st augustine grass started looking like this (pic inside) (Houston: military, vs)

[Brom]

my st. augustine lawn is filled with this grass. i'm not sure if this is st augustine when it grows or a type of weed that i should kill.

[crone]

It is making seed. Leave it alone.

[Brom]

Originally Posted by crone

It is making seed. Leave it alone.

ok tnx.. should i remove my mow mulch bag when i mow so the seed will go to the soil?

[DanielWayne]

Those are seeds. I don't know if removing mulch bag helps, but that's what I did - hoping those seeds survive. I'm not sure if the seeds survive when the grass is clipped.

[crone]

St. Augustine grows better from plugs and/or sod. Not much luck with seed. Just ignore it. Continue on your usual routine.

[texsn95]

You should be mulching everything back into the grass anyways, not into a bag.

[bug_guy_lakeland]

False seed head from using too much p when fertilizing

[HoustonRonnie]

Originally Posted by bug_guy_lakeland

False seed head from using too much p when fertilizing

Poppycock! That's a normal phase for St. Augustine. As we've had higher than normal temps mixed with the shorter days of June, it throws seeds.

Nothing to worry about.

Ronnie

[TexasVines]

that is a seed head from stress

plants "think" about the next generation when they get stressed from water or lack of nutrients or when winter (for summer grasses) or spring (for winter grasses) is coming on......plants will look to throw seed for the "future" in case they die

it is really not a huge issue....if you are already watering then you probably need to water less often for longer periods of time VS watering for short periods of time frequently

short waterings cause roots to grow near the surface of the soil and to not go deeper this will mean more root mass up where the soil is warmer and it will mean less roots deeper if you do get a good rain so those roots can take up water from lower levels of the soil profile

by watering longer less frequently you get the roots to go deeper and they will have more area of soil to draw water from and more area to draw nutrients from

plant stress especially from heat and transpiration is often not from just lack of water it is from lack of available root mass to pump enough water and or too much root mass in too little area to pump enough water......shallow roots are competing for the same water and that will also be the water that dries up first during periods of less or no rain.......deeper roots again have more total area of soil to draw any available water from and that deeper soil profile will dry out more slowly than the upper soil profile

if you are watering and watering for longer periods less often, but you are not fertilizing at all now is 100% the wrong time to fertilize, but in the late fall you will want to put down a good fertilizer or in the early spring and that will help with root growth and plant stress....plants need nutrients to complete the transpiration cycle so lack of nutrients will make the plant transpire more slowly as well......so a decent fert program along with deep watering will promote deeper root growth, a better root mass, and have nutrients available so the plant can transpire

again it is not a big deal per say, but it is a sign of stress and now is the time to NOT fertilize, but you might want to in the fall or next spring

also if you want to save some money on watering many people will laugh or even try and call you out, but if you get a brief rain of only say 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch that is actually a good time to go ahead and apply some more irrigation to help move the water lower in the plant profile......it seems counter intuitive, but since the upper surface is already wet, you will be skipping over that and getting the water to move down more rapidly then you can hold off longer on your next watering

also seeding heads can come from letting a grass grow too tall....I hate to mow the lawn as much as anyone, but you should only be cutting off a small portion of the grass each cut not half of the height or more.......especially now you will not want to go out and put a harder cutting on it, but over time you will want to lower the overall height of the grass and then keep it a bit shorter and cut less of the total height off each cut......this will also promote a thicker lawn and shorter blades transpire less water as well and thicker grass shades the soil more and lessens soil drying

on the flip side if you are one of those people that will cut two times a week and keep it like a military hair cut the plant will again be stressed because it is always be trying to catch up from the cuttings.......cuttings are stressful to plants and the ends that are damaged can transpire a lot of water......a sharper mower blade will help as well since like a clean cut on your finger a clean cut on a blade of grass will heal faster than a slashed off or torn off top

grass is a lot like me.....it likes things "just so" to be at it's best

[bug_guy_lakeland]

Originally Posted by HoustonRonnie

Poppycock! That's a normal phase for St. Augustine. As we've had higher than normal temps mixed with the shorter days of June, it throws seeds.

Nothing to worry about.

Ronnie

Go ahead throw an 8-10-10 fertiljzer on st Aug grass and it grows seeds that will not germinate. The tops look like asparagus ...