St Augustine Grass Goes Yellow in Summer Heat
Homeowners are struggling with declining grass health, including discoloration, stunted growth, and weed infestations. This creates frustration and uncertainty about how to restore healthy lawns, impacting curb appeal and recreational space.
SOURCES (60)
“Hello, I'm looking for advice for my lawn in south Florida. I put down St Augustine sod in the spring. It took really well at first, but it started dying over the past few weeks. It still looks good by the fence and the bushes/AC…”
“This is in tampa fl. New turf was doing great installed in march now its going bad fast in last 2 months. Trying to figure out if its water or something else. Yard is mostly covered by tree. The worst spot is in the most access to sun. The nice green spot is the most shade so i assumed lack of water. Was watering once a week. Increased it to 3 days a week but still seems to be spreading about the same. Sprayed a pest control two weeks ago. Wondering if there is any pest i could be directly searc”
“Mowed my lawn and left town for 4 days and came back to a brownish looking lawn. I believe it’s fungus but not sure. Applied chick bug granules a month ago. I have a half acre of St Augustine. Need help identifying please. submitted by /u/Correct-You-4959 [link] [comments]”
“Recently moved into this house, and the previous owners did not take care of any landscaping, let alone the lawn. I’m in St Augustine Florida, right outside of Jacksonville city limits. It’s a St Augustine lawn almost completely overtaken by a variety of weeds (probably 90% weed in most places, some patches of 60-70% grass). I’d love to avoid re-sodding if possible, but understand there’s only so much you can do. Any tips on how you’d even start to tackle this? Take it by section? What time of y”
“This spot is slightly lower, irrigation seems fine. St augustine in central florida. Appreciate any advice. submitted by /u/brdedg1 [link] [comments]”
“St Augustine grass, Southwest Florida. Why is the grass drying, starting from the flower bed. The flower bed is elevated and I feel like the rain water flowing from the bed is causing the grass to dry out. Is this possible? Also the mulch in the flower bed has some sort of white stuff when I dig in which makes me suspect if it’s some sort of disease in the bed. I do have a lawncare company and they say it’s drought or foot traffic but I am not sure if I can trust them. Appreciate any pointers on”
“EDIT: Huge change - so I got my grass species confused, it appears that the majority of my grass type is actually St. Augustine (not Kentucky Bluegrass), which changes my approach completely. The herbicides I purchased and almost began laying down today like XLR8 is NOT compatible with the majority of my lawn, so looking to adjust here. So my biggest question: What weed post-emergents that are compatible with St. Augustine grass that I can apply now to treat majority of my weeds like crabgrass b”
“I live down in Houston, noticed throughout the summer that my St. Augustine is yellowing and then turning grey. I’ve already replaced some dead spots with new sod, but was hoping somebody could identify what is going on. I fertilized and dropped granules for cinch back in early April once I noticed it starting to yellow. in July, I tried anti-fungal granules but it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. I usually water for 25 minutes, twice a week at 6:30am. submitted by /u/Lazy-Love”
“Southwest Florida, St Augustine grass. This is the second time this has happened. Last time it started here and spread to more of my lawn and I had to completely resod. I feel like it's been getting decent water. I applied anti fungal and grub killer maybe 8 months ago. Recently started dying here again. We don't go out here in the lawn often, but this is around the first spot we step on when we walk out into the lawn. Any tips or ideas? submitted by /u/Gene_Havoc [link]  ”
“Multiple areas in my lawn stopped growing and now look like this. It's been raining almost every day and I haven't cut the yard in 2 weeks submitted by /u/Traditional-Ebb-3097 [link] [comments]”
“In San Antonio we can only water one day a week. Last year, first week of October I rented an aerator and then spread a layer of good bulk compost which worked out really well. Was the last lawn to go domant in winter and first to turn green in spring. But now in dog days of summer its looking like the photo in the thread. I have the limestone a few inches under my lawn as well.”
“Grey leaf spot that ran it's course and wasn't caught in time. Lightly rake out and apply top soil 1/2 inch thick in that area. It will be fine.”
