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jamesr14

Help Recover St Augustine

jamesr14
9 years ago

I had my yard sodded with St Augustine (Floratam) last Spring. It was lovely all year and this Spring I decided to start with a fertilizer regimine and figured I couldn't go wrong using a Scott's App on my phone (I'm sure you can see where this is going).
Everything went fine this year except for the occasional bit of fungus (grey leaf spot) in the front (full sun, slight slope). I kept the fungus at bay for a while but never fully beat it. All of a sudden it just blew up on the little strip between the sidewalk and street and that entire section is just about gone. I hit it a few more times and just now think I have it under control.
My theory:
I always followed the directions on the bag with the fertilizer BUT I didn't pay very close attention to overlaps with the spreader and that little strip is too narrow for the two passes I was making.
I also was watering twice a week because that's what I was allowed to do.
Furthermore I modified my mower to mow at 5" because taller was supposed to be better for the grass.
In it's prime this grass was so thick I couldn't push the mower through it.

At this point the fungus has stopped but I have a large percentage of the grass that is very shallow rooted. I finally dropped the mower height to about 3.5" which is supposed to get more airflow to prevent the fungus. Of course the shallow rooted grass doesn't like this new height setting but it's hanging in there at this point.

I know some of it is going to need replacing but I want to wait until probably spring before doing so. In the meantime I'm trying to figure out what to do to help recover what I can. I know the cause of the shallow rooted grass but I don't know how to fix it without killing it. I thought about aerating but before I spend the rental fee on the machine I want to make sure it'll actually do something. Perhaps it'll allow me to water more frequently without the run off so more water gets down into the soil.

Any assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

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