I have St. Augustine and there are patches of brown since it started to green up. Located in Cedar Park north of Austin.

I see deer on it occasionally. It's watered for an hour every 3 days. I walked on it briefly yesterday to see if any white moths flew up. Maybe one or two, not many.


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aggiedent said:

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Here's the real problem: St Augustine. It's crap. Requires way too much tender loving care to look decent. There are better grasses for Texas or put in some beds with native landscaping.

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Agreed.

I have a mix of Bermuda, Dallisgrass, and Bahia Grass. It's very hardy and does well in the summer after the Clover dies off.

The ring in the 4th picture tells me all I need to know. Fungus. Rake the dead crap up, spray fungicide, and top dress.

BrazosDog02 said:

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aggiedent said:

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Here's the real problem: St Augustine. It's crap. Requires way too much tender loving care to look decent. There are better grasses for Texas or put in some beds with native landscaping.

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Agreed.

I have a mix of Bermuda, Dallisgrass, and Bahia Grass. It's very hardy and does well in the summer after the Clover dies off.

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Agreed. OP, if you need something that will do well in Texas with very little water, I can ship you some Dalligrass seeds. This stuff grows like a weed and will cover your whole yard in about 3 months.

Btw, i've found the most economical way to install dallisgrass is not to buy seeds. You just go snag some seed pods from a nearby neighors yard and olant them. Next step is not to mow your yard too quickly. You want to let those seed pods get nice and ripe. Then you mow, followed by hitting the area with a leafblower. Spread those homegrown seeds ALL AROUND. Go ahead and leafblow toward your neighbor's yard too. They'll thank you for the sod work later.

Cromagnum said:

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FSGuide said:

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BrazosDog02 said:

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aggiedent said:

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Here's the real problem: St Augustine. It's crap. Requires way too much tender loving care to look decent. There are better grasses for Texas or put in some beds with native landscaping.

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Agreed.

I have a mix of Bermuda, Dallisgrass, and Bahia Grass. It's very hardy and does well in the summer after the Clover dies off.

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Agreed. OP, if you need something that will do well in Texas with very little water, I can ship you some Dalligrass seeds. This stuff grows like a weed and will cover your whole yard in about 3 months.

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Why in the hell would anyone willingly put Dallisgrass in their yard? You will loathe it and every one of your neighbors will hate you.

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I agree. I hate Dallisgrass. It's hard as crap to kill and looks horrible. I've never heard of that being a desirable grass considering it grows much faster and taller than most sod grasses.

bookmyer said:

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Cromagnum said:

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FSGuide said:

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BrazosDog02 said:

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aggiedent said:

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Here's the real problem: St Augustine. It's crap. Requires way too much tender loving care to look decent. There are better grasses for Texas or put in some beds with native landscaping.

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Agreed.

I have a mix of Bermuda, Dallisgrass, and Bahia Grass. It's very hardy and does well in the summer after the Clover dies off.

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Agreed. OP, if you need something that will do well in Texas with very little water, I can ship you some Dalligrass seeds. This stuff grows like a weed and will cover your whole yard in about 3 months.

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Why in the hell would anyone willingly put Dallisgrass in their yard? You will loathe it and every one of your neighbors will hate you.

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I agree. I hate Dallisgrass. It's hard as crap to kill and looks horrible. I've never heard of that being a desirable grass considering it grows much faster and taller than most sod grasses.

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See, that's the beauty. There is nothing normal or natural about the smooth, even cut and uniformity of a well manicured lawn. You should always question the validity of something that requires that much chemical to keep up.

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I find the clumpy patches and long seed strands quite pleasing to the eye.

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If you like this, you should try the high speed mowing technique. To do it right, you need to dull your mower blades and increase your ground speed. The fastest way to do this is run your mower over a pea gravel drive at it's lowest setting.

You will get a nice grass cut, but maintain the stubble of the seed head. It's glorious.

Picture 4 as already stated is patch fungus.Easy to treat. Often caused by too much water: either holding water or watering improperly-too often/too much.

Grasses are starting to come out of dormancy really well right now with these nice sunny spring days. You are looking at only needing to apply just over a quarter inch per week in the absence of rainfall.

Since you are in Cedar Park, I would suggest signing up for WaterMyYard (http://WaterMyYard.org) its free and really helps with knowing when to water and how much

agfan2013 said:

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It's watered for an hour every 3 days.

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Way, way too much. Even if this was mid July with highs in the low 100s, it probably doesn't need that much to survive. As others have said, get you some fungicide and rake the dead stuff off. But also really back down on your watering schedule, overwatering is probably what caused your problem in the first place.

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Agreed, personally I would cut that back to 45 minutes 1 day a week right now unless it rains

Thank you for the responses. I will reduce watering to once a week and sign up for the website. Do I need to rake and apply the fungicide to just the affected areas or the entire lawn?

Great advice so far.

I would also recommend this time of year a good 1/4" of composted topdressing. Better than regular fertilizer plus it will build up your soil depth.

