Perhaps you run your lawn a little drier than the St. Augustine prefers. The best ways don’t use any chemicals but do require a large amount of patience. Some people mix the two turfgrasses, others choose to seed or sod with just one. How much traffic will there be on your lawn? Whereas you’re sure to get thinning and patches where Bermudagrass is left to the mercy of shade, St. Augustine can tolerate it much better. Another factor to consider is traffic. It requires at least 5 hours of direct sunlight to grow and thrive really well. Here’s a photo of Bermuda grass to help you with identification: The type of grass you’ll choose for your lawn depends on your preferences and the setup of your lawn. Do both Bermuda and St Augustine grasses go dormant in winter when night temperature can reach 25 degrees F? Both St. Augustine and Bermuda grass have great weed tolerance. Nice article! Have a semi-large area of StAug that died I believe due to lack of water over the summer. Quite a mix-up I ended up with there when editing the final copy. Saint Augustine grass has a higher tolerance for shade. In most cases ... where there is a mix of Bermuda and St. Augustine ... cultural practices will help St. Augustine win the battle. Both St. Augustine grass and Bermuda grass are great warm-season lawn grasses. rye goes down into st. augustine at about 8-10 pounds per 1000 sq. Thank you. Amazon, the Amazon logo, AmazonSupply, and the AmazonSupply logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. The plugs, which are rooted pieces of sod, gradually fill in the spaces between them, producing a full, beautiful lawn. Get St. Augustine Sod or Plugs Sent Directly To Your Door, St. Augustine Grass vs Bermuda Grass – Differences, St. Augustine Grass Identification (Pictures), Bermuda Grass Identification (with Pictures), Shop All St. Augustine and Bermuda sod options here, Pennington Smart Sun and Shade Grass Seed, 7 Pounds, How Short To Cut Grass Before Winter? 13 posts • Page 1 of 1. We have the same problem with Brown spots. If you do, note that Bermuda grass can easily outgrow St. … Using Bermuda Grass To Establish a St. Augustine Lawn If you live in a region where St. Augustine is especially happy, you may be able to use Bermuda to your advantage. Sounds like you just need to add in some St Augustine plugs in the bare spots and that will fill in in short time. Can we add seed to fill in these spots? If your lawn gets easily infested by weeds such as crabgrass, planting either Bermuda or St. Augustine will help you control them easily because these two will easily compete with the weeds and overcome them with ease. St. Augustine Grass is blue-green in color and has large, flat stems and broad, coarse leaves. Thank you very much for pointing out those discrepancies. If your St. Augustine lawn is failing, or is infected with brown patches or chinch bugs, overseeding St. Augustine with Bermuda can be a viable option. Gardeners enjoy this grass type for its compressed grass blades that contribute a dense texture for lawns. A Bermuda lawn is less expensive and easier to establish a thicker turf with frequent mowing. Should you choose Bermuda grass or St. Augustine grass? By using 4 to 5 pounds of nitrogen on Bermuda and St. Augustine grass mixture, gardeners contribute enough nutrients to make both grass types healthy. I have seen videos where I should maybe spray Tenacity for the weeds then use an aerator before seeding, is that right? The root system is deep while the stems are a bit flat and can grow as tall as 30 cm when erect. Any suggestions so that this doesn’t happen again. A Bermuda lawn is best established from grass seed. ft. sounds like you’re going to be on the light side. But it's a much darker green as opposed to the more limer green of the st. augustine, and it's not as thick as the st. augustine (hence the reason I thought it was young st. augustine). This should not be applied to Floratam St. Augustine grass. It is expensive to establish St. Augustine because it can only be planted with sprigs, plugs, and sod. Post by Begotten » May 5th, 2014, 4:20 pm Dchall_San_Antonio wrote: This is easy, but most people will ignore this advice. Note we had all the trees and palms completely pruned so more sunlight reaches these spots. Both of these miscues could be very misleading if not corrected. For growth problems due to shade, St. Augustine (Stenotaphrum secundatum) grass is a good choice to plant with it. Alex K., Thanks for an insightful article. .) You can choose either of the two or mix the seeds and sod when planting your lawn. Please leave your comments below as I try to respond to everyone that has questions. You said in the blue table that bermuda required up to “3 times of watering in the summer”, but earlier you correctly said 3 times A WEEK during the summer. They will be overtaken by almost any other grass variety that you plant nearby, whether it's a Palisades Zoysia, or a St. Augustine, or Bermuda. We do not specifically market to children under 13. Stolons, rhizomes, and seeds are the main ways this grass spreads. St. Augustine lawns are expensive to maintain because they require frequent fertilization, mowing and watering. I would strongly recommend going planting St. Augustine grass if your yard is surrounded by trees and buildings that block sunlight for the most part of the day. Additionally, Crabgrass Lawn (crabgrasslawn.com) participates in various other affiliate programs, and we sometimes get a commission through purchases made through our links. Helping gardeners grow their dreams since 1997.No-dash-here, you've found The Real Garden Helper! Re: Example of Bermuda/St Augustine mix lawn. St. Augustine and Bermuda can serve different purposes, have different care requirements, and thrive best in different environments. It is recommended that you fertilize overseeded Bermuda grass, and do so twice - in December and February. Yes, Southern