jeff14 – posted 29 August 2004 10:21
We have St. Augustine in San Antonio, TX. New house…the lawn is only about 8 months old. Some areas are thick and lush while other areas are yellow, crispy and the soil underneath has cracks even though we are watering every other day and have experienced a mild summer for this area.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
jeff14 – posted 29 August 2004 10:28
BTW, we have used nothing but organic materials on the lawn thus far and hope to continue to do so.
We have applied to date…..dried molasses, a fertilizer called Texas Tea and a soil conditioner called Medina Plus.
Jeff14
Dchall_San_Antonio – posted 03 September 2004 13:30
You have a problem we all have. The excess rain has changed the pH in the top layer of the soil. At the new pH, the iron in the soil gets bound up with the calcium.
You can “unlock” the iron with a product called greensand. Get it a Lowes (outside, not in the organic department). Apply at 40 pounds per 1,000 square feet. It is the only product that will work before next spring when the pH will have returned to slightly more acidic.
Also, change your watering. I’ll post the 123 of turf which really applies to St Augustine.
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 4 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above.
Texas Tee is probably the best fertilizer I’ve ever seen. You can have the molasses and Medina Plus – wasted your money there.
alex@altamax.net – posted 07 September 2004 09:20
Dchall,
In regards to your three steps, you say to water every zone for 1 hour. I have the unfortunate situation of an oddly shaped parcel of land and no installed irigation (or water pressure for that matter).
What I have found works best for me is a traveling sprinkler. If you are not familiar the way this works is by moving along a track and spraying a circle of water. The spray only hits one circumference at any time and moves very very slowly, but it certainly does not stay on one spot for an entire hour.
Because the type of sprinkler you are talking about that is stationary distributes the water over an entire area each square inch is getting less water per unit of time than my sprinklers concentrated moving stream right? Do you think my traveling sprinkler is sufficient to match one hour of an area sprinkler under the same pressure?
Thanks
Alex