Welcome to Gro Lawns RU-vid Channel, directed by Aaron Shehan, your expert in agronomy! If you're based in Fort Worth, TX, or the surrounding areas like Tarrant County, Burleson, Aledo, and Southlake, you've found the ultimate resource for lawn care. Specializing in Bermuda grass, St. Augustine grass, Zoysia grass, Buffalo grass, and cool season grasses, our channel offers practical, easy-to-follow lawn care tips and tutorials. Whether you’re a seasoned lawn care veteran or just starting out, our videos, led by a seasoned Director of Agronomy, are designed to help you achieve a lush, healthy lawn. For more resources, visit our website at
uglyweeds.com.
Subscribe and join our community to keep your lawn looking its best all year round!
In large spots where St Augustine grass was killed by TARR and now is only bare soil , should we apply peat moss and leave it alone , or apply peat moss and sod it again with new St Augustine ?
That's a bit extreme for gls. It could be take all patch if the area holds a lot of water or their is loads rain. I had a similar problem last year. Got through it but it was tough.
Dealing w tarr as well. I applied propiconazole 14.3 @ 3oz in early jun. Grass was dying out . 2 weeks ago i applied 15-5-10 fertilizer bbefore the rain and it helped tremendously. Lawn got thicker however the grass looks like its bleached w the the light green leaves due to thw funguscide. I applied iron but it didnt help much
It's clear you guys run a good business. And I understand you are trying to help here, and it is always important to fix drainage issues, along with cultural practices being the MOST important; but the some of this information is outdated or lacks the requisite detail. #1 TARR is not cureable. You can suppress it (in some circumstances) but not eradicate it. #2 Neil Sperry FINALLY disavowed peat moss for TARR in 2023. It is posted on his Blog. It was never a cure, it was only like treating an illness for the side-effect: being acidic. The primary property of peat moss is water retention. "Top Dressing" on top of black clay with peat moss = holding moisture in the surface of the soil and around the stolons. We NEVER want to hold moisture on the surface, we want to hold moisture several inches down (or in subsoil). It is why we water long and deep, not shallow and infrequently. "Amending" soil via aeration with sandy loam and peat moss is fine. Top dressing with it won't cure TARR, can cause other diseases, and raises your soil height. It drives me nuts seeing these houses where the grass is 3-6 inches above the sidewalk because people keep resodding and peatmossing constantly. #3 There are different strains of TARR same as there are different strains of the flu. #4 There are over 40 varieties of St. Augustine scattered around DFW and TARR affects some of them worse than others. And the old Home Depot varieties are worthless. #5 Lack of photosynthesis causes TARR to be exponentially worse for every hour of DLI under 6 hours. It is far worse a factor than drainage issues (which is more linked to other grass based diseases like brown patches, blights, etc). Separately (unrelated to what you indicated), bad lawn crews are weed eating St. Augustine down to the dirt and throwing Zoysia on top of the diseased roots and stubble. This is malpractice but nearly all of them are doing it, as most customers want an immediate fix (which it is not a real fix, just lipstick on a pig) and refuse to pay to what it costs to have sod replacement done properly. Zoysia is a great grass and has benefits over St. Augustine, but you can't hide from TARR by switching to Zoysia. Half of the lab reports I get back each month are from people who resodded with Zoysia in the last 1-2 years. And I'm also finding TAP (Take all Patch) in lots of Bermuda properties. Bermuda in full sun will bounce back fast from Take All Patch, soon as cultural practices are fixed and fungicide rotations are in place. Why? Bermuda can regenerate underground from rhizomes, St. Augustine can't. Sun and photosynthesis are the key to all plant life. There is no getting around it.
Brilliant, this is far better than the paintbrush. Been battling this weed for years in my lawn. Neighbors on both sides have it, and previous owner let it take over. I'm getting it to where it's individual plants throughout the yard, with Bermuda under it taking over slowly. I'll keep this method in mind for the ones that get past my pre-emergant in the future!
Interested in the pH experiment -- I'm trying to lower my pH in North Dallas...not due to fungus, just want a darker green in my bermuda. I'm using AMS, but I haven't tried citric acid.
Aaron I live in the Keller area. My st Augustine has some spots of lime yellowish leaves. I'm leaning towards what you just described, TARR. I'm gonna try the peat moss method. Do you think I should wait a few days to put it down since we will be having lots of rain in the coming days?
This guy told us that this virus completely killed every blade of st Augustin in our yard, so thick a self-propelled mower wouldn't push through it, died. 30 years in our home & in 1 year of them treating our yard........dead.
Plant in the fall. Fescue will struggle in the summer. You can over seed your ST Augustine with fescue but I only recommend fescue in rare occasions. Watch our video on shade fixes
It depends on what part of Texas you’re in. For example, you can grow fescue in north west Texas. Lubbock is a good example but most parts of Texas are not friendly to fescue as a full season grass. You can grow fescue in the winter and spring in most parts of Texas but it will die with the heat. I have grown fescue in my own lawn may times in the Fort Worth area.
