St. Augustine overtaking Bremuda

seareel – posted 21 April 2006 10:46

Will cutting St. Augustine high and watering it regularily finally overtake Bremuda? The Bremuda(area 25’x15′)gets full sun while the rest, in St. Augustine, is in partial sun. I am hopeful,too, the weeds:goose, dallis, and and Johnson will also be choked out.We are in Pearland TX

TexanOne – posted 01 May 2006 02:26

SA will overrun bermuda very easily, even in full sun conditions. However, you have to provide conditions to favor the SA over the bermuda for this to happen naturally, so I recommend the following:

1: Frequent / Ample Water- Keep the turfgrass mix well watered, but not soggy. SA spreads very rapidly with heat and moisture available.

2: Limit Fertilizer Use- Limit the turfgrass mix to no more than 1-2 lbs of total nitrogen/year/1000 sq ft. Bermuda needs more nitrogen to grow rapidly than SA does. Using only 1-2 lbs of nitrogen/year will effectivily “starve” the bermuda into slow and weak growth – allowing the SA to dominate. The SA will grow very well with limited nitrogen conditions (assuming that water is available!)

I have successfully grown SA to take over a perdominatly bermudagrass lawn a couple of times using these rules by just planting a few square yards of SA in a 4000-6000 sq ft lawn. You should have complete and total SA coverage within 2 years…

hankhill – posted 23 May 2006 01:46

That may explain the (seemingly) paradoxicalresults some people see after applying BonusS (N+atrazine). It could be that therelative benefit of the fertilizer to theBermuda is greater than the harm caused bythe atrazine. Someday when I have more timeI’ll hit the Bermuda with sprayed atrazineso I can isolate the impact.

[This message has been edited by hankhill (edited 23 May 2006).]

RickV – posted 23 May 2006 19:47

I know what you mean. I put down Bonus S in early March and the bermuda that I had thought I had killed last year before laying St Augustine sod has started popping up in the weaker areas (had a bout with chinch bugs last August). I thought the Bonus S would finish off any remaining bermuda NOT. So I am letting my grass grow in hopes of choking out the remaining bermuda.