I'm in central TX and we all now has bad last summer's heat and drought were. We have some patches in the grass that I attribute to lack of water last summer/fall. It was just impossible to keep up given water restrictions.

Could this be some sort of bug? Doing the same lawn treatment practice I've done for years and we typically have a very full lawn. The spots correlate with sections that get the least amount of shade.

Album of the bad and good spots throughout

https://imgur.com/a/YJ5pJ0N

Thoughts?

Looks like runners from root rot. A lot of yards seem to be experiencing it. Mine has spots of that along with my mom's.

Impressed you kept the poa annua out of those areas. That's what's filling in all my dead (and not dead) st augustine spots this spring

Wait did you take a picture of my yard?

Watching……. Significant issues with this throughout my yard. Lawn care fertilizer guys struggling to figure it out. Fearful I'm going to lose my whole yard.

MS08 said:

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Looks like runners from root rot. A lot of yards seem to be experiencing it. Mine has spots of that along with my mom's.

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Interesting. Might be it.

Is there anything I can do?

pablof said:

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Watching……. Significant issues with this throughout my yard. Lawn care fertilizer guys struggling to figure it out. Fearful I'm going to lose my whole yard.

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Yeah really hoping not but it's trending that way. Our backyard is little over a half acre so a lot of time and money gone into this over the last 5 years

Pull up some runners around the dead areas. Are the roots very short with a black tip? If so, very like TARR (take all root rot).

Not really a cure for this. We had at our last house in Plano and a lawn care company we used treated it by putting some nematodes that eat the fungus/ other nematodes whatever that can lead to it.

Like some tree diseases, TARR moves in when the grass is stressed. Best way to combat it is to really hunker down on correct fertilization treatment and watering. Long, deep watering schedules to force the roots to grow deep.

Good luck! We battled ours back even with a neighbor next door that did 0 upkeep.

Our house right before we sold it.

https://neilsperry.com/2008/08/battling-takeall-root-rot/
Peat moss treatment

ChoppinDs40 said:

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https://neilsperry.com/2008/08/battling-takeall-root-rot/
Peat moss treatment

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I've been doing this over the last couple of years. I don't have a lot of yard, but some areas were definitely stressed. Make sure and get a rake and pull out all that old dead thatch and get the soil exposed. I put down four bales of the s****num peat moss from Lowes. One year I got it a little too thick, so make sure to break it up and use the back of the rake to make a fine, thin layer and water it in real well.

This is something you will likely not cure this summer it will take some time unless you are a miracle worker.

agree and good notes for the OP... this will NOT be fixed in a year. When we bought our last house the entire landscape was in disarray... it took 2-3 years to get the lawn to look like ours.

Organic lawn treatment company, religiously mowed every week and consistent deep 2-3x week watering... and patience.

AgsMyDude said:

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MS08 said:

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Looks like runners from root rot. A lot of yards seem to be experiencing it. Mine has spots of that along with my mom's.

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Interesting. Might be it.

Is there anything I can do?

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Heard about peat moss being the helpful trick. Haven't asked around much though so I don't have an action item yet.

Take All Root Rot. I have been fighting the same **** for 10 years. Peat moss helps some but it will come back. Azoxystrobin is suppose to help, but it's expensive and I have mixed results so far.

Dealing with the same thing...do you have streaks that look almost neon too?

We have 3-4 large (6-8 foot long, 2-3 foot wide) sections that are gone (just dead runners like that). Another area around the side is probably 20x10 foot and completely gone and replaced by poa annua....

we moved in 2 years ago and last year I had our yard looking great (first nice lawn I've ever had), but I think last year's drought conditions and our cities watering restrictions (1 day ever other week) gave me no chance and the yard just couldn't handle it.

I'm due for my 2nd disease-ex treatment early next week...hoping to knock this out and maybe plug the empty patches...

For those that know, assuming I get rid of the issue, how likely is the existing grass to fill in some of these holes? Should I plan on buying plugs or putting down new sod in those spots?

JDCAG (NOT Colin) said:

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Dealing with the same thing...do you have streaks that look almost neon too?

We have 3-4 large (6-8 foot long, 2-3 foot wide) sections that are gone (just dead runners like that). Another area around the side is probably 20x10 foot and completely gone and replaced by poa annua....

we moved in 2 years ago and last year I had our yard looking great (first nice lawn I've ever had), but I think last year's drought conditions and our cities watering restrictions (1 day ever other week) gave me no chance and the yard just couldn't handle it.

