This is growing in my St. Augustine yard. Not sure if it's bermuda or a weed grass. Please advise...

Looks like a broadleaf crabgrass to me.

Where are you gardening? Kinda surprised to see crab grass in December.

Usually people try to prevent crabgrass... after you have it growing... all you can do is pull it for the chickens... they love it.

Maybe leave your grass taller when you mow?
Some people believe that a corn gluten based germination inhibitor is the way to go... as far as I'm concerned, it's green, looks like turf from the street... I don't see a problem.


Here's an article from dallas extension:
https://agrilifetoday.tamu.edu...

It's Crabgrass.
It will take over your yard if you leave it.

Corn gluten meal used as a pre emergent is a big joke and a rip off in Texas. I have used it many times with negative results. If the crabgrass seeds have already sprouted and crabgrass has appeared in your grass and is growing, the pre-emergent herbicide will do no good.

The best way to tame crab grass is to produce super healthy St Augustine in the Summer and out grow the crab grass.

Crab grass grows well in distressed soils and avoids healthy soils. You may have a nutrient imbalance in the soil and that's causing the Crab to grow.
Corn gluten meal used as a pre emergent is a big joke and a rip off in Texas. I have used it many times with negative results. If the crabgrass seeds have already sprouted and crabgrass has appeared in your grass and is growing, the pre-emergent herbicide will do no good.

The best way to tame crab grass is to produce super healthy St Augustine in the Summer and out grow the crab grass. Hand pull as much as you can this Winter.

Now is a good time to take a soil test on your lawn to make it healthy this Summer. Pick 4 spots in your lawn and dig down about 2 inchs and get a soil sample and mix all them together and send it to the soil lab at local university. $30 and its worth every penny and that's all you can do for now.

re Corn Gluten, I have had great luck with it in my yard as have a lot of others, it has to be applied prior to annual weeds from germinating, for us it is when the lilacs are just getting ready to flower (soil temp) It is approx 85% effective, plus there is a 8-10% nitrogen component.
Your results may vary depending on the soil, light, water etc


https://archive.lib.msu.edu//t...

I'm glad to hear that Corn Gluten works for someone because its a big joke in Texas and a lot of people are mad after using it. There is a class action law suit filed against the Dirt Dr. for recommending and selling it as a preemergent. Using it on warm season lawns in texas proved ineffective and turned out to be a defective product. I have worked with it many times and the only good that came from Corn Gluten was the Nitrogen content greened up the weeds and made them stronger. I will not use it anymore because it too expensive and doesn't work enough. I've been in the lawn business a long time.

oneeyeluke said:Crab grass grows well in distressed soils and avoids healthy soils. .

That is not true it likes good soil as much as any grass.

I have a lawn with excellent soil and where it gets started it is a pain to get rid of, pre-emergent or dedicated simple killer, MUST be used several years after you think it is gone or will be be back.
I have pulled and used both types of chemical for decades; Anywhere I have not put it down even though I see none, but it had been there, within three years it was back, and within five, it was a serious annoyance.
What does work best is pre-emergence and pulling what does come up BEFORE it goes to seed.
Keep at it and in a decade it become controllable.
In my garden with the best soil, I have seen individual plants that were two feet in diameter growing in the potatoes, they LOVE good mulch, it will also get over a foot tall if it needs it due to tall veggies.
I can pull every plant I see that is big enough to grab, but if I don't do the two finger pinch pull on the tiny ones, within a few weeks they are huge.

Here are a few more tips for preventing crabgrass I got off the internet.
1. Mow at the proper height. You can discourage crabgrass by mowing at the proper height for your grass type
2. Feed regularly. A thick, full lawn SELDOMS contains much crabgrass. ...
3. Deep water your lawn. ...
4. Repair lawn damage.

