St Augustine Grass Turning BROWN.. PLEASE HELP! (bugs, insects, spring)

[azamsharp]

Hi,

For some reason my St Augustine grass is turning brown. I am located in Houston, TX. I give water twice a week for a long period of time (18 minutes) around 7-30 - 8:00 PM. What should I do about this situation?

Here are the pictures:

[texdav]

Did you fertilize in late march or early april ? It could be brown spot. But looking at it it could also be from this heat and alck odf rain and your having defintely cut it way too short.Brown spot can be made worse or caused by water at night because the cure is a fungicide.

[PeterRabbit]

You aren't supposed to water your grass at night because it could develop fungus. Water early in the morning.

[azamsharp]

Thanks Texdavm and PeterRabbit,

I will water early in the morning. Thanks for your advice.

[tilli]

I have only seen that sort of browning on St. Augustine that was well watered when there was some insect at work, like chinch bugs. If there are no signs of insects then I think previous comments about how short it is cut are probably right on, and switching to morning water is good, but although I am admittedly no expert, that does not look like fungus damage to me.

[azamsharp]

Hi Tilli,

Thanks for the reply! The grass is brown and I can literally pick it up with my hands. I will switch to morning deep watering. I don't think I see any insects or anything.

[Luvvarkansas]

Maybe watering too much? St. Augustine is pretty drought tolerant. I have SA in my yard, and I never do any watering. (Of course, that depends on if yours was just planted or not.)

I had a patch turn brown once, and it was in a spot where water collected and puddled during a really rainy period. Btw, it has recovered.

Just a thought. No grass expert here.....We don't "grow" grass in my neck of the woods, we just mow it down when it gets too high. LOL

[neddy]

Actually its ok to water at night in this part of the country since we stay so warm at night. (this according to the local scotts guy and a plant store I go to here). It looks like brown spot or it could be grubs since they eat the root systems. Dig around some and see if you see come white bug if you do you have grubs.

[Pragmaticus]

Here is my Florida experience.

1) Like others said it looks that you are cutting too short. How often do you cut it now? Once in a week is what I do here in Summer and once in two weeks in Fall/spring and once in 3 to 4 weeks in Winter depending on the growth.

2) 18minutes of watering is not enough for me since my sprinkler reach wide area and I need to put it at least 60min to get enough water. St. Aug. really needs a lot of water. Make sure that you have enough water supply. You can do a simple experiment to figure how much you need and how often (this one is based on your soil type which you can get info from your local ag. extension)

3) In order to differentiate between bugs eating it or it's because of lack of water, just try to pull part of the grass and if grass come out with the soil and the root, you have bugs. If not, it just lack of water (This is what my local nursery guy told me).

But by just looking at it, it looks to me you have bugs there eating it. I may be wrong.

When in doubt, if you have a local nursery take this picture and a sample of the grass/soil and they will tell you exactly what to do. I had to do like that until I got control of my lawn.

Good luck

[SteveArmy]

you mowed too short. st.augustine is blooming(producing stalks with pollen things on it) these days which is i believe its healthiest state. try to let it do that