I'm due for my 2nd disease-ex treatment early next week...hoping to knock this out and maybe plug the empty patches...

For those that know, assuming I get rid of the issue, how likely is the existing grass to fill in some of these holes? Should I plan on buying plugs or putting down new sod in those spots?

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new sod and water the absolute hell out of it... new sod needs to be watered 2x daily and molded to the underlying soil immediately... gotta get those roots into the underlying soil... St. Augustine spreads well with water, sun and frequent mowing but those are some good sized areas... a half pallet should do you..

AgsMyDude said:

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I'm in central TX and we all now has bad last summer's heat and drought were. We have some patches in the grass that I attribute to lack of water last summer/fall. It was just impossible to keep up given water restrictions.

Could this be some sort of bug? Doing the same lawn treatment practice I've done for years and we typically have a very full lawn. The spots correlate with sections that get the least amount of shade.

Album of the bad and good spots throughout

https://imgur.com/a/YJ5pJ0N

Thoughts?

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Mine looked similar in B/CS last summer. It looked marvelous the year prior but with the drought we ended up with chinch bugs. Had it treated and had to cut and and re-sod those spots.

Quote:

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Thoughts?

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I like your bottle tree.

schwack schwack said:

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Quote:

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Thoughts?

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I like your bottle tree.

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Thanks. My 4 year old son like to take them off an pee in them.

BluHorseShu said:

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AgsMyDude said:

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I'm in central TX and we all now has bad last summer's heat and drought were. We have some patches in the grass that I attribute to lack of water last summer/fall. It was just impossible to keep up given water restrictions.

Could this be some sort of bug? Doing the same lawn treatment practice I've done for years and we typically have a very full lawn. The spots correlate with sections that get the least amount of shade.

Album of the bad and good spots throughout

https://imgur.com/a/YJ5pJ0N

Thoughts?

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Mine looked similar in B/CS last summer. It looked marvelous the year prior but with the drought we ended up with chinch bugs. Had it treated and had to cut and and re-sod those spots.

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What treatment did you use?

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Thanks. My 4 year old son like to take them off an pee in them.

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That'll show them haints ......

BluHorseShu said:

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AgsMyDude said:

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I'm in central TX and we all now has bad last summer's heat and drought were. We have some patches in the grass that I attribute to lack of water last summer/fall. It was just impossible to keep up given water restrictions.

Could this be some sort of bug? Doing the same lawn treatment practice I've done for years and we typically have a very full lawn. The spots correlate with sections that get the least amount of shade.

Album of the bad and good spots throughout

https://imgur.com/a/YJ5pJ0N

Thoughts?

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Mine looked similar in B/CS last summer. It looked marvelous the year prior but with the drought we ended up with chinch bugs. Had it treated and had to cut and and re-sod those spots.

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chinch will definitely show up when it's reallly hot. You can pull the grass right up and they'll be visible. Easy to treat but I think that's TARR this time of year.

Looks like you aren't the only victim this spring. See question #1

https://neilsperry.com/2023/04/qa-ask-neil-april-13-2023/

AgsMyDude said:

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BluHorseShu said:

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AgsMyDude said:

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I'm in central TX and we all now has bad last summer's heat and drought were. We have some patches in the grass that I attribute to lack of water last summer/fall. It was just impossible to keep up given water restrictions.

Could this be some sort of bug? Doing the same lawn treatment practice I've done for years and we typically have a very full lawn. The spots correlate with sections that get the least amount of shade.

Album of the bad and good spots throughout

https://imgur.com/a/YJ5pJ0N

Thoughts?

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Mine looked similar in B/CS last summer. It looked marvelous the year prior but with the drought we ended up with chinch bugs. Had it treated and had to cut and and re-sod those spots.

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What treatment did you use?

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We actually called ABC pest control...but looking back I should have just done it myself. I think I needed them to confirm it was chinch bugs and not fungus/thatch, etc. Now I know what to look for.

ChoppinDs40 said:

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new sod and water the absolute hell out of it... new sod needs to be watered 2x daily and molded to the underlying soil immediately... gotta get those roots into the underlying soil... St. Augustine spreads well with water, sun and frequent mowing but those are some good sized areas... a half pallet should do you..

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This here and to elaborate, for new sod areas, make sure to dig out some top soil so the sod bed will be level with the existing surface. I see a lot of yards that they essentially throw it down and start watering. It's aggravating see because somehow those people still get it to grow in some cases, but it is good to get that whole pad so it doesn't dry out too fast.

this is what my yard looks like too and I lost a huge chunk of it

In north Texas (Plano), most yards have patches like this. I assume St. Augustine hasn't fully come out of dormancy yet.

