Horizontal growth for St Aug during summer

Dchall_San_Antonio – posted 04 August 2003 13:47

Does anyone get horizontal spreading on their St Aug during the summer? Our local radio guru mentioned yesterday that the horizontal growth has stopped until fall.

I can attest that mine will not fill in a bare spot in the summer. It’s stopped. I wonder if the issue is soil temp? My dry soil is 86 degrees, wet soil is 84 degrees, irrigation water temp is 78 degrees, night time low temps are 74 degrees, and daytime highs are 95.

Anyone have any experiences or thoughts on that?

redbird – posted 05 August 2003 05:25

Dchall,I am not a St. Augustine guru – but I can relay what I have seen in my neighborhood. My neighbor had lost 40% – 60% of his front yard over the winter/early spring due to a fungal infection that he didn’t know was occurring due to the dormant state of the grass (plus bug attacks)- it just didn’t green up. He waited and waited – and WAITED! Finally he had it diagnosed by a lawn service and treated, about 6 – 7 weeks ago, he put down plugs in the dead areas and covered the gaps in-between with bagged topsoil. He kept it watered, didn’t cut his grass, and now it looks like nothing ever happened. He mowed it for the first time this week. I don’t know if there will be any lateral growth for the rest of the summer (it is filled in solid now anyway) but I can tell you there has been plenty of lateral growth up to this point. By the way, the grass in question is in full sun.

Mike