Is this Bahia, St Augustine or?

Bermuda, St. Augustine, Zoysia, Centipede, Bahia, Paspalum, etc
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lojack323
Posts: 34
Joined: August 1st, 2018, 12:16 pm
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
Grass Type: St. Augustine
Lawn Size: < 1000
Level: Some Experience

Is this Bahia, St Augustine or?

Post by lojack323 » August 8th, 2018, 2:34 am

Long time lurker, first time poster.

I’ve been trying to ID the grass in my front yard. At first I assumed it was St Augustine but after hours of comparing pictures online I’m leaning towards the possibility it’s a variety of Bahia. It’s growing like crazy this summer and since I’ve been mowing every 3-4 days I haven’t had a seedhead pop up to help with the ID.

Some background on the smallish (~5-600 sq ft) front lawn. Early this spring we redid our front yard including the entire in ground irrigation. Knowing we would have weed issues we seeded fescue anyway wanting to at least have some green on the lawn (and hoping something would survive the summer). The prior lawn was a mix of many different grasses and weeds which we nuked. A month after seeding we noticed what we thought was St. Augustine had somehow survived and was growing like crazy with the warmer weather. We decided to encourage it and leave the fescue mainly to keep the soil intact until the st Augustine took over. Flash forward it’s taken over about 80% of the space and still spreading like crazy. I’ve been pushing the growth with biweekly Milorganite, monthly alfalfa pellets and used coffee grounds at about 20lbs / 1k sq ft.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions. Lurking this site has taught me more than I thought I ever wanted to know about lawns and soil :rotfl:

Pictures of the runners
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Picture of a runner that’s rooted.

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lojack323
Posts: 34
Joined: August 1st, 2018, 12:16 pm
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
Grass Type: St. Augustine
Lawn Size: < 1000
Level: Some Experience

Re: Is this Bahia, St Augustine or?

Post by lojack323 » August 8th, 2018, 10:09 am

A couple pictures from overhead.
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Dchall_San_Antonio
Posts: 3339
Joined: December 17th, 2008, 1:53 am
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Grass Type: St Augustine
Lawn Size: 5000-10000
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Re: Is this Bahia, St Augustine or?

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » August 9th, 2018, 6:42 pm

From what I can see in the initial postage stamp sized images, it is not St Augustine. Whatever it is, it is very dense and lawnlike.

One little bit concerns me. Take a look at your second picture of the second post. Scroll to the bottom and look up about half way. See the three black spots on the grass blade just to the left of center? Those are fungal lesions - disease. The fact there is only one blade with obvious spots likely means you don't have a problem, but it should not be there. Don't get alarmed and go off spraying fungicide. I need more information before calling this a problem. So, what is your watering schedule? How often and for how long do you water?

lojack323
Posts: 34
Joined: August 1st, 2018, 12:16 pm
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
Grass Type: St. Augustine
Lawn Size: < 1000
Level: Some Experience

Re: Is this Bahia, St Augustine or?

Post by lojack323 » August 10th, 2018, 11:09 pm

Hi dchall. Currently watering 1/2” twice a week at 7am. I was debating on that or 1” all at once but I thought spreading it out might help with the runners rooting. We don’t normally get rain during the summer here (or any time of the year really lol) but it’s been unusually humid. Thanks for your help.

I’ll try to re upload the first set of pictures of the runners. Still trying to get a hang of posting pictures on this forum.


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lojack323
Posts: 34
Joined: August 1st, 2018, 12:16 pm
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
Grass Type: St. Augustine
Lawn Size: < 1000
Level: Some Experience

Re: Is this Bahia, St Augustine or?

Post by lojack323 » August 11th, 2018, 1:14 pm

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lojack323
Posts: 34
Joined: August 1st, 2018, 12:16 pm
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
Grass Type: St. Augustine
Lawn Size: < 1000
Level: Some Experience

Re: Is this Bahia, St Augustine or?

Post by lojack323 » August 13th, 2018, 11:37 pm

I was out of town for a few days and let the grass go for a week without mowing. Got a seedhead to pop up. I’m pretty sure it’s bahia now but still open to suggestions!

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gardenpants
Posts: 140
Joined: September 15th, 2016, 5:16 pm
Location: Dallas, TX
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Re: Is this Bahia, St Augustine or?

Post by gardenpants » August 14th, 2018, 6:37 pm

Lojack, I'm going to muddy the water a bit.

What you have is a Paspalum seedhead. However, there are two types of paspalum that are used as lawn grasses. One is Bahia (Paspalum notatum), the other is Seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum). From what I have seen, in Bahia, the two seed "branches" are held upright, making a "V" shape. In Seashore paspalum the two branches are flatter, like what you see in your photo. I'm going to vote that what you have is Seashore paspalum.

lojack323
Posts: 34
Joined: August 1st, 2018, 12:16 pm
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
Grass Type: St. Augustine
Lawn Size: < 1000
Level: Some Experience

Re: Is this Bahia, St Augustine or?

Post by lojack323 » August 14th, 2018, 11:17 pm

Thanks for helping narrow it down gardenpants. I took a walk with the dogs yesterday and noticed almost every yard has some growing in it. At least I know where it came from now lol.

lojack323
Posts: 34
Joined: August 1st, 2018, 12:16 pm
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
Grass Type: St. Augustine
Lawn Size: < 1000
Level: Some Experience

Re: Is this Bahia, St Augustine or?

Post by lojack323 » August 22nd, 2018, 5:25 pm

For those of you familiar with seashore care.

Since I had assumed it was st Augustine I’ve been cutting it at my mowers highest setting which is 3.75”. I’ve been reading as much as possible about care/maintenance as well as Southernguy311’s entire 16 page thread. Should I be cutting this much shorter? I want it to thrive longterm.

Also I saw that he verticuts it. I haven’t been able to find anything about it other than in his thread. Is this standard practice for seashore?

Thanks in advance.

gardenpants
Posts: 140
Joined: September 15th, 2016, 5:16 pm
Location: Dallas, TX
Grass Type: Southern mix
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Level: Not Specified

Re: Is this Bahia, St Augustine or?

Post by gardenpants » August 22nd, 2018, 5:58 pm

Verticutting is generally only done if there is a lot of thatch. If the lawn is properly maintained, it should have minimal problems with thatch, and should not need verticutting.

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