Can one plant Saint Augustine?
Weeds gill 19.jpg Utilizing sod or plugs, St. Augustine grass must be grown vegetatively. (CHRIS GRANGER) QUESTION: Is there a disadvantage to planting St. Augustine grass seeds as opposed to plugs or sod? Local nurseries and big-box retailers have a wide variety of grass seeds, but exclusively St.
Augustine plugs. Is this only a matter of convenience, or are there additional motives? – Rob Molaison ANSWER: In general, St. Augustine grass does not generate viable seeds like other forms of grass. This is the reason why seeds are unavailable. With sod or plugs, St. Augustine grass must be planted vegetatively.
April and May are ideal months for laying sod or planting plugs to develop a new lawn or restore a St. Augustine grass that has been damaged. Dan Gill is a member of the LSU AgCenter’s horticulture department. Enjoy reading about beautiful gardens? Sign up for NOLA.com’s weekly home and garden email, and you’ll receive the most recent ideas from Dan Gill as well as articles on the region’s most beautiful landscapes.
As with other warm-season grasses, St. Augustine grass is propagated on sod farms by vegetative means. Sod farms develop new St. Augustine sod fields by planting tiny plantlets (plugs/sprigs) of St. Augustine grass, which, depending on the sod farm’s latitude, mature into a full field of sod in 8–12 months.
- Take a peek at the following video to discover how farmers sprig warm-season grasses using sod slabs.
- Once the sod has been harvested, the sod farmers leave grass ribbons in the field, which re-grow into a full field of sod in a shorter amount of time than the initial field required.
- Thus, there is no such thing as Palmetto St.
Augustine seed, CitraBlue St. Augustine seed, or Floratam St. Augustine seed. A grass plug is an individual turf plant that is cultivated in a tray; the length and breadth of a grass plug can range from 1.5 to 3 inches. When planted 9–12 inches apart, they will continue to grow and fill in over time, forming a dense ground cover of the grass of your choosing.
How are holes in St. Augustine grass filled?
Replant the lawn – As the grass dies, bare patches begin to appear. In the majority of cases, substantial grass damage may be irreparable. The remedy may involve ripping out the grass and beginning again. For bare patches, however, rake over the dead grass to loosen and remove it, and then proceed to fill in the empty spots.
This may be accomplished by planting new plugs and feeding and watering them to ensure optimal development. When I lived in Florida, I had a quarter-acre lot where the St. Augustine was patchy. Rather of pulling up the old sod, I used RoundUp and left it set for a week. Then, I purchased a couple pallets of new St.
Augustine and just layered it on top of the older turf. It has strong roots and took hold. The yard is still in excellent condition. Here is an excellent video to help revive your lawn: How to fix Brown Dead Grass areas of dormancy. After applying fertilizer to my grass, I saw dead spots. Hi, Alex Kuritz here. My family had one of the greatest lawns in the area when I was a child. Intensely verdant and luxuriant. As I grew older, I took care of and tended to not just my family’s yard but also that of my neighbors. I can state with confidence that I have years of expertise, and I am here to share it with you.
St. Augustine grass may only be propagated vegetatively, mostly by sod. There were produced seeded variants, but their poor performance led to their extinction. It would be fantastic if a high-quality St. Augustine grass seed could be created one day. There are a variety of St.
- Augustine types available to the general public.
- Breeding is being conducted to increase the grass’ resistance to SAD and chinch bugs.
- The chinch bug is a tiny insect, but a significant problem. SAD (St.
- Augustine’s Declination) is a virus-caused illness.
- Since there is no treatment for a virus, the only solution is to cultivate a resistant kind.
The ideal St. Augustine grass, devoid of disease and pests, is still a long way off, but scientists are trying. The benefits of St. Augustine grass St. Augustine grass produces a gorgeous light to dark green lawn. It creates a thick grass that grows well in the majority of southern soils.
It is utilized around the coastal areas due of its resilience to salt. St. Augustine tolerates shadow well, even under the majestic live oak trees for which the south is renowned. It is favoured over bermudagrass due, in part, to its excellent shade tolerance. Bermudagrass has an extremely low tolerance for shade and grows just a few inches in moderate to deep shade.
Sod is the easiest method of establishment. It will provide instant yardage. A few weeks will pass before the roots take hold in the soil, so it will need to be watered carefully to avoid drying out. It may also be grown from cuttings and sprigs. Sprigs are stolons, sometimes known as “runners.” Stolons are horizontally growing stems that rise above earth.
- Every few inches along its length, the stolons will sprout and root at the nodes that develop along its length.
- The offspring will be identical to the mother plant.
- Once the stolon has firmly planted, you can cut it and compel the daughter plant to assume the function of a mother plant that sends forth other stolons.
This will reduce the duration of the spread. When soil temperatures drop below 55 degrees, St. Augustine grass goes dormant. If the soil temperature maintains above 60 degrees year-round, the grass will remain green. However, its development will decelerate as the soil temperature decreases.
- Disadvantages of St Augustine grass One of the drawbacks of St.
- Augustine grass is its weak resistance to wear.
- It will withstand the usual traffic of a residential lawn well, but not the severe traffic of an athletic field.
- The coarse texture renders it inappropriate for golf courses and restricts its application to a small number of locations.
Even many homeowners dislike the coarse texture and would rather have grass with finer blades. St. Augustine has a low tolerance for drought and will not always retain its color without watering. This is one reason why its distribution terminates west of Fort Worth, Texas, where the environment gets drier.
The northern range of St. Augustine grass terminates north of Dallas, Texas, and on the east coast in South Carolina. It is highly sensitive to winter damage in northern regions. Even in the northern portions of its habitat, harsh winters may inflict harm. Northern microclimates can influence growth patterns.
Both SAD (St. Augustine Decline) and chinch bugs can be a significant nuisance. 
