pfluger
Newly Registered
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2013 8:31 pm

New St Augustine Sod turning brown

I am new to this forum searching for help with my new St. Augustine sod. I am a rookie when it comes to gardening, so please bear with me ;-)
I put new St. Augustine sod in my garden (myself) about 3 to 4 weeks ago. Unfortunately the sod started to turn brown in the last 1 or 2 weeks.

I was watering for 10 minutes every night the first two weeks and then every other day. We had very heavy rains nearly every day during the first two weeks.

After reading a little bit through this forum I assume I didn't water enough? Can I still recover it? What can I do?
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imafan26
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Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Did you prep the ground and amend it with compost before you planted it? . The sod needed to make good contact with the soil and I usually would have watered the soil to make sure it wasn't too dry before laying the grass.

When I put in new grass, I ordered it from the sod farm, they cut it while I waited and I planted it the same day. I also planted it in the fall, since that is our rainy season and the weather is cooler and I watered 4 times a day until I could see the grass greening and growing.

Most grasses go dormant in summer and get a little brown anyway and take a lot of water to keep them green.

If the soil is loose under the grass and drains well, then I would water 4 times a day. 15 minutes or until you start to see run off. Continue to do that until you see that the grass is putting out new shoots.

I also feed new grass monthly until it is filled in then aerate, topdress and fertilize with a low phosphorus fertilizer twice a year.

Luckily St. Augustine does not have as much problems with fungus as other grasses. Watering early in the morning would probably be better for the grass to tolerate the heat of the day. If you are hand watering. Use sprinklers instead and put it on a faucet timer. It is actually better to have a sprinkler system instead since grasses are thirsty plants.



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