Growing grass is a lot like farming – There are good years and bad years.
2024 was a bad year for growing grass. The spring drought and draconian water restrictions destroyed acres of urban turf. The thin dead areas of St Augustine grass soon yielded to patches of wild grasses (crabgrass and other species) that prefer hotter dryer cultural conditions. Fueled by heavy rains in the summer these wild grasses flourished.
However, these wild grasses are undesirable for lawns – mainly because they turn brown in the cooler months. Even though the wild grasses were green last month, they turn brown with cooler shorter days creating ugly patches of brown grass in your lawn.
Herbicides Don’t Work
Herbicides are not the answer. There is no product you can spray on St Augustine grass that will eliminate the wild grasses and not the St Augustine. There is no smart herbicide that can distinguish between desirable grass and unwanted grass – it just doesn’t exist.
Proper Culture is the Solution
St Augustine prefers being wet and tall whereas the wild grasses prefer dry and short. Therefore, the solution is to keep the St Augustine tall and wet, and it will become the dominating species – the taller and wetter the culture, the more St Augustine, less wild grasses.
Cultural control is a process, that takes growing seasons to produce results. The best solution to wild grasses is prevention – don’t let your lawn become dry and short. A quicker solution is remove and replace – remove the wild grasses and replace with St Augustine sod.
