Floratam Lawn Browning

Guy Riccardelli – posted 01 February 2003 11:03

I live in SW Florida and have had a Floratam lawn for over a year.

For the past month or so, I have noticed that one section of the lawn is getting brown and dried out. The lawn is being maintained by a professional gardner, who advises that perhaps the lawn is being watered too much. If this is the case, why is it only happening in one section of lawn?

Does anyone have any ideas as to what could be causing this sporadic browning?

Thanks

seed – posted 03 February 2003 06:38

If it’s truly being dried out, you should also see some wilted leaf blades. Otherwise, you might have take-all root rot disease of St. Augustinegrass. That’s the only chronic slow browning type of disease that I can think of. It does occur in thatchy areas.

In any case, check your sprinkler system to see how much water is being put out. Use cans or containers as a “catchment test,” run for a certain number of minutes. Measure the water in each of 10 to 20 cans at the end of the test, and see how uniform they are.

Phil