, please don't try to prevent problems you think you might have. Wait until you have the problem. The fungus problem is pretty apparent. I have a suggestion if you are interested in an organic solution. tiemco will disagree based wisely on his experience. My experience is 180 degrees opposite to his. This time I'll wait for him to suggest something.

The best way to gauge if your lawn is not receiving enough water is to probe the soil to see how moist or dry it is (Which you have done). Soil probes usually either take a sample out of the ground or use electronic sensors to test the moisture. If you're not interested in buying one of these instruments, you can simply take a narrow screw driver or stiff wire and push it into ground in several places. If you are able to penetrate to the suggested root depth easily (usually 6-8 inches), then your soil is properly saturated. If not, then your watering is not reaching the desired depth and you may need to water for longer periods of time. You may want to perform a sprinkler test if you find that you're not getting enough water in the soil but do not know how much your sprinkler produces in a given time. A sprinkler test can be carried out by simply placing equal sized old coffee cans or tuna fish cans around the area that you run your sprinkler and let it run for 20 minutes. Once completed, take a measurement of the water that has accumulated in each container. This will show you two things: One, if you are getting an equal distribution of water in the area. If not, make the necessary adjustments to your sprinkler or sprinkler heads and test again. Two, it will tell you how much water is sprayed in twenty minutes. For example, if you have accumulated 1 inch of water (which is the ultimate goal) in your container, then you are spraying 3 inches (20 minutes X 3 = 60 minutes) of water per hour. The desired water amount can depend on the soil and its ability to absorb. As a rule of thumb, to reach the desired root depth (usually 6-8 inches) it generally can take sandy soils 1 hour per inch of water, clay soils 4-5 hours per inch of water, and Loam Soils up to 2 hours per one inch of water. However, this is only a general guide and it will vary for each lawn. In many cases, to reach the desired depths, clay soils will take 1 1/2 inches of water, loam soils can take 1 inch of water, and sand soils can take 1/2 an inch of water. So, depending on your soil type, make your adjustments accordingly. The ideal situation is to have your lawn develop a deep, healthy root system (usually 6-8 inches deep) by watering just enough (especially during the summer months) to keep your lawn nice and green. If you're unclear as to how much water is needed for your grass, your soil, or what the best time to water is. As a general rule of thumb, you want to water longer and less often, lots of sunlight, high winds, dry air, and drought. Alternately you may want to water less in times of cooler temperatures, lots of clouds or shade, low winds, humidity, and high rainfall

Gosh Lesuko, I feel for you, as I had this exact same problem this spring already. I'm not sure if we have the same reasons, but we sure have/had the same results...unfortunately I lost every plant that showed the signs you have. You may have to start over from scratch like I did. For me - problem number 1 was too much heat. I learned on these forums that after the seedling sprouts, they like to grow in a much cooler environment. Also, add air. A little desk fan running 24/7 in the corner made a big difference for me too. The soil was also a problem for me but I can only guess as to the cause based on what happened AFTER I quit using it. I thought I had primo stuff...(I made it myself afterall!)...but as I was taught here, it was just not porous enough, held water, and sort of compacted inside the cell-pots. Also, it had no nutrients in it, which some say is okay for the first few weeks of plant life, but in my mix the combo spelled death. (But it's soooo black, and it has the perfect ingredients, and it looks so ideal, I lamented.) Well, maybe so, but the proof was in the pudding, and I had a high mortality rate. Same as you, I also had a fungus growing on the soil. So, I switched to a pre-mix formulation that my local feed store carries. 2nd batch faired much better. Now the water....I too, felt that DOD didn't seem right since I have hardly any humidity, and I'm still not convinced that it was a factor or that I was overwatering. Until, I dumped the dirt out in my hand after the plant finally croaked. It was moist, but not wet. Crumbly, soft, fluffy, [smelled moldy] which maybe the one indicator of a obvious moisture problem. Indeed, I had to listen to folks on these forums that know better than I, and I made a crucial adjustment. I stopped watering just because the top looked dry or felt dryish to the finger test. Instead, to satisfy my need to see nice black, moist dirt on top, I bought a pump sprayer and misted the tops, leaving the watering alone until it really WAS needed. To that mist I added foliar feeding fertilizer, and man, what a difference. Within two weeks, yellowing stopped and green started to take over. I really can't claim any credit, because before these forums helped me, my poor plantlets looked just like yours!

