# Went away for a week, came back to a dying and dead lawn! Panic mode!



## Skenny (Feb 4, 2019)

Oh my, I am having palpitations right now. We got home late last night from a little over a week away in the dark and with the travel the last thing I thought about was going out to the lawn. This morning I took the dog out this morning for his morning business and I find this horror.




























Before I left it was green. Was mowing happily once or twice a week, never had any issues like this at all. Lawn is watered by irrigation once a week. The last thing I did was put down fertilizer on May 25th as there is a Nitrogen black out period that started in June and I wanted to get in under that. The name of the stuff is Howard Rx Accublend Fertilizer and labeled as a 20-0-10. Applied during the day and irrigation kicked in that night. Bag is rated for 10,000 sqft so I used half that for a lawn my size.

So is this death going to spread? Am I infected with something or did it all burn up? None of the other neighbors are showing any issues like this so its not currently a widespread plague. Even the areas in the back where there is still green are not growing as fast. The whole lawn isn't wrecked, yet, there are still green areas in the front and a couple corners of the back which haven't died off yet.

May 19th I put down this: https://www.fertilome.com/product/turf-ranger-insect-control-granules-10-lbs
April 20th this: https://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/arena-0-25-insecticide

Some other info: It's St. Augustine grass and in central Florida, near Orlando. Temps here have been between 90 and 100 daily and I don't think it has rained much at all. Grass has been pretty great for the past year and a half. Some off and on weed problems but it has been growing and going nuts.


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## hefegrass (Mar 20, 2019)

may be drought related heat stress...try watering the crap out of it and see if it comes back

do you have any close up pics of the dead grass and some of live spots..maybe a couple showing both areas


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## Durso81 (Apr 10, 2018)

It's been hot and dry, check for chinch bugs. https://youtu.be/UvRN22fXwhk


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## Skenny (Feb 4, 2019)

Does that video just blur out for anyone else after the water gets poured in?

I can try that tonight.. I have no audio at work, do I test where the grass is brown or green areas near where the grass is brown?

Hefe:. I will get close up pics tonight. Do you want the green or brown close ups? Or both?


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## Skenny (Feb 4, 2019)

Here are my waterinc restrictions: http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/environmental-services/water-conservation/watering-restrictions.stml


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## Durso81 (Apr 10, 2018)

I would water in the green around the brown. As I would think the chinch bugs would move on to the good grass roots. But you can always check both. There are a bunch of videos on YouTube I just grabbed the link to the first one that popped up. I think @Austinite had this problem in his Bermuda in his back yard.


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## Rudyr89 (Aug 27, 2018)

Mine is even worse right now. I'm out in Central Fl and it has hit 100 degrees consecutively with absolutely no rain. We are in a drought still with extreme week. Everything of mine was recovering nicely from getting scalped and dethatched. Went away with the wife for 2 weeks and came back to my lawn looking like a crisp. Two of my irrigation valves busted so two large areas never received water.

I'm watering the crap out of it daily regardless of the water restriction hoping the empire zoysia will recover.


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## Skenny (Feb 4, 2019)

Rudyr89 said:


> Mine is even worse right now.


Does it look similar to mine? We are in the same area so possibly going through the same thing, minus me nuking mine with Nitrogen fertilizer last week.

Were you watering a lot prior to the heat wave?


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## UFG8RMIKE (Apr 21, 2019)

Rudyr89 said:


> Mine is even worse right now. I'm out in Central Fl and it has hit 100 degrees consecutively with absolutely no rain. We are in a drought still with extreme week. Everything of mine was recovering nicely from getting scalped and dethatched. Went away with the wife for 2 weeks and came back to my lawn looking like a crisp. Two of my irrigation valves busted so two large areas never received water.
> 
> I'm watering the crap out of it daily regardless of the water restriction hoping the empire zoysia will recover.


Hows it lookin after watering?


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## klargo (Sep 27, 2018)

Watering St. Augustine once per week in Florida in this dry heat wave just isn't enough.

I bet if you test your irrigation system, you'll find that the remaining green spots get a lot more water than the cripsy spots. The sole benefit of this dry heat wave for me has been showing exactly where my irrigation system isn't putting out enough water. So far, every single area of lawn that started showing heat stress has proven to receive less water than the surrounding areas. So I've been replacing and/or adjusting sprinkler nozzles left and right. It's my first year in the house, so it's been a learning experience.


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## Skenny (Feb 4, 2019)

Here are the close up pictures of the damage and a few showing where everything is still green, with the death also shown for comparison..



























































































Any chance we can recover or does the backyard need to be paved over?


