St. Augustine lawn dilemma

Wenp38 – posted 19 March 2004 19:20

Spring is here and most of the lawns in our neighborhood have greened up. Unfortunately for me, I have the worst looking lawn in my neighborhood making me very sad. I am from Jacksonville, Fl and we use a lawn service to mow our lawn. The problem is part of our front lawn has this strip of brown dead looking area that has not grown back, well a few sprouts here and there, it even has the perfect lines and shape of the edging of the garden bed except the brown strip is about 2 feet wide and beyond that, you’ll see the rest of the front lawn in perfect growing green condition. Then on the one side of the house, these brown dead patches are also apparent in big long rectangular strips and does not seem as they have come back either. Walking towards the back yard, the lawn is coming back in strips but 85% of the lawn is still filled with brown dead grass. I have been told to be patient and also told that I will need to resod my lawn. I have maintained proper lawn care with consistent fertilizing and proper water irrigation through last year. The last fertilizer I put on the lawn was in late Oct of 2003 using the Scotts winterizer product. I am baffled as to what has happened to my lawn as it was gorgeous before fall/winter 03. All I have been told by the lawn people is that my lawn has fungus and freeze damage.

I like a second opinion from anyone here that may have come across my situation and help me understand what is happening so I can hopefully remedy this and prevent it in future. My neighbors lawn next door is a perfect lush green and the line of brown and green is divided on that line. It is so bizarre. If it were fungus or damage, why didn’t it happen to my neighbors’ yard? Is it the fertilizer I put down in the fall or is it due to the way the lawn was mowed?

Any comments would be appreciated.

Dchall_San_Antonio – posted 29 March 2004 08:07

I will give you some organic suggestions. As long as you have not used any commerical fungicide, this can work.

Assuming you have a fungal disease, ordinary corn meal will kill the disease in 3 weeks. Maybe you don’t have that long to wait but if you had applied it 3 weeks ago, you would be fine. It goes on at a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. You can get corn meal cheap at a feed store in 50 pound bags. You do not want corn GLUTEN meal. You want ordinary corn, cracked or ground into the smallest particles you can get.

Other than that, are you following these three rules?

1. Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an hour in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds.

2. Mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. Bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses are the most dense when mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. Dense grass shades out weeds and uses less water when tall. Dense grass feeds the deep roots you’re developing in 1 above.

3. Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 4 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above.

Wendy – posted 29 March 2004 08:58

Thank you very much for your reply. I had a professional lawn person over to look at the lawn and he said it was cut too short for St. Augustine lawn which is what killed it in the winter. I was always wondering why my lawn was not thick and lush and now I know it’s because my lawn has been cut too short! Thank you for your tips. I will have to replace most of my lawn.