If I watered 1-4 hours per zone on my system (I have 6 active zones) I'd have water puddled and streaming into the street and neighbors like crazy. My lawn just doesn't soak up water like yours does apparently. How many inches of water do you put down every week? My combination of water pressure, hose, and sprinkler put down 1/8 inch per hour over an area of around 900 square feet. Everyone's situation will be different. Furthermore everyone's soil, humidity, and grass will be different. The idea is to put all your water down at one time and not spread it over 7 days. If you water every day you are asking, no BEGGING for weeds. You can wean your lawn off of frequent watering. You can also spray it with soap to help the water soak in much deeper and remain in the soil longer. Another method to stop runoff is to water for 15 minutes and wait for 30. Then water again until you see runoff. As soon as you see runoff, stop and let it soak in for 30 minutes. Letting it soak in is important. It is exactly like wringing out a sponge. The water will eventually drain much deeper in the soil and retain that moisture much longer. Also, I see you discourage Scotts Weed and Feed type products. Why? Weed and feed products sound very good and they are easy to market. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Here is the problem. Weeds die best when they are well fed. The take up the poison more completely and die. When they are not well fed, their uptake is weak and they might live through the poisoning. When you apply weed and feed, the weeds get fed from the fertilizer right away and the weed killer starts to deteriorate right away. By the time the weeds are healthy enough to be affected by the poison, the poison is gone. A better idea is to fertilize and then wait 2 weeks. After 2 weeks sometimes the weeds will be gone simply because the healthy grass pushed them out. For those remaining weeds, use a spray product like Weed B Gone to spot-spray each weed. This method is much more effective and helps keep the use of poisons to a minimum.

transplantsteve, the short answer is "Whenever you have a bug infestation that you cannot accept". When all appears well, soap flush the lawn in a few random locations to determine if a problem exists. If problem areas appear, soap flush those to determine that insects are the cause. Fipronil appears to be a very effective insecticide; commercial applicators favored it when I worked at Lesco. While it is comparatively safe for mammals, it does have its hazards as I found at this site: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15641641

Wow, I am very aware of the brown spot problem and it has absolutely NOTHING to do with water your St Augustine. It is grubs that are laid in the lawn by the Japanese beetle in the spring. At the end of summer towards fall the grub from the eggs feeds on grass roots. It looks like round brown spots like your dog pissed there. If you pull on the brown spot and it comes up like a patch that's further proof. I treated my back yard and it stopped. I didnt treat the front and it has brown patches and bare spots. Dig around before it gets too cold and you will find grubs......Organic treatment is Milky spore

"With a vengeance" is an understatement... I am having an awful time with sod web worms and came over to this forum hoping to find an organic solution. This is the first year I've used organic fertilizer on the lawn. I'm not spraying any pesticides on my shrubs or flowers (for a couple of years now) but I'm having a difficult time with the lawn. Recently dug up a large area of sod damaged from chinch bugs. Now the sod web worms are chewing it to the roots-- like they do every year in the summer. Will keep reading for some answers. (I'm in Hillsborough County, FL and have St. Augustine grass). Thanks. Meems