What could be going wrong with my centipede grass?

I live in Mexico 3 hours from the Texas border (McAllen) and put in a little patch of grass (sod) which I think is centipede grass. It is in part sun part shade and isn't doing well. It has a lot of dry brown patches. It looked good at first but now I don't know if I am over or under watering it. If I poke my finger down in the dirt under it it feels damp. Any ideas about whether I should give it more or less water? At first I watered quite a bit but now have been giving it about 20 min. with a sprinkler every other day. Right now it is very hot here without much rain. Other people seem to have this grass and it looks great!
Thanks.

When did you plant it? If you planted it in the summer that might be most of your problem, it's hard for grass to get going in hot weather even if you do everything right.

I planted it in early June, hoping that would be early enough, but maybe it was too late. Anything to be done for it now?

Given your climate June is really too late, I suspect you were already having hot weather by then. What you really need to do is plant it when the weather's still going to be cool for a month or so, that way the roots have time to get going before the summer heat sets in. In warmer zones, fall is often a great time to plant for that reason, although if you do it early enough in the spring that can work too. All you can do now is make sure you're watering properly and hope for the best, and you can probably overseed the brown spots later. You're doing the right thing by checking the moisture level in the soil--if it's feeling really wet then you may want to cut back a bit on the watering, but if it's just damp as you mentioned above then you're probably watering the correct amount. The trouble with planting grass (or anything else) in the hot summer is that sometimes you can do everything right but you'll still lose some because it's just too hard to get going with the hot sun beating down.

The only other thing I can think of is whether you prepped the area and installed the sod properly--if the ground isn't level and the sod isn't pressed down well enough, then the roots don't make good contact with the soil underneath and that can lead to problems too regardless of what time of year you planted. Not much you can do about it at this point if some spots are already turning brown, but it's definitely something to consider if you end up having to resod part of the lawn later.

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond. I guess we moved in too late for planting but were anxious to get some green in! Here is a picture of the area. I do think we prepped the soil well, but maybe we didn't press down the sod enough. Oh-well, it's only a house we're renting!
Thanks again.

How did you press down the sod? Even if you pressed it down properly though, with your climate and planting when you did, even if you did everything 100% perfect you can still end up with problems. Assuming the part that's green now stays green, I'd just get some centipede grass seed and overseed the brown areas in the fall, then by next year you should have a nice green lawn.

First of all, those are nice planters you have!
What's the average yearly rainfall there? Centipede grass sounds like a good choice since you're in a warm area. It does need supplemental water if it begins to wilt, but you say you are watering. My only suggestion that is that rather than watering on a set schedule, say every second day, you water only when the grass is beginning to wilt. If you watch closely and water then, it won't hurt the grass, and will prevent overwatering. Of course, when you do water, make sure the water penetrates several inches down and doesn't just wet the top inch or so. That encourages shallow roots, which is not a good thing. Since centipede grass doesn't go through a dormant stage, it should fill back in fairly quickly.
You are certainly to be commended on putting down sod at a rent house! A lot of people who rent don't pay any attention to their yards.

As for pressing down the sod, we just got boards, put them on the sod, and walked on them. (This area is only about 10 ft by 10 ft - which is why we put it in even though renting, besides just wanting to see something green outside!) About rainfall, we get very little, probably between 24 and 26 inches, mostly between July and November, in the form of short downpours!
Thanks for your suggestions. We will see if the brown parts fill back in on their own, and if not, plant some seed in the fall.
dp72, if you like the planters come on down over the border! They have lots of nice ones here!
Thanks again.

I agree with all that's been said regarding making root contact, watering deeply, etc. Here in my area centipede is the grass of choice. To me, it looks like you might have a fungus, which can happen occasionally with centipede. When I have that happen I use Immunox, but I don't know if you can get that in Mexico, but you could get a similar product. Also, on my "bald" spots, I put a 1/4" layer or sand (builder sand, beach sand, or play sand) down to help it fill in. For some reason this really works on centipede. Use your fungicide then toss down some sand and see how it does. Here, we even have to plant centipede in the heat of July and August in new construction. True, it's not the most ideal time so we have to really water it a couple of times a day for about 2 weeks to make sure it doesn't dry out. Then we go to a normal watering schedule of about 20 minutes every 2 or 3 days. Water in the morning - not during the day. That's for full sun exposure. If that grass has a good bit of shade, it won't need as much water. You can tell when centipede needs water as it takes on a bluish green cast and is not as green.

I do think the fungicide is your best avenue at this point.

This message was edited Aug 10, 2008 4:01 PM