CrawDude

Helpful? Doubtful.

Downsides - several. Below is an AI summary, but these “negatives” were discussed by Bert Hammett, LSUAgCenter EBR parish extension specialist at a Master Gardener seminar I attended several months ago. He was of the opinion these “negatives” outweigh the “positive” aesthetics.

The main downside of overseeding St. Augustine grass with ryegrass is that the cool-season grass competes for water and nutrients in the spring, which delays and weakens the green-up of your dormant St. Augustine lawn.

According to turf management guidelines from sources like the LSU AgCenter, here are the specific disadvantages of overseeding St. Augustine with ryegrass.

• Spring Competition: Ryegrass often lingers well into May or early summer, competing heavily with the underlying St. Augustine grass just as it tries to break dormancy.

• Delayed Green-Up: A warm-season lawn that has been overseeded takes significantly longer to recover, green up, and look lush in the spring.

• St. Augustine Stress: St. Augustine has a coarser texture and is more susceptible to root stress and competition from heavy ryegrass stands—especially if your lawn is in shaded areas.

Plus I’ll add if you have significant winter weed issues that you want to control using a pre-emergent herbicide, the herbicide is typically applied before planting rye grass seed, which will prevent its germination.

Bert mentioned as an extension agent he commonly observes St Augustine decline in lawns in Baton Rouge that annually overseed with ryegrass - after a few years. I noticed the same with few neighbors, who learned the hard way, and no longer do it.

Of course, over seeding a bare dirt area during winter makes sense and is perfectly fine.

Your call…….

In lawn, landscape beds, or both?

This a good chamberbitter fact sheet from Clemson University LINK with lots of details. Chamberbitter seeds germinate at soil temperature of 70 F so I suspect in your area of AL you’d need to apply a pre-emergent herbicide in April, with a follow up application 2 or 3 months later.

As mentioned by others, a pre-emergent containing the active ingredient Isoxaben is most effective pre-emergent. Atrazine is also recommended pre-emergent (and post-emergent) but you can’t use it on a Bermudagrass lawn, nor would be advisable to use it in a landscape bed. Gallery, Preen Extented Control, Snapshot, …..are common pre-emergent herbicides with Isoxaben. Prodiamine and Dithopyr (Dimension), two very good pre-emergent herbicides frequently recommended on this board, do not have good efficacy on chamberbitter.

If the roots can be pulled out of the ground, not likely large patch. Maybe chinch bugs or another root pruning insect - time of year and dry conditions would apply. You can do a drench test to check for insects. Described in this fact sheet. Sod web worms or fall army worms are other considerations.

Cinch Bugs - LSU AgCenter

Sod Webworms - LSU AgCenter

Fall Army Worms - LSU AgCenter

If you are in the Lake Charles area shoot an email to Robert Turley with the LSU AgCenter LINK. If it’s happening to you, it’s likely happening to others in the area and he’ll likely know about it.

The Dimension label states to apply to “established” lawns, 3 weeks would not be considered established, more like 3+ months. You might want to forgo application in the Zoysia sodded area until next spring. This would apply to most, if not all, the pre-emergent herbicides.

“ Turfgrass
Use Dimension 2EW on seeded, sodded, or sprigged lawns, ornamental
turfgrass and unimproved turfgrass that are well established. Newly
established turf must have developed a good root system and a uniform
stand, and have received at least two mowings following seeding or
sprigging before making the first application of this product. Note
precautions below for sodding. Use of this product on turf that is not
well-established, or has been weakened by weather, pest, disease,
chemical, mechanical, or other related stress, may result in turf injury.”
Page 4

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What's the recommendation for a yard with mostly bermuda and partial zoysia? In the past on all my st aug and centipede lawns, I've used Hi-Yield with Dimension, but now that I think about it, I didn't have the best results. Anything else I should consider? Either granular or liquid doesn't matter much to me.

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Dimension, Prodiamine, Simazine (fall/wnter), Specticle are all very effective and recommended for the four warm season turf grasses. If you didn’t have good results with Dimension you likely applied it too late - after many weed seeds germinated. It also needs to be watered in to be activated - if applied at the “right time” but during a dry period without watering it (rain or sprinklers) efficacy is going to the reduced.

Now there are some problematic winter weeds, lawn burweed comes to mind, where Dimension or Prodiamine is not very effective. Ditto for Doveweed, a warm season annual, in late spring. And no pre-emergent herbicide is going to be effective on perennial weeds, e.g., Virginia Buttonweed, Dallisgrass, etc.

