UltimateLawn's DFW St. Augustine Journal

[dubyadubya87]

I have the same in mine right now. Curious to hear if anyone knows for sure what it is.

I have a theory on the shriveled St.Aug blades. I have been fighting a fungal outbreak and this may be leaves and/or stolons attacked by the fungus and it was a full blade kill. I think they were there all season, but I tend to cut my StAug high and maybe these were leaves under the top of the turf that I did not see during the growing season.

Thoughts?

Could very well be. I noticed mine only in one area and seemingly overnight. I was able to lightly rake much of it out. It was almost like 'hay' in texture, mixed in amongst my SA. I haven't bothered spraying for whatever it might be, as I'm dealing with St. Aug Decline anyway and will be slowly transitioning to zoysia via plugs.

[Acaciakng]

I have the same thing going on in my SA. I did a light rake and pulled a bunch of brown soggy blades out. Came here looking for some insight on what it could be. Or a better rake lol...

[UltimateLawn]

Planted 2 Shantung Maples in the Front Yard to replace the Silver Maples that were there previously. Honestly the Silver Maples were crappy trees that died quickly and were very susceptible to fungal development...



Also noticed about 5 mushroom outcroppings in the turf in a more wet area of the yard. I suspect it might be related to all of the organic material (Milo and N-Ext products) I dropped about 2 weeks ago as a final fertilization going into the winter. The rain over the last 4 days didn't help as well...



Time to put down fall tree spikes for these and others.

[dfw_pilot]

Time to put down fall tree spikes for these and others.

You can do that, but when I planted my 12 trees, Fannin told me that Milo/N spread for the grass will feed them just fine.

[UltimateLawn]

Laid down tree spikes. Sorry but I missed the Milo recommendation. I will target for the Spring.

[UltimateLawn]

Dropped curative rate of Propicanozole fungicide. This is my third curative drop on alternating rounds of Propicanozole and Azoxystrobin. Hopefully after the last 6 weeks the broad lawn fungus will be greatly reduced. I plan on doing monthly preventative rates through the Winter and into the early Spring and see where things stand then.

[UltimateLawn]

First time to mow in about 3 weeks. I hate this mower. Bagged top leaves but the mower did not grab any lower leaves between the StAug blades. I hate this mower.

I dropped some Advion ant bait chasing some ants that had been tracking through my front beds. I can’t see any mounds so I am pretty certain that they are building underground. I was initially thinking as temps dropped that their foraging for the season was complete but warmer temps prevailed and the drop looked good in terms of attracting them.

Also I have started to make an attempt to straighten a large tree in the front yard while it is going dormant.

The new maple trees are starting to color up nicely giving quite the show.

[UltimateLawn]

I am getting ready for some fall trimming in my beds and these grassy-like plants are notorious for wanting fall trims. I regularly forget to trim them and then I'm left with all of these brown leaves the following spring when the new green leaves grow in.

Does anyone know what kind of plants these are, when I should trim them back, and how I should trim them? Thanks!

[UltimateLawn]

I dropped 2oz each of N-Ext RGS and Humic 12 onto the new maples in a gallon of water drench, and then 4oz each for a larger tree. We'll see how it goes.

[UltimateLawn]

Raked fallen leaves two days ago and then today...enough already! For 5K ft2 you wouldn't think we would have so many leaves. One of the things I like about raking is it really pulls the leaves, acorns and generally dead St. Aug blades up and out. However, it takes forever and more frustrating, I get to do it again in 2-3 days.

What are some of the tricks available to make the process of dealing with large amounts of leaves easier? I've done the mower mulching technique, but all it does is choke up the grass and spit a ton of leaf particles in the air triggering my allergies.

I was also thinking that if I did mulch, then I could use the leaves for bed cover going into the winter months before I refresh with new mulch in the spring.

Thoughts?