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## Durso81 (Apr 10, 2018)

Skenny said:


> Here are the close up pictures of the damage and a few showing where everything is still green, with the death also shown for comparison..
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You also have gray leaf spot. That's what those spots are on the green grass blades. I have had good luck with eagle 20 EW.


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## klargo (Sep 27, 2018)

It doesn't look like a fungus or insect issue to me. What's the sun/shade situation like? If the green spots get more shade, that's almost a guarantee the grass was lost due to lack of water/heat stress.

Keep it watered, wait and see. Check the stolons underneath the dead blades. Are they still alive or crispy as well? If they survived, the grass will regrow.


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## TN Hawkeye (May 7, 2018)

@Skenny in the last picture, where is the irrigation head? It looks like it is hitting the box (maybe a pump cover) and prevent it from making a full rotation. The curve of green grass looks like something is not watering correctly.


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## Skenny (Feb 4, 2019)

@TN Hawkeye -- The irrigation heads are both to the right and the left of the picture, I turned them on yesterday and everything appeared to be getting wet but I can give it another shot tonight, I will turn them on and put some plastic containers on the ground to see if they get water in them. Maybe it's spraying but not actually making it to the ground?

Someone asked about the sun and shade situation, in the backyard there is tons of sun and little to no shade during the peak of the day. I am looking at it now out the window and there is shade on the green areas, especially in that last picture I posted yesterday, all along the fence.

For comparison, here are two pictures of the front where a large tree is growing and has plenty of shade a big part of the day. Same fertilizer amount was put in these pictures as well and the grass is growing strong.

In the last picture there, the old fence on the right, just on the other side of the gate is where the big dead area is from the last picture posted yesterday. It starts on that side of the fence here, where it is always blasted with sun, and then continues into the back.



















There are some patches but those were around prior to this mess, dead areas with no grass from the previous owner where I think they kept pots or something. That second one is looking a little more brown that the first, but now that we are talking about it there is less of the tree shade on that side of the yard. The first picture is the area which is pretty much under the tree's shade all day long.

@klargo -- what would I be looking for under the brown dead grass? What's a stolon look like? If I dig down to the dirt/sand I might see something alive? I can take more pictures if I go dig around after work.


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## Rudyr89 (Aug 27, 2018)

Skenny said:


> Does it look similar to mine? We are in the same area so possibly going through the same thing, minus me nuking mine with Nitrogen fertilizer last week.
> 
> Were you watering a lot prior to the heat wave?


Nope, mine looks worse! My lawn gets sun literally from sunrise to sunset so it's been taking a beating. It FINALLY rained yesterday after not having rain for 4-5 weeks. I'm out in Clermont. I was watering according to the counties restrictions - 2x a week. I have 7 zones and the large areas were set to 45 minutes or so. Everything else is about 25-30 minutes.



UFG8RMIKE said:


> Hows it lookin after watering?


I only have pictures from May 28th when I got back.


















I'll update you on the progress pics. Trying not to threadjack the OP. I have been watering daily since I got back so I'm hoping it turns around quickly. Luckily I'm not the only yard with this issue so the HOA won't be on my case just yet. I'm tempted to rent a aerator since the soil seems pretty compacted as well.


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## Skenny (Feb 4, 2019)

I pulled some up from the crispiest of areas and this is what I found. I dont see any life there and when I was close to the ground it smelled like hay.



















Watering it much more now, and will continue with another water this weekend. May do some by hand before the sprinklers can be turned on again.

So did I just apply fertilizer at the absolute worst time of the year? Lessons learned for next year, if this even ever recovers or I am left with a brown lawn for the rest of my life.


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## klargo (Sep 27, 2018)

I doubt it was the fertilizer alone otherwise all of your grass would look like that. The heat and drought has been killer on a lot of lawns in my neighborhood. And for the past few weeks it's also been total lack of cloud cover.

Best piece of advice I have is to perfect your irrigation. St. Augustine needs a solid 1"-1.5" per week. Spread that out over 2 days of watering if possible. Figure out exactly how much water your system is putting out in different spots of your yard - especially the now dead spots.


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## Skenny (Feb 4, 2019)

So is there much of anything I can do now? Is it worth ripping up and trying to put some sod down or do we just leave it and see if the grass creeps back in?

Next year what should I do differently?


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

I have bad news. Those whitish areas are toast. You might get individual sprigs coming back in those areas, but it's never going to look good. You could dethatch and some other things and improve it, but your best bet is to cut it out and replace it - if you do sod yourself it's not that expensive.

I have a commercial property where the irrigation system is toast and their grass is gone.


