Hello everyone,

I am a new member on the forum, but have had a few helpful conversations with David. From the help he has given and from random post reading, I feel I have a base of where I need to start, but all advice is appreciated.

I have started a new lawn, currently being 3 month old St. Augustine grass plugs. The first few feedings I used chemical fertilizers, have been watering infrequently and deep, and cutting as 4" high. The grass started off nicely - but hasn't been so well in the past month or longer. The grass has developed gray leaf spot, always appears to have a little bit of dead grass in each plug - rather confusing??

I started looking for the best treatment for gray leaf spot when I read about using corn meal, this is what got me interested. After reading and talking with David, I applied 20lbs/1000sq ft yesterday of corn meal to the affected area.

Anyway, my reason for posting here is my interest in getting away from chemical fertilizers completely, and I want some advice on the correct approach. I would like to build a detailed calendar that I can refer to as needed as a reminder of when to use what. I do not have a lot of knowledge on what to do during the cold season, so I will simply put what I think may be correct. Help me :]

South-East Georgia - St. Augustine Grass Palmetto

Jan -
Feb -
March -
April - Early April - 25 lbs of corn meal / 1000sqft
May -
June - Early June - 15 lbs of soy bean meal / 1000sqft
July - Late July - 15 lbs of soy bean meal / 1000sqft
Aug -
Sept - Early Sept - 25 lbs of corn meal / 1000sqft
Oct -
Nov - Early Nov - 15 lbs of soy bean meal / 1000sqft
Dec -
edit: just put a few more days in from what I've been reading - let me know if its too much.

- I still haven't decided on whether to use corn meal or soy bean meal

- Has been suggested on hitting the lawn a few times with molasses/milk mix at 4oz/1000sq ft(need to incorporate this into my calendar yearly - also need to know how many times I should do this for a jump start)

Thanks everyone!

Hi Trent! Welcome to Bestlawn!!

Glad you could make it. Since you already have my opinion on this topic, I'll let the others reply.

Hello David,

I think I may shoot for 15lbs per 1000 of SBM, and just use corn meal a few times per year to keep diseases under control. All depends on if I can find it, though.

Let me know if I should move my dates around, add dates, remove dates, change product, etc.

I have a very basic test that I had done by the county agent at home. I will try to post those results when I get home, though, I have fertilized the yard twice chemically since the test was sent off.

How is SBM as far as potassium and phosphorus?

andy10917 wrote:It generally has an NPK-equivalent around 7-2-2.

Will that be enough?

One thing, I remember my results being completely different in a certain area. I had some top soil brought in, and that area was low in P and K. Will the yard ever balance out fertilizing the areas differently?

Actually, the only way to balance out the yard is to fertilize differently. Once balanced, you can go to identical fertilization in all areas and it should, barring differences in the soils, stay within spitting distance.

Area I had top soil added




Area that was already there

OK. First, we're going to need a jar test on this...I can't find the link, but I'm sure Andy will be along directly with it. I suspect that your CEC is low, limiting what the soil can hold, but the jar test will help tell us that.

Fortunately, St. Aug isn't overly demanding...

Indeed not. I'm about to post on that as the amount of information I'm trying to synchronize is now too much.

Quite aside from that, once we have the jar test, we can make recommendations. I suspect a sandier soil, but could be wrong.

Thanks :]

I will do it for both areas when i get off of work.

Perfect. You'll have an indicator after just a few minutes as to your structure--if most of what you put in already fell out, you have a great deal of sand. Of course, we want the entire answer, so that'll be Sunday evening.

Here is it - marked 2 min/2 hour, but didn't mark it just now. I couldn't see through the dark water, maybe you can help.

Black marker is a little hard to see.

A few pics of my yard

You can see the gray leaf spot a little here



and here



Uploaded with ImageShack.us


I wanted to show a picture of this - for some reason my grass always has this dead look in it - hope the microbes will help