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| To bring you all up to speed. I bought a house in central Texas with a poor lawn. There was some St. Austine left, but mostly bare sports. Rye Grass was planted in November and thrived throughout the winter. Now the Rye is dying and looks like crap. About a few weeks ago, I mowed my lawn on the shortest setting, bagged the clippings, and raked to loosen up the soil. When I raked up the lawn, I was pulling out a dense network of horizontally growing roots/stems. I suspected that this was crabgrass. At this point I was tired and just wanted to be done for the day. I thought I got most of the crabgrass and planted Bermuda grass and starter fertilizer. I watered twice a day for the first week and then once a day after that.
Its been about 3 weeks now and now all I can see growing is crabgrass. None of the Bermuda seems to be growing yet. I dont want to put herbicide down because that will kill the seed. I have read on here that some people have had success with baking soda, but it sounds like one of Grandma's remedies that doesnt work. Would weed and feed help? Or should I start all over again and nuke the yard? I'd like to post a picture to show yall but I dont think I can on this website...Thanks for your help |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| My advice to you is to concentrate on growing the Bermuda for now and take care of the weeds later. When you created a nice seed bed for the Bermuda, you also created a great place for every weed seed in the area. You have to expect to have a few weeds. Once you have healthy Bermuda growing, it won't be a problem to get rid of the weeds. |
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| I'm not sure that I created that nice of a seed bed...I just mowed my lawn on the shortest setting and tried to rake the seed in... I posted pictures here: http://community.homedepot.com/t5/Lawn-Care-Tools-Equipment/Problems-w ith-crabgrass-and-growing-grass/td-p/53117 It appears that I have some grass but I'm pretty sure that its all crabgrass...I mistaken it for St. Austine at first.. |
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- Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Sun, Jun 3, 12 at 10:58
| Okay, 1. I did not know HD had a forum 2. The guy who helped you there knows not what he's talking about. Baking soda will kill crabgrass in St Aug and will leave the St Aug alive (somewhat set back). Why? Because crabgrass has no tolerance for salt and St Aug has so much tolerance for salt it grows out across the beach into the ocean. There is a video on YouTube showing the effect of baking soda day by day. Search for St Augustine, baking soda, and crabgrass. Only water 2x per day if you are trying to sprout the seeds. The helpful store associate made it sound like you should water 2x per day until fall. But wait on the baking soda treatment. I don't see any crabgrass in those pictures. I see plenty of St Augustine. The dense network of stems you removed was your lawn. A St Augustine lawn. It may have been dead, but that was what was once your lawn. That was a lot of work I'll bet. It looks like all you need is water and fertilizer to make this a real lawn again. I was going to ask you where you were in Central Texas but at this time of year it doesn't matter. It is too hot for chemical fertilizer. Your only hope to spruce up the lawn is organic fertilizer. In the hot sun organic will not burn the grass like a chemical fert will. And organic fert will not interfere with previously applied apps of chemicals. The organic fertilizer I really like is alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow) because almost anyone can find it at a nearby feed store. Apply at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet and in 3 weeks you will see much better color and vigor in your lawn. You can continue to use alfalfa as much as you like all summer and resume chemicals after Labor Day. After you get over the bermuda seed sprouting issues, then when you water, apply deeply but not very often. Deeply means an inch and not very often means about once a week at this time of year in south and central Texas. You should measure the output of your sprinkler system to know how long it takes to collect an inch. Use a cat food or tuna can and see how long it takes to fill it. My sprinkler takes 8 - 16 hours depending on how I have it set up. A friend can get a full inch in 20 minutes. Every system is different. You have to measure your own. If, when you water, you get runoff, stop watering immediately and let the water soak in for 15 minutes. Then resume watering. If it runs off again, stop and repeat after 15 minutes. Keep going though. It needs to happen all at one time. The worst thing you can do to any lawn is water twice a day every day for a short time. |
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| Actually, that is St Augustine. You've overseeded your St Augustine lawn with Bermuda. |
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| Well I feel like an ass right now... I could have sworn that was crab grass... I have never seen horizontally growing grass like that before (I'm not from around here). That stuff was growing over my sidewalk and driveway.... I suspected that it could Have been st augustine and tried to google it but couldn't find any pictures of a st augustine root system like that.... Well what should I do now? Throw st augustine seed down or just let it be? |
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- Posted by nearandwest 7 (My Page) on Sun, Jun 3, 12 at 19:47
| I would say to let it be for now. Do the right things now to promote the growth and development of St. Augustine ( mow high, water deep and infrequent, etc.). There is no such thing as St.Augustine seed, it can only be propagated by sod, plugs, or stolons. I'll step aside so Mr. dchall can jump in here and give you the knowledgeable details of how to get your St. Augustine lawn into top notch shape. And don't get down on yourself, you have some options to deal with the bermuda seed that germinates. |
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- Posted by nearandwest 7 (My Page) on Sun, Jun 3, 12 at 19:56
| I stand corrected. Apparently there ARE commercial varieties of St. Augustine available in seed. I'll have to update my database. Sorry for the misinformation. |
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- Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Mon, Jun 4, 12 at 23:47
| There have always been commercial varieties of St Augustine seed available. They don't germinate but they are available. Sod is the only way to do St Aug. Well, which type of grass do you want? At this point you can go either way. Bermuda takes more work to make it really nice. St Augustine is more fragile in that if you don't water it for a month in the summer heat, it will die. But if you can find a time to water it, preferably weekly, then it is easy to make look really good. As I have suggested here, you can kill out the St Augustine simply by not watering it. Then the bermuda will take over. If you continue to water it without killing the ST Aug, and you mow low, it will just look weedy with the mix of coarse St Aug and fine bermuda. On the other hand, if you water it once in a while, and mow at the highest setting, the wide bladed St Aug will shade the bermuda and tend to make the bermuda thin. Eventually you will hardly notice the bermuda. Yeah we knew you were new to the south. But welcome, y'all!! |
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