“My st Augustine is usually very green and lush. A few weeks ago i started noticing some gray leaf spot from all the rain we were getting mixed with the humid FL temps so i sprayed some Gunner fungicide and it knocked it out. Last week I started noticing some areas that were turning brown and dying off in the same spots where I had previously sprayed. It doesn’t seem to he spreading anymore but the areas around it have grass blades that are starting to brown at the tips (I’m going to replace mowi”
“I had a serious bug problem roughly 3 weeks ago. I treated and have done every test under the sun, there is no longer any bugs. However my lawn is left looking like this. This is Provista st Augustine sod that’s been down for 14 weeks. I have all of these skimpy spots and was wondering if the grass will fill itself in. I see aloof of green stolons but was wondering if it’s hopeful to think it’ll recover before cooler weather. I do keep my lawn fertilized every 6-8 weeks. North Florida subm”
“In Florida, a lot of the dead patches filled in with Sedge and torpedo grass as you can see the pictures submitted by /u/enan1000 [link] [comments]”
“Located in Northeast Florida with St Augustine grass. I have this huge oak tree in my front yard. The grass in the pictures isn’t growing and I am not sure if it’s due to the tree roots or something else. Grass doesn’t seem to have an issue growing around other roots. Had to repost cus I forgot to attach photos submitted by /u/Levi_Garret [link] [comments]”
“Hey Guys, I’ve got two different types of plants i don’t want growing in my St Augustine grass. I live in Central Florida. I would also love to know how to kill these guys! submitted by /u/Bwm05c [link] [comments]”
“I’m originally from FL, we always had St Augustine grass & we’ve relocated to Helotes TX. Our backyard is basically all clover, and the ground is like- cracking. We don’t get much water here, but we have an irrigation system. With that being said, when it rains, our backyard turns to soup. It doesn’t absorb into the ground and just sits on top. Trying to figure out if we need sand, and what to do whether it be to re-seed, and/or how to get a good thick lawn. Any recommendations? submit”
“ProDiamine is a pre emergent. I’d apply this first, it’ll help reduce weeds going forward, at least until winter. Spot treat with Celsius, a few drops of dish soap after it’s blended will help it stick to weeds. Don’t spray it more often than 14 days, it’s a slower working product. You can apply granular ProDiamine and spot treat weeds, same time. Granular fertilizer can also be applied same time. I’d wait to apply topsoil until some weeds are dead and cleared. Based on timing, topsoil is good,”
“Any direction is appreciated. Besides mowing, it's been neglected since March. submitted by /u/kokokrayon [link] [comments]”
“In South Florida. Can someone please tell me this grass type that the landscaper put down? We specified St Augustine but it doesn’t look like the neighbor’s next to it. submitted by /u/studiochibi [link] [comments]”
“Hello everyone SoCal LA area here recently had some fescue sod installed about 6 weeks ago. I understand it wasn’t the best time to sod but I have been watering at 15 minutes per zone 4 times a day. Currently thinking about cutting back watering but hesitant with this current heat wave sweeping through the area. Should I cut back watering? Should I add some fertilizer? Any help would be truly appreciated submitted by /u/Klutzy-Day-3366 [link] [comments]”
“Yes frequently watering will help. St Ag is the best for the shade that you have out of the three options of Bermuda, Zoysia, and St Augustine. Ultimately as you can see in your photo there’s just nothing growing in that shade. Not even weeds. I’ve got the same problem in my back yard in San Antonio too, but mines Bermuda.”
“The brown/tan is thirsty. Get a bit more water on it in current temps. It's starving for nitrogen where you see the dark spots (thanks Fido!) among the lighter grass. Give it some nitrogen, potassium, and iron. The front looks the same way, just isn't getting Fido's help. To get all St Aug, you're going to have to spray something safe for st aug and bad for whatever else you've got.”
“Looks pretty good for current temps. But still st agustine prefers shade. I went from st agustine to bermuda in south texas due to the amount of work needed to keep st agustine alive in full sun...”
“Hello neighbor, yea it’s heat stress. I been watering 3x a week by hand and it’s made a huge difference. No limit on how many times a week you can water by hand.”
“Um this looks really good compared to most lawns in south Texas in August. I’d take this over the gray dust in my yard anytime.”
“Just water in the morning (6am until 10am). You won't get grey leaf then. I'm mostly watering each area once a week and doing ok in Houston.”
“Check the base of the runners right where that color change starts. In a Houston drought, you're usually looking at either chinch bugs hitting the hot, dry zones or take-all root rot if it's yellowing out in patches. Pull a runner up, and if the roots are black and rotted instead of white, back off any high-nitrogen fertilizer until you get the fungus treated.”
“Coastal NC St Augustine here. Same issue. Increased the watering because it would start to show heat stress just 36 hours after a 1 inch watering. The increased watering kicked off the gray leaf spot a few weeks ago. At least it’s green and seems to be powering through the fungus at least for now. Gray leaf spot in my lawn just feels like an inevitability late in the summer.”
“Looks real good for your area. Ngl probably the most green Could be a soil balance issue.”
