If you are on this page, the turfgrass on your property is probably in trouble. Many people in the same boat are doing Google or AI searches for St. Augustine Fungus Identification, St Augustine Grass Diseases Pictures, and Why are there Brown Spots in St. Augustine Grass? Or your St Augustine may already be so far gone that you are searching for St. Augustine Grass Seed, or How Much is a Pallet of St Augustine sod? Of course, if you do those last two searches, you are about to put lipstick on a dead pig. Unless you first determine the root cause of whatever killed your St. Augustine to begin with, it will 100% die again.
St Augustine Grass Diseases Identification - Lawn Fungus Diseases in St. Augustine Grass
Do you want to know how to spot fungus in St Augustine grass? Or be given some valuable guidelines for St Augustine grass disease identification of TARR, Take All Patch, Crown Rot, Blight, and other fungal diseases rampant in St. Augustine grass in North Texas? This video shows all the fungi and diseases found in just a 5-7 minute walk across three blocks in Frisco, TX.
St. Augustine Grass Disease Pictures - Fungus in St. Augustine Grass
While the video does a better job of showing how fungus in St. Augustine grass has spread from property to property in North Texas, here are a couple of St Augustine grass disease pictures from the video if you don't want to watch it:
Severe Infection of TARR, Crown Rot, Culvalaria, Blight in St. Augustine in Frisco, TX.
Moderate Infection of TARR, Take All Patch, Crown Rot in St. Augustine in Lewisville, TX.
Moderate to Severe Infection of Take All Patch in St. Augustine, overshaded property in Colleyville, TX
Moderate infection of TARR & Take All Patch in St Augustine grass, very overshaded property Rockwall, TX
What is TARR? What are Take-All Patch and Take-All Root Rot?
The scientific name for TARR and Take All Patch is Gaeumannomyces Graminis. It is a soil-borne disease that lives on both living and dead stolons. And contrary to most funguses in warm-season turfgrasses, it also spreads in the winter when St. Augustine is semi-dormant.
LSU has recently written an article about the rapid growth of Take All Root Rot and Take All Patch in southern Louisiana: https://www.lsuagcenter.com/profiles/jmorgan/articles/page1681851935668
They also honestly note that the various fungicides used to treat it are not readily available at Home Depot for homeowners to purchase (and even if they are, they are not at strong enough concentrations, and they need to be mixed with other fungicides based on the overall scope of the problem).
Oklahoma State wrote an article a couple of years ago related to Take All Patch and Bermuda Grass Decline Virus: https://extension.okstate.edu/programs/turfgrass-science/educational-materials/site-files/docs/common-diseases-of-turfgrasses-in-oklahoma.pdf.
Texas A&M has published several articles on Take-All Patch in Bermuda and St. Augustine grass. And their older articles, along with the great Neil Sperry, talk about "spreading some peat moss" to try to lower the pH a little. Important Note: Do not dump peat moss all over your lawn. It will NOT "cure" TARR or TAP. https://plantdiseasehandbook.tamu.edu/landscaping/lawn-turf/sorted-by-names-of-diseases/take-all-patch-bermuda-decline-take-all-root-rot/
Texas has more than 250 different soil types. DFW Turfgrass Science LLC, a professional landscape consultant and lawn specialist, has experimented with spreading peat moss on areas with moderate to severe TARR infections. Not only was it a waste of time and money, but it made the problem worse in the most humid part of the summer in North Texas as the peat moss holds moisture at the surface in our heavy clay soils, the same as if you leave grass clippings on the ground; it may be OK as a small token attempt to fix the problem in other areas of TX, but not the great DFW area. Note: We have seen evidence that amending the soil helps control this problem. But "amending" is not "sprinkling on top." Amending the soil = doing deep core aeration, then throwing the cores away and backfilling the holes with a sand-sandy loam mix with some compost/peat moss blend. Over a couple of years, combined with sulfur applications, you can lower the pH to the 7.0 range (but never to 6.5, which is impossible in this black clay).
