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Join Date: Jul 2000
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Originally Posted by brainz01 View Post
I'd be worried about using chemicals to control St. Augustine. In my experience, you'd likely just kill everything else first. It's pretty tough.

Because it spreads with runners, it's not too hard to pull out of flower beds or other small/new areas it creeps into. Not sure it'd be easy to rip out a big established patch, though -- It gets pretty interwoven and matted.

Like all plants it needs sunlight -- and St Augustine seems to really like full sun and water -- it doesn't grow well under big shade trees. And I've learned that it dies pretty quickly if covered up with dirt or debris (like from a hurricane).

If you've only got a patch of St. Augustine and don't want to rip it out by hand, consider putting a tarp or heavy trash bags over the affected area for a couple/three weeks. Use a rake to clear out the dead grass and loosen up the soil. Re-seed with whatever grass you use in your area. The grass seed will regrow before the St. Augustine does.

And you will likely have to be vigilant about pulling any roots that regrow runners, but that should be pretty obvious and relatively easy to maintain.
It also doesn't like to grow under about 80F.
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Old 08-13-2018, 02:36 PM
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