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St. Augustine Grass
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Posted: Aug/13/2008 8:23 AM PST
I live in Texas so the weather has been really hot this year, good growing conditions for St. Augustine grass. I cut it at 3" high, keep it well watered(twice a week) is grows really well and looks great. BUT, after I cut it it has all of these runners on the top of the grass and they look terrible for a couple of days and then the growth hids them. None of my neighbors grass does this. Anyone know what my problem is or what I might do about it? |
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Posted: Aug/13/2008 10:36 AM PST
Mine does the same thing, but only in certain areas of the yard. I've never given it too much thought-I'll have to see what the growing conditions are to make it do that. Hmm. |
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Posted: Aug/13/2008 3:03 PM PST
Mine is also only in the front yard, not the back. Really strange. |
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Posted: Aug/17/2008 5:51 AM PST
I live in Austin. This happened to my grass as well. It eventually died. I pulled it all up, put in new sod, and now it is starting all over. I am no expert on this but my experience is that it is degenerative, in that the runners on top, if allowed to grow too long, will cover up the turf near the ground, which will kill the grass below. It ends up with a network of runners "floating" above dead grass on the bottom. Since none of the roots can find soil, the ends of the runners eventually die, especially in the heat. What is frustrating is that the new lawn is starting this all over. In the areas where it is starting, the grass is "very thick". I can hardly get the lawnmower to move when I cut these areas because the wheels don't touch the dirt so the housing of the mower interferes with the grass. It's like I'm pushing the mower over the grass with no wheels. I've started to cut this area a little shorter to try to cut these off. I think the runners find it easier to poke out of the grass than to stay close to the earth. For some reason, it is way to dense of grass down there (too much mulch and thatch?) In the fall or winter, when the grass is dormant and there is no heat, I'm going to cut it way short, so at least it gets a new start next season. |
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Posted: Aug/27/2008 6:19 PM PST
I have found mine to be doing this where the ground is severely compacted-like at the edge of the sidewalk, or where I have just heavily put down fresh dirt and compacted it so it wouldn't be "mud" when it rained. Too thick grass where it can't reach dirt would cause the same problem, I suppose. Aerate the soil, somehow? Don't know. 
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Posted: Aug/28/2008 4:13 AM PST
I would try de-thatching the lawn, then aerating, and finally a topdressing of compost. Hopefully that will help those "runners" root into the ground easier. |
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Posted: Aug/28/2008 5:26 AM PST
De-thatch-that's the word I was looking for. My yard is real thick in some places, most places are good, and some are sparse. In the spring I have a HUGE problem with dollar grass, so I always fertilize with an herbicide that will kill the dollar grass-hence, where I don't have the problem, I have LOTS of thick grass. |
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Posted: Sep/13/2008 1:16 PM PST
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. This week, after mowing, I pulled up many of the stringers so the ends were above the surface of the grass (they weren't even close to rooting in the soil) then re-mowed. There are very small areas that are empty and void of all grass, but I'm sure these will fill in over the next few weeks. I figure it goes like this: overwater, grass gets tall (from missing a weekend of cutting or because I just fertilized), runners grow through the nice, moist grass instead of the soil, the dense canopy of runners kills the grass underneath. Then, the canopy can't live without lots of water, which makes it prone to fungus. Eventually it all dies. So I've also cut way back on watering to 1/2" of water per week or less. The grass has to beg to get watered now. We'll see. |
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