Question
Hi, Charlotte,

We just bought a house and the builder planted St Augustine sod here in Buda Texas. I Fertilized with Scotts Spring Fertilizer. I have a Few spots that are turning yellow. I tried to figure out what it was but the symptoms don't seem to point to any one thing. I also put down some spetracide poison as I found some grub worms.

I hear about brown patch, Take all Patch, grubs, chinch bugs, leaf spot. I pulled up some grass and it did not roll like grub problems. The roots were still there. Some roots were white healthy & long. Some were shallow and black like they were maybe rotted. The rotted or dark brown had no grass blades left. Or should I say they were dead brown. The roots that looked healthy had the grass blades still green but you could see some discoloration and what looked like leaf spot. In the grass there were these very small gray looking bugs that hopped around. They do not look like chinch bugs and I could not find any picture of them. We have had a lot of rain here but this is happening in a few spots on my lawn. Some of my neighbors have the same and or worse  while others are totally unaffected. My grass is deep green in some areas and light green to yellowish in others.  

Any Ideas? Also what would be a good remedy for fungus. I am thinking that it is the take all root rot. It is not circular pattern as Brown patch. It is more of a 10 inch wide pattern the kind of goes in one direction for about 2 feet then it turns up another direction and does the same thing. I had been watering a lot because it is a new lawn and have stopped but we have had some very good rain so the grass has not really had a chance to dry out.

Let me know what you think and what you recommend organically for the healthiest lawn. Looking for deep green lush lawn.

Oh yeah I did make the mistake of cutting  the lawn to short 3 weeks ago and I also just figured out that my blade is dull as well.  

Thanks

Charlie C

Answer
Hi Charlie;
PLEASE dump the chemical program.
Chemicals CAUSE the problems, they don't cure them.
Sounds like you deffinately have brown patch fungus.
Horticultural corn meal is the best organic ( or any other) emedy for fungus.
It will even cure toenail fungus if you puyt some in water and soak your feet.
Apply 10 to 15 pounds horticultural corn meal per 1000 sq.ft.
With all the rain we are having in Texas, I would use 15 pounds.
The yellowish could be from the bron patch, but it sounds more like a lack of iron.
Get yourself on a good organic program, and never use any chemicals again, and you will spend less money, and work less, and have the best lawn and garden you have ever had.
I struggled with all the weeds, bugs, fungii, all the probelms, and spend 10 to 20 hours per week working in my lawn and garden, and spent eniough to take a round the world trip several times, in the 4o + years I used chemicals.
For the last 1 yers or so, I have used organics, and not allowed one chemical thing ( factory made chemicals) on my lawn.
I have rich fertile soil that weed will not thrive in, so they die if the even germinate any seeds, ad my lawn livestock eat all the harmful insects.
I  have toads, lizards, and grass snakes, and they save me a ton of money and many hours work.
You can apply the horticultural corn meal now, and also the alfalfa meal and lava sand.
You can apply the sugar, in case there are some micro-organisms that have survived the onslaught of chemicals. But reapply it again after being on the organic program for about 4 to 6 weeks, wnen those chemicals or most of them should be out of the soil.
Here is the program I have followed for the past 10 years, and I have the thickest, greenest, weedfree and insect free St. Augustine lawn you ever saw.
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You will constantly improve your soil if you go on a totally organic program, and don't use any chemicals at all.
I have beenm on such a program for the last 9 to 10 years, after breaking my back and ruining my body trying to maintain a decent lawn, with only mediocre results.
the organics has freed me from about 90% of the physical work, about that much of the expense, and the results are a think, beautiful yard with no weeds or harmful insects.
Man!!! Wish I had known all this 50 years ago !
The corn clutem meal is an organic product.
If you use organics, and then use chemicals, you will cancel out the organics.
Chemical fertilizers kill all the beneficial microbes, nematodes and other beneficial insects and critters that work around the clock improving your soil.
Beneficial microbes enrich the soil. Chemicls do NOT.
If you put a little too muchj chemical products on the lawn, it will burn your grass, and do a lot of other damage.
If you put too much organics on it, all you do is waste a little time and money.
Sugar does absolutely nothing but nourish the beneficial micrebes. THEY do the work.
Weeds will not grow in rich soil. If they cme up, they will start to die out right away.
The first time I use sugar was in the spring. I had not put any chemicals on the yard since the fall feeding, so they were all worn out of the soil.
I had a lawn about 50% full of dandelions, crabgrass, johnson grass, clover, dollar weed and some other shallow rooted weeds like chickweed etc.
a couple of weeks after I put down the sugar and watered it in, I had about half as many weeds. Nobody had pulled a weed or anything. My husband had just mowed.
I went nuts, like a school of sharks in a feeding frenzy, and ran out and bought more sugar, put it down and waterewd it in.
A couple more mowings, and there were so few weeds. In a few more werks they were all gone.
The next spring about half as many weeds as before came up, but in a few weeks they were gone.
All I had done was the sugar in the spring, and I did that again in the fall.
I used baking soda disolved in water for black spot on my roses and powdery mildew n my crepe mytrtles. That works much better then the chemical fungicides I had used before.
I started getting a nice herd of lizards, toads and grass snakes in my yard.
I had a BIG grub problem every year. I haven't had that since, nor do I have those nasty tent catapillars dropping on my head from the trees.
I see lizards running in the trees and along the fence. I never see the grass snakjes, which is fine with me. I seldon see a toad, but they are all there.
Sugar; I use 4 or 5 pounds per 1000 sq.ft. I just broadcast it by hand, and water it in well. If you spill a blob in one spot, no problem. No burning or other damage.

