Purple Grass

[Derek]

I live just south of Dallas and have St. Aug. I have hugh patches of it that have turned purple. What is this, how do I fix it.

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

Apparently it is a fungus. It seems to go away when the grass greens up in the spring (at least mine did last year). I'm keeping an eye on mine again this year. My whole back yard has a purple cast. I believe corn meal would work against it (assuming the fungus diagnosis is correct), but at the cool soil temperatures, corn meal works very slowly.

The purple color is possibly due to a weakness in the chlorophyll. Most people's grass went dormant and turned brown. When that happens, you never would see any purple. Mine in back stopped growing but never turned brown. We'll see what happens in the next three weeks.

Maybe it's just an autumn color for St Aug :D :lol: :roll:

[Bluestem]

I don't know if this applies or not. When the native grasses have purple in there leaves it is a sign of a lack of phosphate.

[dcluck]

My st. augustine lawn was diagnosed with S.A.D. last year so I started introducing sod patches of raleigh (which is a resistant variety). The old turf went dormant and has thinned for the most part, but the newer raleigh stuff didn't and it has purplish leaves. I wonder if this is specific to variety?

In any case, the soil test I had done last November showed that my phosphate levels are indeed low, but (in the opinion of the tester) better than most levels that he sees for this area. What amendments will help with phosphate deficiency?

~Dave

[Bluestem]

Soft rock phosphate or bone meal.

[khwoz]

Go with the soft rock phosphate. It is much cheaper & seems to work better. Good luck!

[dcluck]

Thanks guys :)

~Dave