what is your watering protocol ... a tree doesnt not need as much water.. indoors.. as it does outdoors .. so .. if you are watering.. like you did outside.. during the heat of summer... then you might be watering too much ... and one sure sign of rotting off the roots... is dying off of buds ... i highly doubt you need the humidifier ... even up here in MI.. where it was single digits for a week... the furnace has not burned the humidity out of the house .... but i am no bonsai savant ... lol ... i think you are on the verge of loving it to death... when i get myself to that point.. i ignore it for a month.. and half the time.. it recovers.. mostly because i have quit messin with whatever ... it is severely stressed... it is not hungry ... i would stop feeding it ... ken

Ok, wow. I mean WOW! You're getting the wrong advice on every front. St Aug would THRIVE in that shade. The grass died because they didn't water it. Actually it might have died the first time from a disease left to run out of control, but in any case, the solution now is new sod (NOT SEED) and water. That cheap builder grade bermuda is only one notch below the very best bermuda grass you can buy at any price. The reason it is cheap and "builder grade" is that it is easy to grow and every grower in Texas grows it. The supply of that stuff is inexhaustible, but you cannot get a better turf grass without paying through the nose. The name of it is TIF 419 or TifTurf, or something like that. It has been around for 40 years or more and is very popular. The more expensive TIF varieties are only used in professional sports stadiums. I should note that ALL seeded varieties of bermuda are basically common bermuda, not the TIF hybrid. Thus if you start with a TIF lawn, you should never reseed bermuda into it. The common bermuda looks like a weed in a hybrid turf. Here is a picture of common bermuda invading a TIF turf. Note the common is bluer in color, coarser, and has a different growth habit. It's a mess once you have them mingled. If you have already seeded with common bermuda, I would not attempt to install a hybrid (sod) lawn without a lot of prep to kill the common. June is the time to take on that project. Whatever you do, do not fall into the trap of watching all the golf TV where they are urging you to get out and do something to the lawn. Bermuda needs hot soil to do much of anything to it. The reason your neighborhood lawns might look cheap is because they don't know how to care for them. Bermuda needs a LOT of maintenance to keep it nice. It should be mowed to about 1 inch high, 2x per week and 3x per week during the spring flush of new growth. It also needs heavy fertilizer applied monthly all season long. Most people are unwilling to do what it takes to make bermuda look great. Having said all that, I still prefer a St Aug lawn if you can keep it watered. All lawns need exactly the same amount of water to keep them looking nice through the summer. That amount is one inch per week, applied all at one time. The problem with St Aug is if you fail to water it for 3-5 weeks, it can die on you. Other grasses will go dormant first, but St Aug just dies. That's what happened in your yard. Bermuda would never grow in your shade, but St Aug should do fine. In fact, St Aug will take over your yard even if you have bermuda now. You would have to keep the St Aug mowed at the mower's highest setting and allow it to invade the bermuda. Bermuda cannot invade into tall St Aug because the tall St Aug provides too much shade for bermuda. But if you mow the grass at the lowest setting, then the bermuda can invade just fine and will give you a mess. Absolutely DO NOT rototill the soil in prep for a lawn. You might want to rototill for a vegie garden but never for a lawn. The tilled soil will take 3 years to settle, and it will settle unevenly. There is hardly anything worse than mowing a bumpy lawn.

Hi gardenper and mandolls, thanks for your answers. The ones concerning me have short shoots, few millimeters to half an inch long. BUT I checked carefully last night, seems that I actually did overwater some pots when watering them in a hurry (between kids, job, garden,meals...) I amputated two Dahlia fingers that were rotting, discovered that a tuber which had been very dry sitting ON the soil (cause I hadn`t manage to finish the job ) had grown a nice white fresh root on its end, so now I have to really check before watering (something I preach to anyone asking me about their pot plants...) and hope for the best. The ones with longer shoots (3 inches and more) are on my balcony with full sun and cold nights, the emerging ones stay in the living room. And funny, you can really tell by the look of an eye/ shoot, whether it is happy and thriving (shiny, kind of turgescent) or dull and black-ish (in which case something is wrong, like the tuber starts rotting) and I will try to keep records next season whether some cultivars do start earlier ha others. Thanks, have a good day, bye, Lin

I suggest that you call a professional home pest control company. They are trained in solving problems like this in the safest method possible. Carpenter ants, by the way, can nest in the home. A professional will be able to figure it out.