New sod not happy

Paul in Florida – posted 14 April 2005 17:00

I live in Central Florida and had a sod layed by a landscape contractor 4 weeks ago. My neighbor, who is also a landscaape contractor applied “Triple Strike” grass and weedkiller prior to the installation to kill off what was left of the old lawn. I was told to water the grass twice a day. When the fertilizer truck arrived about two weeks after install, he was able to pull up sod very easily, so he didn’t fertilize. He suggested cutting back on the water to let the roots grow, which I did. Anothe week has passed and no change other than sections of the lawn appear to be dying. When the sod is turned over, there are no fine white roots, just short sort of rounded off brownish nubs. Help Please

Turfmiester – posted 14 April 2005 20:02

What are you refering to as (Triple Strike)I have never heard of it and I have been working on golf courses for 16 years abd have sprayed a lot of chemicals, but have never heard of that one. Do you have a scientific name for it?

Paul in Florida – posted 15 April 2005 15:07

The ‘Triple Strike’ I refer to is the name brand and is readily available in the garden centers of Home Depot, Lowes, etc. in concentrate or in 1 gal. ready to spray containers. Don’t know what’s in it, but it’s used to kill unwanted weeds and such, along the lines of ‘Round-Up’.

Snipe – posted 23 April 2005 07:17

Did they roll the sod after it was laid? Was it laid in a checker board fasion? If not that can be a big part of your problem.When I put my floritam down I did those things and what it did was, one made sure that there was not any air pockets and the sod roots made complete contact with the soil. And the checkerboard fasion was so that I didn’t create water runoffs between the sod . Snipe West FL