Question
I recently was given a free pallet of sod and tried to take advantage of the gift.  However, I was given the Sod (which was cut Monday morning), but was unable to install it until saturday morning.  I kept the sod as moist as possible for the week watering it daily and keeping it in the shade and covered by some bed sheets so it could breathe.  If anything i made the mistake of keeping the sod too wet.  I tilled and prepped the ground saturday morning adding 4 inches of fresh top soil ontop of the tilled sand/topsoil mix. I rolled graded and watered as well.  When rolling out the sod it was still green but had a sour smell to it.  I've been watering it exactly to quidelines but am afraid it won't come back.  It's still got green in it and some life left but i still am unsure and am wondering if there is anything i can do to save it or what the chances are that it will come back.  More than anything i don't want to have to roll it up and remove it. any advice would be great

Answer
Not your fault, Mark, that you did not believe this Sod would expire before Saturday.

Root damage begins as soon as the Sod is lifted out of the ground.  Now you're racing against the clock.  How fast can that Sod get back in the soil before it's too late?  By Saturday, my friend, most of that Grass is growing in that Garden in the sky.

What happens when you go out to your Lawn (in another year) and cut the Grass?  You have those beautiful, fragrant Grass clippings, right?  Are they Brown, or are they Green?  How long will they stay Green before you can say you can't save them?  Yet, you know that as soon as they're out of the Lawn and into your Grass Catcher (which you should not be using), they're history, right?

Same goes for your Sod, although with a small difference:  They have roots attached.  Roots that are severely, painfully injured.  Roots that get to Code Blue stage just because they're out of the ground.

If someone has a fatal heart attack, do you assume you can bring them back to life just because their skin is warm?

If you cut a flower on Monday and stick it in a vase, does that flower last until Saturday?  In the heat?  In the sun?

Sod is green, does that mean it is still salvagable on Thursday or Friday?  Keeping it wet helps, but if that could work, you could just see pallets of Sod all over the place waiting for someone to walk over the buy them.

See where we're going with this?

There is however a possible fix.  If I have answered this quickly enough, and you are reading it fast enough, and you can buy this fast enough -- give MESSENGER a shot on your Grass.  Harpin Protein.  Hard to find in the store.  Check this link:

http://www.edenbio.com/garden/

and click on 'Find A Retailer'.  If there's one in your state, pick it up in person and use it immediately.  These come in little packets that you can make a gallon or so at a time.  You need to SPRAY it on the Grass for best effect -- Root application will only end up wasting it.  If this Sod can be saved, this is the way to do it.  You won't find this mentioned on the box as a 'cure' for anything for your Grass, but that's no my fault.  There is no reason in the world it should not work on your critically ill Sod.

After all that work, you deserve a beautiful Green lawn.

Let me know if you get it on.  You'll need to fertilize afterwards, but not right away.  Thanks for writing.  Good luck with this.