St. Augustine Brown Patch Treatment

11 years ago

I had my lawn sodded with Raleigh St. Augustine about two months ago. The soil is a sandy loam. The grass was doing well util about three weeks ago when dead patches began to emerge. Originally I though it was the moles that previously tore through my non-existant dirt yard prior to installing the sod tearing up the new lawn, except for one dead spot that was in a perfect ring with a little green grass in the middle. Then it sort of dawned on me that it was fungal in nature and not the moles.

So, I came here looking for answers. The first problem was my over watering. I was watering once every few days, I now realize that is probably what caused this in the first place. Please let me know if I am going about this treatment the right way.

1. I am now going to be deep watering once a week, in the morning.

2. I have a bag of corn meal (not gluten meal) that I will use to treat the fungal patches.

3. I am going to mow it at the highest setting once per week.

Does this sound like a decent plan? Or is there something else I should be doing?

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Comments (7)

nearandwest
11 years ago
I can certainly understand how you would immediately think of brown patch in your situation. However, there ARE other turf diseases associated with St. Augustine grass. Could you post a picture of the affected areas? Correct diagnosis and treatment is very important.
standardtoaster
Original Author
11 years ago
Large patch.
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standardtoaster
Original Author
11 years ago
Rings
standardtoaster
Original Author
11 years ago
Another patch.
dchall_san_antonio
11 years ago
Otherwise it's a great looking lawn!

You are still watering too much. I'm 500 miles south of you and got an inch of rain exactly 15 days ago. I watered two spots today for the first time since the rain. Most of the lawn still does not need water. At this time you should be backing off beyond the 7 days and looking at 10 or 15. With much cooler weather the soil does not dry out as quickly.

Oh and the other thing you should be doing is putting down corn meal instead of asking so many questions. There is no substitute for getting it down NOW. Be sure to treat the entire lawn and not just the spots. You can't really tell how big the disease is affecting the soil. Plus the corn meal will really green up the spots you treat, so you'd go from brown to deep green.
nearandwest
11 years ago
Here is a video with information related to Brown Patch on St. Augustine grass in Austin, TX. He does not mention an organic approach to reducing the disease, only the fungicide approach.

Thanks for posting the pictures. You have brown patch. Treat immediately with corn meal since you already have it on hand. dchall should be your guidance counselor on this issue. :)

Copy and paste the website below into your browser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_w2M4d51tM&feature=endscreen
standardtoaster
Original Author
11 years ago
I put down 40 lbs of corn meal on about 2,000 sf, so I think my ratio is spot on from the information I've found. I'm also raising my mower to the highest setting.

Should I be concerned about shallow roots since I've been way, way over watering for the past few months? Should I wean it off or just let it go since it's getting cooler?