Yellowish orange St Augusine

ozk – posted 05 October 2011 10:47

I sprayed spectracide weed stop for lawns on my St Augustine grass two weeks ago. This past friday when i mowed the lawn the grass was coming up by the roots and now has turned completely yellowish orange. I went from the greenest green to just really sad grass. What can I do to bring back my lawn that has minimal color in it and has stopped growing. I am watering twice a day since i live in the very hot south texas. Would like to fertilize but don’t want to hurt the grass more than necessary. Please help.

RealGreen5 – posted 05 October 2011 18:21

Sounds like a fungal problem, when the grass comes up in your hand it is usually either brown patch or grubs in St Augustine. Propiconazole is a good broad spectrum fungicide to control this. I have seen some isolated cases of anthracnose in bermuda lawns that causes an orange color earlier in the year. Pull the blades up and examine where they meet the crown, the base of the leace will have a dark brown color and feel slimy if it is brown patch. If you can send pictures will be glad to try to help. We have started seeing some cases of brown patch in the Austin area in the past few weeks. Try to avoid late afternoon or evening waterings that leave excess moisture on the lawn during the night time hours. You may also consider lowering your mowing height by a notch on the mower to allow more air circulation through the thatch layer of the lawn. Hope this helps, will look for pix.

RealGreen5 – posted 05 October 2011 18:27

The other possibilty is damage caused by the fungicide itself. We experience more problems with fungicide burn on ornamental shrubs than lawns but it does happen. If you feel this may be the case try to water as much as possible to dilute the chemical. Hopefully you do not lose a bunch of turf to chemical damage. There is some good information on our website at

ozk – posted 05 October 2011 18:35

Thanks for posting a comment.I do have pics where can I upload them or send them directly yo your email? I appreciate your time and help.

Progreen88 – posted 02 May 2012 13:25

Keep in mind too that these herbicides can be very misleading. I’ve seen spectracide completely wipe out st augustinegrass lawns in a matter of what seemed days. Be careful, just because something says for southern turfgrass doesnt mean it is compatible with all types of southern grass. It is possible that the herbicide you bought had 2-4-d as the active ingredient, which will kill st augustine.

Spriteman – posted 05 May 2012 23:36

Do you know if your cultivar of St. Augustine is Floratam? I did a quick check on your Spectracide Weed Stop and it specifically warns against using it on Floratam.