turfgrass

Dying

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Paul H – posted 10 September 2001 15:31

I’m a new homeowner and know zip about my Floratam lawn. Some patches of it have turned yellw and spotty and now are dying off. I live in Ft.Myers (in southwestern FL) and we have had way too much rain lately…anybody from around here know what to do?

seed – posted 17 September 2001 08:24

Paul, September is the worst month for St. Augustinegrass in Florida. One possible explanation is a disease problem. Take-all root rot disease, caused by a fungus, often yellows lawns of Floratam, Bitterblue, FX-10, and other varieities during this period, and the weakened turf fails to respond to any more water or fertilizer. Often the better maintained lawns (i.e., well-fertilized with nitrogen) succumb most seriously, and this may be because of heavy thatch development.

Intervention with chemical fungicides has generally been shown to further weaken the turf, because the kinds of fungicides that have an effect on the take-call fungus (Gaeumannomyces graminis) are also growth regulators that reduce the ability of the St. Augustinegrass to fill in. An application of iron may be of temporary cosmetic value in greening back the affected areas. Usually when cool weather comes in October, the lawn will begin to recover, but the take-call root rot problem is chronic and will not generally go away.

Phil

Leave a Reply

Skip to toolbar