Saturday, June 22, 2013

St Augustine Grass: Some Problems and Solutions

St Augustine grass is mainly of tropical origin and it is indigenous to salty and freshwater wetlands, sandy beach side rails, the borders of swamps and lagoons, and limestone shores. Although it can survive in many kinds of terrain, it will very best in moist and reasonably fertile soil. A couple of things it won't stand are waterlogged areas and incredibly dry areas, so watering St Augustine properly is a vital dynamic to the overall health.

So, speaking in loose terms, the majority of the problems we have seen in St Augustine are triggered by 1) shallow or bad quality soils, and a pair of) improper watering methods. To check if the soil isn't good you must do an analysis. You can purchase kits on the internet and may either send it to some commercial lab, or obtain a free assessment using your local Farming Extension Office. Soil amendment may take a variety of tacks with respect to the result, however in general a credit card applicatoin of compost annually is almost always sufficient to resolve most problems. When it comes to watering, St Augustine grass requires half inch water each week, but the secret's to water it deeply, then allow it to dry out before watering again. Brilliantly, what this means is watering once weekly before the 1 / 2 inch total is accomplished. If you're not sure just how much water your irrigation system puts lower, to put it simply a clear can or rain gauge in the center of the lawn and find out how lengthy it requires to get at the 1 / 2 inch line. If you're getting lots of run-off in to the street try cycling with the system two times and half the run time per station.

Chinch bugs may cause serious harm to St Augustine grass by feeding around the stems at the bottom of the leaf. In the beginning the harm may seem like drought stress with chlorotic (yellowing) areas within the full sun after which dead areas. Chinch bugs could be controlled with pesticides with 2 or 3 programs, but don't forget that certain factor chinch bugs cannot stand is moisture. For this reason they gravitate fully sun regions of the lawn where it's driest. Therefore another solution is to use water towards the general area. This can a minimum of discourage these horrible unwanted pests.

Whitened grub. Created in the larvae of June bugs, they develop within the late summer time and fall just beneath the soil surface. Once they hatch they start feeding around the turfgrass roots. This is often a serious problem because there's no manifestation of any problems until grass begins dying, so when the grubs are detected they're already quite large. The actual damage normally seems the year after as dead areas. To deal with these unwanted pests pesticides need to be drenched in to the soil in order to achieve and illuminate the grub.

Brownpatch is a very common trouble with St Augustine triggered by an entering fungi. It normally begins like a small circular area within the lawn and grows quite rapidly outward. This fungi will rarely get rid of the grass as well as in an average brownpatch circle you will notice new grass popping in the middle because the fungi works its way outward, however it can seriously weaken the lawn making some areas look stunted and patchy with weeds mixed it. Because brownpatch is really a fungi it just works inside a specific pH spectrum so killing it really is fairly simple. Combine a sprig of sodium bicarbonate and water and put it on liberally towards the effected areas (one tablespoon per gallon is sufficient). Again here, the key factor to understand about brownpatch is moisture. Unlike chinch bugs brownpatch loves the moist, particularly when the night time temperature dips below 70 levels. For this reason you will notice this issue at the begining of spring or fall. In cases like this do not water the lawn overnight. Make certain the sun's rays can be help counter the moist conditions on the floor. Should you choose understand this disease inside your lawn it may be a sign from the turfgrasses general not being healthy. A credit card applicatoin of compost early in the year each year is going a lengthy method to fixing the issue.

Unlike yeast illnesses for example brownpatch, grey leaf place along with other, St Augustine Decline (SAD) is viral in character. The SAD virus, like several infections, is really a microscopic particle found within the cells of St. Augustinegrass. Within the plant cell, herpes reproduces and propagates with other cells through the plant. As more cells become have contracted herpes, the vigor from the plant is reduced leading to a chlorotic mottling from the leaf. The first stages are occasionally wrongly identified as chlorosis. Leaves showing chlorosis triggered by an iron deficiency are generally evenly yellow or show characteristic yellow stripes parallel towards the mid-vein from the leaf. Iron chlorosis also seems first within the new, or youthful leaves, whereas SAD creates the mottling in youthful and older leaves. Chlorosis is a concern that may be fixed by feeding iron towards the plant, but SAD is as simple as a purchase of magnitude worse. The condition with gradually progress during a period of years before the lawn is really destabilized Bermuda grass begins to consider over, or weeds. The very best control would be to introduce types of St Augustine which are up against the virus, for example Raleigh and Seville. These resistant types will ultimately crowd the unhealthy areas of the lawn. Regrettably there's no strategy to SAD, then when setting up St Augustine make certain the contractor is applying an unfortunate resistant variety.

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