Help: St. Augustine Grass is dead from fertilization mishap

14 years ago

Help.

I managed to kill off spots of my st.augustine lawn by over-applying fertilizer (non-organic) to it a few weeks ago. I now have several long streaks of dead grass (about a foot wide) that run the full length of the lawn.

How should I address the dead areas? Should I rake off the dead grass from these areas and just continue to water the grass until they are recovered, or is there somehing that should be done to the underlying soil?

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

MCS in ATX

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Comments (8)

maden_theshade
14 years ago
You can leave the dead grass. It will shade the soil. If it gets too hot, you won't have any worms there and they will help it all recover. You could put down some humus mix or Dillo Dirt on these spots to help reactivate the good bacteria that the chemicals have killed. Keep it watered and direct any new runners to this spot and make sure they make contact w/ the dirt, or even partially bury them in the humus mix to encourage roots.
marlingardener
14 years ago
As maden the shade said, leave the dead grass. At this point, esthetics don't count! I would put down a nice 1" to 2" layer of Dillo Dirt, and start putting the St. Augustine runners into the DD.
The fertilizer will eventually flush out or disperse and the St. Augustine will recover and your dead strips will disappear. We all learn from our mistakes. Don't ask me about the big round spot in the middle of the front lawn.
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If the surface of your yard has a good profile that drains water away from all the buildings and is pretty level (no holes), then DO NOT TILL IT. Tilling will ruin the drainage and make holes in the future as the soil settles unevenly. How far away from the beach are you? Orange county is a big place. I have seen Kentucky bluegrass growing a few miles from the beach and it looks great all winter long. KBG would suffer more the farther inland you get. If you are east of Interstate 5 down to Irvine I would not try KBG. The eastern parts of Mission Viejo would be too warm for KBG but western parts are probably fine, even though it is east of I-5. Bermuda would grow anywhere in OC as would St Augustine. You don't have to sod your entire lawn with St Augustine if you are willing to wait. If you are not willing to wait, then St Aug sod is great for an instant lawn. As Lou said above, it is a coarse bladed grass. Bermuda and KBG are fine bladed grasses. Bermuda can be much more of a pain to make really nice simply because it looks shaggy unless you mow it several times a week. It is also very invasive and tenacious. St Aug and KBG are both less invasive and much less tenacious than bermuda. And they do not need nearly as much mowing. You are asking very basic questions so I'll give you the 1-2-3 guide to growing great turf. It is really just this easy. 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. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. 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. Mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. Bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses are the most dense when mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. Dense grass shades out weeds and uses less water when tall. Dense grass feeds the deep roots you're developing in 1 above. Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 4 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above.
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It looks like it's about 2 weeks behind compared to other years but my 'Sapphire' st augustine is coming back with force now that it's warm. I guess it's not quite cold susceptible as I had thought, maybe a bit more cold hardy than Floratam. Still, I had a lot of winter kill that I had to remove. Still much better than Raleigh (very susceptible to fungal disease) and Palmetto (prone to SAD virus). Looks like maybe Palmetto got wiped out by hard freezes due to being weakened by virus??? Sapphire seem to be strongly resistant to fungal disease and SADV.
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I highly doubt its SADD if others in the area have the same looking disease. My guess would be brown patch. The area of brown patch that I had in the winter is greening up, but not fully recovered. The area has hardly any upward growth, it appears to be stunted, which is a usual characteristic after the BP occurrence. In order for these areas to fully recover and start upward growth, is to put some quality compost on the effected areas and keep it moist for a week or so. (bagged compost will also work). From past experience, compost is the only solution I have found for the grass to fully recover from Brown Patch disease. The experiment I conducted was to determine if I had Root Knot Nematode. I placed Corn meal on the area at the recommended rate and sugar on half of the effected area. Initially, the sugar half recovered faster, but currently the half with Corn meal only is doing better. It takes time to recover, try not to expect instant results. About sod webworms: The larvae are greenish with many black spots. Adults are dingy brown moths with a wingspread of about 3/4 inch. You will see alot of moths fly away (somewhat eradically) when you walk or mow over the area. The adults (moths) are laying eggs, and the larvae feed on the grass blades and cause noticeable injury within 2 weeks (early webworm damage resembles drought stress, even when there is sufficient moisture). They complete their life cycle in 5 to 6 weeks and have several generations each year. The soap flush technique is a good way to detect sod webworms. dchall is 100% correct. Last year he told me the same thing he told you about the paper wasp. In the past I would kill them because my wife was worried about them stinging the kids. In turn, I would get sod webworm damage every year. Last year I stopped killing them and I must say they proved to be a huge help to me. I only had a few very very small areas that were damaged by the webworms. I would always see the paper wasps hovering just above the grass blades hunting for there next meal. I also used the BT a few times last year. Timing is very crucial for the product to work. Apply BT 1 week after you first notice the adult webworm moths fly around, then reapply every 3-4 days if in full sun and every 5-7 days in shady areas until the moths are gone. If it rains or you run your irrigation you must reapply. Hope this helps Can you post a few pictures? It would help out a lot.
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The grass is dry. That can happen from not enough moisture or from rotten roots not letting the water up. Are you getting puddles of water in the dry areas? Puddles can allow fungal rot to set in. If no puddles then the areas are not getting enough water. That could be due to sprinklers not adjusted right, runoff from hydrophobic soils, sandy soils allowing moisture to run through, or simply the idea that you need more than 1 inch per week this time of year. My guess is your sprinklers are not adjusted right. That's more of an educated guess because I can see what appears to be a circular shape on the grass in your big picture. Mid way up from center to the right side of the picture is a nice colored circle(ish) green. Outside of that is the dry area. If you put cat food cans perpendicular to the circle and turn on the sprinklers, you will probably see that the cans are not filling evenly.
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lou_spicewood_tx
14 years ago
And water deeply when needed. That's 1 inch of water which equates to 600 gallons of water per 1000 sqft. It is usually every 7 to 10 days during the summer. Slow soaking type works best to slowly saturate the ground deeply. I usually wait as long as possible before my grass starts to wilt. It is very obvious when that happens. Mowing 3-4 inches tall helps a lot to conserve water by shading the ground and promoting deeper root system.
beachplant
14 years ago
Congrats! That stuff is hard to kill! It took me about 2 years to get rid of the stuff in my yard. I hate grass. The stuff tries to sneak over from my neighbors house. It's as bad as dollar weed.
TallyHO!
diggerjones
14 years ago
We've learned if you leave the clippings and add organic content and microbes to the grass, nitrogen isn't needed. It just washes away into the lakes and streams, anyway, after burning up the grass.

