I over fertilized my St. Augustine grass..??

rfulmer – posted 19 May 2003 09:20

I am pretty sure I over-fertilzed my St. Augustine grass. Am I screwed?? Will the grass die or will it come back to life? Is there anything I can do to save the grass?

wdrake – posted 19 May 2003 16:05

If the fertilizer granules are still visible, and you don’t care what the neighbors think, you can use a shop vac and suck ’em up. I’ve done that with some success in small areas; however, I’ve never tackled an entire yard. Second, you can leach out the nitrogen, which I believe is the element of concern, by watering the turf frequently and heavily. You’ll just have to wait to see if there will be permanent damage to the St Augustine.

Will-PCB – posted 19 May 2003 21:11

LoL Drake … I did the same thing last year.

But, while out getting a new filter for my shop vac … I saw a Lawn Vac at Sears. Went out onto their deck where they had one in a box that got wet and bought the damn thing for $199 (retails over $400). Anyway, so I decided to run that over my lawn … worked great!

But to answer the question, yes, leech out the nitrogen with lots of water. I also dont think I would cut the grass until you see that the Nitrogen is leeched out.

Just remember this … the leaves may turn brown, but as long as the stolons are green, the grass will in fact live.

I have found that St. Augustine is pretty damn forgiving, and it seems alot of these type of problems are cured with good watering.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!