Dethathing St Augustine?

[dshampine]

I have searched high and low and have found mixed messages about dethating a St Augustine lawn. This is the first spring/summer I've been in my house and since the lawn started greening up it has always had brown in it. Well, I was out pulling weeds. The brown is dead grass and runners. With out any effort, I pulled up a lot of dead, brown runners. So, should I dethatch my entire lawn to get these dead runners out?

[ghochs]

You don't need to de-thatch your long, as long you you have a healthy level of microbial activity the thatch will be "composted". You made need to increase the microbial activity of you lawn.

[Mr. Clean]

dshampine

An alternative to dethatching would be to have your lawn core aereated. Following that with the appropriate ammendments you can jump start the microbial activity in your soil as described by ghochs

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

If you pulled up the runners without any problem, then you might have insects chewing off the roots. The organic solution is beneficial nematodes. The best time to apply is right after a rain or after watering.