Patchwork of declining and dead turf on a mature St. Augustinegrass lawn. Poor stalos growth across the badly thinned patches greatly slows turf recovery and may often result in the appearance of large areas of bare ground. However, symptoms usually reappear the following summer. Take-all root rot and brown patch, which can have similar field symptoms, are easily confused. Few healthy white roots are seen on the infected stolons.
Rotted roots are so brittle that the stolons can easily be pulled from the ground.
A blackening of the nodes and stolons may also be seen. Roots on diseases stolons are discolored and brittle. Lobed hyphopodia of G. graminis var. St. Augustinegrass sod fields damaged by take-all usually exhibit the same yellowing of the foliage often associated with iron deficiency. Instead of patches of yellow turf, the entire sod field may be off-color.