Dying or going to sleep for the winter???

johnna23 – posted 05 October 2003 19:28

Hello Everyone…

First of all, please forgive me if this ends up being a stupid question, but I’m a new homeowner trying my best to take care of my first yard.

I live in the Dallas, Texas area and planted 18 pallets of St. Augustine Palmetto grass back in mid-May of this year. It’s grown in nicely, is thick and was a beautiful shade of green up until approximately three weeks ago. Since the weather has cooled off lately (low to mid 80’s during the day and 60’s at night), I water it only when it looks like it needs it which is maybe once a week if that often. The blades are turning yellow, some are still green and some seem to be dead. This is the case for my entire yard…not just specific areas. I applied an organic fertilizer back in June and cornmeal to some dry areas back in July. Other yards in the area still seem to have beautiful green yards. Is there something wrong with my grass or is it just going dormant for the winter? If there is something wrong, what can I do? If it’s o.k. and just going dormant for the winter, is there anything I should do now with respect to winter prep?

I’ve posted some pictures at the links below for anyone interested and would appreciate your advice. (If the grass looks wet it’s because it just rained.) If you have any trouble viewing the pictures, just let me know and I’ll be happy to email them to you. Thanks so much…Johnna.

http://images.andale.com/f2/103/100/853464/1065342675638_1064299265585_10050013smaller.jpg

http://images.andale.com/f2/103/100/853464/1064242699894_10050019smaller.jpg

http://images.andale.com/f2/103/100/853464/1064390345137_10050014smaller.jpg

redbird – posted 06 October 2003 08:19

I am assuming that you have good sun in these areas, and the grass isn’t thinning due to shade. If this is the case, you have to address the sun issue. I am also assuming that the sod all has good contact with the soil (rolled when placed) and that you have established a good watering schedule – NOT OVERWATERING and rotting the roots. I have barely used my sprinkler this eeason – only a couple of times. You should only water your lawn when it shows drought stress – curling leaves, footprints showing in the lawn 5 minutes after you walk on it. Browning (dormancy) is the final stage of drought stress (before death), but most of the time I have seen people browning out their lawns by over-watering – using the sprinkler 2 – 3 times a week during a rainy season, or every day during a dry period. This is bad for grass.

It isn’t going into winter dormancy with the temps you describe. It doesn’t look like a fungus attack either – honestly, it looks to me exactly the way that my zoysia began to look at the early onset of a severe bug attack (exascerbated by not enough fertilization, althouygh it’s getting pretty late to fertilize now, IMHO). I had masses of spittle bugs, coubled w/billbugs. I could have had white grubs – I saw no point in cutting a piece of sod to check, since the soil drench insecticide I was going to use would kill any white grubs also. I would definitiely do a soap test for critters. There is more than one way –

1. Take a large metal can (coffee can, #10 veggie can) with both ends cut off, or a large piece of 10″ PVC pipe and push one end into the soil of an affected area during early evening. Pour soapy water (common dish soap – lemon is best) into the can/pipe and let it soak through slowly. During the next five minutes, critters should come to the top if they are there – mole crickets, billbugs, spittle bugs, chinch bugs etc. Look on the internet so that you can identify what you see.

Another method – take a hose end sprayer, fill the container with half & half dish soap/water and spray a small area very heavily – wait a few minutes to see what comes up.

If you see any of the above critters, treat with a good soil drench insecticide (I recommend Bayer Season Long Grub Control w/merit). If you have white grubs, this will kill them too.

If the soil drench reveals nothing, cut up a 12″ square piece of sod in the affected area and check for white grubs. If you find more than a couple, treat as dexcribed above.

Mike

ted – posted 06 October 2003 15:48

You might have bugs, but i think it’s probably a combination of your lower temps and lack of fertilization in the past 2 months. st. augustine is a bit of a tough sell for north dallas and your temps along with the lack of fertilization would definitely put the squeeze on your color. go ahead and use a general purpose insecticide- it won’t hurt and i’m sure you have other pest control issues with the fire ants, etc. I’m not aware of grubs causing a problem on st. aug., but since my lawn is constantly being treated for pest control, i really don’t have any bug problems anyway. a easier way to see if you have grub damage is to see if you can manually lift up the sod by the grass blades- it’s a tell tale sign..also a really great product that’s out now is called topchoice – you treat you lawn once a year. look for the consumer version i think at lowes. it’s active ingredient is called fipronil- the same material used in frontgate flea and tick drops for dogs- great stuff. i’m a licensed lawn applicator in houston- p.s. forget the corn meal, jeez!

johnna23 – posted 06 October 2003 16:53

Thank you both, Mike and Ted for your responses! I really appreciate your invaluable advice. Since I posted my message, I’ve spoken with a couple of local organic gardeners, one who actually came out to see my yard, and they’re both leaning toward too much water. I failed to mention it earlier, but my yard is also full of large oak trees and, although my grass was thriving during the summer even under the shade, the decreased sun, lower temperatures and heavy amount of rain my yard recently took, has put too much stress on it. However, I’m still going to test for insects and pests as you both suggested and start preventative measures in that area as well.

Again, thanks to both of you!

Johnna

seed – posted 07 October 2003 08:12

Johnna, what I see is that the tips of the leaves are brown and the pattern is uniformly distributed. That is probably inconsistent with insect injury, as insect activity tends to clump in patches. The lawn appears to be dense and uniform. Among possible environmental stresses, which this seems to be, shade is not high on the list, despite the presence of oaks, because the turf is not excessively tall. A quick, short drought might cause this, but not so uniformly, in my opinion. Although the 60s are not too cold, if it even got into the mid 50s for a night or two, that would probably do this.

Phil