Here is a link that might be useful: Turf-Lawn Fertilizer Regime
lou_spicewood_tx
14 years ago
diggerjones,

That's not really the case with organic fertilizer. Basically feeding soil microbes in the soil which is far more cost effective than applying compost. If it rains too much, too bad. That's just part of life.

Beachplant,

I take it that you've never had bermuda grass? Way worse than st augustine...
linda_tx8
14 years ago
There's some nice brown yards around here...people tired of watering in this drought and heat, I guess. I don't bother with turf grass in my yard. But too many plants have died. The last part of the summer is usually the worst, plants that survived before start going downhill.
lou_spicewood_tx
14 years ago
Linda-

I've yet to meet anyone who knows how to water properly around here. They are often surprised just how much is really required. To keep things in perspective...

My little sprinkler puts out 5 gallons per minute. Covers maybe 20 ft by 20 ft so 400sqft. 1 inch needed to thoroughly saturate ground 6 inches deep. That's 600 gallons of water per 1000 sqft for one inch of water. My sprinkler puts out 300 gallons per hour per 400 sqft. My total yard is probably 6000 sqft. You can see how long it really takes to thoroughly saturate the ground to keep everything alive. Most folks do not simply water deeply enough. They never reached the roots... Yet some neighbors don't believe me and water 15-30 minutes 3 times a week while I water every 7 to 10 days or more depending on weather.

Trees are too valuable. The mature trees will have roots covering much further out beyond branches. Water deeply and they will be healthy. Grass happened to get it anyway and stay alive anyway. That's why my lawn looks great without having to water all the time. I care more about trees actually. I have probably 12 trees and still planting new trees till I run out of space. I prefer shade so I'm willing to spend a few more dollars on water bill than paying thousands of dollars to remove trees...

Help: St. Augustine Grass is dead from fertilization mishap

Comments (8)

maden_theshade

marlingardener

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