Laying St. Augustine in the Cold

[Landscape Poet]

@ Kiril

In regards to the watering amount.....I attached a hose end sprinkler for the client while on the property today and did a "catch can collection" with some nice large rain gauges. On average the water supply was taking about 1 hour to deliver 1 inch of water to the areas it was spraying.
I left the client with instructions to water 1/2 inch twice a day at min., I left gauges with client so that he could monitor amount of water being applied each watering. I told him that all though evaporation rates should not be as high as in our warm season, I felt that several lighter applications each day totaling 1 inch of water would be better after the initial soaking, preferably in a manner in which the leave blade would not be left overly moist going into the overnight period ( trying to get most of it done throughout the day while the sun still is present and could help dry the leaf blades).

[unkownfl]

Not to state the obvious, but why didn't you just ask the farm you got it from? Do they not warranty the SOD? I wouldn't recommend one inch of irrigation daily this time of the year on new sod.

[Landscape Poet]

Originally Posted by unkownfl

Not to state the obvious, but why didn't you just ask the farm you got it from? Do they not warranty the SOD? I wouldn't recommend one inch of irrigation daily this time of the year on new sod.

Yep, even asked them, as you are local you will know that the local extension teacher that we talked to was Tom Maccubbin, just was wanting to approach the situation with as much info as I could as I was not expecting this cold snap when putting the plans in place.

Got the sod from Kirkland Sod over in New Smyrna as we were also doing a property with Palmetto also and since they are the farm that developed Palmetto, figured they were a good choice after visiting the farm. Warranty for the Sod? Might as well forget that....to many variables not many that I know who would do this for contractors in this area. As far as what the farm said....same basic misunderstanding....got the simple instructions to water it for 45 minutes each day ....twice a day....and of course the problem with this is not knowing how much water is being provided through the irrigation system during that 45 minutes...so yes...there advice was not anything to helpful.

[fl-landscapes]

Mike, no doubt kiril has knowledge, however you realize he is in California and any of his knowledge about St Augustine sod intsall or maintenance would be speculation and based on books. No offense to Kiril but I suggest you take the advice of the FL guys on this one. And before you stroke him too hard look up his threads in the past and you will see he has the same bedside manners as you mentioned ric has at times. In my opinion your biggest mistake was purposely putting off the install this summer for the fall, the summer hot rainy months are the best time to sod warm season grass.

[Patriot Services]

Originally Posted by Michael Geist Yard Works

Thanks for your thought Patriot. I do not use a start fert on my installs unless the company I partner with does it and I am not sure what they use, I think the put down something like a 0-0-22 if I remember right, but not sure...but the traditional starter fertilizer I stopped a couple years ago on installs where they do not have a service because the extension stopped recommending it. I believe their thoughts were that it would essentially just go to run off because of the excessive watering on new sod and the leaching. I have just taken that approach and not had any issues. On a few installs I have had clients insist that I put down a starter fertilizer....I have put down milorganite -and to be honest - I do not see a huge difference in the establishment time of the lawns treated in the past and the ones now.
Check with your extension office and see if they say the same about not fertilizing new sod too...because if they do you could save the expense and save our aquifers

I think our window for laying sod just closed. A lot of good info in this thread albeit a little harsh in the wording. I have taken to only doing complete sod jobs. If they just want throw and go, they're not for me. Soil and irrigation analysis are not options. "Pouring" water on is a flat ******ed statement and was probably the reason the first install failed. The problem usually lies with the HO that doesn't get it.
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[Patriot Services]

Originally Posted by fl-landscapes

Mike, no doubt kiril has knowledge, however you realize he is in California and any of his knowledge about St Augustine sod intsall or maintenance would be speculation and based on books. No offense to Kiril but I suggest you take the advice of the FL guys on this one. And before you stroke him too hard look up his threads in the past and you will see he has the same bedside manners as you mentioned ric has at times. In my opinion your biggest mistake was purposely putting off the install this summer for the fall, the summer hot rainy months are the best time to sod warm season grass.

Kiril is a Florida OG from back in the iron and brass irrigation days.
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[fl-landscapes]

Originally Posted by Patriot Services

Kiril is a Florida OG from back in the iron and brass irrigation days.
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Then he should have pointed out the timing is off like you and I and Ric did.

[Ric]

Originally Posted by unkownfl

Not to state the obvious, but why didn't you just ask the farm you got it from? Do they not warranty the SOD? I wouldn't recommend one inch of irrigation daily this time of the year on new sod.

Unknown

There is a lot of OBVIOUS here that is going over some heads like a hot air balloon.

[Kiril]

Originally Posted by Michael Geist Yard Works

@ Kiril

In regards to the watering amount.....I attached a hose end sprinkler for the client while on the property today and did a "catch can collection" with some nice large rain gauges. On average the water supply was taking about 1 hour to deliver 1 inch of water to the areas it was spraying.
I left the client with instructions to water 1/2 inch twice a day at min., I left gauges with client so that he could monitor amount of water being applied each watering. I told him that all though evaporation rates should not be as high as in our warm season, I felt that several lighter applications each day totaling 1 inch of water would be better after the initial soaking, preferably in a manner in which the leave blade would not be left overly moist going into the overnight period ( trying to get most of it done throughout the day while the sun still is present and could help dry the leaf blades).

1" of water/day is way too much. That said, you application rate will be dictated by your low quarter, and given there is no real irrigation (why not?), the ability to accurately determine your low quarter is difficult. Let me demonstrate why it is too much water. I will use a fine sand as an example, even though your soil is most likely not a fine sand, and therefore will hold more water than a fine sand.

The water holding capacity of a fine sand is roughly 0.75-1.00 inches/foot. According to this site, ET in the Jacksonville area was 0.067 inches yesterday. In a single day at a 1" AR, you have met or exceeded the soils water holding capacity. Lets assume for simplicity sake that the soil has 1" of plant available water. At the above ET rate, it will take 15 days to go through that amount of water. So are you beginning to see why 1" of water/day is way too much?

Originally Posted by fl-landscapes

Mike, no doubt kiril has knowledge, however you realize he is in California and any of his knowledge about St Augustine sod intsall or maintenance would be speculation and based on books. No offense to Kiril but I suggest you take the advice of the FL guys on this one. And before you stroke him too hard look up his threads in the past and you will see he has the same bedside manners as you mentioned ric has at times. In my opinion your biggest mistake was purposely putting off the install this summer for the fall, the summer hot rainy months are the best time to sod warm season grass.

Not speculation .... extensive knowledge (both field and formal) of plants, soils and irrigation. I am curious though, is there something special about FL that makes it different than every other location St. Augustine is grown? How about irrigation? Is irrigation somehow different in FL than it is for the rest of the world? Is my above example enough to demonstrate most people don't know the first thing about proper irrigation?

FYI, anyone here who is commenting on a site unseen is speculating. Furthermore I never have degraded someone like Ric does on a regular basis on this site for absolutely no good reason. Now if you want to provide a link to a post where I have attacked & degraded someone for absolutely no good reason like Ric has in this thread, then by all means please do and I will formally apologize. If you can't provide this quote, then you might consider keeping your unsubstantiated opinions to yourself. Before you start C&P, you had better check the context of the post, because if my post is a result of being attacked by the likes of Ric, then you better keep looking.

[Kiril]

Originally Posted by Patriot Services

Kiril is a Florida OG from back in the iron and brass irrigation days.

Actually, I lived in NW FL for 5 years.