Have you panicked about your lifelessness or damaged St. Augustine grass? Expect to return lush & green lawns?
However, St. Augustine grass is beloved and valuable due to its blue-green edges and heat-resistant characteristics. But, without proper maintenance and care, this type of terrace can’t keep the green and fresh looking. So, how to revive St. Augustine grass?
The most common strategy is to improve soil quality, supply enough water, eliminate harmful insects & grubs, provide sufficient nutrients, and more.
Learn details?
Please read our writing from top to bottom for getting a clear concept of this consequence. First, we will discuss the reasons for killing your St. Augustine grass. Then, you will learn how to revive St. Augustine grass.
What Destroyed Your St. Augustine Grass?
There are many reasons for killing the beautiful St. Augustine grass. The leading cause is lack of proper care and unhealthy & poor soil. Before going to the solution, you have to understand why St. Augustine grass expires or dies. Some leading reasons are below-
Poor Quality Soil
The first and foremost reason for killing the St. Augustine grass is perhaps poor quality soil. Poor quality soil means that the soil contains rocks, gravel, and compacted clay. For this reason, the turfgrass will turn on yellow and dry. This can happen from lack of aeration, fertility and moisture.
Especially nutrient deficiency and water deficiency protect grassroots from growing deeply or healthy growth. Sometimes grass can die due to the effect of poor quality soil.
So, you have to ensure proper nutrients levels and soil pH levels for increasing soil quality and grass growth.
Lawn Diseases
Many common lawn diseases can kill the St. Augustine grass gradually. Brown patch, dollar spot, gray leaf, and leaf spot are the major grass diseases. This fungal disease usually arises in times of growing stress.
Regular rings, as well as rusty-looking grass, indicate that your St. Augustine lawn is attacked by brown patch disease. When you notice the brown patch or fungus increasing, you need to take protection.
Generally, during summer or hot weather, lawn diseases grow up quickly and damage the grass. Humid and dry weather is good for fungi but bad for St. Augustine grass.
Too much fertilizer
St. Augustine grass doesn’t tolerate too much or too little nitrogen fertilizer. If you apply more fertilizer, it can burn your lovely lawn. Remember, don’t try to apply more than one lb of fertilizer per 1000 square feet lawns.
Due to the effect of excess nitrogen, St. Augustine grass becomes brown, yellow, and dry. Ultimately, begin to die.
Most of the fertilizers contain several chemicals so that you have to provide an accurate amount. How to understand the excess fertilizer effect? Some signs are below:
- Lower grass leaves turn on yellow.
- Leaf top part becomes brown.
- Grass leaf scorch and more.
No worries, it isn’t impossible to revive the St. Augustine grass-burning problem.
Pest Ravage
This, however, is another common reason for destroying your St. Augustine grass within a short time. From summer to early fall, you notice that the grub worm infection is increasing thoroughly.
The sign of more than five to ten grubs per square foot and brown patches in the garden suggests that the cause of grub illness.
White grub worms are riskier for the growing lawns. They try to consume the grassroots. This is why the grass is not worthy of getting enough nutrients and water from the soil. The good news is that you will apply several grub control pesticides.
If you live in the southern part of the world, you have also faced the chinch bug problem. This insect can damage the southern gardens and kill the St. Augustine grasses. When you notice these chinch bugs symptoms, you need to take steps to protect them.
Drought & Frost Stress
St. Augustine grass can’t withstand drought & frost stress. During summer the grass becomes brown and dry because of the drought stress as well as lack of water.
In this case, homeowners need to provide water regularly for at least six weeks to lessen the dormant and dying condition.
Alternatively, winter and spring come with frost damage. St. Augustine grass doesn’t thrive properly while starting frost stress. Lawns turn on yellow and brown. So, before starting damage, homeowners have to take safety and reseed or overseed in this period.
Can dead St Augustine grass arrive back?
Yes, it is possible to get St. Augustine grass green and lush by taking proper care and maintenance. But, you have to evaluate the percentage of damage. And, search how to treat your brown or dead St. Augustine grass.
There is no problem if the dead over from three to five weeks. But, too long dead grass is not able to revive again because its roots have already died. You can come back to the dormant St. Augustine lawns easily and quickly.
How to Revive St. Augustine Grass
As a lawn enthusiast, you desire to renew as well as lush green St. Augustine grass and remove the brown patches. It is extremely easy to do because you have already realized the reasons for killing the lawns. Now, we mention here how to revive St. Augustine grass and keep it healthy & green.
1.Refine Soil Quality
You know, poor quality soil is not suitable for growing St. Augustine grass. For healthy growth, you have to improve the soil circumstances. Needs to test the soil to improve your garden surface.
Collect a few amounts of damaged soil and you go to the lab for testing or purchase kits for testing at home. After testing, you understand what nutrients are needed in your soil. In most cases, you can include gypsum, humic acid, or compost for modifying clay soil.
For drying grass, you can core-aerate your lawn. Another solution is to keep your St. Augustine grass at an accurate height for keeping healthy soil.
2. Water Regularly
Proper water helps to stay in the healthy and green terrace. Several times or seasons, homeowners should provide water according to the grassroots needs.
The golden rule is that you can provide water on average ¾-inch per week two times.
In the growing season, from one to two inches of water is enough for the St. Augustine grass. You have to increase the percentage of water during the drought season. So, try to provide up to six inches deep of water at least two times per week.
3. Remove Extra Fertilization
For applying over fertilizers, your St. Augustine grass can burn and start to die. Day to day its color changes and turns yellow and brown. The great treatment of reducing an extra fertilizer is to use a lot of water.
Wash or flush out the nitrogen salts that are hazardous to the growing lawns. Provide water at least one inch daily for reducing this problem. Don’t need to supply overwater that is harmful to the St. Augustine lawn.
4. Can Use A Grub killer
Insects damage your St. Augustine grass, especially grubs that eat lawn roots. They hamper grass to grow up. Due to the effect of too many grubs, St. Augustine grass becomes brown patches and turns through lifeless moods.
To lessen the grub’s difficulty, you can use several grub killers. advanced Grub Killer Granules, Scotts GrubEx, and Milky Spore Grub Control are well-known and effective in reducing too many grubs. From early spring to late summer is the good time to provide any grub control.
5. Mowing Regularly
For reviving St. Augustine, every homeowner has to mow lawns with an accurate height and use perfect blades. The best way is to mow lawns every ten days. From the different lawn mowers, select a good quality machine for mowing St. Augustine grass quickly and easily.
Too short lawns are not able to grow deeply. From three inches to four inches tall is adequate to grow it suitably. Even this height encourages reduced stress & deeper rooting on the plant.
6. Reseed In frosty times
The most important way of reviving St. Augustine grass is to reseed or overseed in winter and spring. Just because of low temperature or chill conditions, most of the St. Augustine lawn stays in dormancy.
Some can die and don’t tolerate cooling weather. When winter goes and spring comes, you should re-establish new St. Augustine lawns for increasing the amounts.
It helps to fulfill the places where grass died because of frost damage or extreme drought. Dormant grass, as well as re-establish seeds, thrive together so that you can enjoy a lot of St. Augustine grass along with a green & fresh look.
Conclusion
St. Augustine grass is extremely painless to produce, just need to maintain some directions. Lacking the proper maintenance of the lawn, it can be yellow and brown. You already know how to revive St. Augustine grass from this article. We also presented the main reasons why St. Augustine grass can be damaged.
So, enjoy your lush green St. Augustine grass!