Spray or granular - your choice if you have an option - though spray applications are usually much cheaper on a 1000 sq ft basis.

TLDR: time of application is important, and the weeds that give you most problems must be considered in pre-emergent herbicide selection.

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I know it matters how big of an area you’re spraying with MSM, but I cannot wrap my mind around how or why that makes sense since everyone walks at a different speed. This is one reason why it’s been so hard for me to figure out how much to mix. In my smooth, Louisiana public school educated brain, the ratio should matter more than size of the area but I know that’s not the case.

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It’s confusing to many as more often than not mixing-dilution rates in water is the norm for applying herbicides for residential lawns, and not delivering a certain weight of the herbicide per 1000 sq ft (or acre) as is the case for MSM Turf. In that case you need to think of water as only a carrier to help deliver the weight of the herbicide called for per 1000 sq ft. It does not matter if you apply 1 gal or 4 gal of water per 1000 sq ft as long as that water contains 0.02 oz of MSM (in the case of VBW).

So what one needs to do is to “calibrate” the sprayer they use. On your driveway mark an area of 1000 sq ft (50 x 20). Then spray area with water using your normal walking gate to figure how much water you need to cover 1000 sq ft. If only a gallon of water in the sprayer covers 500 sq ft, then you then you need 2 gallons to cover a 1000 sq ft.

In my case with my sprayers (Solo brand) and my walking gate I usually need 2 gallons of solution to cover 1000 sq ft. Others need less, others perhaps more, or in between. Articles on the web on how to calibrate your sprayer.

Couple videos on doing this.

LINK

LINK

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This time I mixed .100oz of MSM Turf granules into a full 4 gallon backpack sprayer and the buttonweed is dying two weeks later without any sign of stress to the St. Augustine grass. Just wanted to pass it along for those struggling with it too. It's surprisingly hard to find a mix rate online.

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You left out some important information, how many square feet of lawn are you covering with that 4 gallon mixture - 1000 sq ft, 2000 sq ft, 4000 sq ft?

The mix rate is not so important - in the case of MSM the water is only a carrier needed to apply a recommended weigh of MSM per area of lawn/pasture for the weed(s) targeted as per the label. For example, 1 oz MSM per acre = 0.02 oz MSM per 1000 sq ft for VBW (as per the label). So if you covered/sprayed 5000 sq ft of lawn with the 0.1 oz of MSM mixed in 4 gallons of water that would be about the right concentration for VBW “control” as per the label.

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So my dilemma is that I have this weekend for a 2 week vacation. Should I put it down now before I go on vacation even though it's still pretty damn hot outside, or do I wait until October 12'ish to put it down after I get back from my trip. Given the current heat and extended forecast, I think I'll be good to wait, but don't want to miss my window. What would tigerdroppings do? Location - Baton Rouge.

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It won’t be activated unless you water it in and looks like little or no rain through the end of Sept. Flip a coin. If Poa has been an issue for you in the past you might apply before your trip, otherwise waiting until you return you’ll still be good.

Lots of approaches to rooting figs, and most work, but for those interested in the recommended approach suggested by LSU AgCenter horticultural extension specialists, short article/video “With easy propagation process, figs can be passed down like family heirlooms”

Also agree, fig leaf rust, is the likely the cause of fig leaf drop in the OP original question. Certainly stress from drought-humidity has played a role.

Minimize nutrient input into the pond as much as practical.

“Green/brown” is phytoplankton-nutrient related, as opposed to “brown-muddy” caused by sediment turbidity. Make sure the areas around the pond are grassed-vegetated. Submerged aquatic macrophytes (submerged aquatic plants) will typically keep a pond “clear”, by competing with phytoplankton for water nutrients, but then provide their own host of issues.

Fountains-aerators are largely for aesthetics and oxygen management, not keeping ponds “clear” of phytoplankton or sediment related turbidity.

Pond Management - Fish Kills

Managing MS Ponds & Small Lakes, Unexpected Fish Kills, p.33-35

If you have pond-small lake in the Deep South, at some point in time you are going to have a fish kill, it’s not a question of “if”, it’s a question of “when”.

You have to know the cause, to potentially “fix it”. Most likely causes are listed in the attached publications. 90%+ chance that at this time of the year it was low dissolved oxygen related, associated with a weather event, a dense algal bloom and/or a phytoplankton die off. Often time- most of the time, all three are related to each other.