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Weed n Feed for new centipede lawn?

13 years ago

Hi

I installed centipede sod in November 2010 in coastal North Carolina. It started to get cold just after that, so the sod did not have a chance to root or fill in. It's just now starting to green up slightly (as its getting warmer), and has tons of weeds!

I haven't applied any fertilizer, pre-emergent weed killer, etc at all.

I have used the Scotts Bonus S "weed n feed" for southern lawns (including centipede) on established centipede with good results. I now understand that this may not be the best for centipede due to the fertilizer nitrogen, etc forumla.

My real question is is it safe to apply weed n feed, just plain fertilizer, or seperate weed treatment (atrazine) to centipede sod that hasn't had a chance to root down and spread yet? If not, when would it be safe?

thanks!

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Comments (3)

dchall_san_antonio
13 years ago
Centipede is the one grass that really does not need much fertilizer. Weeding should be enough. I would suggest spot spraying with something foamy so you don't get overspray onto the grass. If centipede is affected by the normal 2-4,d formulations like St Augustine is, then you should try the atrazine product.

Centipede is also one of the few grasses that needs to be mowed very low for the most dense coverage. Set your mower to the lowest setting.
mikelak06_aol_com
12 years ago
I will be putting down new centipede sod in the next week. Is there a maintenance plan I can follow to help promote a health lawn.
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If you are watering only once per week, then you have a shot at fixing this. The least harmful non-organic approach (after pulling the weeds) is to spot spray individual weeds with something like weed-b-gone. The idea of sprays is to moisten the leaves (ONLY) with the spray. That way you are doing the least harm to the soil and soil microbes. Crabgrass is easily killed in St Augustine. Crabgrass is very sensitive to salt and St Augustine is nearly impervious to salt. Thus you can dust baking soda onto wet crabgrass and it will die in a day or two. It turns a nice color of black almost immediately. When you wet the crabgrass, use a little detergent in the water or even molasses so the water does not simply ball up and roll off the crabgrass blades. Then dust the baking soda from a sock. That makes a very fine powder that will stick to the leaves. You might try that on the other weeds, too. I never thought of trying it on dollar weed. Two weeks after you use the baking soda, dust some compost onto the area to reinvigorate the soil fungi. Baking soda is very hard on fungi.
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Are you planning to spray the whole yard with atrazine, or just spot spray? I would spot spray each & every suspected Crabgrass head, but I would not broadcast a spray across the entire yard--That's a bit wasteful & atrazine is tough stuff. It's really not too late on the preM this year, all this rain & cool weather has kept them behind schedule in my yard. The atrazine should be used in combination with a good preM to keep the heads from coming back anyway. I use dimension & it actually kills baby Crabgrass up to a single tiller, so it can be applied later than the others on the market. Late app plus late growth means you're not too late for preM & it will make a world of difference. I also recommend a product called bonide Sedge ender, which targets Crabgrass & nutsedge specifically, including a preM already mixed in. Ace has both these products, but the big box stores usually only carry fast acting stuff to keep you coming back.
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retgolfer
11 years ago
I'm in Eastern NC and last year's drought caused a lot of dead areas in my lawn. This spring every weed in NC started to pop up. It was(is) a sight to make a grown man cry so I found a very good landscaping Co nearby and they said it was beyond repair. So today the entire lawn was sprayed with industrial weed killer and in 3 or 4 days they will remove all the old grass & weeds and re-sod with Centipede and by Fri I'll have a new lawn and large water bills.
I do not know the secret to eliminating weeds but I bought a stand up weed puller(Grand Daddies) and it works well with no bending over.

They say Centipede is drought tolerant but I found that in extreme conditions is does need a lot of water.

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