How To Repair St. Augustine Grass

With the arrival of jump comes colorful, blooming flowers, singing birds and the return of light-green St. Augustine lawns. For u.s.a. lawn and garden lovers, this is one of the virtually heady times of the year!

It'southward important to note that seasonal St. Augustine maintenance slightly differs each season as temperatures and soil atmospheric condition change. In the spring, St. Augustine is just starting to come out of dormancy and turn green again.

Depending on where you're located, your St. Augustine may not have fifty-fifty gone dormant at all!

Read on for a list our turfgrass experts put together on some of the most important spring backyard care tips for your St. Augustine grass going into the spring season.

Be sure to too refer to our St. Augustine Homeowner Maintenance Guides forgeneric St. Augustine,Palmetto® St. Augustine andCitraBlue® St. Augustine. Each maintenance guide is divided into sections for spring, summer and fall maintenance.

Watch our serial of St. Augustine spring lawn maintenance tips in the playlist beneath. Select the icon in the summit right-mitt corner to navigate through the playlist.

1. Begin Mowing Your Lawn at the Proper Top Again

The timing for which the first mow of the spring for your mature, established St. Augustine widely varies depending on the surface area you live in. St. Augustine can come out of dormancy differently depending on the environment and temperatures your area encounters.

For example, if you live in Due south Florida, your St. Augustine may accept never entered dormancy at all during the winter. Many homeowners who live in Southward Florida will mow their lawn every other week during the wintertime—oftentimes starting in September and resuming a regular, weekly mowing schedule again in mid-March.

Generally speaking, mid-March is about the fourth dimension for you to begin your regimen for spring green-up and mowing. It's of import to annotation that the first mow of the spring shouldn't have place while your St. Augustine lawn is dormant—wait until information technology's actively growing over again earlier mowing and never remove more than a tertiary of the foliage blade or you may take a chance scalping the lawn.

Keep your St. Augustine betwixt ii–4 inches in height. However, these heights slightly vary for different cultivars of St. Augustine. For example,Palmetto should be maintained at a height of 1.5–2.v inches whereasCitraBlue should exist kept at a superlative of 2–3 inches during the jump.

Lastly, a good tip for bound is to brand sure yourlawn mower blades are sharpened and then that the mower blades neatly slice through the grass in place of ripping them. If the grass blades aren't cut neatly, the mower is ripping them and opens the grass upwards to possibility of disease.

Performing regularmaintenance on your mower is good practise for the end of the mowing flavour or before spring takes place.

2. Start Your Lawn Off Correct with the Advisable Leap Fertilizer This Year

With most St. Augustine grass coming out of dormancy, the spring is i of the most important times to utilize fertilizer. The best fertilizer for St. Augustine grass needs to promote good for you roots and the render of light-green leaf blades.

Exist careful when making your get-go St. Augustine fertilizer application of the year though—it is common for homeowners to come across their grass dark-green up and immediately pull out the fertilizer and lawn mower.

Nosotros suggest that you typically expect until the terminal frost has hitting. If you fertilize your backyard and some other frost hits, your St. Augustine will get right back into dormancy and you'll have a harder fourth dimension getting it to dark-green upwards again. This does more harm than skilful.

The date of the last frost varies from location to location. In the Florida Panhandle, for example, St. Augustine may not become dormant and will reach its full green-upwardly in early February (depending on how cold the winter was).

Even then, you won't want to use fertilizer until after Easter once the final frost has passed. Refer to theFarmer's Almanac to effigy out the last frost date for your area in 2022.

Sod University recommends two different options for St. Augustine bound fertilization: Lawnifi® Foundation, a slow-release granular selection that comes in 25 lb. numberless and lasts for three months, and our Lawnifi Spring Fertilizer Box, a liquid fertilizer program that includes three bottles of liquid fertilizer that can be practical monthly with a hose-end sprayer.

Each of the two options are great St. Augustine grass fertilizers that embrace 5,000 sq. ft. Acquire more inGranular vs. Liquid Fertilizers or by clicking the two products listed beneath.