Ag Atrazine Weed Killer for St. Augustine Grasses is able to be used on St. Augustine Floratam lawns. . Growing up I remember that my family had one of the best lawns in the neighborhood. Along the same lines, you said at the beginning (in the aqua-colored call out box) “In summary, Bermuda grass is highly drought-resistant and can tolerate hot weather in summer WITHOUT WATER . For Bermuda seed go with…. You’d pick them if you live in warm areas and would like to grow a great lawn. Those other varieties will run right over the top of the fine-bladed Zoysia grasses because they grow so slowly. Will they recover in the spring and completely grow back? Simply mowing properly is the answer nine in 10 times. St Augustine won’t go dormant but will grow slower in winter. The Garden Helper is a free gardening encyclopedia and guides to growing and caring for gardens, plants and flowers. I have St augustine grass mixed with bermuda grass. Thank you very much for your support. Hi Craig, sorry for the late reply. Like Bermuda grass, it spreads above-the-ground runners (also called stolons) and develops into a thick, dense turf rather easily. Let’s start off with the most important element for plant life: water. I live in zone 10a in a San Diego suburb. We had a full backyard of new sod put down 2 years ago and under the trees as time went on weeds just grew, so that’s why we filled in this year. So if you see Bermuda grass starting to invade your St. Augustine grass lawn, the best way to control it would be to kill the Bermuda grass and enough of the surrounding St. Augustine grass to ensure that you’ve killed all of the Bermuda grass runners. The good news is that Bermuda and St. Augustine grasses can co-exist in Gainesville lawns and the grass can still look overall healthy. If you mow as tall as your mower will allow, the St. Augustine will almost always crowd out the Bermuda. If you want St. Augustine lawn with Bermuda then go for it. …and for St. Augustine, go with these plugs: (note there is no such thing at St. Augustine seed, use plugs instead). They are popular for their hardiness against weeds. Augustine yard out to Zoysia. In summary, Bermuda grass is highly drought-resistant and can tolerate hot weather in summer without water while St. Augustine grass will require a lot of water to do well. Both St. Augustine and Bermuda grass types are relatively low maintenance and thrive in the heat. I live in N.E. An easy way to start a St. Augustine lawn is to plant plugs of established grass. 25 pounds of rye seed isn’t much. The Palmetto cultivar is the most shade-loving of all. Yes probably too late now to get the best benefit. Improve soil quality. The shadiest half is purely St. Augustine, the rest is about 75% St. Augustine but there is no getting rid of the Bermuda. You can choose either of the two or mix the seeds and sod when planting your lawn. Uses up to 30% less water versus ordinary grass seed, Contains grass seed varieties that thrive in both sun and shade. CrabGrassLawn is a Wiki for Lawn Enthusiasts by Lawn Experts. St. Agustine grass (Stenotaphrum secundatum) is best suited for tropical and sub-tropical climates. I also have chickens who have really done a disservice to my St Augustine In the back yard. St. Augustine grass should be mowed to between 1 and 3 inches. I live in St Augustine area(no pun intended. And during the summer, does Bermuda grass need 1/2 to 1/3 the water of Saint Augustine grass? Bermuda grass requires full sunlight all day long to grow optimally. Keep it watered only when it needs it and it should grow in. Note: Due to New California State restrictions, this Can Not be Sold in California. It is both a pre-emergent and post emergent and is best applied when weeds are small or have not yet emerged. For example, Bermuda grass is great for heavy foot traffic while St. Augustine grass does not tolerate foot traffic so well. Thanks In advance for your answers! Houston Grass Owner Michael Romine answers that question in this video. I noticed a couple of discrepancies that, when corrected, will make it even better. Hi Steve, Do you think this is a fungus? Let’s delve deeper and compare these two great turfgrasses, their similarities, and differences. You're in luck.Bermuda and St Augustine both love sand.Simply throw some sand in the bare spots and the grass will run there. timmmbo fisher Posts: 3 Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2018 3:23 pm Location: Central Texas Grass Type: Bermuda, mix Lawn Size: 7,000sq ft Mower: Rotary. And, having said that, if you take fairly good care of your lawn, St. Augustine is almost always the predominating grass. I can say I have years of experience, and I am here to share it with you. Some grass species do well under foot traffic stress while others don’t. With those things corrected, this is a very useful article – thanks!! Bermuda grass is usually identified by its spikelets that are borne in four or five slender spikes at the tips of the upright stems. Patrick Dickinson, the Urban Water Program Coordinator at Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center, suggests St. Augustine will lose this category of the turf wars, because it greedily slurps up twice the amount of water as Bermuda grass. Bermuda will go dormant in winter but will come back once temps are normally above 70 degrees at night. According to the University of Texas, this grass is native to the regions surrounding the Gulf of Mexico. As such, they’re able to crowd out and kill weeds on their own so that you won’t use much lawn weed killers. Hi Cynthia, thanks for writing in. We have some new St. Augustine sod that was just laid to build out the flower beds a little more. Both Bermuda and St. Augustine are warm-season grasses and will thrive a lot better in warm conditions. Less sunlight will retard its growth due to reduced photosynthesis. 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