Southern Area Warm Season Grass Kill

14 years ago

Here in the southern, part of the country, particularly coastal states we have an extremely cold and long winter with lots of white stuff. In many areas record setting cold and snow falls. This has reeked havoc with are warm season grasses.

I am a sod farmer just north of the Dallas Ft Worth area, and I lost several acres of Saint Augustine grass. Not a huge problem for me as I can fix it, but it has brought up a lot of questions I see here, on other forums, and a flood of questions and inquiries at my business.

If you have noticed there has been a lot of questions about spring green up and dead grass recently on the forums, so I thought I would take a minute to discuss it, and open up a thread for Q & A.

Before you panic, keep in mind the extreme weather we had this winter. It has significantly delayed spring green up. Here just north of Dallas the Saint Augustine is just now starting to show signs of spring green up which is about 6 weeks later than usual. Bermuda grass here has just gotten green, barely, but still too cool to show much signs of growth. The Zoysia is still waiting and only sprigs of green here and there.

So do not panic if your lawns have not greened up yet. Day time temperatures need to be consistently in the 80Âs, which in my area has not happened as of yet, very unusual as we normally hit 90 this time of year.

Unfortunately for some of out friends with Saint Augustine, Centipede, and a few other very sensitive varieties of warm season grass, you might of experienced some winter kill for which there is no recovery from. If you see others with similar grass in your area greened up and your has not, it is likely your micro-climate area experienced some hard freezes that killed the grass.

So I will open it up to you guys for Q & A

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Comments (7)

mojo6911
14 years ago
I planted some St. Augustine sod last summer and it started greening up about 3 weeks ago and is now almost 100% greened up, except for a few places. It seems to be spreading, as well, which is good. I fertilized it with some 15-5-10 as it was about 50-70% green. I plan on applying the same fertilizer sometime in late June, is this a good idea or should I delay it? I know St. Augustine doesn't get that hungry.

Secondly, I planted some Sahara late last year in the front yard and it has greened up, but there are a lot of places where it died from the winter. Should I wait this season to let it fill in, or should I overseed in a few weeks?
texas_weed
Original Author
14 years ago
SA is fairly hungry but not as much as Bermuda. Sa needs fed about every 45 days vs 30 for Bermuda.

For the Sahara at least wait until it gets a bit warmer, depend on where you are at. You want day time highs in the 90's and soil temp at 70 or above. If at that time the areas are large, go ahead and over seed with more Sahara.

Suspect you waited too late last year to seed the Bermuda and the root system was too shallow and froze this season. Just a guess though. Where are you at??
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mojo6911
14 years ago
Yeah, It was put in about mid August, a month too late. I live in the DFW area and have never seen a winter like this one. I think it killed off a lot of the thin areas.
texas_weed
Original Author
14 years ago
It was put in about mid August, a month too late. I live in the DFW area

Well you were more than a month late to seed Bermuda. Normally here in North TX right about now would be the time to get it done, but not this year. The weather has not warmed up enough yet.

Wait a week or two, or until the day temps are hitting 90 consistently. Then get it down if you need too. However if the bare or thin spots are small in diameter, say a foot or two, they will fill in on there own. To encourage that to happen do just what you should to prepare for seeding. Loosen the the soil up, mix in some compost (Back To Earth is great), and keep the area moist. IF you want rip up some sprigs from other areas and plant them to help fill in quickly.
hannity
14 years ago
I just overseeded with Sahara today. I had quite a bit of winter kill, but I'm rockin and rollin along now.
mojo6911
14 years ago
Another question for the great texas_weed.

If I decide to scrap the idea of common bermuda and want to sprig some Tif419 sod, how does this sound?

Scalp the yard and bag the clippings
Spray the entire area with Roundup
After a week, rake out the dead grass/weeds and respray with Roundup to kill any newly germinated weeds
Buy two pallets of Tif 419 to sprig 2000 square feet
Cut the back each piece of sod into small sections to sprig

Will this spread over one season?
texas_weed
Original Author
14 years ago
Should if you keep the row spacing to 1 foot.