Dchall_San_Antonio"]For you I suggest starting last month and going all season at the low rate of 10 pounds per 1,000 square feet unless you see signs of active fungus. Then go to 20 pounds per 1,000 for one application. One application normally works for a season but you have every fungus there is. Let me ask this, Do you have good air circulation around your lawn? Are there any fences or tall shrubs blocking the wind? Yours is an unusual case with all the diseases.
Something else you can do is to spray the lawn with milk (3 ounces per gallon on your dial hose end sprayer). Repeat every 2 weeks or as often as you think about it. Milk is another good source of protein and enzymes. You could call it a v-e-r-y light feeding, but the idea is to get the milk onto the plant leaves, not the soil microbes. It is just another way to attack the fungus problem.
St Augustine should not have thatch. How often have you watered and fertilized in the past? Sometimes with daily water and frequent chemical fertilizing, you can actually grow it completely on top of the soil - roots and everything. It would look like thatch, but it is really just the entire plant. The cure for that is to transition to deep, infrequent watering and mowing high. Do not try to dethatch St Aug with tools or machines. That will rip out the stolons by the roots, and you don't want that.[/quote] ____________ We practice 'deep root' watering. I stick a screw driver in the grass. If it comes up damp, I do not water. My 'zones' are set according to the amount of water needed. I take into consideration shade, smaller areas (like the sides of our house) and the over spray I get from my neighbor's yard (who does NOT practice deep root watering, but waters every other day in the summer, even if we have rain). The area bewtween our homes is where my first fungus appeared...brown patch. That was 2 years ago. It took us over a month to figure out what it was. By that time, it had really spread. We tried to treat it, but it just kept spreading. My husband decided to use a lawn service. They did their best, but we have had 2 very humid summers with more rainfall than usual. And it has not just been our yard. St.Augustine turf is not doing good in this area. I went to a Lawn Seminar Saturday. I believe I was given some very good information. In fact, the info was very similar to what I have been reading here. I am doing three things to better my soil. I spread molasses on Saturday. I will use Thrive (turf) as soon as my yard dies out. (We had a lot of rain on Monday.) The next suggestion was to spread compost or peat moss as a top dressing. I did that last fall. I do plan on spreading corn meal, if it looks like our grass is coming back. At this point, we are very doubtful. My lawn service used an organic fertilizer about three weeks ago. I am not sure what I will be using. I did buy Calloway's New Generation Organic Fertilizer. But then I heard about Texas Tee and Medina. Or should I use Corn Gluten? Or is that a pre-emergent? I still have so much to learn!
My husband uses a trimmer along the house and fence. That is where we had the thatch problem. The last two years we have been bagging our grass, due to the fungus. When I had a healthy yard, I mowed on the highest setting, every 4 to 5 days and I used our mulching kit. We keep our blade sharpened.
I think we are good on the watering and the mowing. We need to improve our soil. We do an aeration in the early Spring and again in the fall. We then used Gypsum. This time, we will use either Texas Green Sand, Lave Sand or Expanded Shale.
I really do appreciate all help and info from the forums!
Thank you!
_________________ Char Harris, Flower Mound, TX
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