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New Sod- Upkeep and Maintenance?

17K views 46 replies 6 participants last post by  agrostis 
#1 ·
For those of you that weren't following my last thread feel free to chime in with your wonderful advice! If you were following my last thread, I look forward to hearing your advice also! To update the new people;

I'm far from a landscaper, however I recently decided to sod my lawn. Being that we have a shade tree which I pruned majorly so our lawn now receives sunlight. I'm in Texas (Hot Weather). We winded up planting Palisades Zoysia.

Here are the pictures following the laying of the sod. Note* these photo's are about six days following the laying of the sod.





The sod looks excellent, watering 2-3 times a day, morning, early noon, and late afternoon. Note* I did not have the money to install an irrigation system, so we started with some cheap sprinklers then went for some better sprinklers. After getting the second set of sprinklers I realized I was having to put my feet on the new lawn, so I went and scooped up a third set of sprinklers. I now have impulse sprinklers that cover the entire area. I applied half the recommended rate of Scott's Turf Builder before laying the sod. Soil was a little high on the alkaline side. I'm hoping over time I can get the PH of the soil down by composting and natural organics.

Questions:

Can I purchase anything to mix in a spray bottle-water hose to bring the PH down overtime safely?

I'm very satisfied with the outcome of the sod, excellent in green for most parts of the yard. However, I have noticed yellow or browning around the edges of the sod. (Almost appears as thatch or something that should be raked up.)

Would anyone know what would cause this around the edges? Too much water? Not enough? It almost seems as if the edges of the sod are drying out? However, in the center of the sod it remains green. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I'm also looking for any advice for the upkeep of my newly laid sod? When to fertilize? What's the best fertilizer to use for the first time on Warm season grass?

Thanks for all the input!
 
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#27 ·
I know this is a warm-season grass thing,,, but wouldn't it make sense to see if the roots have started in the soil and let the ground start to be something other than mud??? :)
Smallaxe,

I'm new to this so any information I receive is news to me. I understand what you mean as far as making sure the roots are not growing in mud. But I was instructed to keep the soil "moist". The problem with keeping the soil moist, is when temperatures soar 100 degrees in September, then there comes the question am I letting my new sod dry out? Am I keeping the soil moist. So then you obviously have to resort to watering weird schedules. When the temperatures are soaring the water is disappearing into the air. Then I then get paranoid about watering? I'm going to go ahead and spread out tuna cans today. The weather has been calling for rain from a Tropical Storm for four days straight. I've watched it go from Sunny to Thundering with no rain to sunny. We got a quick shower yesterday, then right back to sunny. I think I got it figured out though, I'm going to just keep the soil moist for the first two weeks three times a day, temperatures should be dropping in the next few days) I'm going to cut the rain to two times a day depending on rain. And slowly reduce from there.
 
#28 ·
As long as the soil underneath the sod is damp, then your good. When you water every day you'll notice that it take's less and less water to make the soil wet, this go's back to gradually cutting back the water, concentrate on getting just enough water down to keep the soil moist and your zoysia sod will be that much farther ahead. Remember, zoysia in the sod stage is delicate and can really benefit from precise water management, but don't let it dry out.
Appreciate that. That's what I'm defiantly going to do. I'm just going to let it take it's course and keep the sod moist. But I see exactly what your talking about. It seems to hold less water each time. I think I'm going to run the experiment and see how much water my Gilmour Impulses are actually putting out then cut back from that rate. It's just been hard and confusing with these silly whether stations lately. They call or a high amount of rain, show were in the middle of the storm (red zone), however I get a few drops, then some sunlight. Over this time, I definitely learned not to depend on the weather or the weather channel, at least in Texas. Can you tell me something? I noticed the sod has started knitting around the edges much quicker? Do you think it's possibly because it's getting more water? (I been hand watering the whole edge of the lawn due to sprinklers missing corners.) But I was going to wait until the 14 day mark to lay the fertilizer app? I also put down compost and organic matter in after I found out my soil was alkaline and the grass is still maintaining a healthy green color. I figure 14 days should be long enough for be to do a quick light fert. app without damaging it from walking on it so much, although it will still be delicate? I think I'm getting the hang of it in everything I learned from you!
 
