Bad Looking Grass

kyemon – posted 13 October 2006 09:53

HELP! My grass has never really looked great, but lately it’s becoming unbearable to look at. I have St. Augustine – Floratam grass and it looks dry and feels like hay when you walk on some parts of it. My neighbors have the great looking lawn that feels like padding when you walk on it. Can someone give me suggestions on how to fertilize it properly and how to kill the weeds? With the dormant season approaching, is there something I can do or do I need to wait? Thanks!!! Kye

hankhill – posted 13 October 2006 17:21

The hay-like color could be many differentthings, not just lack of water–insects,fungus, etc. Learning how to treat eachcondition and doing the work will takesome effort, so it might be simpler to hirea lawn service.

Assuming the lawn is healthy, you can putdown pre-emergent at this time of year,but I wouldn’t treat with post emergentsnow as we are approaching dormant season(at least in TX, maybe not in Florida).

kyemon – posted 14 October 2006 08:27

I’m a little weary about hiring a lawn service. I’ve used them before and felt it wasn’t worth it. I live in Central Florida and water the lawn 3 times a week – 45 minutes per section. Is that enough or too much? Would the lawn be damaged if I applied an insecticide if it wasn’t needed? Can you tell me what pre/post emergents are? I’d like to get as much information as I can, I really want to try and do this myself. Thanks!!!

RickV – posted 14 October 2006 18:41

Use the 1″ per week of watering I live about 30 miles north of Gainesville and it works fine for me. If you don’t have a gauge you cna use empty tuna cans to measure they are about 1″ tall. I usually water only once a week but if I see wilting in the blades I will water at that point. As for pre/post pre means before the weeds have a chance to sprout and post means weeds that exist. I know a lot of people on this board will disagree but I use Super Bonus S fertilizer. I usually put it down in Mid October (just did it Thursday) and then winterizer in early January and Super Bonus S again in mid March I don’t fertilize after it gets hot but will sometimes put out Ironite in May and early September. Depending on where in Central Florida you live if your grass does not go dormant during the winter (doe to frost/freeze) You could actually use Super Bonus S instead of Winterizer. Hope this helps answer some of your questions.

hankhill – posted 14 October 2006 22:48

If everyone put down insecticide without cause it might cause resistance, but inyour individual case, you only waste money by applying it if you don’t need it. Bewarethat most stuff at the hardware store won’t work on grubs–at least this late. (I’dguess they’re about out of time anyway, though, for this year.) Most will kill cinchbugs.

You can search the forum for how to distinguish what you have.

[This message has been edited by hankhill (edited 14 October 2006).]