How can I get rid of other grass growing in my St. Augustine

16 years ago

Hello,

I've been in my Dallas, TX house for 3 growing seasons now and am still frustrated by my back yard. Apparently the previous owner overseeded the St. Augustine lawn with some other type of grass and it is making me crazy. The front lawn (partially shaded) is near perfect, but the back (full sun) seems to take forever to green up in the spring and spends most of the summer with an ugly patchy mix of 2 different grasses (picture below). I mow at a 3-4 inch height and eventually (July or August) the St. Augustine will overtake the thinner stuff, but every spring the thin stuff comes back and makes my lawn ugly all spring.

Can someone point out what the other type of grass is and let me know what (if anything) I can do to get rid of it?

Here are my specs:

Zone: 8

Watering: 30 minutes twice weekly

Fertilizer: Scotts Bonus S (Early and late Spring)

Mowing: Once a week - Mulching

Soil: Rocky Clay (crappy Dallas soil)

Picture: {{gwi:101590}}

Thanks,

-Joe

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Comments (8)

quirkyquercus
16 years ago
It's bermudagrass.
I'm sorry.
stephen9
16 years ago
I was thinking the same thing. You can't get rid of bermudagrass without killing the St. Augustine. The good news is the St. Augustine stolons grow a half inch a day in the summer. So killing the yard and starting over wouldn't take long. You say the front yard is nearly perfect so in the perfect areas use some of your yard as a nursery and plug the back. The front will recover quickly and the back will soon be looking as good as the front. The key is using the top labeled amount which could range from 3 to 5 ounces per gallon. Then to use it as soon as you can then in about 2 weeks. You should have pretty much wiped out the back lawn. I would then cut the grass as low as possible then plug all you can. Keep it well moist and then wait. I would think by the end of next year you should have a solid back yard. Good luck.
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Here's your pic That's bermuda, not crabgrass. If you have many hours of shade there during the day, you can encourage the St Aug by mowing it high and fertilizing around the bermuda. You could try RoundUp. Of course that will kill the St Aug, too, but if you can get all the bermuda before you kill all the St Aug, then the SA should come back. Something else you might try is baking soda. St Augustine is extremely sodium tolerant while bermuda is less tolerant. Baking soda has a lot of sodium in it and can be used to kill several weeds in St Augustine. For more information there is a video on YouTube about this. Go to YouTube and search for "baking soda" crabgrass St Augustine and see what you get.
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That is not crabgrass, but this will likely work anyway. Most grasses are very intolerant of salt. St Augustine, on the other hand, will grow out into the surf. So here's what you do. Mix enough molasses and shampoo into a hand spray bottle so that when you spray it on the weed, that the water sticks and does not bead up. I'd start with 3 ounces of each and 16 ounces of with water. Put some baking soda into a sock or hose. This does not ruin the sock or hose, so just find one and use it. Spray the weed with the spray and pat the sock over top of the wet weed so the dust falls out and sticks to the moist blades of the weed. The sock is just a filter so you're not dropping clumps of baking soda. Be careful not to get the baking soda dust in your eyes or lungs. You can build it up reasonably thick. Sit back and watch the magic happen. Actually it does not happen before your eyes, but in 3 days the weed should be black and dying. It's a very satisfying thing to behold. I don't remember the name of the product that this "recipe" came from. It was developed in FL about 10 years ago and was published before they took it public. When they took it public they added cinnamon and called cinnamon the active ingredient. I believe that was to hide the fact that they are charging $10 for $0.30 worth of baking soda.
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lou_spicewood_tx
16 years ago
Plant more trees.
jlindqui
Original Author
16 years ago
Looks like I've got some sodding to do... I'll most likely kill off only the affected areas then buy some sod and use that to plug rather than plugging from my front yard - too much work and I don't want to mess with the appearance even if only temporary.

Thanks for the follow-ups...
-Joe
carla morey
16 years ago
Unfortunately you will never get all of the Bermuda out of your St Augustine. So the trick is to make the St Aug as healthy as possible, so that it can crowd out (as much as is possible) the Bermuda. Change the watering schedule to 1" a week, which will force the roots to go deeper and will give you healthier grass. I also agree with whoever said to plant more trees. Bermuda hates shade. I disagree that Dallas has "crappy" clay soil. Amended with organics, I find Dallas clay soil to be very productive.

Btw, killing the Bermuda/St Aug area and resodding with St Aug will *not* get rid of the Bermuda. Bermuda could survive a nuclear blast, so be ready for it to come back up.

Carla in Rowlett
mattherb182
16 years ago
One option is to try out a different type of grass all together. Zoysia is supposed to be a monster when it comes to crowding out other grasses. I wouldn't be surprised if it took over both st. augustine and bermuda. Plus it grows really well in the sun. Just another option. You can read more about zoysia in the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: zoysia grass
bnardhouston
2 years ago
Dig up the areas with Bermuda completely, put in a layer of sand top soil, lay down St. Augustine sod, water 1/day for first 10 days. No more Bermuda all St. Aug.
dchall_san_antonio
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
bnard, you do not have to eradicate the bermuda first. If you mow the lawn at the mower's highest setting, the tall St Augustine will provide too much shade for the bermuda to thrive. As mentioned, it does not die out completely and will return if the St Aug becomes damaged, but it will go dormant without any sunlight. My current lawn was all prairie grass and bermuda when I moved her in 2014. Now it is all St Augustine simply by mowing high.

How can I get rid of other grass growing in my St. Augustine

Comments (8)

quirkyquercus

stephen9

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How can I get rid of other grass growing in my St. Augustine

Comments (8)

quirkyquercus

stephen9

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jlindqui
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