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We have Grass....and a problem

15 years ago

After a lot of hard work, we turned our field of weeds and ditches and holes into a lawn! I think it's great, except for one problem: the brown patches.

{{gwi:114033}}

It's only been ~ 4 weeks, and the first two weeks were requiring 2x/day watering (temps over 100F, quite dry), since then we've had rain off and on. The 3rd week was watered daily, and now down to a few times per week, depending on what it looks like with the rain. The sod has taken really well in almost all places, and the grass seems to be growing, just with brown spots.

So the brown patches I first thought might be due to just the grass getting 'adjusted", but now I'm worried I have grubs. There was at least one grub in the sod, and I do have grubs in other parts of our yard (dirt/weeds still, no grass) which have recently emerged.

When is an ok time to put down appropriate organic control for grubs given it's new sod? I'm in So.Texas.

Here is a link that might be useful: More pictures of the new lawn

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Comments (3)

cjra
Original Author
15 years ago
Oh, one more question. Outside the fence facing east (to the right of this picture), the city threw down some sod last January when they put in new sidewalks. On most of the street they put St Augustine, then half way through ours, they must have ran out and so threw down bermuda. (and they literally threw it down, like tossed from the truck as they drove by...)
So we have a mix. I'm not that enamored of the StA, we already have mostly bermuda inside the yard, the side gets a fair amount of sun. The sun is filtered a bit by the crepe myrtles, but not much until the end of the day when the sun has really moved to the other side. So I'm fairly sure bermuda would do ok. As it is, the StA looks lousy there - just not doing well. I really don't want to lay new sod. Can I just put down some soil, some bermuda seed, water and encourage the bermuda to take over? Is it likely to on its own? My neighbor has this funky bermuda/StA hybrid that was very unintentional but turned out really cool, so I'm not opposed to a big mix, just don't want it to look like a field of weeds.
rdaystrom
15 years ago
I'm not sure about the brown spots. Although I do see a lot of shade. Including the house and trees I'm not sure there is enough sunlight for Bermuda. Bermuda needs a huge amount of direct unfiltered sunlight to really prosper. You may end up with a mixture of Bermuda and St. Augustine. Not a bad combination.
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hsvcara
15 years ago
Thought I would bump this... just in case someone else has any ideas.

If you laid bermuda sod, you probably got a hybrid which is different than common bermuda in that it grows a little differently and the blades and stolens are finer. If you decide to put down bermuda seed, you will be putting down common bermuda (since hybrid bermuda seeds are sterile) and it will not match your hybrid sod exactly and it is definitely more aggressive and invasive than the hybrid. The common bermuda WILL invade your hybrid sod and you'll have different growth rates.

I would just let the hybrid naturally spread out - it really won't take that long and it's free!

As for the brown spots in your sod, I have no idea about grubs but when I had new sod, it took an entire year for all of it to properly "green up" and I've still got some brown areas now.

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