over fertilized

Brnigirl3

I over fertilized my lawn, ,now the brown has appeared, . There,is green sprigs throughout more areas,but some just thatch looking....question...DO I NEED TO RAKE THE THATCH UP, OH AND I AM WateingG. ITS ST AUGUSTINE...LIVE IN FLORI....please help. My grass is a sore subject in the household right now. Thank you

sdsester

You have done the damage and burned the turf. I am afraid you are going to have to wait this out but hopefully it will snap back. How long it takes will depend on whether you used a quick acting or timed release fertilizer.

If you are not being water rationed, you can try increasing your watering schedule some to leach the fertilizer past the roots. Be careful though, you can damage the turf by overwatering too. Or clog up the soil to the point you steal aeration. Never water later in the day than the turf can dry before dark or you beg insect and fungi problems.

As for de-thatching? With rhyzome type grasses like St. Augustine built up thatch can hog water and provide breeding ground for insects and fungi so if it is really thick you will want to de-thatch it at some point. Now, when the turf is already shocked from the fertilizer burn might not be the best time though. I would wait until Fall.

You could try aerating the lawn now I guess. As mentioned though, you are just going to have to be patient. Chalk it up to a lesson learned.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Brnigirl3

Thank you so very much. Very informative , now I'm gonna just pray this one out. I appreciate your quick response.

DrHicks

First of all, how do you know that you over-fertilized the lawn? You have to dump some serious fertilizer on it to do that.

Are you sure you're not just in the middle of the heat of summer, that is drying up non-irrigated lawns?

Also, are you sure you're not seeing some sort of herbicide damage?


That said, if you HAVE over-fertilized your lawn, about all you can do is water it, and wait it out. At worst, you should have a pretty darned nice lawn NEXT summer!

xelaw

Are you sure it's thatch? St. Augustine doesn't get bad thatch very easily. Can you post pictures? Be sure to include one that shows the shape of the damaged area, and pull some grass out all the way to the roots and take a couple pictures of it too. A picture between the border of a damaged area and an undamaged area would also be helpful.