If you suspect you have some lawn disease in your St. Augustine grass, call a CTP (Certified Turfgrass Professional) or someone with a degree in the field. TARR is a cancer-level disease in warm-season turfgrass, and you will not put a dent in it by sprinkling Home Depot fungicide and peat moss around your lawn. All of your cultural practice problems have to be fixed, or you are peeing into fierce West Texas wind. If they are fixed, it requires intensive rotations of fungicide treatments for the first year; after that, you will have to put down preventive treatments to keep it in remission.
Can I Cure TARR and Take All Root Rot with Peat Moss or Organic (only) Products in North Texas?
The short answer is no. First, TARR and TAP cannot be "cured," only managed in some situations. Second, peat moss is good for water retention and for adding organic matter to sandy soils in East Texas or gravelly soils in parts of West Texas. But the majority of North Texas and Central Texas has Blackland Clay (also known as black gumbo). Blackland clay already has considerable organic matter, does not drain well, has a very high pH, and naturally has a higher disease load than soils in East Texas or arid areas of West Texas. The peat moss will lower the pH of the topsoil for a few months, but once you keep irrigating it with city water at pH 7.6-8.0, its acidity is gone. Then all you have left is a moisture-holding material covering the stolons of your St. Augustine grass. Do we want the stolons (above ground) and grass blades of our St. Augustine to stay wet for days when it is 90-110 degrees outside? Answer: We do not.
What are the Brown Spots in St. Augustine Grass?
Brown spots in St Augustine grass can be caused by about fifteen different things: chinch bugs, scale, grub worms, dog pee, compaction, drainage problems, dense/full shade, improper water coverage from irrigation (in certain areas where overlap is wrong %, not everywhere), nutrient soil deficiency, PH that is too high, fungus, TARR, Blight, Take All Patch, Crown Rot, Bipolaris Rot, Curvalaria, etc. The truth is this: every single St. Augustine property we have been asked to perform professional landscape consultant work for has had 3-8 of these problems, combining for one rotten pot of stew.
How to Revive St. Augustine Grass?
It is a good question: How to revive St Augustine grass? The answer, though, is very complex. You certainly won't do it by putting lipstick on a dead pig. IE, throwing new sod over the top of your existing problem(s). The average customer who calls us for a lawn specialist consultant has resodded 2-4 times in the past 5-10 years. I repeat: the average customer that contacts us for a consult has resodded their St. Augustine 2-4X in the past 3-7 years.
To revive St Augustine grass, you must first call someone qualified and a specialist with lawn diseases and turfgrass. And your general "landscape guy" is not qualified. Once you find someone qualified, they will do a complete evaluation of everything listed above and send soil tests to one lab and disease stolon/rhizome tests to another. Once the results come back, you can stop guessing and start taking action to fix your turfgrass problems permanently.
St. Augustine Consulting in Central and North Texas
In 90% of North Texas lawns, you won't revive or fix fungus in St. Augustine grass by purchasing a bag of fungicide from Lowe's or Calloway's. Why? For a similar reason to why a lawn becomes full of weeds. Are the weeds the cause or the effect? Answer: the effect. The majority of the St Augustine consulting we do centers on one root problem: a lack of DLI (direct light intensity) and photosynthesis in the specific warm-season turfgrass you are trying to grow. You can do soil tests and use fungicides to keep treating diseases over and over, but if the grass variety does not have the minimum amount of DLI for photosynthesis you won't be able to manage the diseases (especially TARR and TAP) effectively as your lawn is essentially a petri dish. Professional Consultant Tip: There are over 40 varieties of St. Augustine, and they do not all have the same DLI requirements.
There are all kinds of analogies we can use, but imagine if a physician decided to leave a staph infection or gangrene in someone's leg, give them a Z-Pack, and send them home? Or if a doctor diagnosed someone with diabetes, but the patient refused to stop drinking a twelve-pack of Dr. Pepper per day? Doctors and pharmaceuticals have limits, and so does fungicides and insecticides.
If you want to see more details, pricing, and FAQs about our professional St. Augustine consulting services, please visit our Lawn Grass Consultant page: https://turfgrassscience.com/texas-landscape-consultants-near-dallas-lawn-consultant-horticulture/
If you are ready to book an appointment for your property, please visit our Contact Us page to schedule your professional turfgrass consultation.