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Putting down St. Augustine
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Author:  user_48634 [ Fri Mar 26, 2010 8:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Putting down St. Augustine

What are the different things?

Are you willing to water it every week in the summer?

Author:  user_48634 [ Sat Apr 03, 2010 2:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Putting down St. Augustine

25 pieces is only 66 square feet. You need 10x more. You need 2+ pallets for 645 square feet. If you have any living St Augustine and are willing to try to take the weeds by hand, then you don't need to redo. Use a Weed Hound tool to pluck the tap rooted weeds out. You don't have to bend over at all. Nice tool. If you have some full sun, you can spray vinegar on the rest of the weeds. Vinegar kills everything it touches, so keep if off the grass. Use a piece of cardboard as a shield for overspray. Or use a string trimmer to take the weeds to the ground being careful to spare the St Augustine.

Watering. Watering should be done deeply and infrequently. Deeply means an inch at a time, all at once. Use tuna cans to measure how many minutes you have to run the sprinkler to get an inch. Then remember that number. Infrequently means once a week during the hottest part of summer and monthly the rest of the year. Watering too frequently invites weed seeds to germinate.

Mowing. Mow at your mower's highest setting unless your spouse tells you otherwise. Never mow St Aug at the lowest setting. Weeds are the concern for mowing lower. Tall St Aug is very plush looking and will stop all your weeds in the future.

Fertilizing. If you have not already fertilized, do it now. I like ordinary corn meal at a rate of 10-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. I start on Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving.

It really is just that easy to grow St Augustine. It will choke out all the other grassy weeds but it will not survive in the shade of broadleaf weeds. Even crummy little borad leaf plants will shade out St Aug. You'll have to pull them or spray them. Pulling works much better because the vinegar spray always seems to hit the grass.

As for renovating, St Aug will send runners out 10 feet in a single season. If you have bits of it alive around the yard, you can do this. Just follow the rules above.

Author:  EAnton781 [ Mon Apr 12, 2010 8:11 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Putting down St. Augustine

Dchall_San_Antonio wrote:
Infrequently means once a week during the hottest part of summer and monthly the rest of the year.


Whoa. I've tried running my sprinklers for an hour straight per zone and I still can't get away with once a week in July and August. Twice a week at 45 minutes barely keeps it from burning up.

What is your measured time for 1 inch of water?

What is your soil composition and drainage grading like on your lot?

Author:  Dirt Face [ Wed Apr 14, 2010 11:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Putting down St. Augustine

You don't need a "re-do". Mass weeds is no problem. A good lawn mower and some water can "re-do" your whole lawn for much less.

Author:  Dirt Face [ Wed Apr 14, 2010 11:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Putting down St. Augustine

Dirt Face wrote:
You don't need a "re-do". Mass weeds is no problem. A good lawn mower and some water can "re-do" your whole lawn for much less.

Sorry I did not read the rest of the comments... :oops:

Author:  user_48634 [ Sat Apr 17, 2010 12:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Putting down St. Augustine

EAnton781 wrote:
Dchall_San_Antonio wrote:
Infrequently means once a week during the hottest part of summer and monthly the rest of the year.
Whoa. I've tried running my sprinklers for an hour straight per zone and I still can't get away with once a week in July and August. Twice a week at 45 minutes barely keeps it from burning up.

What is your measured time for 1 inch of water?

What is your soil composition and drainage grading like on your lot?
Last summer, toward the end of the 2-year drought, I was out of town a lot and nearly lost my lawn. I bought a timer and connected all the sprinklers at once. It ran the water for 7 hours per week. The San Antonio watering restrictions were such that you could only water 7 hours and it had to be split between morning and night of the same day. I think I caught it just in time.

I've never measured my time for 1 inch. I go by how long I need to water to make it through the week. One hour once a week is a starting point. Everyone has different turf, soil, humidity, rain, and wind. All these are factors in determining how much to water. The main point is that you should not water 7 days a week for 10 minutes each morning. That will create a weed farm. Allowing the soil surface to dry out will do more to deter weeds than anything else you can do.

Author:  produce guy [ Wed May 05, 2010 5:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Putting down St. Augustine

I know this might be a little late,but why not try Turffalo,the company advertises on this web sight.

Author:  EAnton781 [ Thu May 06, 2010 8:15 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Putting down St. Augustine

Dchall_San_Antonio wrote:
EAnton781 wrote:
Dchall_San_Antonio wrote:
Infrequently means once a week during the hottest part of summer and monthly the rest of the year.
Whoa. I've tried running my sprinklers for an hour straight per zone and I still can't get away with once a week in July and August. Twice a week at 45 minutes barely keeps it from burning up.

What is your measured time for 1 inch of water?

What is your soil composition and drainage grading like on your lot?
Last summer, toward the end of the 2-year drought, I was out of town a lot and nearly lost my lawn. I bought a timer and connected all the sprinklers at once. It ran the water for 7 hours per week. The San Antonio watering restrictions were such that you could only water 7 hours and it had to be split between morning and night of the same day. I think I caught it just in time.

I've never measured my time for 1 inch. I go by how long I need to water to make it through the week. One hour once a week is a starting point. Everyone has different turf, soil, humidity, rain, and wind. All these are factors in determining how much to water. The main point is that you should not water 7 days a week for 10 minutes each morning. That will create a weed farm. Allowing the soil surface to dry out will do more to deter weeds than anything else you can do.


I'm thinking about a different approach. Wouldn't it be better to manually trigger a 1-inch watering session as needed instead of adjusting the cycle time each week?

I put some tin cans out in the yard and my 45-minute cycle gave me .5 inch of water. So I'll give it a shot at 90 minutes this weekend and see if that gives me 1-inch.

Author:  user_48634 [ Wed May 12, 2010 8:32 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Putting down St. Augustine

Tech Turf (new name for the Turffalo brand and variety of buffalo grass) is excellent turf. I've seen it in several applications and visited the offices north of Lubbock. If I was not allergic to it and had full sun, I would have it in a heart beat! Great grass!!

As for watering, again I never pay attention to how fast I can get an inch of water. I pay attention to the grass itself and what it is telling me. When 1 hour is not enough to last all week, then I jump to 3 hours (just in case). When 3 hours was not enough, I jumped to 7 hours. 7 hours per week per zone is extreme, even for me, but our drought was extreme. I've lost count of the number of dead lawns in my neighborhood that were resodded this spring. Most of San Antonio's St Augustine lawns suffered at least 80% kill off from the drought. The only places it survived was under trees. I happen to have 90% tree canopy, so with the extra water and trees, my grass made it.

How much you water depends on your heat, humidity, soil type, depth, grass type, grass height, wind, rain, and probably other factors I'm forgetting. During our drought we also had very low humidity, low cloud cover, heat, and wind. That combination of extreme climate forced me to go to extreme watering. The "rule" of 1 inch per week is a starting point. You'll have to adapt if/when the grass tells you that is not enough.

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