Is my Sapphire Buffalo turf dead? Please help..

ricko1010 · Oct 02, 2015 11:39 am

Hi Guys,

I’m in some desperate need of some help with my lawn..

Here is my situation:

Back in Feb this year after a reno i had an excavator come in a scrape and remove my previous lawn (kikuya) as it was all full of rubble, rocks, etc.. After that I bought in new soil (maybe 150mm) although I’m not sure exactly what it was, the contractor I had said it was good for laying turf (I probably should of checked).

I then added some pre-lawn starter and laid about 100sqm of Sapphire Buffalo, I filled all the joins with sand and was all looking good for about 3-4 months.

Then over winter it became quite brown which I know is expected so wasn’t too concerned. In about May I fertilised with Powerfeed and then start of Sept with a Yates slow release buffalo product. The weather has only just started getting warmer in Melb so I know I haven’t given it much time but I’ve not even a slight improvement, if anything getting worse.. Stranger cause some areas like under trampoline is actually the best part, wierd I know..

The other thing is that there is a quite a bad smell when standing on the lawn, no idea what that is… Originally I thought it was too much rain over winter however so not sure if I should start watering..

There is also once section that looks complete dead, I also had an issue in the same area with my previous lawn and I think it may be water coming from behind my property (completely dry now however).. The kikuyu I did have previously grew really well but was just too itchy..

Also, this area get a lot of sun, easily 8 hours per day..

Here are some pics

Where I have the most trouble (top part of photo)

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I moved the tramp and you can see that's it's green where it used to be

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Can anyone help me understand what might be happening? Is there anyone in Melb that can come and diagnose these types of problems?

BeatrixKiddo · Oct 04, 2015 9:18 pm

Parts of your lawn aren't looking great unfortunately... But it is still a tad early.. Don't worry about doing anything till the end of October early nov (maybe a light water considering the heat spell atm) then it will be easy to see the areas that are dead v dormant. Another way to check if areas are dead is to scrap the turf runners with a finger nail or cut a few to see if there is green tissue inside.. Green = alive, Brown = dead.

ricko1010 · Oct 05, 2015 8:19 am

Thanks Mate..

If they are dead would I need to pull out and replace or would there be another option? I did notice of the weekend that the area that looks the most dead has started to sprout a few new green shoots, not many though.. Should i checking the runners for green now or wait a few more weeks?

Would top dressing with sandy loam help do you think?

Thanks Rick

BeatrixKiddo · Oct 05, 2015 2:13 pm

You can check for green tissue right away. If its dead then yes you will have to dig it out and re-turf (fast way).. or just scrap out the dead bits and let the healthy lawn spread into and fill in the dead spots eventually (slower way). You can also dig up healthy bits from the rest of the lawn and plant them in the dead patches.
Top dressing with sandy loam won't help atm maybe latter if the patches are bad. Aerating it will do more.. Garden fork or corer will do the job.

Ponzu · Oct 05, 2015 2:23 pm

id be interested in understanding where the bad smell is coming from. could you describe it at all? possible contamination of soil from sewerage? As to watering, how often have you watered and are watering?

in all honesty though that lawn looks in really bad shape. good luck.

Sunnyside · Oct 07, 2015 5:39 pm

We have exactly the same issue here. First week of July it just started dying and has progressively got worse and worse.

The edges are still perfect and lush, but everywhere else it's patchy or threadbare.

Around the neighbourhood we can see lots of other grass starting to come out of the 'winter brown', but ours looks irreparable.

ricko1010 · Oct 07, 2015 5:47 pm

So I think the smell was maybe fertilizer? Seems to have gone now..

Sunnyside - so I just got myself a water filled spiked aerator from a hire shop which I rolled today (actually quite hard when you try and push but better than pulling).. I also added some liquid gypsum the other night so hoping doing both those things will help. I have noticed some of the dead patches do have some green runners coming out so hopefully that's a good sign..

Do you also have sapphire soft leaf buffalo?

Sunnyside · Oct 07, 2015 7:47 pm

Yes we have the same turf. We aerated it about 5 weeks ago but still only minor improvement. Hope it works for you.

Are you on clay, is that the reason for the gypsum? Do you think it's a drainage issue?

BeatrixKiddo · Oct 08, 2015 4:21 pm

Sunnyside,
Buffalo, ie saphirre, goes dormant june/july until it wakes up now. Its normal the edges stay greener also.
It's very hard to figure out what is wrong with turf while its dormant.. The soil needs to really warm up to see what the damage is (if any). The main thing that controls warm season turf growth is soil temp, then water, then fertiliser.

Sunnyside · Oct 08, 2015 6:53 pm

Thanks BeatrixKiddo. You're right, I think some of ours is dormant but other areas look dead. It's right down to the bare runners/dirt.

We were definitely late with fertilising it in winter, so will stick to a proper regime from now on if it ever recovers. Hopefully with the warmer weather we see some improvements.

mishb · Oct 11, 2015 1:50 pm

Oh no that looks terrible. I don't have anything practical to add except we have Sapphire Buffalo in Melbourne. It's uniformly green and lush all year except for slight browning in some places in winter, and in dry/hot spells in summer. Also a couple of high traffic areas are a little thinner than the rest of the lawn. We fertilise maybe once a year and topical weed and feed. Good luck.

Sunnyside · Oct 11, 2015 9:09 pm

Mishb, can I ask what fertiliser you use and when? And what do you mean by topical weed and feed?

Also is your grass in full sun or shade etc? Thanks.

Ponzu · Oct 12, 2015 8:00 am

Weed and feed is a product brand name. It's a mix of broad leaf herbicide and power feed. Terrible product as it also affects the grass somewhat while killing weeds. Wouldn't use it if my grass looked like that.