Bermuda Sod Browning/Yellowing can it be saved?

tokeym – posted 27 July 2004 13:52

HiI desperately need some help. I soded the back yard to surprise my husband with nice green yard for next summer, but several areas of it are turning brown/yellow. I put down Bermuda 419 3 ½ weeks ago. I was told to water it heavily, make sure it was soppy wet. I did this and fertilized it with a 10-10-10 fertilizer. After a week I cut back watering to 4 times a day for 20 minutes. It seemed to be doing well and was growing. I noticed near the base of the sod it was brown, but the top was green It had gotten rather tall so I mowed it this weekend. A few areas have this browning/yellowing problem. Could this problem be from letting it grow too tall? Also I pulled up a piece and saw some small white bugs under it they kinda look like gnats but didn’t fly away when I moved the sod. Here are a few pictures of my problem. If anyone can please help me I would appreciated. I’m putting down some more this weekend. Here are some pictures of the sod.Thankshttp://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/bc/David_steadman2002

turfie – posted 10 August 2004 14:24

Hi,

From the pictures, it looks like you have some “hot spots” typically caused from inadequate coverage of water from your irrigation system. Check that first. Next, the turf may be stressed from such a drastic cutback of the water. It is a good idea to start cutting back watering run times. If you were watering 20 minutes at a time, cut back to 15. It is better to do this during turf establishment than cutting back the number of waterings that would mean long periods of time without water during which the turf can dry out and become stressed. Make sure you are not watering so much that the turf is always sopping wet, either. This will create an anaerobic condition for the roots and they will not be able to “breathe”. Make sure you concentrate your waterings during the heat of the day. YOu don’t need to water at night.

It looks like the grass was pretty high in the photos. A general rule is not to remove more than one third of the grass blade at any one mowing. Doing so cau cause scalping and stress the turf.

The bugs you described don’t sound like white grubs or mole crickets, the primary insect pests of bermudagrass. If the grass is too wet these might be fungus gnats, but they won’t harm the turf.

Number one – make sure no areas are missing water. Check into “head to head” coverage.

Good luck.

My thoughts – posted 10 August 2004 22:13

Too much water. Reduce by 50 percent. Maybe even skip one day to let turf have a breath. Never cut more than 1/3 of the blade per cutting.