St Augustine Decline Control

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St Augustine Decline Control

St Augustine Decline Control

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"St. Augustine Decline is a viral disease that occurs in the shade and where you will see the runners appearing black or brown, roots will be stunted and will pull very easily from the soil. It is a difficult lawn disease to eliminate but by combining cultural control measures and being persistent you may be able to control the issue."

St. Augustine Decline Control: How To Get Rid of St. Augustine Decline

St. Augustine Grass is one of the most popular turfgrass to choose to grow on a lawn. It is widely used in the southern states and is regarded as a medium to high-maintenance grass. Because of this fact, if a lawn owner doesn't keep up with routine care of the grass, it could be subject to rot and disease such as St. Augustine Decline, also known by a fitting acronym, SAD.

St. Augustine Decline (SAD) is a viral disease that results in a St. Augustine Grass blades having speckles of discoloration. The virus is mostly found on landscapes in Texas but there have been instances of the disease reported in Louisiana and Arkansas.

St. Augustine decline is typically spread by mowing equipment, edgers, and other tools. St. Augustinegrass that is affected by SAD is also slower than healthy grass to recover. In the springtime following very cold winters, much of the diseased St. Augustinegrass does not recover.

If your St. Augustine turf has been infected with St. Augustine decline, you have options for control. Follow the DIY treatment guide below to learn what products and techniques to use to overcome this virus properly.

Identification

St. Augustine Decline

While St. Augustine Decline can be quite apparent to diagnose there may be cases where you may get the disease confused with something else. Identifying the disease correctly will help you in selecting the proper fungicide and help you in your treatment approach. Here are some identifying traits to observe:

  • One of the main signs of St. Augustine decline is splotchy, yellow-colored blades. The appearance of yellow is often due to stress and is called chlorosis, which is brought on by the disease.
  • Chlorosis can take place for different reasons such as turf insect damage or zinc deficiency, but if you find yellow over the entirety of the lawn, this is a clear characteristic of St. Augustine Decline.
  • The symptoms of SAD begin with slight gradual yellowing of the grass blades and end with almost complete die-back within three years. In that time usually bermudagrass takes over wherever St. Augustine grass has weakened.

Use the description and image above to help you identify St. Augustine Decline on your lawn. If you are not totally sure if you have SAD, contact us and we will help you properly ID the disease and suggest the best treatment option.

Inspection

St. Augustine Decline on a lawn

Where to Inspect

Walk through your lawn to check for areas of St. Augustine decline and determine the severity level prior to fungicide treatment. With SAD, the lawn becomes weak and may start to thin in circular or irregular looking patches. Grass blades may look faded and ill, signaling a problem.

Generally, you will find it in the shady areas of the lawn like most lawn disease problems. Hardly ever will you find this disease in full sun. When inspecting for St. Augustine Decline on your lawn you need to examine the stolons.

What To Look For

When diagnosing St. Augustine Decline, its most effective to start at the edge of the problem right beside the healthy grass. Go to the edges and try to pull up some turfgrass and examine the roots themselves and check the colors as well as the stolon. Compare the diseased plants that have been pulled out to a healthy plant.

SAD causes rotting of the stolon itself, the actual runner of the grass. If you pull out a runner you will see that it browns or almost blackens lengthwise down the stolon. If you start to pull the stolon up from the dirt, you will see that the roots themselves are stunted, shortened and discolored, looking brownish or black.

Normally, the roots should be a creamy white color and pulling the plant out from the root would be a bit difficult. A lawn infected with the disease, the plants could be pulled out easily with just a slight tug which can be mistaken for turf damage from grubs.

Treatment

mowing grass

Unfortunately, if you have St. Augustine Decline, there is no chemical method of control available to cure an infected lawn of the disease or prevent it's spread. Most St. Augustine lawns recover from the disease and will outgrow it, while others may be slow to recover from the virus. What can be done, however, are cultural practices to ensure that your lawn doesn't get infected and limits the spread.

Clean Mowing Equipment

The virus that causes St. Augustine Decline is usually transmitted by mowing equipment. For example, if you have had a mowing company come to mow your lawn, they may have mowed other lawns with their equipment that may have the disease and brought it to your lawn, unknowingly infecting it. This is why it is important to have companies ensure they are using clean equipment or, if you are mowing your lawn yourself, that you clean your equipment with a 10% bleach solution to lessen the spread of St. Augustine Decline.

Plant Resistant Varieties of St. Augustine Grass

The introduction of resistant varieties of St. Augustine Grass to your lawn can slow down the spread of SAD in your yard. St. Augustine varieties such as Floratam, Raleigh, Seville and others are labeled to be resistant to the virus. All you would need to do is sprig or plug in the grass in the affected areas. The resistant variety will then end up overtaking the St. Augustine grass that is susceptible to the disease.

Prevention

Applying Fert

Once the St. Augustine Decline has been cleared off of your lawn, keep the disease from coming back by implementing good regular lawn care maintenance. Here are some preventative measures we suggest to keep St. Augustine Decline from coming back.

  • One good preventative measure is peat moss. Spread the peat moss over the affected area and use about a bale (which could treat about 500-700 sq. ft.). The way it works is that as the peat moss decomposes in the soil it helps to hold the pH down so the disease doesn't spread or thrive more.
  • Water the lawn deeply and infrequently once a week at a rate of 1 to 1.5 inches of water.
  • Trim back trees and reduce shade as much as possible so your St. Augustinegrass gets sufficient sunlight.
  • Raise your mowing heights to 3 to 4 inches to assist in the recovery of your grass and strengthen roots.
  • Proper and consistent fertilizer and mowing practices will also reduce the presence of SAD. We suggest putting down our Fall Grow fertilizer in the early Fall and or 15-5-10 Weed and Feed in the late spring to keep your lawn looking healthy so if the SAD symptoms remain, the lawn won't look as bad and will eventually recover more quickly.

Key Takeaways

What is St. Augustine Decline?

  • St. Augustine Decline is a viral disease that occurs in the shade that starts with mottled discoloration of grass blades and leads to runners appearing black or brown and roots experience stunted growth.

How To Get Rid of St. Augustine Decline

  • While there are no chemical methods of controlling St. Augustine Decline, you can plant resistant varieties of St. Augustinegrass to combat the spread of the disease and make sure you clean lawn equipment prior to mowing your grass to reduce the chances of transmitting the disease.

Preventing St. Augustine Decline Reemergence

  • Once your lawn has been treated, prevent SAD from making a return with cultural control practices (mowing, aeration, watering etc.), applying peat moss to your lawn and keeping a solid fertilization schedule will make it less likely that your St. Augustinegrass is infected.
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