St. Augustine is dead…

DuaneS – posted 07 August 2004 18:37

…and I have his blood on my hands.

The first picture shows the lawn as it looked a year ago. No food, no water, just infrequent mowing.Grass1

In the spring, a nitrogen/iron fertilizer was applied and the lawn was watered occasionally.Grass2Grass3

Then came a period of over-watering and over-fertilizing, a long story.

And now the lawn appears this way.

Grass4Grass5Grass6Grass7

I would like to understand how I killed it.

Now, the lawn is dethatched and aerated. A call will go to the county extension agent on Monday.

The pH test was 6.5, nitrogen levels are fine, phosphorus and potassium levels are high.

The present plan is to water, top dress with sand and plant plugs.What else can I do to restore the lawn?

If anyone would like to comment I would very much like to learn, and of course, bring my St. Augustine back to life…

Thanks!

[This message has been edited by DuaneS (edited 20 August 2004).]

[This message has been edited by DuaneS (edited 20 August 2004).]

[This message has been edited by DuaneS (edited 20 August 2004).]

[This message has been edited by DuaneS (edited 20 August 2004).]

DuaneS – posted 09 August 2004 18:10

Went to the agricultural extension agent today. He met me personally and was very helpful.A soil test must be done but the initial diagnosis was an over-dose of fertilizer from a newbie.Good news is there is good potential for regrowth. The soil looks good and there are still enough green for hope.He also provided me with literature and lots of good advice. Would recommend the agricultural extension agent in your area as a good resource.

StevieD – posted 16 August 2004 07:08

Unfortunately, I couldn’t access your photos.Nevertheless, please keep us (me) informed of your progress. I also have St. Auggie grass and am having problems with it.

DuaneS – posted 20 August 2004 20:17

I think the photo problem is solved now.

Small patchs of St. Augustine are coming back up along with Bermuda. Still looks dismal…

I will post another picture soon. Thinking about resodding or replugging with Palmetto. The original Floratam never grew well in the shade anyways.

I will keep you updated.

Time-4-Z’z – posted 31 August 2004 18:13

After re-sodding my front yard I encountered a similar problem; worse is I can not isolate the root cause.

How about sharing what your ‘agent’ said to do with us ?

DuaneS – posted 31 August 2004 19:29

OK, I’ll try to remember as much as possible.

He is a professor and teaches turf management.He said the pH levels were not an issue for St. Augustine, I thought 6.2 was low. Said a soil test from Texas A&M was necessary, the kit from Lowe’s wasn’t accurate enough. Felt a fungus was not likely, in fact the obvious over-dose of fertilizer was pretty compelling evidence, approximately 4-6 times what it should have been. Said to keep watering, but to water deep and only when the grass starts to wilt…very helpful but a lot of advice that is repeated in a book I bought, let me get it…let’s see “The Lawn Bible” by David Mellor, amazon.com don’t remember what I paid. Illustrations are non-existent, anecdotes related to baseball if that’s what you’re in to, but very sound advice and lots of it, most of which can be read on this website, excepting some who seem to like to write without knowing much more than typing…The lawn looks terrible still, although the hardy St. Augustine DOES NOT GIVE UP. Runners are shooting out all over, coverage must be ~30%, if I didn’t want to change to Palmetto and level it I may have plugged the sick sections with the growing sections and just top dressed with sand, in my case stronger medicine is probably needed anyways.Back to the agricultural extension ‘agent’, he told me not to worry, as long as the stolons are green, aeration could help, said my soil was probably not clay, the area my house was built in was an old orchard, not to be fooled by the hardness. Don’t know what else you might want to know. Would suggest trying yours out, tell me your city or area and I will give you the information that I have in my books for the extension agent for your area, probably lots of people on this site could answer that question as well, don’t know if the book info is up to date.

For now, the plan is to bring in top soil, rototill after Rounding up all existing grass, mix well, retest soil, add amendments, re-rototill, resod and WATER.Small lawn (1000 sq. ft), small price tag, should be able to do it for <$500.

Could you see the pictures? Do you have some of your own? How long has it been since the resod? Who was it done by? Do you know what steps were taken to ensure that the sod would ‘take’?

DuaneS – posted 04 September 2004 10:50

Here are updated pictures of how the lawn looks presently (after two months).

Lots of Bermuda mixed in with the St. Augustine, lots of dirt and dead material mixed in with the Bermuda.Not pretty.

Can you all see the pictures?Hope so, have a great day and DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!

Grass2months 001Grass2months 002Grass2months 003Grass2months 004Grass2months 005

dustymccall – posted 13 September 2004 14:54

I have trouble with my St.Augustinegrass,someone on this site informed me about a book.”The Journey to a Bulletproof Lawn” by Bob Imbrigotta.It has helped me VERY much to better understand this type of grass,my grass is doing much better now thanks to this book.Dustymccall

DuaneS – posted 16 September 2004 18:34

It was probably me, your username seems familiar. I’ve recommended it on this site once already and am glad to hear it helps–another impartial observer recommending what I consider to be a great product…Continued good luck to you.

Duane

pchrosto – posted 21 September 2004 18:36

Looking at your first pics I would guess the problem was with Cinch bugs. My lawn looked just like that. When I finally was told to check for them, I looked and the thatch was swarming with them. They can wipe out an entire lawn in a few weeks.