New Sod - Historical Rain. What should I do?

8 years ago

last modified: 8 years ago

St. Augustine sod is two weeks in. The first 10 days it rained almost everyday - some days flooding (record setting rain in TX). The second week it rained less but we still got multiple days of rain. More rain is coming in tomorrow - supposed to be heavy. The grass looks great and has grown a lot but from what I'm reading, is it just not showing the damage yet? Should I do something preemptive like should I go ahead and add cornmeal?

P.S. Topsoil is sandy loam so I'm hoping that because it's well draining might help?

Featured Answer

User

8 years ago

Actually, that's pretty much perfect weather for new sod, and your sandy loam is certainly helping to limit flooding. If you'd planned it, you couldn't have done better. Now, of course, it would be nice if the rain backed off a bit (you can send some here, we haven't had anything appreciable in eastern Pennsylvania in more than a month).

A fungal preventative like corn meal or cracked corn is never an error on new sod. The stuff isn't as strong as it will be when established, so anything you can do to reduce the chances it gets sick is great. Ten to twenty pounds per thousand square feet will help limit any problems.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (9)

dchall_san_antonio
8 years ago
100% agree with morph. Usually I only agree 95%.
Related Discussions
New house, dormant sod, what to do?
Q
Comments (1)
Kind of hard to tell from the pictures what kind of grass it is other than I am certain it is a warm season grass most likely Bermuda. Everything looks normal for the moment. You really need to find out what kind of grass it is before I can tell you what exactly to do. Can you take a good close up like a foot just above the grass? Since it is new sod, I would not use a pre-emrgence this spring and just live with the weeds for now. But basically once it greens up, you will need to start your yearly fertilizer program. Until we find out what kind of grass its, not much else to tell you.
...See More
What to do now with new Bermuda sod
Q
Comments (8)
Agree. I'm 99.9999999999% sure you have Tif 419. It is the most affordable turf in the industry and is used by contractors and landscapers all over the South. I'd change the watering to 10 minutes. About all you have to do is keep the top inch cool - not saturated by any means. Once the sod has knit into the soil below, you're off to the races. Don't judge anything until you have that accomplished, you start backing way off on water, and get some fertilizer down. Eventually you'll be watering about an inch all at one time. Measure that with cat food or tuna cans to find out how long it takes your sprinkler system to put out that much water. Some do it in 20 minutes and some take 8 hours. You need to know that. In the cool months you'll only need to water once a month. In the warm months you'll be watering weekly. Drop your mower one notch every week and mow it every other day. After a week drop it one more notch. You will scalp just a little off each time. Bermuda grows blades out from stems. When you mow down below the stems, it looks scalped. But it IS bermuda. It comes right back. By the time you get to the bottom notch, it will have cooled off enough that the lowest setting is the one to keep. If you want it to look much nicer, get a reel type mower and set that down to 1/2 inch. At that point it no longer grows stemmy. It takes on a completely different growth habit called prostrate. At that point it becomes the coolest carpet of grass ever. Picture a putting green. I would wait to fertilize with chemicals until you have the grass mowed down all the way. Why? No real reason other than to give it that extra time to knit into the soil. In the mean time you can use organic fertilizer. Which ever one you choose, start at about 10 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Then in a month you can up that to 20 pounds and then up to 30 or more if you like and can afford it. Bermuda can take 50 pounds per month if you can do that. Most people opt for chemical fertilizers to simplify the fertilizing.
...See More
Not used to rain this late- what should I do?
Q
Comments (11)
If it's small enough, a cheap beach umbrella may help. I used it for my smaller Souv. Malmaison and my Clotilde Soupert. They're good to have in case of heatwaves as well. I have also used an inexpensive picnic canopy that they sell at the drugstores in summer ( the metal frame with a tarp in a box for about 20-25 dollars ) It takes a few minutes to set up but is worth it if your roses look great and are just starting to open. Hang another tarp on the side that blows wind and weight it down with bricks or rocks. I keep all my roses that may ball in the back because all the tarps and umbrellas make an odd sight. This works for camellias as well.
...See More
One of my new David Austin roses has RMV. What should I do?
Q
Comments (85)
"Propagation: Rosa Damascena is propagated through one year old stem cuttings. It can also be propagated through the divisions of old plant, lateral sprouts with roots and seeds. Stem cuttings are collected at the time of pruning in mid October to end of December; 20 cm long, 0.75-1.50 cm thick cuttings are planted in nursery; 2/3 of the stem length is inserted into soil. IB A @ 200-250 ppm is given to induce rooting. These cuttings are ready after one year for transplanting into main field." http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.2478/V10133-010-0032-4 ---------------------------------------------- " The cultivars and ecotype of Rosa damascena Mill. have been grown by using cutting or two old-suckers for many years" "Stem cuttings are collected at the time of pruning in mid October to end of December; 20 cm long, 0.75-1.50 cm thick cuttings are planted in nursery; 2/3 of the stem length is inserted into soil. IB A @ 200-250 ppm is given to induce rooting. These cuttings are ready after one year for transplanting into main field." "Rooted stem cuttings are taken out from nursery and put in the pits." "The best time of transplanting of rooted cuttings in the field is mid of November to mid January. " http://www.plantsrescue.com/tag/damask-rose/
...See More
User
8 years ago
Yeah, well I only agree with you 94.99% of the time so there. Nyah.
"Stormy" Gray
Original Author
8 years ago
Thanks so much Morph and Dchall! Glad to have helped you two find common ground!

I was sitting back, thinking all the rain was good for the grass and then I read that since the roots on sod are short, it can't hold much water, which made sense when I thought about it. But, you both say no problem? That makes me feel better. And Morph, I'll send some rain up to you if you can send some cool weather down to us!
User
8 years ago
I'd love to, but we're hitting highs in the 90's up here as well. Regrettably, I have no cool weather to trade for some sweet, sweet rain! :-) Fortunately we're likely to get some this week. Hopefully. Maybe. If it doesn't all break up and fall apart again.

Yep, roots on sod are short and can't hold much water, so it relies on us to supply it. Sod should be at least slightly damp at all times for the first two weeks or so, with water levels backing off slowly after that. However, sod/lawn will certainty tolerate or enjoy higher water levels for far longer periods of time.

Pretty much, as long as the soil isn't flooded for days at a time, the sod will be perfectly happy. If flooded, the roots are denied oxygen, which they require to grow. But that doesn't sound like it's a problem.
User
6 years ago
We are experiencing this with new zoysia down on the weekend, and tropical storm Cindy dumping over 6 inches on us overnight in the gulf coast. Sandy underneath. Suggestions?
reeljake
6 years ago
You're good, rain water is your friend on new sod
User
6 years ago
Even if parts are underwater for a period of time? (Hoping hours...not days) a lot has drained already.
dchall_san_antonio
6 years ago
Your soil has already adapted to the occasional heavy rain. It should be fine as long as it drains away before mid day Friday. Generally the biology in the soil does not like to be cut off from air, so that is the real concern, not the grass.

That area underwater in the picture might have worse issues with shade. If the grass thins out in that area next summer, that would be why. St Augustine might be a better choice for that spot. Does it get swampier back into the trees?

New Sod - Historical Rain. What should I do?

User

Comments (9)

dchall_san_antonio

Related Discussions

User

"Stormy" Gray
Original Author

User

User

reeljake

User

dchall_san_antonio

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

New Sod - Historical Rain. What should I do?

Comments (9)

Related Discussions

"Stormy" GrayOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

"Stormy" Gray
Original Author