I have started to notice some lawns where it is evident that the paspalum is being overwatered.  It’s contributing to some small brown areas in the lawn that rapidily increase in size if not handled properly.  Remember that paspalum is a very rhizonomous grass, and gets all its strength and energy from the roots.  If you overwater it makes for a short root system and weakens the plant.  I have added some pictures of what would appear to most to be a sign of drought stress, but it is actually a sign of too much water. 

Take a look and if you see these at your house you can apply a small amount of granular fungicide to the areas or just wait for them to grow out.  It is short lived once you get the water under control.  These spots will often be seen in low areas or spots that retain moisture, so it’s a good idea to not water more than 2-3 times per week. 

If you have applied the Milorganite as instructed earlier in the month, and you want to keep that color and growth, going some applications of Ironite, manganese sulfate and zinc sulfate work very well at ONLY 1 POUND PER 1000 SF.  You don’t need to exceed this rate for these products.  All of these products are granular products that you are applying to your queen palms in the summer so go ahead and use it on your lawn also.   These will help those of you who are in the middle of transitioning from ryegrass to your summer grass also. 

I’m going to send out a simple “easy to use” guide to growing paspalum in the next week or so.   The extensive guide to maintaining paspalum has been posted in previous weeks and is great as a reference, but some of the applications are geared towards the high maintenance of  golf course so I will make the next guide very simple to use.

As always, shoot me an e-mail if you have any questions.  Just click on the box to the right that says “Ask Jay.”

Thanks, Jay