RpR I know you are talking from your own experience in your yards and I respect that. However I'm talking from my experience from doing Countless amount of yards in the past 15 to 20 years. I managed about 8 lawns a day, and worked 6 days a week for all those years. Maybe 5000 mows, I don't know because like I said countless lawns. And that's the reason I know what I'm talking about with Corn Gluten Meal too.

oneeyeluke said:I'm talking from my experience from doing Countless amount of yards in the past 15 to 20 years. And that's the reason I know what I'm talking about with Corn Gluten Meal.

What most of us know... is anecdotal...
Until we do side by side experiments in the same yard(s), conditions, and everything all being the same... it remains anecdotal.

For you, Luke.... you haven't had success when using corn gluten. Doesn't mean that someone who was determined to make it work couldn't experience success in your area.

As I posted above.... Some people have success using corn gluten. Doesn't mean that everybody is happy with it.

Personally, my goal when I come in on a yard with a huge wasteful lawn is to get as much of it reduced and planted with anything else that I can.... I have had some very good results with this approach.

I remember when all the organic growers around here was very excited about the possibility of have a organic permergent. It was all the talk of the town and everyone picked up bags everywhere they could find them. It was in big demand at one time you couldn't keep it stocked at the feed stores. Well it took about 10 years and there are a lot of pi__off people who found that it didn't work in texas at all. Not even a little bit. Maybe its the heat here or the type of summer grasses, I don't know. Now no one will sell it here anymore because its too expensive and doesn't work in TEXAS and this is what I know from experience.

oneeyeluke said:RpR I know you are talking from your own experience in your yards and I respect that. However I'm talking from my experience from doing Countless amount of yards in the past 15 to 20 years. I managed about 8 lawns a day, and worked 6 days a week for all those years. Maybe 5000 mows, I don't know because like I said countless lawns. And that's the reason I know what I'm talking about with Corn Gluten Meal too.

I landscaped for nearly ten years, but at that, your soil and weather, is different from up here.
Most lawn soil up here is good and except for drought years water on average is not a problem.
It is during the drought years Crabgrass sets in and when weather gets better grows like gangbusters every where its seeds exist.
I have never, ever seen a a thick lawn eliminate crabgrass.
It can be in a thick lawn, and people who mow regularly, short, will not see it because they are not looking for it.
Come a drought and their lawn suffers, the Crabgrass will expand and once expanded NOTHING but pulling or poisoning will eliminate it.
The seeds last for many, many years in the soil, waiting for a chance to sprout.
Now there are multiple types of crabgrass THIS I did not know till recently.
Crabgrass Seed
Crabgrass, including the Quick-N-Big and Red River varieties, is one of the highest quality Summer perennial grass varieties available for pasture, hay, and forage in the south. Crabgrass is often considered a weed by many farmers and ranchers, but can be utilized in pasture grazing and hay production if properly managed.

We our normal lawn weed type is a low, very low, grower when amongst other grasses.
When pulling on my hands and knees, I some time have to run my fingers , hard against the ground to get under the leaf stems and suddenly far more stems with seeds pop up that I did not know were there.

In my garden there appears to be two types, one grows low and wide and another will send leaves up over a foot in the air.

From Tx Agrilife

She noted corn gluten meal is an organic option for crabgrass control, and while research has shown crabgrass control with this product is inconsistent, it may be effective in some situations.

"It is best to select a pre-emergence product that does not contain nitrogen fertilizer," Hurley added. "While crabgrass preventers with nitrogen may be suitable for northern regions of the U.S., they should not be used in Texas. Warm-season grasses are still mostly dormant when crabgrass germinates and nitrogen fertilizer should not be applied until the lawn is mostly green."

Crabgrass. It's the second to Virginia buttonweed weed. Those 2 weeds are EVIL.

Someone upthread posted that spreading a preemergent after crabgrass has already sprouted Won't do you any good. But in my experience, in the South, crabgrass grows almost year round when we have mild winters and the preemergent helps pretty much year round. There's always some crabgrass wanting to emerge so go ahead and spread it. And the rule by professionals that i hear in the South is for best control, spread dimension/preemergent at the end of January to no later than Valentine's Day then spread again 4 months later then again 4 months after that.