Barry I'm so glad you bumped this back up. Not sure how I missed it (repeatedly), but I disagree with much of what has been said. I don't mean to confuse you, but differing opinions usually do, so sorry in advance. St Aug should be very easy to grow in Houston. It will plow over under around and through any other grassy plants you might get including bermuda. All you have to do is mow it at the mower's highest setting every week or two. Currently it looks like you're mowing at the lowest setting. St Aug never needs to be mowed at anything lower than the highest setting. Some riding mowers will go up to 6 inches and some only go to 2-3 inches. If you're mowing at the mower's high setting now, you need a different mower. St Aug can grow up to 32 inches high and look fantastic (if you like the flowing wheat look). The taller it is the deeper the root system it gets and the (MUCH) better drought resistance you get. There is the occasional weed that will get into a thin spot, but usually you can spot spray those out with atrazine. How many thousand square feet do you have to mow? This looks below average for a new lawn, but when the lawn is so big, anything can happen. The big problem is mowing too low, but it does look like the sod went in with some bit of fungal disease. The 3rd to last picture shows some fungal lesions. I have been using ordinary corn meal to take care of fungal disease in St Aug for the past 13 years. It works for me every time. The application rate is 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. I get it at the local feed store. It takes 3 weeks to see an improvement, but since you've already applied a chemical fungicide, corn meal won't work. Chinch bugs? You absolutely cannot see them from a photo. However, you can wipe your hand across the surface then they will flick up in the air. Put a piece of paper down and see if you can flick them up on it. There are some good YouTube videos showing how to do that. They hit the hottest part of the soil first, so that's usually next to asphalt or concrete. Then almost never begin in the middle of the yard unless you have watering issues. The first place to check would be in your last photo. And just because you might have one insect pest does not automatically make you a candidate for the full catalog of insects. And don't apply insecticide because you see bugs. Insects are not only normal, they're required for healthy soil and turf. You do have watering issues. I assume for such a large lot you have a system in the ground. It needs to be tuned up, because it is missing spots. Place some tuna or cat food cans around in the dry spots and in the green spots. Then time how long it takes to fill the cans. Some high flow systems can fill them in 20 minutes, so keep an eye on them. But some of your cans are going to be pretty dry for a long time. Eventually you want them all to fill at about the same time. Then use the time it takes to fill them as your new watering time for every zone. That's 1 inch of water. The idea is to apply a full inch all at one time. Then wait until the grass is ready for the next drink. Generally speaking when the temps are in the 90s, water once per week. With temps in the 80s water once every 2 weeks, temps in the 70s water every 3 weeks, and once a month the rest of the year. This also promotes deep roots. You don't have clay soil. You might not have perfect soil, but clay is not the issue. Usually the problem is a salt imbalance that causes soil to act like clay. Even sand can act like clay. If you really want to know all about your soil, send a sample to Logan Labs (not TAMU). For $25 they will send you a detailed report. Post that report here and morpheuspa will read it for you telling you what you need to apply, where to find it, how much, when, and how. That's another $200 value for free. Fertilize in May, late September, and again in late November. Don't try to jump the gun in the spring. If you want info on organic lawn care, let me know. I think you should, but not everyone agrees. If you go to a full chemical program, then I would suggest at least once a year to use an organic fertilizer (ordinary corn meal, again) to keep your soil biology happy. So in the long run, taking care of St Aug is easy. You water it depending on the temperature, mow at the highest setting, and fertilize 3x per year. If you do these simple things, you should never need herbicide, insecticide, or fungicide. If you see weeds in the early spring, don't use a weed-n-feed. Use a herbicide with atrazine. Read the label 2x and follow the directions carefully. Photo tip: Take garden pictures on a cloudy day to minimize contrast between bright and shadow.