St. Augustine and Centipede Problems

9 years ago

We moved into a home last year in East Texas that has about 1.25 acres of grass area. The perimeter of the property is heavily wooded with a stream on each side, and the center of the front of the lawn has a few trees as well.
Most of the lawn is St. Augustine, with some centipede mixed in.
This past winter, we had heavy rain, and as we sit on the low side of an area, so we get a lot of the run-off. Because of this, we have developed quite a bit of Dollar weed that I Can't seem to get rid of. Also, the grass just isn't coming in as well in areas as it was last year at this time.
I've put down some STa-Green combo fertilizer-weed killer specifically for this type of grass. It helped with some of the random type weeds ,but not most. I also tried using some Image weed killer with Atrizine in a small area as a test, and it did nothing at all for the Dollar Weeds.
I've done some soil samples in the yard (it's very sandy soil here), and the average looks as follows:
PH = 7.5
Nitrogen = Low
Phosphorus = Medium
Potassium = High

I'm at a loss as where to go from here as Bermuda is the only southern grass I"m familiar with.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Comments (3)

dchall_san_antonio
9 years ago
Where do you live?

How often do you water and for how long? What kind of sprinkler?

How high/low do you mow and how often?

Your pH of 7.5 and centipede are mutually exclusive phenomena. One or the other is wrong. Or you could have the world's sickest centipede. Centipede requires a pH in the 5s. St Aug, on the other hand, thrives at a pH of 7.5 and even higher. So there's something wrong with either the pH test or your grass ID. If you used a home done soil test, those are usually wrong. Get a real soil test for $25 at Logan Labs in Ohio. Skip the TAMU tests. If you ordered all the Logan Lab basic tests from TAMU, it would cost more than $60.

Will need to post a picture of the dollar weed. Many (MANY) plants go by the common name of dollar weed. Some are more tenacious than others. The atrazine should have killed it in about 3 weeks time, but some plants come right back from seed. With atrazine you can only apply one time per year, so other methods must be used. If you take a picture close up (3 inches away), please take it in the shade or under a cloud to get the best contrast.

I think posting a picture looking out across the lawn will give a very clear indication of the problem with your lawn. I suspect drought issues left over from last year and improper watering now.
shepx13
Original Author
9 years ago
The Centipede looks to have been thrown in randomly in a few spots, and it isn't doing well, so the PH is probably right. I'll slowly replace it with some plugs/sod of St Augistine if needed.
I live in East Texas outside of Tyler. I have a sprinkler system installed, and I water once every 4-5 days depending on the outside temp. Mid summer last year I watered every 3-4 days due to sandy soil. Time on each sprinkler area depends on where it is in yard, since some areas are heavily shaded. I don't know the inch I mow at, but I only use the highest two settings of my riding mower, as anything lower scalps areas since there's some uneven areas.

I'll take some photos and post later today.
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shepx13
Original Author
9 years ago
Here's the photos. I'm also going to make a new post about this.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:93627}}