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## klargo (Sep 27, 2018)

Skenny said:


> So is there much of anything I can do now? Is it worth ripping up and trying to put some sod down or do we just leave it and see if the grass creeps back in?
> 
> Next year what should I do differently?


Give it a little more time to see if it's just dead top growth or if the stolons/roots have also been killed.

A couple weeks ago, someone working on my fence left a couple concrete pavers sitting on my St. Aug lawn. I noticed them after they'd been baking in the sun for a few hours. The grass underneath was wilted and by the next day looked crispy dead. But it all grew back within a couple weeks because it was just the grass shoots that fried. The pavers weren't there long enough to kill the stolons/roots.

But I've also experienced what's happened to your lawn. Last summer (before I cared about my lawn at all) I forgot to turn my irrigation system back on after a week+ of non-stop rain. Then we had a week+ of 90 degrees and no rain whatsoever. I lost a lot of grass that never recovered and I had to lay down new sod.

Unless you start seeing some vigorous uniform re-growth, your grass is probably dead.

The fix is simple. Make sure your irrigation system is putting down enough water everywhere. Had that grass been irrigated properly, it wouldn't have died.


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## Skenny (Feb 4, 2019)

Okay so it's been two months, nothing has happened, the St. Aug has not regrown, and I finally want to do something about it. The rest of the lawn has stayed the same and the dead spots stayed dead. I was always told St. Aug grows like a weed/vine and creeps into every spot but not here, it isn't going over the dead zones.




























So here is my question, is there a seed based grass that is compatible with St. Aug care? My main problem with St. Aug is I cant just go get a bag of seed and fill in dead zones, I need to deal with sod and the care that comes with it.










A few feet away from that disaster the lawn grows so fast I need to (should anyway) cut it twice a week just to keep up with how much it wants to be alive, so the area can support it but these dead spots just are not going away.

Also on those brown spots, the grass isn't growing back over it while the rest of the lawn stays happy and healthy. In picture two the dirt spots is where I decided to run an experiment tonight and start ripping up the dead brown matter layer to see if it helps. Right now though I just want to get this thing back in order. I don't care about a pure St. Aug lawn, I just want green and no brown so if there is something else I can do I will go do it.


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## ktgrok (May 25, 2019)

I'm hearing on a local garden show that in the summer heat the St. Augustine is needing a good 2 inches a week - at least. 1 inch twice a week, just to try to keep up with the heat.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

Some on here keep their own mini nursery pots of plugs to fill in any bare spots.


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## jakemauldin (Mar 26, 2019)

That's what most yards look like in Texas this time of year. I would say shoot some water on it, It'll recover. Don't lose sleep over it


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## Skenny (Feb 4, 2019)

Well about the rain this is Florida during rainy season so we are getting what feels like an inch a rain a day, so water isn't a problem, the grass refusing to grow into those areas is the problem.

I guess I can try sod again if there is no care compatible grass types to St. Augustine. It's just that I have such bad luck with sod, seed works so much better for me.


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## ktgrok (May 25, 2019)

might also check for chinch bugs, billbugs,etc


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

If everything checks out well (insects, etc.), why not consider using a plugger to transplant plugs into the dead areas? It'll be slower than resodding, but is another option if done properly. I've seen some posts where people have successfully plugged with SA.


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## Carrie-Waltz (Jul 16, 2019)

Oh, God!   It looks burnt, that's why lawn sprinklers are musthaves during hot summers!


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## Skenny (Feb 4, 2019)

I am pretty sure there are no bugs, we checked for them back when all this started and everything was fine. I also keep up with the insecticides on a set schedule and use Arena (https://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/arena-0-25-insecticide) twice a year for chinch bug control. The dead spots arent growing larger, its just that the grass isnt growing back over them either, so they are just stuck.

A plugger.. does that take my own grass and plug it into the dead spots?


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## Bermuda_Newbie (Jun 15, 2018)

Yep. Check out a pro plugger. It's like a giant pogo stick with a hole on the base. You take some of your healthy grass and put it in a hole in the empty area. It helps it to spread faster.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

And then once you plug, assuming no fert restrictions are in affect in your area, you can hit it with Nitrogen in small doses regularly to help it spread. LCN has many videos relevant to this topic of rehabbing warm season grasses. Grass Daddy has videos on using the ProPlugger itself, but he has Kentucky Bluegrass in RI. in Orlando, you still have plenty of time to get the SA lawn into halfway decent condition by plugging before you go semi-dormant over the Winter. And then it should fill in totally next year.

Btw, if your mower only goes up to 3.5-3.75 in max (guessing), there is a big difference between that range and 4 in., because you can let it grow out longer between mowings and still only remove 1/3.


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