Six Week Old Sod - Does This Look Healthy?
Michael Castellon
8 years ago
Photos: http://imgur.com/a/5ZzDp
I'm a new homeowner in Central Texas and could use some advice. In mid-July I hired a reputable sod crew to install a palette of St. Augustine. They did a great job. I watered fairly heavily for the first month, then backed off to about 1-2x a week since then.
To me, it looks like the sod is starting to turn thatch-y. the green healthy leaves are thinning out and I'm not sure why.
Does anything look unusual? (note that the spots you see are sun -- not damage.) The area is pretty heavily shaded, so this type of light is typical.
Any and all advice or feedback is appreciates.
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Comments (19)
ltruett
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Month old sod turning brown
Comments (14)Basics of Lawn Care After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct. Watering 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. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. 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. You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in Las Vegas your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week. Mowing Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush. Fertilizing Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it. Too little is better than too much. At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide. ------------------ Okay it's me now. Looks like too watering too frequently. At this time of year once a week might be too often. I'd be looking at every 14 days or more. Don't feel the soil to determine the watering. Watch for the grass to dry out. If it is not drying out, then wait. Your soil should be dry and hard for many days before you water again. Your lawn is either fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, or both. With that location and the proximity of the shade, any Kentucky bluegrass will die out. That is a fescue area because of the wall blocking half the day's sunlight. With that in mind you should be raising your mowing height all the way to the top. The reel mower is not great for mowing high. Good for mowing low but that's not your grass. Do not seed this time of year. If you need seed, wait until late August. You cannot have grubs yet. The grubs show up several weeks after the June bugs swarm your porch light. If you don't have any June bugs, then you can't have any grubs. That's not a universal truth but it is fairly useful for most people. And on that line of thought, please don't try to prevent problems you think you might have. Wait until you have the problem. The fungus problem is pretty apparent. I have a suggestion if you are interested in an organic solution. tiemco will disagree based wisely on his experience. My experience is 180 degrees opposite to his. This time I'll wait for him to suggest something....See MoreNew Bermuda sod going yellowish brown after 2 weeks
Comments (13)@texas weed I am in Austin. Apparently the first pallet was even worse, this was the better one! We are getting a lot of rain today and tomorrow so I will see what it looks like in the next couple of days As to watering more often I cannot for two reasons, first I work as does my wife, second and more importantly Austin is in a sever drought right now with insane water restrictions. With new sod I get some exceptions but not a lot! As it stands I can only water every other day for 1 more week then it is 2x a week for a couple of weeks then I am on full restriction. Every Sunday before 10am OR after 7:00pm. That is why Bermuda is now the only grass to code. No more st. Augustine....See More4 Week old Zoysia looks tufted and brown
Comments (2)This question should be posted on the lawn care forum, not landscape design forum....See More4 Week old Zoysia sod looks tufted and brown
Comments (6)You definitely did not water too much. A more normal schedule for new sod would be 5-10 minutes but 3x per day for 2-3 weeks or until the roots knit into the soil. Did the installer roll the sod down? I suspect not., and I say that because he rototilled first. Someone who knew about the need for rolling would also know about the issues with rototilling. Before I get ugly with you, why zoysia and not St Augustine? At this point, I assume the grass knit down anyway despite the not rolling and the slightly imperfect water. There are several reasons why the grass might look like that. One is not rolling. Rolling is necessary to ensure the bottom of the sod contacts the top of the soil. Roots won't grow through the air to reach the soil. Another reason is the grass might have been stressed on the pallet. Did the grass sit on the pallet longer than a day before he put it down? But no matter the cause, it will have repaired itself and look normal next April when it comes out of winter dormancy. Zoysia does not fix itself quickly, but some sort of magic happens over the winter. I had some get damaged by fungus in May, and it remained dead looking for the entire season until the following April. It came back very normal looking; however, by that time it had to compete with the bermuda grass that came in for 9 months while the zoysia sat it out. I have seen many zoysia installations in San Antonio do the same thing. Once damaged during the growing season, bermuda comes in and it's all over. You have the advantage of it being late in the year with cooler soils, so the bermuda may not get a foothold on yours. Those other zoysia lawns I saw converted to St Augustine after the first bout with disease. With the shade you have I never would have considered anything but St Augustine, but hang in there and give this grass a good try next season. Here's what to do until the grass stops growing. Watering: You'll have to ease into this with new sod, but it is important. Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall. Mulch mow at the mower's highest setting. This helps to develop deep roots as well as fight off weeds. Fertilizer: I assume you're going organic since you already used the Dillo Dirt. For readers who are not from Austin, Dillo Dirt is Austin's answer to Milorganite. DD is more of a compost product than a baked microbe product. You can use the Dillo Dirt as often as you can afford it. Apply at a rate of 15 pounds per 1,000 square feet. As an alternative you can use corn meal, corn gluten meal, or alfalfa pellets from any feed store. App rate is 15 pounds per 1,000. After the grass stops growing but is still green, make one last fertilizer app. Then do not fertilize again until Washington's Birthday. If you are not going with organics, then skip the Feb fertilizer application. But in either case, fertilize again in late May (Memorial Day is good). The grass should awaken in late March. Spot spray for weeds in mid April....See MoreMichael Castellon
8 years agoMichael Castellon
8 years agoMichael Castellon
8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
darktower00844
8 years agoMichael Castellon
8 years agoI put down some cornmeal, and while I was at it I took a few more pictures in better light. Let me know what you think.
newtolawncare Scranton 6a
8 years ago
dchall_san_antonio
8 years agoSo much better lighting on these. Thanks.
Here's what diseased St Aug looks like.
See the tan spots with the dark brown ring. The grass in my picture is easily susceptible to disease. Yours is not or it would look like mine. However if you look closely at your grass pictures you'll see two spots like these. In your second to last picture, look at the bottom right corner and then scan up until you see the spot. It's less than 1/4 of the way up the picture. In your third picture from the top, look at the top left edge of the photo. The first real blade of grass has a small spot. I realize that might seem like nothing, but something is taking out your grass. It could be a disease that works more on the stolons. Note that in my picture there is no dead zone of grass underneath, but you have a lot of dead blades. Or it could be the disease is working on the roots. When the roots are not working right, you can water and water but the tops will dry out like in a drought. The solution again is to not water even though you think you should. Once the disease is cleared up, the grass will return.
Here's another picture. This is a spot where I treated the grass for disease with corn meal and took the picture several weeks later.
The reason I took this picture was because of the chlorosis (yellowing) in the middle, but it does show how well corn meal works to solve a disease problem. St Aug should have no spots at all on the blades.
User
8 years agoMichael Castellon
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoJust checking in with progress. It's been two weeks since the cornmeal application. I'm not sure if I can tell how the lawn is doing at this point
Here are some photos from today if anyone is interested. I haven't watered in a week. I tested the soil with a screwdriver today and get it in about 3 inches in most locations. Any thought on if I should water this week or just let the ground keep drying?
2kkatime
8 years agodchall_san_antonio
8 years ago2kkatime
8 years agoreeljake
8 years agoMichael Castellon
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoHere it is, the three week update since I first put down cornmeal. I'm not seeing much improvement.
dchall_san_antonio
8 years agoMichael Castellon
8 years ago
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