St Augustine problems
I just moved into a new house and I am a complete beginner when it comes to lawn care. The front yard is about 4000 sq ft and has irrigation. The back yard is about 10,000 square ft with no irrigation. I am currently watering the front yard about 3 times per week for 60 minutes. I have just recently set up a makeshift watering system in the back yard and have watered it about 60 minutes per week but can only manage to do this from about 7:30 to 8:30PM since I do not have timers yet. I also put down Gardenville 7-2 2 about a week ago (40pounds for half of back yard and 40 pounds for front). The grass is cut to about 2.5 inches. If my pictures upload below, you should be able to see the problems. My septic system drain fields have zero grass and the back yard is turning completely brown except under the areas of shade. The front yard is hanging on due to more shade, but has some brown areas where I think the sprinkler system isn't saturating as well. I have a ton of questions, but the first would be, why is my back yard grass dying and what is going on with the septic system drain fields? I am located just north of San Antonio in Seguin TX.
Comments (7)
8 years ago
8 years agoMy back yard system will currently only put out about 1/8th of an inch an hour. That must be the main issue currently. I believe my front system will do about the same but I haven't measured it yet. I'll bump my mower up to 4 inches. I do have one capable of that height. Here are a couple of more pictures.
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St Augustine Problems
Comments (8)FWIW, living in Houston and when getting normal rainfall, I rarely water the grass. If taking care of the lawn correctly you should be able to at least go a week between watering. I've gone years without watering the yard. Part of it will depend on your soil quality. Since you have a new home I would guess it is poor. The first couple of things I would do. 1) Cut the grass as high as your mower will go 2) Only water when the grass starts to wilt and then water deeply. That means 1 inch of water. You will need to put out a tuna can to catch the water to measure. Since your soil is probably poor you will have to rotate zones to give it a chance to absorb the water or it will start to run off. The crunchy feeling you are getting now is from the dead grass left over from the colder than normal winter. 3) I use organic methods mostly so that part is up to you. At the very least I don't suggest using any weed and feed or insect killer over the whole yard. A basic fertilizer should be fine (slow release is even better). Spot treat weeds insects if necessary rather than doing the whole yard. Here is a link that might be useful: Organic FAQ...See MoreSt. Augustine grass problem
Comments (2)My guess would be heat stress and bug damage. When a portion of lawn becomes stressed it starts to weaken and bugs take full advantage of those areas. Im sure most of the damage is already done, but pay close attention to the area to see if its spreading. For now you could apply some Quality Compost in and around the trouble spots @ 1/4 to 1/2" thick. Brush or lightly rake the compost off the grass blades and down closer to the existing soil. As for the grass blades wilting/curling: This is perfectly normal. The grass blades curl/reduce surface area during the heat of the day in order to conserve water from evaporation through their leafs. If by the following morning the grass blades are still wilted, the grass should be watered within 24hrs. Are you sure your apply 3/4 to 1" of water with each irrigation cycle? If not do the tuna can test(link below) Here is a link that might be useful: How to calibrate your sprinkler...See MoreSt. Augustine problems
Comments (3)While I hate to copy a url and paste it, I don't mind helping others with the code to fix their posting. Here's your message with links to the images. I tried embedding the images into the message but they are huge. Much faster to link to them. If you want to skip the story, just look at the last picture. I need help finding an organic way to control these! Thanks! Well, I just bought my first house a couple months ago and it turns out the giant headache was included. The lawn was in horrid condition. Prior to buying the house, the well pump was broken and the owners had given up on watering the nice St. Augustine lawn. They also stopped their tru-green service. Ever wonder how a St. Augustine lawn looks when you stop watering it in florida(before the rain comes) and stop using pesticides? Its not pretty. Some of the lawn was salvageable with watering(the well was fixed when I moved in). Bringing the lawn back was a daunting task and I had no idea where to start. I have since found Garden Web and the Oragnic Lawn Care forum. I have started on once section of my lawn, a small corner under the old oak tree. Per suggestions found in this forum, I have top dressed the area with a little less than 1/2" compost, put down 10lb/1,000ft soybean meal, continued watering once a week around 5am, and I continue to mow high. Within the past month, the rain has really picked up. There was three day stretch in which every night around 8pm it rained 1"+. All this water didnt help out my lawn. It quickly developed grey leaf spot that spread to my entire nice green corner section. I have since attacked it with the recommended dose of Actinovate, still awaiting results. There are more probelms. There is a section of this corner that has developed some odd charecteristics. It all started out as a small 1'x1' patch of turf that looked like it had thatch problems. It has since grown into a monster. Here is a close up. The patch of this is now about 6'x8' and its not pretty. I was about to ignore it and assume it was "end stage grey leaf spot" as the fungus was pretty extensive. That was until I got down on my hands and knees and took a closer look It sems something has been muching on my soft green blades. And honestly, what little critter wouldnt want to? So now that the leaf spot will soon be under control (pending Actinovate effectiveness and use of corn meal 10-20lb/1,000ft) How do I figure out who's visiting the all you can eat buffet? I couldnt find any suspects, other than a couple of these guys(spittlebug) So now I ask for everyones help! Where do I start? How do I figure out who has their hand (or multiple hands) in the cookie jar? Update: Well, I went out to take a larger picture so everyone could see the shape/area involved. Something didnt add up so I put in some more 'hands and knees' time. Guess who I found? Take a look below The organic answer you are looking for is called BT worm killer. It works immediately to stop the caterpillars from feeding. It might take four days for them to die but once you stop them from eating, that's all you care about. It is sold by Safer and by Green Light. One application is all you need....See MoreSt. Augustine problem
Comments (4)It’s been a problem every year since we bought this house 5 years ago. I had a soil test done last year at the county extension office and my PH was low and they also tested some affected grass from a different problem which turned out to be brown patch. They suggested waiting till the grass came out of dormancy and using propiconozol which is what I did. I mow on the highest setting and don’t usually water but once a week starting at daylight for about 30 per zone. I hit it with milorganite this past weekend and last fall. Lime was added to raise PH last fall as well. Other than that no chemicals. The brown patch last year was terrible and did a lot of dama and I surely hope this isn’t that coming back or something else like it....See More- 8 years ago
- 8 years ago
- 8 years ago
St Augustine spreads fairly quickly once the air temp falls below 85 degrees. That means you have two growth spurts during a normal year - one in spring and one in the fall. Each time I would expect to get 5 feet of growth out of the runners that shoot out. It also spreads much MUCH faster in the shade, so be sure you keep that in mind. I gained about 3,000 square feet in 1 1/2 seasons under some live oak trees in George West a couple years ago. But as soon as it hit the sunlight out from under the tree, it slowed down. So keep that in mind, too. You have a lot of sunlight.
Did I mention mowing every other week except in the spring? Tall St Aug is much healthier and drought resistant than short grass. It also seems to spread better. I let mine in George West get up to 32 inches high (max height). No only did I not have to mow, it didn't need water or fertilizer. It was amazing. Here's a picture of my chow chow wandering through the grass. If you look carefully you can see her ears and the top of her tail.
- 8 years ago
dchall_san_antonio