bump for dchall san antonio, morpheuspa, texasweed and other lawn expers

What's your watering regimen, and how do you feed that?

Water twice a week 20 min. I have fed it with 19-6-13 fertilizer with sulfur and iron. But not very regularly.

If I rake up with a rake, it collects dead grass.

Morpheuspa,

Thanks a lot. I will try scotts 32-0-4 fertilizer, and see if it gets better.

Do you prefer Milorganite to the scotts fertilizer?

When I rake up the grass, the rake collects dead grass. Do I have to rake all of it up, or can I leave it?

Our lawn is a patchwork of St. Augustine and Bermuda. I find the St. Augustine is heartier. We just began using a lawn service this spring. Last week they applied the first summer weed & feed, and I have been watering it in.

I believe that not picking up grass clippings causes lawns to become thatched which hampers growth. The city argues that leaving the clippings on the lawn is good for it, and perhaps up to a small extent it is, but I totally disagree that leaving the lawn clippings mow after mow is good for the lawn.

I suggest you de-thatching and aerating the ground. We will have our lawn aerated this year. The service goes over the lawn in two different directions with a machine that pushes small holes into the soil. This opens up space for air and for the grass's roots to expend. If the roots cannot grow outward and downward, your grass will never fill in and look lush.

Rather than aerate, try the shampoo method. It'll open billions of tiny holes as opposed to a few large ones. I know I harp on it a lot (and several times below) but organic feeding will also naturally aerate your lawn. Those bacteria, fungi, and little critters punch plenty of holes in the soil.

>>I believe that not picking up grass clippings causes lawns to become thatched which hampers growth.

Lawn clippings do not cause thatch, which is stemmy stuff. However, since you're recycling the resources back to the grass, it'll tend to grow better, which can produce more stems.

Organic feeding can negate that tendency. I have zero thatch in Kentucky bluegrass, the second-thatchiest grass (Zoysia being the first).

>>Do you prefer Milorganite to the scotts fertilizer?

That depends...for organics, the Milorganite works very well. The Scott's fertilizer is a synthetic, which is also fine. Overall, my preference leans very strongly toward the organics.

>>When I rake up the grass, the rake collects dead grass. Do I have to rake all of it up, or can I leave it?

Leave it. Particularly if feeding organically, you can count on it decaying off. Synthetically, perhaps not so quickly, but it does decay.

If you find it hangs forever, that's another argument for a soil test. Usually it means the environment is wrong for the natural decay organisms to flourish.

@Morpheus: what about the table sugar treatment to boost the OM decaying? Wouldn't that work by reducing the amount of woody/dead stems?

In any case, how to dispense it, by plain broadcasting then watering or by spraying a sugary mix? I'm talking about ordinary white sugar.

The only way bermuda could be that thin with 6 hours of sun is a disease or an insect problem. If this area is right adjacent to a sidewalk, then I would suggest looking for chinch bugs. The fact that the soil looks soaked makes me think it isn't hot enough chinch bugs. If the damage is somewhere else I would dig up 1 square foot looking for grubs.

Looking closer at your top picture I'm going with disease. You can either treat it now with corn meal at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet, or if your temperatures are below 85 degrees during the day, you can use a chemical fungicide. Corn meal works by attracting a beneficial fungus which lives off of the disease fungi. You might need to retreat in 3 weeks and again 3 weeks after that. I seem to be in that boat at my place in San Antonio. Too much rain over a prolonged period seems to have readjusted my soil biology. I'm using corn meal to get it back.

Bermuda should be fertilized monthly with a high N fertilizer.

Sugar's a great energy and carbon source for bacteria! If there's enough nitrogen kicking around (bacteria require a great deal of it), then the bacterial populations will explode. Overapplication can cause yellowing of your lawn temporarily as the bacteria suck up all the available nitrogen, so I'd limit application levels.

You can hand-broadcast plain white sugar at anything up to a pound or so per thousand square feet, but amounts over 4 ounces per thousand could cause yellowing. Some minor irrigation afterward--or a rainfall--would be a good idea, otherwise it'll stick to dog paws, shoes, and whatnot and you'll track sticky stuff into the house.

Alternately, spray blackstrap molasses (I prefer that to lighter molasses as it has a lot of other elements that more refined types don't) at 2 to 4 ounces per thousand square feet diluted in any convenient amount of warm water. Minor irrigation afterward is optional as it doesn't seem to get sticky.

The spray method will help feed the bacteria that naturally coat (and help protect) the grass blade. When it washes in, the soil bacteria get a chance at the stuff.

>>The only way bermuda could be that thin with 6 hours of sun is a disease or an insect problem.

Or a soil in resource collapse. Given the widespread and very consistent nature of the problem, I'm thinking there's a severe shortage of something in this soil.