Good Grass - Bad Grass
 

Ok, St. Augustine grass experts. Are the runners in the middle of the picture good grass or bad grass? If it is not St Augustine grass runners what is it? Thanks.

Looks like St Augustine to me. I’d recommend top dressing the area with soil/sand to cover the runners. This will help it thicken up.

You could even google St Augustine grass to do a comparison.

Remember, best not to scalp St Augustine….it needs to be tall….like 3.5” +. It’s a challenge when you’re running a line trimmer…that’s probably why you have all those bare spots.

A lot of us have that grass mixed in with our St Augustine. It tends to take over. I will pull those runners up when I see them, and it tends to keep that grass from spreading. Eventually the St Augustine takes over. One of my neighbors has a section of yard that has been taken over by it. It looks good, just noticeably different.

I thought those runners ARE St. Augustine grass. They just have to fill in to make a nice thick lawn. Right now I've got these runners of St. Augustine "running" onto the Zosia in my front yard. I've been waiting for this to happen. I'm hoping in another year or so my front yard will be all St. Augustine. Most of our property is St. Augustine, all from a few pieces of sod that were placed in the back yard by the previous owner of our home. I got this info from a neighbor. One of my other neighbors in the back/side of our property had St. Augustine grass creeping onto our Zoisia. The St. Augustine won and the Zoisia is gone.

Not all St. Augustine should be mowed the same height. There are several different strains. The S.A. used for new builds south of 44 is ProVista and needs to be mowed between 3 to 4 inches. But other strains should be kept at 2.5 to 3 inches.

The ProVista strain is tolerant of glyphosate weed killer while the other strains are not.

Best to know what strain you have in order to take care of it.

"runners"..............make sure it's not Torpedo Grass.

Differences between Torpedo and Augustine
 

St. Augustine is a great grass for down here. Torpedo grass is an enemy that gets 3-4 seed heads that fan out. Its main stalk and leaves are finer than St. Augustine. Don’t fret if you have it though, it can be easily killed by Glyphosate. Just spray it and it’s gone in about 2 weeks.

What you have could be OK? It’s hard to tell without the tell tale sign of the seed heads.

Be careful in the cool season as roundup will kill pro Vista when it's not actively growing. Mix it half strength.

Glyphosate is a “kill everything” product and will kill ProVista. Maybe you meant tolerant to 2-4-D instead?

You are correct St Augustine and the runners are good as your advice to top dress it. I would suggest using black cow.

This “grass” is more of a vine than traditional grass. The runner you see is part of a very thin lawn. Enrich the lawn with a quality fertilizer like Scott’s plus2 and it will thicken up

You are correct except that The Villages changed back to Floratam St Augustine grass (used in yards above 44) but South of the MickeyLee course maintenance building on Megasson down to 470, according to the Property Management people I had at my home in Newell about the common area along roads and trails.

Nope.
glysophate tolerant pro vista st augustine - Google Search

ProVista is the first SA variety tolerant to glyphosate. All other SA varieties cannot tolerate it.

Interesting that they would switch away from ProVista. To verify, you can check the build spec for your house that shows all the colors, material, brands and etc. It also shows the sod used for the lawn.

St. Augustine runners
 

These runners are called stolons and are part of St. Augustine grass. They are growing to help thicken the lawn and fill in bare spots. Do NOT pull them out but you can cut them back if they are growing into your flower beds. I tuck the ones growing on top of the lawn, back down into the grass. This type of grass looks great (lush, thick and green all year) but it's difficult walking on this spongy type of grass!

I respectfully disagree with the notion that only the ProVista cultivar of St Augustine grass should be mowed at 3.5+”.

All cultivars of St Augustine except the dwarf cultivar (Seville) should be mowed at 3.5 - 4”
Seville should be mowed at 2 - 2.5”

Keep your Floratam, ProVista, Raleigh, Palmetto, Classic, Bitterblue and Citrablue cultivars mowed at 3.5” - 4” for a thick, healthy and weed-free yard.

I have read several of the Sod Solutions articles and get their emails. My preference for information related to lawn care is the University of Florida and the Extension Office.

Clarify Please
 

I thought you were not allowed to change your type of grass within a village. please comment?

thank you

That’s my understanding as well.

Just mow it along with whatever weeds show up. No one will know the difference.

Wrong
 

Absolutely untrue. I have used it for years. The ProVista St. Augustine isn’t harmed when you use glyphosate 41%. It’s wonderful for the turf war South of 44.

All the runners are St. Augustine. St. Augustine grass is a "weed". In '05-'06 The Villages switched from St. Augustine to Zoysia because Zoysia grass needs less water and if you water it too much you kill it. Why they switched back to St. Augustine is probably because they got a better deal. I hate St. Augustine grass because it is too tough to cut, chinch bugs, and is too spongy to walk on.

That is centipede grass. Sometimes simbionic relationships are good. Maybe those 2 grasses would be good. Centipede stays gree in a drought.

If it looks good why rip it out?

The softball fields use a low height grass that is very tough growing. It may be centipede. Maybe another type of low grower?

In Florida it's St Augustine any place else it's crab grass, and considered a nuisance.

ugh. . the autowatering didn't water last summer and there were large patches of lost St Augustine, and the torpedo weeds took over. Looks and acts alot like St Augustine, but thinner and spreads more rapidly than st augustine.

Tough to keep up when the wind blows the weeds everywhere and the weather didn't cooperate with rain on our street . .

St. Augustine grass is nothing like crab grass. The only crab grass I know was on Long Island, NY. A lawn of St. Augustine grass looks like a carpet if it is nice and healthy. Crab grass could never look that good.