St. Aug. problems

brou – posted 21 May 2007 10:08

I was just surfing the net looking for help when I found this forum. Hopefully it’ll help me out.

The St. Augustine in my yard quite simply looks like crap. At one time, it was very green, dense and I had to mow weekly. But in the past 2 years, it’s been more yellow, barely grows upwards (but makes tons of runners over the borders) and has quite a few patches where I can see the runners and the hard soil it was grown on.

I’ve fertilized it. Watered it (lord knows we’ve had a lot of water this year already). Had Chemlawn come out. Put down some disease/fungus control. I’ve done everything I can think of.

And it’s not all bad. There are parts of the backyard that grow so fast, the dog won’t walk through them 4 days after I’ve mowed. But then 10 feet away, there’s parts that are so hard, it’s like walking on astroturf.

Short of resodding, what can be done?

I’m in Houston if that helps any.

TexanOne – posted 22 May 2007 01:03

Is there any way to post photos? From your description, it sounds like you have disease or fungal issue going on. Would be able to provide detailed help with photos…

brou – posted 22 May 2007 09:53

I was going to take pics when I got home yesterday, but it was raining pretty hard.

I’ll try to take some and post today if the rain stops.

brou – posted 22 May 2007 14:59

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n123/brouhaha1977/IMG_2743a.jpg

Closeup of one area

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n123/brouhaha1977/IMG_2744a.jpg

And another

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n123/brouhaha1977/IMG_2745a.jpg

Wide angle of another.

You can see how short the grass is. That’s 2 weeks between mowing. Yet spots in my backyard can barely go a week, and are a nice emerald green.

And while I was taking these pics, I knelt down and tried to find any chinch bugs in these areas. It poured this morning and last night, so if there were any they should have been all over. I saw none.

[This message has been edited by brou (edited 22 May 2007).]