st augustine dying in florida summer
skillz129
7 years ago
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Long post w/questions about st augustine in florida
Comments (0)Bought a foreclosure 2 years ago with a badly neglected lawn. I live in Tampa, Florida. The lawn is a mixture of floratam and sapphire. My question is the area with the sapphire has yet to fill in (put down sod last year and grubs nearly destroyed it) and I have been fighting crabgrass, nutsedge, dollarweed and in the summer kyllinga. The worst area of my lawn has no protection from the sun (full southern exposure) and has a slight slope to the street. I have used pre-emerge in the fall and applied it this year mid february and atrazine for the weeds but each summer has been pretty bad. This area gets choked by the weeds. I was wondering would it be a good or bad idea to put pine bark fines in the barren areas? Also, wondering if fertilizer requirements are higher for sapphire than floratam, and when should I put down grub killer? (sapphire is still not as green as floratam right now) I water twice a week per the water restriction we have. I mow at the highest level the mower will allow. Other than this area which is a 1/3 or the yard the grass is beautiful. Products I use are scotts fertilizer (fall and spring), Image, milogranite(two times in the summer) and halts(spring). I checked into starting an organic program but about choked when I saw the price. I don't have soil I have pure florida sugar sand Oh, I also have nematodes. Please tell me what I'm doing wrong. Christi...See MoreSt Augustine Grass maintenance NE Florida
Comments (2)A lot of people are dropping their professional lawn care this year. You sound a little 'type A' in your approach to doing it yourself. Lawn care is very easy if you get the basics of watering and mowing established. More on that later... I use organic fertilizer but don't let that stop you from reading. My schedule is what is important. I start on Washington's Birthday, then hit it again on Memorial Day, 4th of July (not for chemical ferts, though), Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. By keeping to the federal holidays, my schedule is very easy to remember. What insects do you have problems with? I haven't done anything extraordinary for insects since about 10 years ago. Then again with an organic program I have a lot of birds, toads, lizards and geckos in the yard to eat insects. Here's a general schedule that should help you. 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 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above....See MoreSt. Augustine turning to straw and dying
Comments (5)kathyc62, you thought it was bugs and sprayed... You should check if there are bugs still in there. Mix 2 oz. lemon flavored dishwashing liquid into 2 gallons of water and pour it over 2 sq. ft. of the lawn. Choose an area that includes good and dying grass. Pour the solution slowly because you want it to go down in the ground and not run off. Be patient and soon you will see creatures (if there are any still there) trying to escape. Identify them all if possible, but at least determine if there are some damaging ones present e.g. chinch bugs, caterpillars. If there are, then you have got to determine what went wrong with the recent spraying. Some of the questions I ask myself are:- Has it been too long since I sprayed? Present day insecticides have very little residual effect. Was it the incorrect rate? Accurate measurements are essential. Was it the best application method? Adequate and uniform coverage are needed. Backpack, hand held pump up, hose-end are sprayers in descending order of accuracy. Select a cone tip for insecticide application. Addition of a food dye will show where you have been and a darker color will indicate overspray. Select a contact insecticide and apply it accurately and adequately at the strongest rate for your particular pest problem AS STATED ON THE LABEL. If there is no insect problem then it is likely to be a disease. Take a piece of sod (include good and dying) and take it to the County Extension Service. They will identify the problem and recommend control measures. I confess that I was not able to pull up the picture(s) but almost all plant problems are identified by a process of eliminating causes. Causes are insects, diseases, cultural (fertilizing, watering), environmental (heat, drought, flood) and abiotic (gas/oil spills or leaving a glass or plywood piece lying out on the lawn). You can do it! We are here to help....See MoreSt. augustine lawn, northern Florida
Comments (1)I suppose anything is possible, but I would not automatically put all the blame on the chemicals. Is there a difference in sunlight? Difference in watering? Difference in mowing height/frequency? Difference in the soil/sand? One of the best things you can do in Florida is to get your watering right. Watering should be done deeply and infrequently. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Infrequently means once a week in the heat of summer, once every 2 weeks with temps in the 80s, once every 3 weeks with temps in the 70s, and once a month the rest of the year. I realize this is contrary to the daily watering that 99.999999% of everyone in Florida does, but I would say proper watering alone could be the difference between the grass color. After watering, St Augustine should be mulch mowed at the mower's highest setting (4 inches) - always. There is never any reason to lower the mower deck. As for fertilizer in Florida, I would convert completely to organic. Keeping organic matter in sand is very difficult. But if you change to organic fertilizer it can be done. Which one? I like alfalfa pellets at 15-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. You can apply any day of the year but to make it easy to remember I pick the federal holidays (Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Washington's Birthday). Pick any 2 or more of those. You can get alfalfa pellets (Rabbit Chow) at your local feed store in 50-pound bags for under $15. Generally these pellets do not attract wildlife unless they are starving. You can moisten the pellets which causes them to swell and become flakes which fall onto the soil and go to work. Here's a picture demonstrating the fertilizer effect of alfalfa in zoysia lawn....See Moreskillz129
7 years agoTS Garp
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agodchall_san_antonio
7 years agodmt4641
7 years agoBrett Campbell
7 years agoUser
7 years agoDan Mayer
7 years agodmt4641
7 years agojoe renalds
7 years agodchall_san_antonio
7 years agoTS Garp
7 years ago
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