Overseeding St. Augustine with winter rye?

caspian – posted 27 January 2005 22:59

I live in pcola and just recently brought in severeal inches of soil and then layed St. Augustine sod. The problem is that a week before laying the sod I put down winter rye and its now exploded through the sod making for a very pathwork looking lawn. Whats the best way to deal with this? Will the St. Augustine overtake it in the spring after I’ve mowed the rye down or will it be a permanent fixture in my lawn?

mikemaas00 – posted 01 February 2005 08:46

The rye should die off as the sod takes off here in March or so, depending on the weather. If it tries to stick around, there are control products you can use to kill it, but don’t worry about that until April or May. Hold off on watering until the St.Augustine starts to green up and do not use a preemergent herbicide on it. Just fertilize when it comes out of dormancy and be on the look out for the dreaded fungus.