#31 ·
Smallaxe,

I'm new to this so any information I receive is news to me. I understand what you mean as far as making sure the roots are not growing in mud. But I was instructed to keep the soil "moist". The problem with keeping the soil moist, is when temperatures soar 100 degrees in September, then there comes the question am I letting my new sod dry out? Am I keeping the soil moist. So then you obviously have to resort to watering weird schedules. When the temperatures are soaring the water is disappearing into the air. Then I then get paranoid about watering? I'm going to go ahead and spread out tuna cans today. The weather has been calling for rain from a Tropical Storm for four days straight. I've watched it go from Sunny to Thundering with no rain to sunny. We got a quick shower yesterday, then right back to sunny. I think I got it figured out though, I'm going to just keep the soil moist for the first two weeks three times a day, temperatures should be dropping in the next few days) I'm going to cut the rain to two times a day depending on rain. And slowly reduce from there.
What I was referring to was tugging up on the grass to see if it is rooted in soil yet... if the sod lifts right up I would visually inspect the soil itself to see if it is greasy and void of air or if it is of a moist yet airy consistency...
What I do for sensitive vegetation in the heat of the day is "Syringe" with a cool water shower,,, w/out adding too much water to the soil...
 
#33 · (Edited)
I have no idea. That's pretty vague, be much more descriptive, post close-up picture's if you can.
Agrostics, sorry I was to vague with my description. The white area is infecting what seems to be the blades of the grass. The areas are blotchy, no particular size and shape. They appear in many parts of the blades. Here is some more pictures let me know if this helps out any more.







Let me know exactly what you need a picture of if you need any more and I'll take them ASAP. I made a trip this morning to Callagan's Feed Store an hour away and was able to find the aluminum sulfate to help with the Alkaline soil also. Could this potentially help any?

Thanks!
 
#35 ·
I'm not sure what that is, but i don't see stunting, wilting or yellowing in the grass around that. Even the grass blade's with the white spot's on them look healthy. The soil alkalinity may have something to do with that, so may the water, the soil or the fertilizer, it's hard to say. I would just watch it. It's really hard to diagnose any kind of turfgrass disease or mechanical damage over the internet (even with good close-up picture's), so to be on the safe side, and for your peace of mind, send a sample (and find out just what is a proper sample) to these people.

http://plantclinic.tamu.edu/

I think this is the right link. If this isn't your state funded university, then that is who want for cheap, accurate testing. They aren't far from you. Testing for in-state resident's is probably free or very cheap. Just be aware that it is probably slow, (like 4-6 week's) but you will know for sure. Guessing at this kind of thing can be huge waste of time and money, so do it right the first time.
 
#36 ·
Agrostics,

I went ahead and called them today. I'm going to send a sample off early this coming week to the A&M Research Center. After hours and hours or research and watching and looking at the grass closely, and also speaking with a local lawn person, I have a strong, strong, gut feeling telling me that it's Powdery Mildew. After looking on several websites, resources, and Google Images I see exact identical properties when compared to the images in Google. Also, being under the oak, the humid temperatures, high grass, and also the new privacy fence around the front, seems like it could restrict airflow and oxygen. Along with the humid and hot temperatures and water, I have a Gut feeling also telling me this is my issue.
 
#37 ·
When it come's to turfgrass disease's, they are just to numerous and complicated to guess at. Trust me on this, i've been growing grass for more than 25 year's and while i can be pretty accurate on a lot of disease's i know that the lab can do a better job than i can and i will defer to them almost every time.

I'm glad your sending off a sample. How long will it take to get a answer? How much did it cost? See what i mean about air movement? Most people don't realize how important that is.
 
#38 ·
When it come's to turfgrass disease's, they are just to numerous and complicated to guess at. Trust me on this, i've been growing grass for more than 25 year's and while i can be pretty accurate on a lot of disease's i know that the lab can do a better job than i can and i will defer to them almost every time.

I'm glad your sending off a sample. How long will it take to get a answer? How much did it cost? See what i mean about air movement? Most people don't realize how important that is.
Agrostics,

I completely understand what you mean. As much research as I did, I find there are so many varieties of diseases, some that infect certain grasses, some that infect many types of grasses. Much of them are close and hard to tell. As for the sample, I'm going with TAMU (University of A&M). They only charge $10. bucks, which is much less than I was thinking. I found the ammonia sulfate you was speaking up at Callahan's a few days ago, I suppose I should wait to send and receive the new soil test results first before I go putting anything on it. I'm pretty sure I'm still on the Alkine side, but I did add a bunch of compost and organic matter before laying. Maybe that possibly helped me a bit, but I suppose not enough to get me exactly where I want to be.