“As a golf club in SoFla. FUCCCCCK st Augustine lol. You probably need to keep it a little higher up. Likes to be a longer grass”
“Houston Texas, been in a drought but seeing a difference in color not sure how to proceed. Help!! submitted by /u/LawnJunky [link] [comments]”
“I’m also in south texas. My builders left a shit ton of debris and trash under the clay when they scraped. I started aerating in the spring and hit a huge flat concrete chunk that was about 3 inches under the sod. No wonder nothing would grow there, the roots couldn’t establish. But yeah my yard is also dying. It’s just been too hot. You need to water more. I noticed that the people with sprinkler systems who haven’t adjusted the run time are also dying now. The only ones with green are the folk”
“Houston Area Right side of the walkway is turning brown and crunchy while the rest of the lawn is still pretty green. Is this just normal August heat/drought stress? Any advice is much appreciated. submitted by /u/03fortyone [link] [comments]”
“I water 3 times a week, Monday, Thursday & Saturday. My sprinklers go off at 3:30 am and I have 5 zones, each set at 45 minutes before moving to the next sprinklers. What is causing the browning and patches? I’ve read it could possibly be either grubs, chinch bugs, root fungus or even the heat. Any tips or suggestions?? submitted by /u/FloydianSlip20 [link] [comments]”
“I live in south Florida (zone 10b) and for the last few weeks this patch on my front lawn has grown. At first I thought it was a case of chinch bugs because of the extreme heat,as it was in the low 100s, but I sprayed triazicide and it’s continued. It’s slow moving as I’ve marked it with some rocks. It starts drying out slowly and grows out. Any ideas as to what it is and what I can do to treat it? submitted by /u/jcervantes7410 [link] [comments]”
“That looks like St. Augustine. the golden areas may be dormant and could come back with a little water. The brown spots are likely dead. The good thing about about St. Augustine is that it spreads quickly/easily. the bad part is that it takes a LOT of water! Good luck!”
“Grew this St Augustine by sod and it has been thriving the past four years in the front lawn. Have some sort of weed trying to take over completely this year. Last threw down fertilizer and weed killer back in April/May. I know St Augustine is temperamental and it’s hotter than the surface of the sun right now (zone 9a NW FL) but with all this rain it’s just making these weeds spread and grow at a faster rate than I can hand-pick them out. Have pic of grass and another pic of the weed in questio”
“The enjoyment I get from my decently healthy yard each month is worth the $400 water bill”
“St Augustine just eats up that Florida sun, 20 minutes might not be soaking deep enough to push the roots down”
“I had a pretty decent lawn before summer. I have tried treating for fungus, grubs and chinch bugs. Nothing stops this. Just keeps expanding. Any insight would be really appreciated. Hollywood Florida submitted by /u/cvasquez2442 [link] [comments]”
“Inherited, not my doing. I have what appears to be 3 grasses competing in my back yard. Grass number 1 is St. Augustine, and really healthy (annotated by a red 1)… I think previous owner was laying sodding and just stopped. The next grass I’m unsure of but it grows like a weed. Third grass unsure of as well. If I wanted to stick with St Aug, and sod the rest, would i just need to till up 2 and 3? Want to avoid heavy chemicals with the dogs. Could I plug from the St Augustine? Thanks! submi”
“I live in Houston and it has been hot and dry upper 90s but I have sprinklers that go off three days a week in the morning. Back in July I went on vacation for a month and when I came back it was real high. I always cut on the highest setting but I feel like it started dying after that first cut after my vacation. Do I have some sort of bug problem or fungal issue? Before all this it was very green and healthy. submitted by /u/PlantyMcPlanterson01 [link] [comments]”
“I install fresh Saint Augustine grass in my lawn, but this street piece strip of weeds did not receive a new sod. I’m willing to grow seeds grass seeds instead of going to Saint Augustine route not necessarily caring if my grass matches or not but how should I go about it in order to get rid of the weeds and let the grass seeds, flourish, and grow and overtime overtake the weeds? California submitted by /u/gokuismydominus [link] [comments]”
“I’m located in South Louisiana and the heat here has been brutal. My St Agustine grass is drying out in a few spots which makes sense. My question is, if I water regularly, will this offset the heat? How much should I expect to water? How often? If I continue to let it dry out. Will this cause permanent damage? Will it fix itself by the fall/winter? Thanks in advance from a new homeowner. submitted by /u/goldenfenix9 [link] [comments]”
“St Augustine grass laid in may….yellowing and dry area developing. Located in central Florida. Applied Scott’s weed n feed few months back, grub ex and Scotts DiseaseEx Lawn Fungicide. Spread applications apart. Initially was nice and lush green a month or two after laying the new sod. submitted by /u/jeroweezy [link] [comments]”