February Florida St. Augustine Grass Lawn Care

Hi Kurt,

The backyard has some big areas of yellow blades of Floratam. Although, it did rain a lot this past week, and it is more wet in the backyard, but what is it? Is it too much water like over watering a semi-moist plant? Moreover, is there a solution to this issue?

Thanks much–John

Hello, John
When St. Augustine grass receives too much water yellowing of the blades is normal and is the same problem that occurs with plants when over watered. An area in a lawn that does not drain as properly as others will turn yellow while the other locations stay green. Too much water causes the nutrients to wash away.

Apply liquid Iron and it will green up. If your lawn has not been treated this summer apply to entire lawn liquid Iron. This is recommended during the summer months.

Thanks, Kurt

I think the lawn has a disease. Almost the whole lawn has this thing where the blades turn dark purple and then brown and there’s a big ugly patch in our once beautiful lawn. It’s not cold damage, cause it isn’t the whole lawn, and it doesn’t seem to be happening to anyone else. Why is my St. Augustine turning purple?!!

what do you recommend for a weed killer? We have St. Augustine and Floritam and cannot kill our weeds..I have used Image, Scotts weed and feed, and these don’t work….

Hello Kiliko,

Usually diseases occur from hot humid weather, shade, and over watering in St. Augustine grass. Sometimes lawns can receive frost in spots and not the entire lawn. When this type of turf has cold damage the blades do turn purple and then brown. Also St. Augustine grass around a pool area will turn this color if the pool overflowed from rain. If it is happening only to your lawn it might not be treated properly, like over fertilizing, too much water, high rate of weed control.

Kurt

Hello Barbara,

I understand how you feel about weeds taking over your lawn. They can be difficult to control. Chemicals that are available treat only weeds that are listed on the label of each product. Therefore it is important to identify the type of weeds in ones lawn before purchasing a weed killer. If you continue to have little success using products only available to the consumer, I recommend hiring a state certified lawn spray company. The chemicals that they use produce better results and can only be purchased only by them.

Thanks,

Kurt

Kurt,

Please help. I live in Tampa Fl. and recently we experienced some of the coldest weather a few weeks back. My Floratam sod I put down 3 months ago has turned yellow all over. Is it dead? I see a few green blade throughout. I’ve read elsewhere brown mean dead but can’t find out what yellow means. What should I do I raked it yesterday which removed a mound of dead yellow grass and leaves. Should I fertilize? Water more (we have been getting rain here and there and in the morning I feel the grass and its damp.)

Please help

Hello Jason,

When St. Augustine grass is damaged from extreme cold weather it will turn yellow with purple tips, and then will turn brown. Almost everyone in Tampa has brown lawns now. That does not mean everyones lawn is going to die.

St. Augustine is capable of bouncing back when warm weather comes back in the spring. The fact that you have some green blades is a good sign it is going to be o k. It was good that you raked out the leaves because too many leaves can suffocate a lawn, and keeps sunlight from reaching your grass which can turn it yellow. Wait until springtime to fertilize. Do Not water more, only water every two weeks during the winter. Since you are getting rain and the ground is wet, stop watering until it completely dries out. Too much watering also turns St. Augustine grass yellow. By the way I live in Clearwater.

Thanks,

Kurt

Thank-you Kurt,

I’m still curious why everyones grass in my neighborhood turned brown first not yellow and mine turned yellow and never turned brown. It wasn’t a lot of leaves that I raked out preventing sun light. My neighbor put the same kind of sod a few weeks after mine. After the cold his lawn turned completely brown but now its looking pretty good with lots of green blades everywhere. I spoke with him and he said he hasn’t been watering nor have I. Well I guess the grass is always greener on the otherside. Sorry to be a pain.

Can’t thank you enough you eased my worries,

Jason

Hi Kurt,

We put down sod a week ago, and it is still pretty brown. We were told it would take a week or two to green up but are still a little concerned. There is a little bit of green everywhere but not a lot. We were given a “guarantee” but would still not want to have to put down another 18 pallets if this does not take. Is this something we should just be patient for where it will most likely turn more green as time goes on? How much would you recommend watering? (We have been watering twice a day early morning and late afternoon/early evening.) Is there a fertilizer that would be helpful? Any advice would be a big help.

Thanks,

Jo Hill

Hi Kurt
I live in Florida,west coast, west of tampa.
I keep the grass cleared away from my irrigation sprinkler heads, do you think
that this is necessary ?
Can I allow the grass (St, Augustine) to grow over the sprinkler heads ?

Thank you

Hello Grady,

I would not let the grass grow over your sprinkler heads. The reason for that, the sprinkler heads will not pop up correctly which may cause them to break under the pressure of the water. I recommend to use “sprinkler head donuts” which will help prevent the grass from growing over them.

Thanks Grady for your great question.
Kurt Kmetz

I live in Florida and have St. Augustine grass. Large patches are turning yellow. Here’s the catch: I have fertiliezed it with 17-0-10. After I did that, the yellowing began. I had not fertilized in over 6 months before that. So, I gave it some ironite. While the grass didn’t get worse, it also didn’t get better either (not any greener). We have not had a lot of rain – just a moderate amount. AND my neighbor’s lawns on both sides of me are perfectly green and lush. Not sure what’s going on. Could you help?

