Hope everyone has had a good week and enjoyed this beautiful weather. While we are still discussing grass let talk on one everyone is familiar on:

Bahiagrass

Warm season grass, resistant to drought, disease and insect attacks. Will survive in a variety of soils from sandy to clay and other infertile, dry soils. Requires some maintenance. The grass will thin out over time and has a low tolerance to many weed control herbicides. Used extensively in lawns along coastal areas in Florida. Vigorous growing habit requires frequent mowing during hot weather. It has a coarse blade and is not suitable for soils with high a pH.

Bahiagrass is drought resistant turf. It does well in lawns and along highways, and its best used in sunny areas in warm humid regions. Its roots can extend up to 8' deep.

In Florida, Bahiagrass survives in level areas with no irrigation, but often fails on sandy embankments. It can also be ruined by excess watering, when none is required, and by excess fertilization. Bahia grass normally goes semi-dormant during winter, yet people sometimes fertilize and water it to keep it green in winter, and thereby encourage weed populations.

There are no post-emergence herbicides for grassy weeds in Bahiagrass, which is a problem. Most weed problems in Bahiagrass could be avoided by proper seed establishment and timely mowing. The large state agencies responsible for maintenance of utility turf struggle to find funds to keep Bahiagrass mown properly. In summer its rapid vertical growth and exuberant seed head production are remarkable.

Introduced to the US in the 30s from South America as a feed grass for cattle.

Til next week when we will start discussing fertilizer, see you soon.

                                                                                                       Lee & Veronica

St Augustinegrass "Sapphire"

'Sapphire' has a blue-green leaf color, purple stolon color, and long leaf blades that remain folded, giving the grass a fine leaf appearance. It spreads rapidly and grows aggressively during the growing season. It is susceptible to most major pests associated with St. Augustinegrass. 'Sapphire' should be mowed to a height of 2–2.5 inches. Sapphire is a hardy variety of St. Augustine grass. Sapphire was introduced in 2007 and although it has a soft texture, it’s a good choice for lawns that receive a lot of foot traffic. Sapphire St. Augustine grass is tolerant of salt, shade and drought and does not require as much maintenance or fertilization as some other St. Augustine varieties. Next week we will discuss bahiagrass and its pros and cons. Talk to you soon and don't forget to visit us at http://www.kellerkuts.com or contact us on google and twitter.

                                                                                                         Lee & Veronica

From plugs you can see that the Sapphire (right) did much better spreading than the Raleigh (Left) both are a variaty of St. Augustine grasses.

South Florida Grasses

Did you know there are five different types of St Augustinegrasses ? There is Common and Rosewood, Bitterblue, Floratine, Floratam and Palmetto. The most popular and the one you most would relate to is Floratam, its green to blue-green dense turf is well adapted to most soils and climatic regions in Florida as well as it possesses good shade tolerance and relatively good salt tolerance, even though chinch bugs affect Floratam it is highly resistant to them. Floratam was introduced in 1973 by the University of Florida and is the most widely produced and used St Augustinegrass in Florida. Stay tuned next week when we go over a few other grasses popular in the southern region and how to maintain and when to fertilize, and be sure to check us out at http://www.kellerkuts .com. See you soon.