Quote:
Originally Posted by ramman434
I'm curious how this goes for you. I'm down in Pompano, so I'm assuming we have similar grass/soil. I'm debating on how to move forward with getting all the weeds/crap out of the Saint Augustine.
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It’s taken me many years to figure out what to do, and there is no way to ever remove all weeds. In fact, years back, our lawn was so bad, I had it re-sodded because if it gets bad enough, it’s throwing money and time at treatments that will never completely work. If crab grass is all over, it’s time for Round Up.
I put down pre-emergent in late September (we had a reasonable temp stretch for a week) and will do it again in December. I followed that Sept application with a light application of fertilizer the same day. In between (now) I’ll put down the weed n feed with atrazine. Similar in Feb / early May but no more weed n feed. Fertilizer instead. I’ll spot spray stuff if I notice any weeds but like I said, you never get them all. I don’t fertilize or treat for weeds in the hot period of late May - late Sept.
I also put down pest control every 2-3 months. I seem to have the best luck with Bio Advanced Complete Insect Killer. It is important the product lists sod webworms, which are difficult to eradicate. Also need to water properly and not overdo it. Lawn Care Nut on YouTube has a lot of good videos. You don’t need to go to some of his extremes, but he has some good tips.
You can have a pretty nice lawn with St. Augustine but it takes time, effort and money. Throwing down some product every once in a while is just throwing away money. I still have a lawn service to cut, but took fertilizing back from them to DIY and also fired pest control service to DIY when they almost killed my new sod years back.
Here’s a couple of quick pictures. The second shows where my yard ends and my neighbor’s begins. Believe it or not, they had that lawn re-sodded 2 or 3 years ago but just never managed fertilizer, weeds or pests. Unfortunately, that’s what a lot of St. Augustine yards look like.