Floratam sod is dead

Conard – posted 09 August 2002 18:23

In central florida I resoded my yard (lots of shade in most areas) with Floritam July 1. The grass on the sod was about 4 inches high when the company put it down. I was told to water it every day(one hour per zone)Don’t mow for 2 weeks and then mow and apply 27-4-8. Which I did. At the end of the second week about 20% was dead. The company sent out a local pesticide company that said I had bugs and sprayed for them. By now I have 40% dead sod. By the end of the 4th week I had 60 to 70% dead sod. The pesticide company came out again and said I had too much shade. Thats why the grass died. This is my second attempt to sod this property I did it the first time in May of this year but that it was my fault because I over fertized it, but this time I’m inclined to believe I had recieved bad sod from the get-go. Any thoughts?

WillR – posted 09 August 2002 21:57

Conrad,

Sorry to hear about your misfortune.

There is lots of information about St. Augustine available at the University of Florida’s website. St. Augustine Grass for Florida Lawns

I see here you make very little to no mention of your preparations for sodding your yard. So I cannot speculate on anything from nitrogen levels, potassium levels, herbicides, ph levels, or anything elese about the condition, prep, or maintence of your yard.

With this in mind, check out sodding.com – How to sod your yard. for some tips on how to prep and maintain your sod.

In my case, I sodded this past April. This was my first attempt at sodding or any other type of lawn maintence. The way I did it was to first start by killing everything in my yard that I did not want. Once that was done, I had my soil PH tested (I had to add about 200lbs of lime to my 2850 sq foot front yard). Then I tilled (which was hard around my maple tree) and added in 10 yards of quality topsoil (both provided proper drainage and leveling for my yard). Only then did I go pick up my sod from the sod farmer and plant it.

Once planted, I watered daily for the first 2 weeks, then I backed off the watering and waited to only water once the grass started to wilt. I have yet to fertilize my sod and it is growing at alarming rates. The only thing I have added is pot ash to help the roots drive deep.

I did not mow the first time for about 3 weeks. And then I have only mowed to the second highest setting on my mower (approx 3-4 inches).

Along came the crab grass problem, but that was easily squared away by a single call to the sod farmer who recommended someone. They came out, sprayed this blue stuff on my yard, crab grass died, St. Augustine flourished, and all is good.

The only problems I have at this point, is a web worm problem in one area, that is getting treated, and alot of fequent mowing. Fungus is a deep fear as we are getting rain almost daily here in (in the evening) the FL Panhandle.

Floratam is supposed to grow well in the shade, and mine is doing quite well under its dense White Maple cover.

Hope this somehow helps. I know it’s not a very high tech answer, but it’s worked well for me.

Conard – posted 10 August 2002 06:12

WillThanks for the info, it was very helpful. The yard was mulch before. I removed the mulch and added about 1 inch of top soil. I did not check the Ph of the soil. Sounds like that should have been the first step! The sod company did not roll the sod after installation. No water was added before it was sodded or after the old sod was removed and before the new sod was installed. Sounds like I relieved too much on the sod company to do the right thing.

Thanks again

Conard

WillR – posted 10 August 2002 19:09

Conrad, not all hope is lost yet.

Dig down into your grass and look and see if the stolon stems are still alive.

If they are … just be patient. St. Augustine is a tough grass (Hell, its survived me!). As long as those stolons are green, your grass will return in a fairly rapid manner.