Our patented nano-fertilizers withCatalyst Technology ^TM give your St. Augustine backyard the jump-first it needs to emerge from dormancy, dark-green up fast and thrive throughout the spring months.

ReadWhy Utilise Lawnifi Fertilizer? for more information about Lawnifi.

Bound Fertilizer Box

Product on auction

$49.99
Lawnifi Foundation

$49.99

Next, it is important to mention that you may beginning to detect spots of brown or harbinger-like grass while the rest of your lawn comes out of dormancy. This is commonly a sign of disease.

You do non want to apply fertilizer to a lawn with illness as the nitrogen in the fertilizer will feed the disease and promote its growth. Apply a systemic fungicide commencement and then look several weeks before following with a fertilizer application.

three. Prepare a Bound Irrigation Schedule

Fallow St. Augustine doesn't need much water until the active growing flavor kicks in and your grass starts to green upwardly. In ourWinter Backyard Maintenance Tips article, we state that if you have a fallow, warm flavor backyard, it is not dead—it's just "sleeping".

Although dormant grass requires much less water than it would while information technology is actively growing, it will still need water. Once it starts to come out of dormancy, St. Augustine requires about one inch of water per calendar week including rainfall. The same can be said for the unlike brands of St. Augustine similar Palmetto or CitraBlue.

If you aren't certain how to measure how much water your lawn is receiving, anirrigation inspect may be benign to you. Irrigation audits provide measurable information about how much water each area of your lawn is receiving within a given corporeality of time.

If yous're a homeowner who lives far enough due south and your St. Augustine doesn't go dormant during the winter, you may continue to regularly water your lawn in the winter.

However if you lot live in South Florida, for example, you lot may plough your irrigation off completely during the winter and during the months of June–August when it rains a lot. The atmosphere in South Florida isn't usually evaporating much water and the grass isn't using it much during the winter, and so frequent irrigation isn't needed.

The next few tips in this article discuss spring applications for fungicides, herbicides or insecticides. If any of these command products or fertilizers are granular, you volition need to water the production in so that your lawn absorbs it. This means that yous will already be watering your lawn with the appropriate amount of water during the week of application.

The same can exist said with any liquid products as they are either products that adhere to the end of your garden hose or require tank mixing with water.

Above all, read and follow label instructions thoroughly earlier watering any products in.

4. Control Weeds with a Pre- or Post-Emergent Herbicide

Pre-emergents should be applied during the bound when footing temperatures reach about 55 degrees Fahrenheit. A pre-emergent herbicide functions to prevent weeds from emerging from the surface of the soil, as its name suggests.

The exact dates for these applications differ depending on the area you lot live in, just mostly speaking, pre-emergents should be applied between March 1st and March 15th in the jump.

For more information, read ourblog on bound pre-emergent applications and refer to our recommended pre-emergent herbicides beneath.

How-do-you-do-Yield Atrazine Weed Killer

$xvi.95 – $nineteen.95
Spectracide Weed Finish For Lawns For St. Augustine & Centipede

$xvi.95
Crabgrass Control Plus 0-0-vii with 0.37% Prodiamine Herbicide

$54.95
Prodiamine 65 WDG

$99.95
Dimension 2EW

$149.95 – $639.95

Apply post-emergent herbicides throughout the bound as needed to control summer annual and perennial broadleaf or grassy weeds similarknotweed,spurge, sandspur, dallisgrass, dandelion, chickweed, dollarweed, doveweed,lespedeza, crabgrass or goosegrass.

Atrazine-based post-emergents similar the ones below are the most effective command product for St. Augustine lawns. They also serve as an excellent pre-emergent herbicide.

Exist sure to follow production labels accordingly during application. Lastly, if y'all find weeds and y'all aren't sure which blazon of weed it is, check out ourIdentifying Common Lawn Weeds blog.

Notation: St. Augustine and centipede lawns are sensitive to active ingredients like 2,4-D, MSMA or Mecroprop. Apply an Atrazine-based weed command production like Hi-Yield Atrazine or Spectracide Weed Finish For St. Augustine and Centipede to control weeds. Both Atrazine products serve every bit pre- and post-emergent herbicides and are the best leap backyard treatments for both grass types.