Is there a certain fungicide to use? Having the same issue

You want something that specifically says for patch.

Aggie Turf Publication on Patch: http://aggieturf.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/E-633-Large-patch.pdf
The last page of the publication list some products to use for treatment for reference


Just searching Home Depot there is Spectracide Immunox that treats patch http://www.homedepot.com/p/Spectracide-Immunox-16-oz-Fungicide-for-Gardens-HG-51000-2/203772106

I agree the St Augustine is a pita. What's the best alternative for heavily shaded lawns in DFW?

My kids don't like playing in those.

AgySkeet06 said:

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You want something that specifically says for patch.

Aggie Turf Publication on Patch: http://aggieturf.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/E-633-Large-patch.pdf
The last page of the publication list some products to use for treatment for reference


Just searching Home Depot there is Spectracide Immunox that treats patch http://www.homedepot.com/p/Spectracide-Immunox-16-oz-Fungicide-for-Gardens-HG-51000-2/203772106

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Do you have a comment on this quote in the link?

Damaged grass will not recover until the following spring. Fungicide applications in the spring are not cost-effective.

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Cromagnum said:


Why in the hell would anyone willingly put Dallisgrass in their yard? You will loathe it and every one of your neighbors will hate you.

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bookmyer said:
I agree. I hate Dallisgrass. It's hard as crap to kill and looks horrible. I've never heard of that being a desirable grass considering it grows much faster and taller than most sod grasses.

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See, that's the beauty. There is nothing normal or natural about the smooth, even cut and uniformity of a well manicured lawn. You should always question the validity of something that requires that much chemical to keep up.

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Exactly. We have been brainwashed by tradition that grass should be bright green and x number of inches high. Why? I'm one of those odd balls that would rather stare out at native prairie grasses of varying length than a field of St Augustine.

It makes no sense to me to plant a grass that needs a constant bombardment of chemicals to help it look good and keep it from developing disease. Put something in that grows in Texas without the worry.

Turf. It will cost a bit now but save you in the long run.

aggiedent said:

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Cromagnum said:


Why in the hell would anyone willingly put Dallisgrass in their yard? You will loathe it and every one of your neighbors will hate you.

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bookmyer said:
I agree. I hate Dallisgrass. It's hard as crap to kill and looks horrible. I've never heard of that being a desirable grass considering it grows much faster and taller than most sod grasses.

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See, that's the beauty. There is nothing normal or natural about the smooth, even cut and uniformity of a well manicured lawn. You should always question the validity of something that requires that much chemical to keep up.

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Exactly. We have been brainwashed by tradition that grass should be bright green and x number of inches high. Why? I'm one of those odd balls that would rather stare out at native prairie grasses of varying length than a field of St Augustine.

It makes no sense to me to plant a grass that needs a constant bombardment of chemicals to help it look good and keep it from developing disease. Put something in that grows in Texas without the worry.

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I have 1 acre of celebration bermuda for my lawn and 240 acres of native grass. I also enjoy looking at the taller grass. Just not right next to my house! Ann back to the original post, San Augustine is not a very good grass for the area. I think the builders install it in most of these neighborhoods because it cost them less.

The first time I laid sod in my yard, it burned. So from experience, I would suggest to rake the dead grass first and then aerate. Then rake in a good enriched top soil, fertilize, then water once for about 45 min. Wait a week and water again.

I have Centipede grass. It looks similar to St. Augustine, especially from a distance, and is more shade and drought tolerant.

Dr. Venkman said:

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Thank you for the responses. I will reduce watering to once a week and sign up for the website. Do I need to rake and apply the fungicide to just the affected areas or the entire lawn?

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I've got a couple areas that don't drain well, and get fungus once a year.

I use Corn meal to treat the fungus. It's much cheaper, and works better. Just grab a $2 bag from the grocery store and apply it to the area.

Once the fungus is gone...put some topsoil down (dillo dirt or compost mix).

Russ79 said:

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I have Centipede grass. It looks similar to St. Augustine, especially from a distance, and is more shade and drought tolerant.

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It may be more drought tolerant, but it is not more shade tolerant:
https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/travis/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/2010-Turfgrass-Selection-for-Texaslres.pdf
https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/turf/publications/centipede.html

St Augustine is the most shade-tolerant grass you will find for Texas, and even it needs some sun to thrive.

When you boil it all down in my neighborhood, which is 25+ years old at this point and full of mature trees, it is the shade tolerance factor that has driven so much St Augustine use. In spite of its other issues, it still has the reputation for putting up the best fight vs. the shade. Proper and consistent tree pruning helps. Using other non-sod options can help. And zoysia is a pretty big player as another option that is at least somewhat shade tolerant. But that leading shade tolerance factor has driven a lot of people to stick with St Aug and just deal with the other issues it may present.

There is no point in putting out a fungicide for that at this time of year. Those brown rings didn't just appear this spring, you had brownpatch during the fall. It is not a springtime disease. It will eventually green up, but those areas will just take slightly longer.