sea isle 1

dusty1 – posted 03 July 2003 15:25

I have new sea isle1 sod that is seven weeks old. It has sections that are hot to the touch and die but come back after serious watering. The sod is planted on the central Texas coast next to a salt water bay. Soil is typical Texas coast sand. Any ideas?

Dchall_San_Antonio – posted 03 July 2003 17:16

I’m not sure you needed to go all the way to zoysia to get a salt tolerant turf, but now that you have it, go for it! For anyone else considering growing turf in the sand, I’ve seen St Augustine growing like a weed in the dunes at Port Aransas, and it seems to grow fine in sun or full shade at Rockport and Key Allegro.

How often are you watering? How much? What does the grass look like before you water?

Was the sod rolled down? It should have been.

How often are you mowing? How high?

Are you in shade or sun?

Have you put anything on it to try to help?

Was the sand prepped before the sod went down?

dusty1 – posted 04 July 2003 10:14

To Dchall_San _Antonio: The sea isle was chosen for it texture and looks. It is an experiment. I watered every day for the first several weeks, up to 1/2 inch. When it began to seed I backed off on the watering. I mow once a week about one inch. The sod was rolled, there is no shade, I fertilized once and applied iron two days ago. The sand under the grass was not prepped. The hot spots seem to have nothing to do with the amount of water because they are in the middle of very healthy grass.

Dchall_San_Antonio – posted 04 July 2003 11:25

Have you backed all the way off on the watering to once a week? I’m thinking you might have a fungus supported by the frequent watering.

Basically there are few reasons for a plant to die: lack of water (not your case), too much water (not your case), lack of sun (not your case), fungal disease (maybe), or insects (maybe).

Rolling sod is necessary to ensure the bottom of the sod contacts the sand/soil underneath. If the sod is not in contact, then the roots will die as they try to grow into the open air between the sod and sand. So your rolling rules out that problem.

Watering every day can cause a problem with too much water cutting off the air to the roots. With sand that is almost never a problem. With clay it is. So that rules out that.

Fungus or insects? Are the brown spots returning to green when you water? That would seem to indicate dryness, but with all the water you’re using, I don’t see how.

I’m going to suggest an organic fungus control which is also an organic fertilizer. The fact that you already applied fertilizer won’t be a problem with this. Corn meal is the universal fungus diseases controller for organic lawns. It works by attracting a beneficial fungus to the lawn and that new fungus is like a disease to the fungus that is eating your lawn. Research at the Texas A&M University shows that corn meal works on all the fungal diseases common to peanuts. Coincidentally (?) the same fungal diseases are common to turf. The application rate is 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet of turf. Give it 3 weeks before you evaluate whether it worked. That is the only drawback to organic materials is that they all take 3 weeks to show progress. In the mean time, if the problem was insects they have a 3 week head start on you. Get corn meal in bulk at a feed store for about $5.00 in 50 pound bags. Apply with a spreader and make sure you get the right amount for the area you’re covering.

If the problem is insects, the universal insect larvae killer is something called beneficial nematodes. These things bring a disease to the insect larvae and cause it to die within 24 hours. They are harmless to people, pets, birds, or fish.

With pure sand for a base, I’m also going to suggest you try to increase the organic matter in the soil. There are two kinds of organic matter. Most folks think of organic matter being peat moss or compost. I’m going to stand up and say than neither one of those means a hoot to the soil in the root zone. The only organic matter than matters is the living microbial life that includes bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and actinomycetes. Sterile sand doesn’t have enough of these living creatures to support life. You can change that easily.

First of all, peat moss is worthless. PM has been sitting under water since the time of the Vikings and has had all the nutrients it might have once had leached out. Compost on the other hand, is a great source for all the living, beneficial microbes you need in your sand. All you have to do is apply a very thin layer of compost to the top of your turf and water it in. A thin layer means no more than 1 cubic yard of compost per 1,000 square feet of turf. Use a push broom to sweep it off the grass blades after you’ve spread it or you risk smothering the grass. Then water it. That washes the beneficial microbes off the compost and down into your turf. Compost should be a one time good deal. If you feed and nurture the microbes, they should live forever.

But wait, that’s not all. You need to feed those microbes or they will die on you. The feed for microbes is protein. I use corn meal and alfalfa. If you look at the ingredients in organic fertilizers, you’ll see a list of protein sources including corn meal, alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal, corn gluten meal, feather meal, leather meal, soybean meal, and other ground up protein sources. You can get the same ingredients in plain bags at the feed store for 1/6 the price of the organic branded stuff. If you applied them at double the rate, you will still be way ahead on the cost.

