st. augustine murder

davidfr – posted 25 August 2004 16:31

Help! My St. Augustine lawn was the most lush and beautiful green in the ‘hood here in Miami Beach, Florida. I started to see a few weeds so I bought a big bag of weed and feed at Home Depot and spinkled liberally and haphazardly on my lawn with a Dixie cup. Three days later almost the entire lawn was brownish yellow, dry and dead looking – except a few isolated islands of green where I missed with fertilizer. The mix is approximately 75% dead areas and 25 % living areas.

My questions:

1. The dead stuff is never growing back, is it?

2. To re-sod, my buddy says just kill with Round-Up and lay the new stuff on top. Is this appropriate, or is additional prep required?

3. Has the soil content been damaged by the single overfertilizing, and if so what can I do?

Observer – posted 25 August 2004 17:59

My bet is you used the wrong type weed and feed. What was the active ingredient?

ST Augustine hates to grow over itself. Rake all the dead areas to bare soil, spread a sack of pre-emergent and maybe add some sand to the dead areas. Get a plugger and put plugs in the dead areas 6-12 inches a part.

Or, you can roundup and start all over.

david – posted 25 August 2004 19:10

thanks. why the sand?

david – posted 25 August 2004 19:11

It was a generic weed&feed from home depot that was supplosedly for st. augustine. I used WAY too much.

jr – posted 26 August 2004 09:50

Why does everybody insist on telling these people that need help to apply pre-emergent on areas that are going to be re-seeded or sodded? Know what you are talking about before you post. Do NOT use pre-emergent on areas just prior to being replanted. And as you already know, the problem was not with the product you purchased, but was spreading it with a Dixie cup. Actually there was two problems, the other that you tried to kill existing weeds with a granular pre-emergent. I have never seen somebody successfully stick a granule to a weed.

davidfr – posted 26 August 2004 14:51

Thanks JR. I’ve looked carefully and estimate the lawn is 50% dead, 50% alive – the dead and live patches are in a swirling camo pattern. So, should I plug, should I patch-in sod over the dead spots, or do I need to start from scratch?

Alex_in_FL – posted 27 August 2004 03:08

Hi Davidfr:

(1) Unlikely(2) That approach raises your yard height(3) No permanent or longterm damage

Observer gave good suggestion for the low budget approach.

Sand lacks nutrients. Weed seeds are less likely to germinate and live in sand than in topsoil. Use sand to back fill your plugholes if you make plugs from the good areas. As cheap as St Augustine sod is, you might just buy a few pieces and make your own plugs.

Hi JR:

Seems Observer recommended using pre-emergent with plugs. What is wrong with that suggesion?

Just out of curiosity…are you suggesting Davidfr reseed with St Augustine? If so, where can he buy them?

Alex

[This message has been edited by Alex_in_FL (edited 27 August 2004).]

jr – posted 27 August 2004 09:29

No, I was not suggesting that he re-seed with St. Augustine. That reply was also a reference to another post I had just read.As for you other question, go buy yourself some plugs and pre-emergent and find out for yourself.

Alex_in_FL – posted 27 August 2004 16:47

JR:

I understand not using a pre-emergent when sodding but again, the point was plugging.

If you put pre-emergent out then use a plugger to make holes and install plugs you are putting the roots below the pre-emergent. Having done this in the past I can vouch for it working…with Floratam and with Empress zoysia.