St, Augustine “Seedheads”

hankhill – posted 29 May 2006 23:31

I noticed that a few weeks ago, soonafter greenup, my St. Augustine seemedto be sending up “seedheads”. I put itin quotes because from what I know, St. Augustine doesn’t generate fertileseeds (at least, you can’t buy it).

So, are these just appendix-like do nothingseedheads, or do I have some weird strainof seeding St. Augustine? How soon willthe turf put its energy back into normalgrowth. (The “seedheads” are also ugly!)

[This message has been edited by hankhill (edited 29 May 2006).]

[This message has been edited by hankhill (edited 29 May 2006).]

TexanOne – posted 30 May 2006 02:04

St Augustine seedheads are common, can appear anytime during the growing season, and are usually fertile. As I understand the St Augustine seed availability issue – it isn’t an issue if enough seed can be commercially collected, it’s a matter that the seeds cannot be assured of maintaining parental quality. In other words, the plant quality from seed may or may not be as good as the parent plant.

ktate2002 – posted 30 May 2006 18:55

I see this same growth in my yard. I’m cutting my St. Aug (Palmetto) at 3 inches and I have more seedheads than blades. This occured a few years ago when I let the grass get to about 6 inches, never at the 3 inch height. When will this end?

RickV – posted 31 May 2006 17:00

I have new Bitter Blue sod that I laid down less then 3 weeks ago and it is doing the same thing. I figure it can’t hurt anything and may help propagate the new sod.