Watering; I always water to a depth of at least 6 inches. Deep watering like that encourages a deep root growth. That protects from heat, cold and drought damage, and prevents thatch. I water with soaker hoses, and run them till the water is close to the edge and is about to start running off the yard. then I turn it off and wait an hour or so for it to soak in, and turn it on again. I keep doing that until it is wet down to a depth of 6 inches at least. Even here in our Texas heat, I water only once a week, unless it stays well above 100 for a week or more, which it sometimes does. then I look at the grass, and if my St. Augustine is folded up, lengthwise, I know it needs water. It folds the blades up to reduce the area exposed to evaporation. Burmuda, when it gets thirsty, bends it's little blades a little, like it is bowing.
My earthworms and cock roaches etc tunnel through the soil, and that keeps it aerated. Their castings add nourishment. Cockroaches are beneficial. They normally live in the soil and feed on other harmful insects. We put down pesticides, and kill their food supply, so they come in our houses to get food and hide from the pesticides.
I use fresh rosemary to keep them out of my house.

Baking soda disolved in water, about 2 TABLESPOONS per gallon of water, sprayed on top and underneath all the leaves, prevent molds and fungus on plants. You can also use it for fungus in the soil, or you can apply agricultural corn meal and water that in. About 10 pounds per 1000 sq.ft.

Corn gluten meal is an organic fertilizer and weed killer.
It won't interfere with the sugar.
None of the organics calcel each other out.
Alfalfa meal is another good food to add. Just sprinkle it on in about the same thickness the sugar goes on, and water. It is full of nutrients. So is lava sand. Yopu can add it to the top of the soil, dig it into the soil, or add it when you are adding soil, or putting soil in a comntainer for a plant.
Alfalfa meal, as well as generally nourishing the soil, helps promote larger and more blooms in blooming plants and house plants.
You can also make a tea of it for foliar feeding or for watering house plants.
Put 1 cup alfalfa meal in 5 gallons of water and let steep overnight. Still and use to water plants, or strain it and put it in a garden sprayer for foliar feeding.  Be sure, if you strain it, to dump the dregs on the soil somewhere, it is still full of nutrients.
You probably won't need more fertilizert than that. I didn't use anything but sugar for about 8 or 9 years, and last spring, I leartned about the alfalfa meal and lava sand, so I use them.
If you have more questions, write to me.
I am very happy to share what I have learned, and am learning.
Charlotte