Help identify what's in my lawn (pictures included)

16 years ago

Last year I seeded my lawn with a KBG blend Best of Blue (from Seedland.com). Unfortunatly, I had to deploy for 6 mos and wasn't able to maintain my lawn like I should have. Anyway, I just fertilized with Espoma a few days ago and I'm watering twice a week...should equal @ 1 inch per week, in hopes of getting my lawn back up to speed. But, it seems I have a mix of some other grass/weed in my lawn that seems to grow quicker than I can cut it. Would someone help me identify and point me in the right direction in curing it. I did plan on overseeding my lawn this fall so that I can fill some of the bare spots that I have...thanks for the help

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Comments (12)

bpgreen
16 years ago
I may be wrong, but I think it's fescue.
subywu
16 years ago
Did you seed or did you overseed to get that? That is definitely tall fescue and not even the more desirable turf type tall fescue. I hope Seedland did not send you some crappy seed by mistake. Fescue seed is way larger than KBG seed.
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Fungal disease of some kind. How often do you water and for how long? How much rain have you gotten? Are you down in a low area or has that area been covered with brush or something? It looks like it was smothered or otherwise protected from sun and wind for a time. I take an organic approach to lawn fungal diseases. I use ordinary corn meal at a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Corn meal attracts another fungus which is predatory on the fungus causing your disease. That fungus is called trichoderma (try ko DER mah). It takes 3 full weeks before you see any improvement. That can be the longest 3 weeks of your life, but after that you should see less yellow and much more deep green. Corn meal is also an organic fertilizer so the dark green color will be very noticeable at the 3 week point. If you have used a chemical fungicide recently, then the corn meal will not work against the disease but it will definitely green up the grass. And yes this is the same corn meal you cook with. You can get it in 50-pound bags at the feed store. And no, it will not attract varmints. Seems like it would but it does not. It does seem to attract birds but they don't eat it. They just come and visit. You can apply corn meal any day of the year, rain or shine, or every day of the year, without fear of hurting anything. If you wan to take a chemical approach, I cannot help you. Our temperatures, humidity, and rainfall are usually outside the recommendations on most chemical fungicides. I gave up on them years ago when I found out how well corn meal works. On another issue you did not ask about: You are mowing your St Augustine much too low. Raise your mower all the way to the highest setting. It will take a month or so before all the grass gets tall enough to be mowed but it eventually will. Mowing it low favors the bermuda which is mixed in with it. Mowing it high can have the effect of choking out the bermuda. Tall St Augustine looks very lush.
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"When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." I think that came out wrong. I was not hinting at anything you said. I was setting up for what I was about to say. My hammer is corn meal, which in the organic world is recognized as a fungal disease preventer and cure. The nail is your yellow grass. When I see the yellow grass, I assume it is a fungal problem. I can see where that could easily be misinterpreted. Sorry. YES, you have to wait until late summer to reseed. Why? Well you don't have to but if you want good results, wait. Seeding now will give you a yard full of crabgrass right away and later on, any grass that did germinate will die from the heat allowing the crabgrass to fully take over. If you want to fix that for the future, you could seed in some Kentucky bluegrass in the late summer. It will spread to fill in weak spots where fescues do not spread.
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jd_king
Original Author
16 years ago
So what do I need to get rid of it
turf_toes
16 years ago
Corsair.

It's expensive (about $120 for two ounces. But that is enough to treat a couple of acres). It kills Tall Fescue AND Rye grass. It is safe to use on KBG.
subywu
16 years ago
That is a significant percentage of fescue. You will have some major patches to deal with if only the fescue is killed. Also, my experience with selective herbicides (ie. Certainty) is that sometimes they are not so benign on desirable turf.

If I were you, I would redo the whole thing. You will probably happier with the result.
sparky-2007
16 years ago
I ended up with the same thing. I had to re-plant some of my lawn and purchased a cheap grass seed from Canadian Tire. I'm pulling it all out by hand comes out quite easily and will re-seed and not cheap out this time
jd_king
Original Author
16 years ago
I guess I'll go with the RU on the spots that I have it. But, my neighbor who doesn't have a lawn established yet has it on their property. Could this be the cause of my problem and if so will I continue to get until they rid it from their property?
jd_king
Original Author
16 years ago
I completed the 2x RU of the lawn, ordered the seeds and once they arrive I'll be ready to go. One problem, our home builder needs to do some work in our house that will require a cement truck to drive over the backyard. It will be a couple of weeks before they start, but I won't afford to wait. I plan on seeding everything and then hope for minumal damage. They said they'll lay sod down to fix any damage that they do. That seems like my only option, unless I wait for another year.
bpgreen
16 years ago
The cement truck will do more than minimal damage. Especially since you'll be watering a couple of times a day to keep the seeds moist. Any chance you can wait until after they do their work to seed the back?
jd_king
Original Author
16 years ago
I could, but SD winters can sneak up on you. If wait I won't be able to get it done this year.
bpgreen
16 years ago
I know what you mean about winter sneaking up. We've been having highs near 100, but it will probably snow in October.

One option you might consider is dormant seeding. Basically, you wait until it's too cold for the grass to sprout and put the seed down. It then germinates in the spring as soon as conditions are right. This usually buys a few weeks over spring seeding.
jd_king
Original Author
16 years ago
Well overseeded/reseeded my lawn today. Used sod quality King Blue Blend (midnight II, Moonlight, blue velvet, bedazzled) from Williams Lawn Seed. Now the waiting begins

Help identify what's in my lawn (pictures included)

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bpgreen

subywu

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Help identify what's in my lawn (pictures included)

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