# My St. Augustine grass is dying. Help me!



## hkfan45 (May 11, 2019)

What's causing this death/rot in my st. augustine grass? Overuse of herbicides? Fungus? Bugs? too much water? What could it be? I feel like it's spreading/slowly getting worse.


----------



## CenlaLowell (Apr 21, 2017)

I really hope someone chimes in here because I never seen this problem in my St Augustine.


----------



## robertmehrer (Feb 28, 2019)

What's your regiment ? What have you done this season ? Need a tad more info...


----------



## hkfan45 (May 11, 2019)

robertmehrer said:


> What's your regiment ? What have you done this season ? Need a tad more info...


Pennant magnum and prodiamine in the past 4 months. Celsius broad application 6 months ago. Fungicide and insecticide in the past 2 months. Milo and synthetic fert in last 3 months. Plus, ironite granular.

water every other day for 15 mins (90+ degrees every day).


----------



## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

My money is on fungus. I'd take those pics and some grass to your local landscape supply place. Fame and Heritage G are the fungicides I'm familiar with.

Possibly overwatering. How many days a week are you watering? And at what time of day?


----------



## hkfan45 (May 11, 2019)

SCGrassMan said:


> My money is on fungus. I'd take those pics and some grass to your local landscape supply place. Fame and Heritage G are the fungicides I'm familiar with.
> 
> Possibly overwatering. How many days a week are you watering? And at what time of day?


I applied Eagle 20 fungicide about a month or so ago. Note: I've had this issue ever since I applied Celsius to the lawn about 5 months ago but it's getting worse now.

I water 4 days a week. It's 90+ degrees every day with little to no rain (south Texas)


----------



## Durso81 (Apr 10, 2018)

hkfan45 said:


> SCGrassMan said:
> 
> 
> > My money is on fungus. I'd take those pics and some grass to your local landscape supply place. Fame and Heritage G are the fungicides I'm familiar with.
> ...


So have to ask did you apply the correct amount of celsius?

What time do you water? And how much are you watering on those days? You really want to water deep and infrequently to establish deeper roots. Either 1" in one day a week or .50" twice a week. If the blades are not folded there not stressed from lack of water.


----------



## hkfan45 (May 11, 2019)

Durso81 said:


> hkfan45 said:
> 
> 
> > SCGrassMan said:
> ...


I will say that I may have gone slightly too hard on the Celsius. But that was 5 months ago and just recently I've noticed my current browning issue.

I water at 5Am. 15 mins. I am planning on cutting back watering. Is it possible Eagle 20 didn't do the trick? My symptoms do look like brown patch disease.


----------



## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

15 minutes could be an inch or two inches or 0.1".

You should be putting down about an inch a week.

Stop fertilizing until you address it. I don't think Celsius has anything to do with it honestly.

Eagle 20 I'm sure is awesome at killing whatever it's labeled for.

The first thing you need to do is correctly identify the pest. To me it looks like fungus, but once you identify what it is, you may need something different.


----------



## Durso81 (Apr 10, 2018)

SCGrassMan said:


> 15 minutes could be an inch or two inches or 0.1".
> 
> You should be putting down about an inch a week.
> 
> ...


Agree with everything he has said.


----------



## hkfan45 (May 11, 2019)

For reference, this is what part of the yard looks like


----------



## TN Hawkeye (May 7, 2018)

SCGrassMan said:


> 15 minutes could be an inch or two inches or 0.1".
> 
> You should be putting down about an inch a week


This. Do you know how much water you are putting down? Not in minutes but in inches?


----------



## robertmehrer (Feb 28, 2019)

hkfan45 said:


> For reference, this is what part of the yard looks like


Looks like fungus there too...

Time to do a catch can test.

Check GPM per zone then run a catch can test in those zones to find out how many inches you put down or how many it takes to get an inch... then you can do the math for proper run time per zone to not over water.

I found out I was wayyyy over watering by guessing ... took an hour one weekend to run each zone watch the meter record each zone then catch can it for a minute or ten whichever hit me to an inch and did the math.


----------



## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

TN Hawkeye said:


> SCGrassMan said:
> 
> 
> > 15 minutes could be an inch or two inches or 0.1".
> ...


About two of each for me... lol


----------



## TN Hawkeye (May 7, 2018)

SCGrassMan said:


> TN Hawkeye said:
> 
> 
> > SCGrassMan said:
> ...


I can relate. If my wife was a Bermuda lawn she'd die during the summer. But then again my lawn has never seen me setting up the sprinklers and said "No. I'm not in the mood."


----------



## unclebucks06 (Apr 25, 2018)

No need to water 4 times a week. Im in San Antonio an only water 1 time a week. Maybe in july and august might need 3x a week.


----------



## hkfan45 (May 11, 2019)

UPDATE:

Things seem to be improving. I took an aggressive approach and did a treatment of Eagle 20 and Azoxy 2SC. I also reduced watering from 4 days a week to 2 days. The grass is coming back and the brown areas are disappearing.

My question now is when can I resume my fertilizing and micro nutrient applications? I've avoided these when dealing with brown patch, as I didn't want to affect the fungicide treatments. Can I now return to fertilizing and applying Humic12/RGS? Or should I wait a while?


----------



## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

The Azoxy was likely key, as the eagle 20 wasn't killing whatever it was.

I wouldn't mess with anything until you're sure the fungus is gone, and then the first thing is do when you're sure is put down one more application of the Azoxy 

Then wait a month and do your fertilizer.


----------



## minifarmer (May 21, 2019)

Looks like fungus to me, I'm not sure which type though. https://aggieturf.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/E-615-Take-all-root-rot-factsheet.pdf https://aggieturf.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/E-615-Take-all-root-rot-factsheet.pdf


----------



## CenlaLowell (Apr 21, 2017)

This is my first year spraying azoxystrobin and it's the best thing ever for fungus. It's expensive but it definitely works no question about it


----------



## hkfan45 (May 11, 2019)

So, I raked up some of the remaining brown patches and it now has left thinned out patched. Will these fill in without soing anything? Should I fill them in with top soil? Sand? Sand/top soil mix? Something else?


----------



## grassland (Mar 7, 2019)

SA does a pretty good job of filling in quickly as long as it gets water and sun. I have to cut out the grass around my sprinklers all the time. Just keep an eye out for weeds or other grasses that may fill in the patches before the SA gets there. The rainy season will help push it along.


----------



## Chrisholmes02 (Jan 19, 2019)

CenlaLowell said:


> This is my first year spraying azoxystrobin and it's the best thing ever for fungus. It's expensive but it definitely works no question about it


Do you have a link where you purchased?


----------



## CenlaLowell (Apr 21, 2017)

Chrisholmes02 said:


> CenlaLowell said:
> 
> 
> > This is my first year spraying azoxystrobin and it's the best thing ever for fungus. It's expensive but it definitely works no question about it
> ...


https://chemicalwarehouse.com/collections/all-products/products/abound-fungicide


----------



## Chrisholmes02 (Jan 19, 2019)

CenlaLowell said:


> Chrisholmes02 said:
> 
> 
> > CenlaLowell said:
> ...


Thank you, sir.


----------



## Richie (Jul 22, 2019)

Brown patch? Have the same issue right now.


----------



## Greyleafspot (Oct 16, 2018)

Glad you got it under control. I have the same thing happen ever October and November. It looks like the start of brown patch. I put down azoxy and and stopped watering on a schedule and it stopped it in its tracks. I've always heard Brown patch is ez to identify. The blades will pull away from the stolons with no effort.


----------

