New St. Augustine Seville Sod – Some is yellow

heyitsme – posted 26 May 2009 16:38

I had to make two trips for sod this weekend (both to the same nursery) and the first sod is noticeably yellower than the second sod, which is a nice green shade. I assume it was just sitting around longer without water as I bought it later in the day. Is there anything I should do to the yellowed sod to help it along?

Oh, btw I’m in Orlando Florida.

Turfguy_UF – posted 26 May 2009 22:08

I am also in Florida really close to you .Go Magic!

There could be another possibility to why your sod is yellow. This might not be the case though since you got it on the same weekend from the same farm.

As you know we just went through pretty much a tropical depression for about a week. Flooding stress resembles drought stress as the grass is actually not able to uptake Oxygen from the roots.

The only way I can think that this might be the case is if the first amount of sod you got was cut before the storms, and the second one you purchased was cut during the storms.

The stacked sod will not drain like it would if it were still out in the nursery. Also most sod farmers will not cut sod during really wet conditions. Same as mowing with a rotary mower in wet conditions it causes the grass to tear and not cut cleanly.

If this is the case, see if the grass is wilting…yes it will show wilting if the grass is flooded. It might take a week for the grass to loose the “yellow” color. Monitor the grass every day to make sure it doesn’t become worse, and hopefully it will correct itself.

Hope it helps.

TurfGuy

[This message has been edited by Turfguy_UF (edited 26 May 2009).]

heyitsme – posted 26 May 2009 22:41

So if I read you correctly (sorry I have a black thumb) I should be making sure it doesn’t get worse over the next week (get brown instead of yellow)?

Should I put some fertilizer on it.

Turfguy_UF – posted 28 May 2009 15:29

Yes, just monitor it and watch it like you would during a no rain situation.

You can check the sod with your hand by pressing down into the yellowed sod, and see if it feels wet or soggy. If it does that then we know the problem.

If the color does not change in say a week or two. I would strongly recommend a quick release fertilizer to get it back up, and water it like you are for the other good sod. The only reason I would wait to fertilize is because we want to make sure we know the real problem before we mask it with fertilizer.

Hope it helps.

TurfGuy