Microbes located at the surface of the soil are designed by Mother Nature to eat protein. This because when animals die, they die on top. Then other microbes at lower levels are right there to eat the top layer microbes and their waste products. All in all, there are 25,000 species of microbes in garden soil just waiting for the protein to kick start their soil processing plant.

Some of the microbes in the soil will exude dark brown materials called humic acids. These are the elements of black soil that make it black and fertile. When you feed your plants with chemical fertilizers, the microbes don’t get any protein and start to suffer. If you feed protein, they can develop into “the organic matter that matters,” a living population of beneficial microbes.

c_reeves – posted 03 September 2003 15:33

To DChall_San_Antonio:We planted sprigs of 419 about one month ago and our turfgrass company is recommending we put sprigs of Sea Isle 1 in the areas that the 419 did not take. Our location is a golf driving range and practice facility in San Antonio. Do you know if Sea Isle will do well in the San Anotonio climate? We are irrigating with recycled water that seems to have a high salt content.Thanks,Cary

jr – posted 03 September 2003 19:55

sea isle 1 is not related to zoysia at all, for one thing. it is a variety of paspalum vaginatum, the same genus as bahia.

it is a coastal grass that grows in sand, and is not highly susceptible to insect problems. to answer creeves question, this grass can be irrigated with the filthiest water you can find and be happy. it will even survive for several days submerged in ocean water. this brings up an interesting issue unique to this grass. you could theoretically use no herbicides on this grass for weed control, just simply spray it with salt water.

fungal problems are not commonplace with this grass. its native environment can cause it to be wet at all times, in some cases. my guess is you are not giving it enough water. it will need more than the once a week which is acceptable for most other turfs.

also, do not be dumping a bunch of nitrogen on this grass. it forms excessive thatch quickly. finally, if you are able to, it forms its best quality turf at mowing heights of 1/2 inch or less.

redbird – posted 04 September 2003 12:01

FYI – The info you have on Sea Isle 1 Paspalum is the same as mine – with a spin. It appears to have a lot more problems (disease, weeds, insects, everything) than has been advertised.

I think the stuff looks gorgeous in the marketing photos. When I spoke to a sales rep, he told me that I probably should not get the grass unless I needed it, i.e., salt spray locations where nothing else would grow. The grass has not proven to perform well in normal applications in comparison to commonly used turf grasses.

Also, It has been used with only marginal successes on the state managed properties on Jekyll Island, GA – and golf courses. I know someone who maintains the turf there and this grass has certainly not met their expectations.

I also agree that it is cool to irrigate with salt water and kill your weeds – BUT – you have to be right on the ocean to do it. Hard ground water with higher than average salinity will not kill the weeds – and standard turf grasses will probably outperform this variety every day of the week.

PS – The rep also let me know that although Sea Isle will grow on salt water, it still performs better with high quality fresh water.

Mike

Dchall_San_Antonio – posted 05 September 2003 00:32

creeves,Sea Isle is also considered an invasive foreign pest in Florida. This recent attempt to market it would be like marketing Johnson grass here in SA.

If you had Tiff 419 that did not take, do you know of any problems with those places? Is the rest of the grass doing well? Is it making any attempt to colonize in the places it did not take?

Without seeing it, my automatic suggestion would be to apply a third of an inch of compost along with some corn meal and see if the surrounding grass fills in.

I have an Internet friend in Canada who’s the greenskeeper for a couple of pitch-n-putt courses. He’s totally organic now and has become a walking, talking billboard for organic methods. You might try starting some of your area on corn meal and see if you like the results. If you decide to do that for large areas, call Lubianski’s Grain Co in St Hedwig (I have their number if you need it)to see how much they will charge you to grind and bag corn meal in bulk. You’ll need 500 pounds per acre. For three acres that’s an entire pallet of bags. But for simple testing, you can get corn meal at all the feed stores in and out of town.

[This message has been edited by Dchall_San_Antonio (edited 05 September 2003).]

BretHenry – posted 17 May 2004 20:13

I planted 12 hundred sq. ft. of sea isle 7 weeks ago. I put top-soil down first and used a sprinkler system using city water every day for three weeks. I noticed two to three small brown patches a couple of weeks into it and sprayed an insectide. I’m now down to watering a couple times a week and have fertilized once. It looks impecable… like a top-tier golf course. I was worried about creating “too good” of conditions (e.g. top soil vs. sand, etc.), but it looks extremely pampered. I mow once a week with a reel mower to about a half inch.