Question
QUESTION: I have a centipede lawn.....I sowed centipede seed back in mid '78 when it was a new lawn......We have problems year after year, it has bare spots, we sod in the spots and they come back again year after year....Question:  My wife says:
I must completely plow the lawn up and start all over again planting centipede seed....what is your comments to her thoughts and if you disagree with her please tell me how to establish a nice lawn again.....I live in coastal South Carolina...thanks for your time on this subject
ANSWER: Hi Sid;
I don't think you can get Centipede seed. I have never been able to get St. Augustine seed.
Anyway, if that is a fungus, which is what it sounds like, seeding won't do any more good that sodding will.
You need to treat the fungus.
Brown patch is a bugga boo to St. Augustine, Centipede etc lawns, other grasses too, byut since the warmer more humid climats is where we grow more of thiose grasses, is I think, the reason we see more brown patch and other fungii.
Agricultural corn meal will fix your fungus problems.
For smaller infestations, baking soda disolved in water will work on fungus.
I use this for the black spot fungus and powdery mildew my roses and other shrubs are subject to.
For a whole lawn, I would apply agricultural corn meal ate the rate of 10 to 15 pounds per 1000 sq.ft, and water it in.
That should cure the fungus problem.
Go on this organic program, and weeds, insects and other lawn problems will in a couple of years, be a thing of the past.
I have followed this program for the last 10 years, and my lawn is weedfree, insect free, and thick and gorgeous.
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You will constantly improve your soil if you go on a totally organic program, and don't use any chemicals at all.
I have beenm on such a program for the last 9 to 10 years, after breaking my back and ruining my body trying to maintain a decent lawn, with only mediocre results.
the organics has freed me from about 90% of the physical work, about that much of the expense, and the results are a think, beautiful yard with no weeds or harmful insects.
Man!!! Wish I had known all this 50 years ago !
The corn clutem meal is an organic product.
If you use organics, and then use chemicals, you will cancel out the organics.
Chemical fertilizers kill all the beneficial microbes, nematodes and other beneficial insects and critters that work around the clock improving your soil.
Beneficial microbes enrich the soil. Chemicls do NOT.
If you put a little too muchj chemical products on the lawn, it will burn your grass, and do a lot of other damage.
If you put too much organics on it, all you do is waste a little time and money.
Sugar does absolutely nothing but nourish the beneficial micrebes. THEY do the work.
Weeds will not grow in rich soil. If they cme up, they will start to die out right away.
The first time I use sugar was in the spring. I had not put any chemicals on the yard since the fall feeding, so they were all worn out of the soil.
I had a lawn about 50% full of dandelions, crabgrass, johnson grass, clover, dollar weed and some other shallow rooted weeds like chickweed etc.
a couple of weeks after I put down the sugar and watered it in, I had about half as many weeds. Nobody had pulled a weed or anything. My husband had just mowed.
I went nuts, like a school of sharks in a feeding frenzy, and ran out and bought more sugar, put it down and waterewd it in.
A couple more mowings, and there were so few weeds. In a few more werks they were all gone.
The next spring about half as many weeds as before came up, but in a few weeks they were gone.
All I had done was the sugar in the spring, and I did that again in the fall.
I used baking soda disolved in water for black spot on my roses and powdery mildew n my crepe mytrtles. That works much better then the chemical fungicides I had used before.
I started getting a nice herd of lizards, toads and grass snakes in my yard.
I had a BIG grub problem every year. I haven't had that since, nor do I have those nasty tent catapillars dropping on my head from the trees.
I see lizards running in the trees and along the fence. I never see the grass snakjes, which is fine with me. I seldon see a toad, but they are all there.
Sugar; I use 4 or 5 pounds per 1000 sq.ft. I just broadcast it by hand, and water it in well. If you spill a blob in one spot, no problem. No burning or other damage.

Watering; I always water to a depth of at least 6 inches. Deep watering like that encourages a deep root growth. That protects from heat, cold and drought damage, and prevents thatch. I water with soaker hoses, and run them till the water is close to the edge and is about to start running off the yard. then I turn it off and wait an hour or so for it to soak in, and turn it on again. I keep doing that until it is wet down to a depth of 6 inches at least. Even here in our Texas heat, I water only once a week, unless it stays well above 100 for a week or more, which it sometimes does. then I look at the grass, and if my St. Augustine is folded up, lengthwise, I know it needs water. It folds the blades up to reduce the area exposed to evaporation. Burmuda, when it gets thirsty, bends it's little blades a little, like it is bowing.
My earthworms and cock roaches etc tunnel through the soil, and that keeps it aerated. Their castings add nourishment. Cockroaches are beneficial. They normally live in the soil and feed on other harmful insects. We put down pesticides, and kill their food supply, so they come in our houses to get food and hide from the pesticides.
I use fresh rosemary to keep them out of my house.

Baking soda disolved in water, about 2 TABLESPOONS per gallon of water, sprayed on top and underneath all the leaves, prevent molds and fungus on plants. You can also use it for fungus in the soil, or you can apply agricultural corn meal and water that in. About 10 pounds per 1000 sq.ft.