Neil Sperry answered a question about this this week:

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WHAT'S WRONG WITH MY ST. AUGUSTINE?

Question: My St. Augustine lawn has a patchwork of dead grass all across the yard. From your book I've narrowed it down to possibly grub worms, take all root rot, brown patch or SAD. What do you think? Janice C., San Antonio.

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Answer: The first thing I think about is what time of year this question is being asked. Most St. Augustine issues are very seasonal. Then I look closely at the blades and the specific symptoms. Grub worms devour roots, so affected areas pull loose easily from the soil since the roots aren't there to hold the soil. However, their damage isn't usually this much like (to use your term) "patchwork." Brown patch results in circular areas of dead grass blades definitely not the case here since they're not brown. St. Augustine decline (SAD) leaves no survivors, plus it's not nearly as common now as it was several decades ago. We now have SAD-resistant types of St. Augustine making up most lawns. Take all root rot (TARR), however, occurs as grass tries to come out of winter dormancy. Patches of it fail to green up as it normally should (hence the other name, "take all patch"). Blades are alternately normal green and pale yellowish green or missing entirely, all within just a few inches of one another. This really does look like take all root rot. Try the fungicide Azoxystrobin to see if the lawn responds favorably.

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txaggie_08 said:

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Neil Sperry answered a question about this this week:

Quote:

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WHAT'S WRONG WITH MY ST. AUGUSTINE?

Question: My St. Augustine lawn has a patchwork of dead grass all across the yard. From your book I've narrowed it down to possibly grub worms, take all root rot, brown patch or SAD. What do you think? Janice C., San Antonio.

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Quote:

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Answer: The first thing I think about is what time of year this question is being asked. Most St. Augustine issues are very seasonal. Then I look closely at the blades and the specific symptoms. Grub worms devour roots, so affected areas pull loose easily from the soil since the roots aren't there to hold the soil. However, their damage isn't usually this much like (to use your term) "patchwork." Brown patch results in circular areas of dead grass blades definitely not the case here since they're not brown. St. Augustine decline (SAD) leaves no survivors, plus it's not nearly as common now as it was several decades ago. We now have SAD-resistant types of St. Augustine making up most lawns. Take all root rot (TARR), however, occurs as grass tries to come out of winter dormancy. Patches of it fail to green up as it normally should (hence the other name, "take all patch"). Blades are alternately normal green and pale yellowish green or missing entirely, all within just a few inches of one another. This really does look like take all root rot. Try the fungicide Azoxystrobin to see if the lawn responds favorably.

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Thanks!

San Antonio here too so that's even more relevant

Everyone has this right now after the drought and the freezes. Rake out the dead stuff. Treat with fungicide. Get a soil test. Mine needed iron. Bag your clippings until it's recovered. Mine needed iron in many areas this year. Also check your pH in the good areas vs the bad areas.

atmtws said:

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Everyone has this right now after the drought and the freezes. Rake out the dead stuff. Treat with fungicide. Get a soil test. Mine needed iron. Bag your clippings until it's recovered. Mine needed iron in many areas this year. Also check your pH in the good areas vs the bad areas.

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Yeah we're definitely bagging clippings.

What do you use for the soil test? Any recommendations for products?

soiltesting.tamu.edu/files/urbansoil.pdf

Someone on here recommended Scott's DiseaseX (granules) watered in with Bayer, reapplied two weeks later. I did that and my lawn is now almost fully green. I also applied some Ironite which helped get a lot of it to the deep, dark green.

atmtws said:

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soiltesting.tamu.edu/files/urbansoil.pdf

Someone on here recommended Scott's DiseaseX (granules) watered in with Bayer, reapplied two weeks later. I did that and my lawn is now almost fully green. I also applied some Ironite which helped get a lot of it to the deep, dark green.

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TARR also doesn't like acidic soil, which is why peat moss helps. Sulfur also helps and Ironite is like 30% sulfur, so the Ironite may have helped in more ways than 1.

Thought I might have TARR, but not seeing yellow.
Anybody have any ideas on what issues are with my yard? I'm in Kingwood and have had webworms bad in the past, and haven't had a nice lawn since.

What's the Bayer product to use? I'm in a similar situation.

All the replies on this thread have been very helpful!