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Lynyrd wrote: ↑Fri Jan 24, 2020 10:17 pm I don't like St. Augustine because of the weaknesses to water, grubs, and fungus. I much prefer Centipede grass. When thick, it will choke out every weed, even bahia and nut grass. It requires less water and less fertilize than any other grass, and it grows into a thicker, deeper mat than any other grass. I cannot tell you the best way to convert from St. Augustine to Centipede because I have never done that. I am on my 4th lawn now, and have lived through St. Augustine, Bermuda, and Centipede. But you cannot go wrong with Centipede!

I actually had a lawn of bahia. Used here for pasture, but makes an excellent lawn by staying greener longer and greening back up earlier and is extremely drought resistant. The only problem with it was mowing. Like rope. Let it get too high by just one mowing, and there was no mulching to be had - just piles and piles of dense thatch. Only thing you could do was rake it all up, and it was thick thatch that had to be disposed of.

If it's overall that it has never thrived like it should, not really responding to fertilizer like is should, it's the soil. Test it, professionally, before spending money on anything other than mole treatment. Usually, developed sites remove, replace, or lack organic matter/organic activity that nature provides over decades and centuries, and mulch from mowing is not enough to organically feed it to a thriving state. You get shallow roots systems, which make it more susceptible to water fluctuations, poor nutrient take-up, and the grass, though will live good enough to grow, it will never seem to just take off and get thick. I have the same problem from new construction, with hauled in pit dirt and clay from retention lakes. My solution is to keep amending with top covers of organic soil, decomposed manure from cow barns, anything of the sort to organically build the soil back up. It will take years, though.

My previous home was built in same area but built right on virgin topsoil, undisturbed other than immediate building site. I would kill anyone that put water or fertilizer on that lawn, as it was so thick and grew so fast that mowing it was a constant chore. Here, it's the opposite.