Howdy-Yield Atrazine Weed Killer

$sixteen.95 – $nineteen.95
Spectracide Weed Stop For Lawns For St. Augustine & Centipede

$16.95

Pictured in a higher place from left to right: Crabgrass, goosegrass, clover, dollarweed, knotweed, spurge, lespedeza and doveweed.

5. Watch Out for Insects That May Begin Coming Out

If your lawn has suffered from insect damage around this time in the by, it is a proficient thought to utilise a broad spectrum insecticide at this time to prevent them from coming dorsum once more. If the insecticide is a granular product, be sure to h2o it in so that information technology soaks into your soil. On the other manus, if information technology's a liquid product, yous will either demand to attach information technology to the stop of your garden hose or tank mix it.

Some of the virtually common spring insects in St. Augustine arewhite grub worms andchinch bugs.

Scotts GrubEx and Dylox 6.two are often used to care for currently existing chow worm infestations where as Imidacloprid-based products similar Merit 0.5 Yard and Merit 2F (non pictured) prevent them.

If you lot notice yellow spots in your lawn that somewhat resemble drought harm, check for chinch bug activeness. Bifenthrin products like Bifen L/P and Bifen XTS are swell for chinch bug infestations.

You can read more about these insects in ourInsect Identification blog. Refer to some of our nearly popular and effective insect control products beneath and be sure to follow product label instructions before application.

Spectracide Triazicide

$16.95
Bifen Fifty/P Insecticide Granules

$29.95
Scotts GrubEx

$41.95
Bifen XTS

$52.95 – $194.95
Merit Imidacloprid .5G Granular Insecticide

$57.95
Dylox 6.2 Granular Insecticide

$84.95

Pictured above from left to correct: White chow worms and a Southern chinch bug.

half dozen. Prevent Disease as Temperatures Begin to Warm Up

As previously mentioned, disease may start to show up as St. Augustine comes out of dormancy. If this is the case, you lot may need to brand applications of a systemic fungicide.

St. Augustine may be prone tograyness leaf spot, a affliction that shows up around this time that looks like little gray/brown spots on St. Augustine leaf blades. Fifty-fifty if you don't have disease in your backyard, it's withal good practise toutilize it preventively to go on disease from taking over—especially if you've had disease in the past around this fourth dimension.

Systemic fungicide applications should have identify earlier yous use whatever spring fertilizer. If y'all have fungus in your lawn, the nitrogen found in fertilizers ofttimes feeds it and helps it spread. Employ a systemic fungicide and look a few weeks before applying any fertilizer.

Read product labels thoroughly.

Spectracide Immunox Fungus + Insect Command

$xix.95
Heritage K Granular Fungicide

$39.95 – $84.95
Armada l WDG Fungicide

$139.95

Pictured to a higher place: A closeup of grey leaf spot in St. Augustine grass.

There are a few other optional things that can be washed to assistance your lawn thrive in the bound.

Before the onset of summertime heat, backyard patchwork and light top dressing with a sand and topsoil mix is a great way to recover any weak areas. Plugs can exist purchased to fill in areas of the lawn with blank spots. Acquire more here.

1″ Auger Flake – 72 Cell Plug Installation Tool

$19.95
CitraBlue^® St. Augustine Grass Plugs

$64.99
Palmetto® St. Augustine Grass Plugs

$64.99

Aerating your backyard is also an ideal manner to help deliver nutrients and really break up compacted soils. We typically recommend doing this once every couple of years. If yous find thatch that is thicker than 1⁄2 inch, dethatch in tardily May. Read more inAerating vs. Dethatching.

Spring maintenance tips differ from other practices that have place during the rest of the year. Weather starts to warm up and everything will plough green again. Be sure to check out our private Homeowner Maintenance Guides forgeneric St. Augustine,Palmetto® St. Augustine andCitraBlue® St. Augustine.

Lastly, if yous have a new lawn and are looking to learn well-nigh spring lawn care treatment for new sod, we recommend starting with ourinstitution guide for the first 30 days afterwards installation and then transition to 1 of the maintenance guideshere.