As for the spots on the leaf I have no early clue, but I suspect very highly that it was fungi. Too tell you the funny thing is it's completely gone. :walking: It's not visible in the grass whatsoever when I look at it closely. I did cut back on the water to once in the morning and once in the even. I started watering about two hours earlier in the evening to make sure to give the leaves time to dry before the sun goes down. It seems as if the slower areas in rooting are now taking root. The grass is growing thick, but is competing for weeds. Looks almost as if some type of wheat weeds or something you would see in the country. But I'm just going to let it do it's thing and hopefully it will help when I'm able to mow it and get the height adjusted. The temperatures are in the low 90's now, and the 80's fast follow the low 90's. So hopefully within the next few months the summer weeds will die down. I plan to weight to spray until next Spring like you said. I defiantly see what you mean by air movement. I think seeding would have been a much worse off option. I'll keep you updated.
 
#40 ·
I'm not sure what that is, but i don't see stunting, wilting or yellowing in the grass around that. Even the grass blade's with the white spot's on them look healthy. The soil alkalinity may have something to do with that, so may the water, the soil or the fertilizer, it's hard to say. I would just watch it. It's really hard to diagnose any kind of turfgrass disease or mechanical damage over the internet (even with good close-up picture's), so to be on the safe side, and for your peace of mind, send a sample (and find out just what is a proper sample) to these people.

It looks like it's healthy and thick, huh? I know I'm going to have to do several mow applications before I can get it down to the right height, especially being so thick. I didn't want the fungi (if that's what it is) to spread any further. So I tried an organic method, from my understanding can't harm the grass. I applied 20 lbs of cornmeal and sprayed an application of 1 cup of milk for if the fact that I was having mold issues. Either way, I couldn't find a way that would explain that either of these would harm, but have seen that many people have had successful results with both of them. I'll let you know how the next 30 days go and surely by then I'll be cutting. I found a local shop that sharpens blades. I'm going to pick up new ones and alternate getting them sharpened every two mowings. Eventually, maybe I can catch me a Reel mower on CL.:laugh:
 
#45 ·
Look's good... nice dark green. Is that a recent picture? It sure is nice to see the right grass in the right place.
Thank you very much again. And yepp, that picture was from Wednesday (Yesterday) after I finished cutting. When I first cutting the first month, I didn't bag the first time or two. I regretted that dearly. Had thatch starting to build up, so I took a thatch rake and manually raked the whole yard lightly without tearing anything up and got what thatch was in there up. Not necessarily all of it, I was trying to leave some protection for the colder months, but didn't want too much thatch underneath. Now I bag each and every mowing. It's not really noticeable from the road or anything, unless you walk through it and look very closely. I can see some areas are just a tad bit thinner than other areas. Then I noticed each area that is just a little bit thin is under the most shaded areas of the tree. So I'll definitely be doing more clearing of the branches in those areas in the Spring time. But other than that I'm very, very happy. The spot problem I was having went away after the initial first month of heavy watering and the heat died down. Now I'm pretty much letting it do it's own thing. I can't wait for the spring to come around. As I've told you I love just being out there and making it look nice. I think it will look very good next year, but I'm going to worry about the health of the lawn and make sure it stays that way. I'm planning to do an aeration/dethatch in the spring along with the initial spring composting and will be composting two more times in the "active" growing season as you stated a while back.

Remember from day one I was thinking about seeding? :hammerhead: And then had decided to St. Augustine, until you made the better suggestion. I couldn't thank you more.

There was only one other yard in the surrounding neighborhoods that we're competing, both being St. Augustine. One of them still looks extremely well, but appears to have caught brown patch or some type of fungus and it has been slowly spreading. I'm hoping they're doing something about it before it takes over the whole yard, I hate to see lawns like that go down in our neighborhood and I also love the competition. The other St. Augustine looks like it's turning yellowish/greenish to me. After I looked at it closely, it seemed like Iron Chlorosis, but could be wrong. I enjoy competing with the surrounding neighborhoods now for the best looking yard, so hopefully they'll get it straightened out. Every day I walk outside I catch people coming down our dead end and parking and just looking at our lawn, because I remember the days it looked like this.





It's been a long hall, and we gladly do appreciate all the amazing and thoughtful advice from you. If you don't mind private messaging me the name of your company I would gladly leave you some reviews in appreciation for all the time and information you shared with us throughout the entire process.
 
#46 ·
I guess mowing the grass in the last week of October is one of the benefit's of living in a hot a-- place like south Texas, i guess.

Thatch is a by-product of properly fertilized and watered warm season grass and you don't want a thatch layer thicker than 1/2 inch but don't let it worry you. Get a soil probe so you can see exactly what's going on.

You can get one of those round type profiler's for $25 anywhere or you can go wild and spend $200 on a flat profiler.

A spring time aeration might be too aggressive. Zoysia need's to be 100% green and the soil need's to be warm before you go punching hole's in it.

I can see where your neighbors's are envious of your grass, keep it up.

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