Caring for Centipede Grass Lawns
Centipede grass is a type of grass used for lawns. This type of grass comes from China and other countries from Southeast Asia. Due to its qualities, centipede grass is preferred by many home owners.
Centipede grass requires little maintenance, which makes it the perfect grass for busy home owners who still want a lawn. Centipede grass also is able to adapt to poor soils like sandy type or clay-based. Centipede grass is also inexpensive and it does not require too much fertilizers. Centipede grass is also drought resistant.
In caring for a centipede grass lawn, avoid putting too much fertilizers as well as over mowing. Unlike other types of grass, centipede grass must not be reseeded, as this kind of operation ends up decreasing the quality of the grass. Centipede grass must be kept well moisturized, but excess watering should be avoided.
Centipede grass has several enemies. One of them is weed, particularly during the cold season, so weed control is advised. Known diseases for centipede grass are “brown patches” or “dollar spots” as they are called, and pests include nematodes, ground pearls, grubs, mole crickets and caterpillars. The nematodes are especially bad for centipede grass as they may cause wilting, but they can be fought against with proper watering.
Another problem with centipede grass is that it gets old, and when that happens, the lawn suffers. This is also called “centipede decline” and it can also be caused by over fertilization, pests, excessive thatching and other factors. It is recommended to mow the lawn and to maintain it properly all along the year.
Centipede grass lawns can look like they have a heavy thatch layer as stolons lead to excessive lignin. Despite the problems, centipede grass still has a lot of advantages, which is why many home owners prefer them for their lawns.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 5:05 pm and is filed under More Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.