Corn gluten meal is an organic fertilizer and weed killer.
It won't interfere with the sugar.
None of the organics calcel each other out.
Alfalfa meal is another good food to add. Just sprinkle it on in about the same thickness the sugar goes on, and water. It is full of nutrients. So is lava sand. Yopu can add it to the top of the soil, dig it into the soil, or add it when you are adding soil, or putting soil in a comntainer for a plant.
Alfalfa meal, as well as generally nourishing the soil, helps promote larger and more blooms in blooming plants and house plants.
You can also make a tea of it for foliar feeding or for watering house plants.
Put 1 cup alfalfa meal in 5 gallons of water and let steep overnight. Still and use to water plants, or strain it and put it in a garden sprayer for foliar feeding.  Be sure, if you strain it, to dump the dregs on the soil somewhere, it is still full of nutrients.
You probably won't need more fertilizert than that. I didn't use anything but sugar for about 8 or 9 years, and last spring, I leartned about the alfalfa meal and lava sand, so I use them.
If you have more questions, write to me.
I am very happy to share what I have learned, and am learning.
Charlotte



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: First let me say: Thank you for such a timely and very very nice and informative response to my question on Centipede lawns....I do have a couple follow up questions if I may..

!. You mention Agricultural corn meal and corn glutin in your answer....Is both of these the same?...I tried three (3) feed and grain stores within 30 miles radius of my home and neither have this product....Where do you get yours and if I can't get it then may I use a subsitute?

Baking soda...how frequently do I apply baking soda and water mixture?

Sugar: I assume it is table sugar that we use in the house..

Summary: If I understand your comments and the thoughts behind organic lawns correctly then the Agriculture corn meal will be used to rid fungus...the sugar will be to feed microbes so they can flourish and die off and eventually fertilize the soil...alfalfa and lava sand can also be used as nutrients for the centipede grass..

again thanks for taking my questions. I'm very excited to try your thoughts on my lawn and am looking forward for your reply to this request...

Sid
Coastal South Carolina

Answer
Hi Sid;
This is getting long, so if I leave out the answer to something you asked, yell at me again.LOL

Corn Gluten Meal and Agricultural corn meal are not the same.

Horticultural corn meal( Agricultural Cron meal) is used to control fungal deases.
This is the outside edge of the corn, the bran and the germ of the corn.
You put it out at about 10 pounds per 1000 sq.ft.
To control fungal diseases in potted plants, just add a little horticultural corn meal to the potting soil as you plant the plant.

Corn Gluten Meal is the protein fraction of corn meal. It is used a an all-round weed and feed.
Use about 20 pounds per 1000 sq.ft, unless it has been used for several years, then it can be cut back to about 10 pounds per 1000. sq.ft.

I don't buy either.
I use sugar, and didn't even hear about the Corn Gluten Meal until last year.
My soil is rich enough that weeds don'e even come up, and I started using the alfalfa meal and lava sand last yer, so I really don't need the Corn Gluten Meal.
The alfalfa meal and lava sand both have so many nutrients in them.
There are a lot of things you can substitute for the corn gluten meal, it is just a good all-rounf fertilizer. It does the same as sugar or dry molasses, feeds the microbes, but it does add some other nutrients.
Any organic fertilizer you buy would do the same, or just using the alfalfa meal, lava sand, sugar will do it too.

Yes, it is the same table sugar you use inside the house, except that I only buy Emoperial Sugar for use in the kitchen, but Ibuy the cheapest brand they have for the yard. Those micrbes don't have sophisticated taste buds.LOl

You should be able to get Corn Gluten meal and Horticultural Corn Meal from a nursery that carries some organic products.

Since the Horticultural Corn Meal is for fungus, baking soda is a good substitute for that.
Mix about 4 teaspoons or 1 rounded Tablespoon per gallon of water.
I use this mainly for spraying my roses and other shrubs that are susceptible to mold or fungus.
Crepe Myrtles are subjecto to powdery mildew, as are some other plants and shrubs, and roses in our area have a big problem with black spot fungus, due to our humidity.
I spray when there is new growth in the spring, and if it stats cool and damp through the spring, and when we get our rainy season, I will spray after the rain stops and when we have had several very cool and damp days, with no sun to dry the dew off.
After it starts to heat up, and there is a lot of sun, and fungus isn't a danger, I don't spray again, however, when I was using chemical fungicides, I has to sopray once a montj all through the summer too to keep down the black spot fungus.

The microbes don't die off and nourish the soil. Well, when they do die, I am sure they add nourishment, but the process of their living, and yes, diening, and reproducing keeps the cycle going, and the soil just keps improving and getting more and more balanced.

Alfalfa and lava sand can be used for nutrients for ANYTHING.
Alfalfa meal is especially good for flowering plants, as it encourages more and larger blooms.

The minerals in the lava is what makes those gorgeous flowers flourish in the islands where they have had eruptions.

You can get one of those large chunks of lava rock, ship or knock a hollowed out place in it, put in a little dirt, and plant a plant in there, and it will be a natural flower pot that will also continue to nourish the plant.

Put any of these things on lawns, flower gardens, veggie gardens, ANYTHING that grows. Don't frget to use them on the indoor plants too.
Charlotte