I want to kill the weeds in my St. Augustine grass

[bob callaway]

What is the process to use to kill the weeds in my st. Augustine grass. I know it's not a overnight process, but I have to start somewhere?

[Bob-tx]

You don't say where you are, and it makes a difference. Corn Glutton is very good to keep weed seeds from germinating, but must be used before seeds germinate.

Whatever, do NOT use poison / herbicide such as Round Up.

A very effective way to get rid of weeds, and also good for yourself, is to pull them - probably the best way.

Bob-tx

[HeyBub]

A lush St Augistine lawn will choke most out, so properly tending to the grass - and keeping it neatly mowed - will be a big help.

As for the rest, it depends entirely on the type of weed as to which poison is appropriate. Ask at your local lawn and garden shop. Take a sample weed.

[krw]

Is St. Augustine somehow different from other grass? I generally just apply fertilizer with a broadleaf weed killer in the spring, after the second or third mowing. Something like (but pretty much any brand will do):

[norminn]

St. Augustine is very different and requires special herbicides. Weed BGone always worked for us for BROADLEAF weeds...used it when hubby was building manager for our condo. We had loads of dollar weed and other broadleaafs...WBG killed almost all of the dollar weed first appl. It is not necessary to use every year...once treated, with proper mowing and watering, only spot treatment is needed. Grassy weeds, like goose grass, need other herbicides and very careful timing because they are pre-emergents herbicides.

Have to be careful with WBG not to get it on shrubs and other broadleaf plants. There is a caution, I think, about using in root zones but it never hurt any other plants when we used it. Weeds should be "actively growing", so we would fertilize and then treat for weeds about two weeks later. WBG, last time I used it, was labeled for St. Augustine specifically; don't use an herbicide that is not. Don't want to use when weather is very hot/dry.

A slow-release fertilizer is also best to use. $cott's is a brand I avoid;

[krw]

The link above does say it's for St. Augustine. I've used similar products on Kentucky Blue, Creeping Red Fescue, and the Zoysia we have now, all with good results. Zoysia is another species that grows so dense nothing else has a chance. Well, I do see a little clover since it wakes up earlier in the spring.

It's only a little on the pricey side.

[JIMMIE]

St Augustine grass usually needs little help. It will choke out just about anything if it is healthy. Best thing is to keep it watered and fertilized and it will do its thing. St Augustine does go dormant in the winter. If the weeds are coming up before it comes out of its dormant period you can go ahead and spray with Roundup and it wont hurt the grass. This gets rid of most weeds, wild onions and competing grasses.

Jimmie

[gfretwell]

St Augustine is a weed but it is about the only thing that grows in Florida. It is probably Floratam. They have plenty of chemicals to keep this weed going but I won't screw with it. Too much water required to keep it alive and too much maintenance (there are some bugs that just love it). Plant Bahia after it dies out from a drought and get on with your life.

[KC]

Bahia?? I hope that was a joke. Ok for pastures but definitely a bad choice for a lawn with it's 12" overnight growth seed heads.

[norminn]

Scott's sells a lot of chemical that is not needed..."if a little is good, a lot is a hell of a lot better"...nobody needs routine weed control. Proper mowing, feeding and watering will do a great deal to keep weeds down. All-over weed control might be good once; after that, maintenance will keep weeds down. Hand pulling one weed might get rid of hundreds of seeds...common sense. If they begin to get out of control, then spot treat. IMO, Scotts are like the exterminators who will not do a one time treatment but insist on only selling "programs" that overdose the environ with poison.

There are different versions of Weed B Gone, or were last time I shopped.

[norminn]

Roundup kills everything, including grass.

[gfretwell]

That reseeds the yard for free ;-)

If you use Floritam you need a bunch of chemicals and some are now prohibited here in the rainy season along with most fertilizers. In the winter you have to water the hell out of Floratam and that is limited too, perhaps soon to be banned. It is just a horrible use of resources trying to keep a 12 month lawn. I let that bahia brown out in the dry season and it pops right back up when the rain starts.

[hahlbnt5]

You want to KILL...... Everyone wants to KILL.......

You're a killer and a murderer. I hope the police arrest you before you do any more killing. Today you will kill weeds, next week it will be the neighbor's pets, and the folloeing week you will kill the neighbors and their children. You're a very sick and deranged psychotic murderer. Get help, you need it...... Just go to your nearest police station, walk inside, and say to them "I WANT TO KILL". They'll lock you behind bars where you will be unable to kill ever again. Go now. Do not delay.

[gfretwell]

"then the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me, said you are our kind of boy and sent me on down the hall"

[krw]

Sure. The reason for the early application of the broadleaf/crabgrass killer is to get it as it emerges. You don't know it's there until it does and then it's too late to do anything about it. It's a lot easier to nip this stuff in the bud, so to speak.

Sure, that's pretty much what I do. Watering isn't always possible, however. Weeds can get a foothold pretty quickly.

The "poisons" are very short lived. Like I said, I do it once in the spring and fertilize once in the late summer or early fall. ...and pile on the ant killer by the ton. ;-)

[Ron]

Yeah, well that depends on where you live, what kind of seeds are being spread in the air, and what kind of bugs are present.

At the last home that I owned all I did was water my St Augustine lawn and use some Scott's Weed and Feed once or twice a year.

In the home I'm in now, I've re-sodded it 3 times in 8 yrs, and as of now I have nothing but weeds.....again And that was with watering, fertilizing, spot killing weeds, bug treatment (mostly for chinch bugs), re-sodding small areas that died, everything short of using a lawn service. It's gonna stay weeds now. As long as it's green I have other things to spend money on. F it.

BTW, in the cul-de-sac that I live in, one person that uses a lawn service has a decent lawn, and she still gets brown patches every yr for whatever reason. In my last home, there were never any brown patches, and the turf was so thick you could walk on it with your bare feet.

[Ron]

Scott's Weed and Feed if it's a nice healthy lawn. Unless you have those weeds that have "spurs". I can't think of the name of them right now, but there is only one product that will kill them. It's very expensive and you have to get it from a specialty store. Home Depot or Lowes doesn't carry it.

[norminn]

Resod 3 x in 8 years?!! That's insane. You in Florida? Sounds like Florida lawns....we couldn't kill our lawn 3 x in 8 years if we tried :o) Common mistake here is to treat for chinch bugs when the actual problem is watering too much or wrong time of day so the lawn stays wet too long. Water deep, early morning, 2x week. St. Augustine can look a little wilty before it needs water badly. Weed and feed 2x year is overkill. No lawn should need all-over herbicide 2x year. Slow release nitrogen, cheap version, does very nicely.

My mom used indoor/outdoor "program" for pest control .. could smell the malathion indoors with the house closed up. I don't worry about the bugs that live outdoors, but kill the ones that come indoors. Our condo had carpenter ant infestations all around the property and with two units having bad indoor infestations when we moved here...cleaned up dead wood in hedges, trimmed trees, repaired damaged wood on outside of bldg., repaired damaged roof and the carpenter ants were gone and haven't returned.

[Ron]

Globe sedge is what it's called, and it is very hard to get rid of. Some lawn services won't even guarantee complete removal.

[Ron]

Yep, Orlando. Like I said, home 1 lawn fine with little work. Home 2 lawn sucks. No matter what I've tried I couldn't keep it alive. I'm done with it. Obviously this cul-de-sac is just a bad area to try and have a nice lawn. Had a neighbor that re-sodded theirs 2 yrs ago, and now 75% of it is weeds.