Tim,
Yellowing areas could be from the disease “Anthracnose” a fungus found in St. Augustine grass. IT could have
been in early stages and the fertilizer made it worse turning it yellow. Check the blades of grass early in the morning
for black spots. ( IF this the case apply liquid fungicide, dry out areas first, cover blades thoroughly,do not water after ).
It is harder for me to diagnose a problem without being able to inspect your lawn. Remember to treat your lawn soon
with insecticide for chinch bugs are starting to become active.
Kurt

All (personal experience & opinions only),
Below is my own personal experience with maintaining my St. Augustine grass. I too live in North Florida and have St. Augustine grass. I’m getting sparse blade yellowing throughout my yard. I use a shallow well that has plenty of rust for irrigation. I may be over watering & will cut back to 2, 35 minute zone sprays a week until we start getting some rain. That said, I see most St. Augustine lawns in my subdivision suffering & some dying. Many home owners have replaced their sod several times since 2006.
Making matters worse the EPA has made most fertilizer manufacturers remove the higher conc. of Atrizine which were desperately needed for our Southern St. Augustine grasses to control weeds. Scotts still identifies their Bonus S Plus as a fertilizer & weed controller. EPA has made them remove most of the Atrizine & it no longer controls even dollar weed. In fact, they recently refunded me several hundred dollars in their weed & feed products that no longer kill weeds (note, still a very good fertilizer).
I’ve been purchasing other brands of weed killers you spray from your garden hose & that helps, but does not do what the higher levels of Atrizine did!
I have resodded my front lawn as well (make sure you use the heavy duty weed killers on the ground before you sod. Wait several weeks to insure the weeds are dead. Drop a thin layer of top soil on top of your Florida sand & then sod. St. Augustine needs good top soil & has a difficult time handling sand alone.
Hope this info helps,
Oh, one more thing- not sure how I got some areas of burmuda grass growing in my yard, as I think it got mixed in with some of the St. Augustine sod. That said, I am not unhappy about it. The burmuda grass seems to be more resistant to bugs, fungus, etc. it’s skinnier blades still match up with the wider St. Augustine blades in the summer & when kept mowed looks great.

Could putting down ace weed and feed slow release and then 5 days later spraying with liquid fertilizer turn the st. augustine grass a dark bronze and make it stop growing and look like it is semi-dying ??

Ironically, the grass along the driveway still looks great, and i am sure i put the granular there, so maybe the spray guy missed that 50 length of grass and the liquid iron did not damage it.

just trying to figure out why this happened and if my grass will come back??

thanks

John,

Thanks for sharing your experience and information on maintaining your St. Augustine lawn. I am sure this will be helpful for others who also take personal care of their own. I know your lawn will be an example of what a landscape can be.

Kurt Kmetz

Nelson,
Weed control is probably the chemical that damaged your lawn. You will find out in due time if the areas are going to die. I do not know when you put it down, if the temperature was too hot to apply a weed and feed this can happen. If too much was put down this can happen. Did the lawn spray company treat the same area with weed control? Do they know you are also treating the lawn between services? I recommend calling them and letting them know. You should not have to be doing anything since your paying them for lawn care. I worked for lawn spray companies for 10 years and never burned a lawn from liquid iron, but it can happen. If you are not satisfied with your service tell them, if you already have and no results cancel them and find another.

Kurt

Hi Kurt:

yes, i kinda thought it was the weed and feed.

1) I put ace weed and feed down, on april 20 and followed the instructions.
as I recall the temperature was moderate that day..early morning

2) unknown to me, the spray company came april 25 and

a) sprayed 20 gallons of 33-0-17 Iron fertilizer

b) put down Manor weed control

c) put down Hawkeye weed control

within hours on april 25 when i got home, I noticed the grass was a terrible bronze like color LOL…

It has now been 20 days since the first application and my grass

a) is still bronze colored

b) some small areas are tan and dying

c) overall it is not growing as it should

I have used ace weed and feed in the past and it did a great job. However, unfortunately, in this case, it appears too much weed and feed did some damage. I am hoping most of it will come back.

I have some bernuda creeping in from the golf course, and I am happy …I keep telling it to come on in, faster LOL….I am sick of wasting money on Water for this st. augustine grass, not to mention chinch bugs, fungus, etc.

I have a feeling that after 20 days, the grass that was going to die has done so and the rest that has not, will come back once all the chemicals are leached out.

Oh by the way…see if you can solve this mystery.

There are 50 long areas along the driveway on both sides and along the property line that were not damaged and are growing like crazy and are nice and green.

I know that I did put ace weed and feed on those spots…and I think that the company spray guy did NOT put their weed control there ( i assume it was liquid), and therefore it did not get overdosed and looks great LOL

I always had a great lawn in Miami…where I did all the work myself, the only difference was that I had my own well, so I could irrigate frequently, along with using scotts turf builder and using liquid chinch control as needed.

Up here in central florida it is like a losing battle….probably terrible soil, no rain, water restrictions, chinch, etc…most of the lawns in this community look absolutely terrible..

thanks for your response

Nelson

ok..problem diagnosed.

I had another lawn company come over and he said that my lawn has massive fungus, thus the bronze color. Probably caused from too much nitrogen. So He will treat for fungus.

I got rid of the original company which never sent a tech to see the lawn, but simply told me on the phone to water more LOL

Hopefully the new company will get rid of the fungus and my lawn will survive.

How many minutes per zone do you water in the winter. We are restricted to one day a week. Live in central Florida.
Thanks for your help.

Sunny,
During the winter months the growth rate for lawns slows down compared to during the summer. Watering once a week is sufficient for it to receive the proper amount of water needed. Set each zone for 40 minutes and water in the early morning hours. Do Not Water when temperatures are around or below freezing to avoid any damage to your lawn, wait until it warms up to turn it back on.

Kurt