Identification of Floratam

KenH – posted 27 October 2007 12:04

Here’s an interesting (but lengthy) story:

At the end of May 2007, I had my Bahiagrass lawn killed, stripped and resodded with “Floratam”. In accordance with the water regulations, I watered freely for the first 60 days. Coincidently, at the end of this 60-day period, I left on an extended vacation. Before leaving, I set my irrigation system to 1-hour per zone, once per week.

While away, I was informed that my lawn was in decline, evidenced by dead and dying areas. I was, of course, very concerned and enlisted the assistance of several friends and lawn-care specialists. I received differing opinions; cinch bug, fungus, & lack of water to name a few.

One of the lawn-care men said that my grass was not all Floratam and if I wanted, he would meet with me upon my return. I called the company who installed the sod and they checked with the sod farm who insisted it was Floratam.

OK – With the arrival of more rain and an extra watering cycle on my designated day, the grass started to recover, so the problem was probably just shock due to the change from an abundance of water to once/week.

When I returned home, I began to investigate the Floratam identification issue and found this site:

http://www.plantanswers.com/floratam_distinguish.htm

I checked my lawn and found no evidence of purple stolens. Also the internode spacing appears to be less than 3-inches. I also check my neighbor’s lawn and found no purple stolens.

I sent this information to the sod installer and he again checked with the farm. Same story – “It’s Floratam.”

I called the University of Florida Extension Service and was told that they have had several similar inquires recently and that the University’s position is that there is no DNA test available which will determine St. Augustine variety.

My next step will be to contact the firm in Texas who has the above website and then the Texas Cooperative Extension service of Texas A&M University.

I am relating this experience in hopes that someone else can provide additional information.

KenCoastal SW Florida