I just moved to Arlington and have a ton of large oak trees on my property. I plan on thinning out the trees and planting a fescue. I currently have super spotty st Augustine, how do I go about getting rid of it for the fescue or should I just seed over it? Also seed vs sod?
Thanks for this video! I live in South Fort Worth Summer Creek area and we bought our house four years ago. The previous owner rented it for an unknown number of years before we bought it. My St Augustine has been slowly disappearing and I didn't know why. I have been gone for the last two years on a deployment and when I came home last fall half my yard was gone. I bet this is what happened to mine. Likely he had a service mow when it was rented or one of the tennants did. My neighbors yard is amazing but I can't get mine to stop disappearing. I have Bermuda in the back yard and it is coming around nicely. If I didn't have so much shade in my front yard I would consider putting Bermuda in the front as well.
Bluestem is the worst. I have neighbors that just let it go to seed every year and it blows into my yard. It’s infested the whole neighborhood. When do you apply pre-emergent to cut down on KRB germination?
I let the KRB get out of hand on my newly sodded lawn after we built in 2017. I finally hit all of it with Roundup last spring and by the end of the season all of it was filled in with Bermuda. This year I pulled what little that came back and you can`t even tell there was any dead spots last year. Good preemergent program and staying on top of it when you see it coming up is the key.
@@tpack670 Its bad along the street where the seeds blow down the road from my neighbors. Does the KRB germinate in the spring or fall, or year round? I was wondering when to use the pre emergent to avoid more. Im in Waco, TX.
I think it will germinate at any time. I apply Barricade in the fall and spring both. There is no selective herbicide for KRB either. I live in the country and lots of KRB around me. Bagging the grass when you have seed heads will help. Mowing before the KRB goes to seed will help also. Spray with Roundup and fertilize and water the effected spots after the KRB is dead, otherwise the problem will continue to get worse. I am 100% KRB free in my lawn after using this approach. Wish I would have done it sooner.[@@Cards-In-The-Closet
Just came across your video and wondered if the products used to kill aster weeds, or any of the weeds these products kill, are harmful to dogs? I’ve had 2 dogs die of cancer and I haven’t fertilized (ie weed and feed) since. I’m not blaming their cancer on any products, I just wanted to eliminate anything I can to keep my current “kids” healthy. Since I stopped fertilizing, about 5 years ago, I’ve been overrun with dallisgrass, aster weeds, dandelions, you name it. I dislike them all very much!!
Any type of 2,4 D product like weed b gone or avenue south will work fine. For the best control treat when the plant is in beginning stages. Even a weed and weed will work as long as the grass is a little wet when applied.
@@UglyWeedsTexas Then that’s extremely high! Question, do they sell 6inch pop up rotors? I’ve looked in the box stores and see only 4inch. When my SA was healthy I kept it at 4 inches and my sprinklers would not clear the tall grass.
@@UglyWeedsTexas I did, but it’s still too low. Some of my head are sting up so much I’m actually afraid they will break off when my mower rides over them with a tire.
Hey brother. Right here in Desoto. I need one of my sprinkler heads repaired. How much for a service call? Got a few Dallis grass spots in the back yard.
It depends on what part of the video you mean. West Texas has the benefit of cooling off much more at night versus North Texas so you might be able to water less. If your grass is wilted from drought then you will have to water more.
@@UglyWeedsTexasnot sure if you’ve been to west tx but it doesn’t cool off at night more than Crowley. 😂 it gets up to 110 in the summers and 85 at night
@@detailsmatters-xw9ro healthy ST Augustine doesn’t need crabgrass prevention. Healthy Bermuda and Zoysia does. We apply simtrol pre emergent in the fall and atrazine in January/Feb and that’s it for pre emergent for ST Augustine for us.
You’ll have to replace the dead areas with new sod. Once replaced follow our watering guide on website, top dress with peat moss, apply fungicide, and avoid your lawn going into dormancy under stress .
@@UglyWeedsTexas ok. I tried some compost and the microlife 004 earlier this spring and it liked both of those but maybe I’ll try the peat next. Ph came back at 7.8
@@bhflute lower your PH by top dressing with peat moss, granular elemental sulphur, and citric acid. Lowering PH is much harder than raising it. Shoot for 6.5
@@UglyWeedsTexas ok. Have you used fungicides for this? I tried a propiconazole based one and it didn’t do anything, but I’ve heard azoxystrobin like Disease X could help? I’ve also heard fungicides kill all the good fungi too so it might negate the microlife product I used. I’m not sure what to do besides peat moss (if anything) at this point, if stick with the microlife plan or revert back and try a fungicide. The disease has already taken a lot of my yard. :/
Ive heard of bermuda decline(the take all root rot fod bermuda). Is st augustine decline a version of take all root rot? the difference between the two?
It’s fair to say that TARR is difficult to control and results vary. I’ve had pretty good success with peat moss , fungicide , and aeration. If cultural practice aren’t improved also it’s an even harder battle.
@@Ndhdhdb The weather in Texas just started to warm up. It is greening up but still thin with bare areas getting growth something that didn't happen before Microlife. This will take some time but I suspect in July it will be much better.
