I have centipede grass. This is a great low maintenance grass for southern lawns and it competes well against weeds for the must part, because it spreads by crawling. So it’s a great grass if you don’t have a lot time and resources (like me) to spend to make a lawn beautiful. I like to call this grass, battle grass because it likes to compete with other things in the lawn. So really, we just have to facilitate the grass to win those weedy battles. That’s were I have discovered much in the ways of centipede grass care.

Really, you start the care of your lawn a year in advance. So, I should have been applying certain fertilizers/weed killers back in November of 2010 to begin the combat in spring of 2011. But alas I did not find out about this rule until a few weeks ago. That means, I have had to spot treat my lawn with weed-killer or just pull them out by hand with the help of Laura…ugh (thanks Laura!). So, the best way to contain early spring weeds is by laying down a pre-emergent weed killer in the November before the spring growing season. So now, fast forward to Spring (where we are now). The grass is beginning to come in. Yay! And I am in an epic battle with weeds because I did not equip my grass properly. Boo! But that’s OK because once the lawn fully comes in (all green) then a weed and feed fertilizer can be put down to strengthen the grass and weaken the weeds. This can be tricky though, because I learned that centipede does not like high nitrogen in the soil and many weed and feeds have really high nitrogen because that’s what helps kill the weeds so you need a good balance. When looking for a summer fertilizer for centipede, the key is low nitrogen (the first number on a fertilizer package). A typical generic fertilizer for centipede can be a 15-0-15 or a 16-4-8, but I recently found a weed and feed fertilizer specific to southern centipede lawns at Lowe’s. It’s made by Pennington and it is a 17-0-6. So slightly higher nitrogen but no where near some of the Scott’s weed and feed which can be as high as 36. So I have my weed and feed which I will put down when the lawn is out of dormancy completely. I most likely will have a couple of application because it’s good for about 3 months. About 2 times per season or one if it’s in the middle of growing season. Oh, I should mention that it is good to water the lawn after applying any fertilizer or timing it with a weather forecast for rain to help the nutrients breakdown. Also, over fertilizing your lawn can flash burn it (too much chemical =ouch) and kill it, so be prudent with how often and how much you put down at a time.

Watering centipede grass is important too because centipede, although it can battle weeds, is not very drought tolerant. So it’s important to deep water the lawn. By that, I mean a thorough soaking followed by a break so the roots must drive deep into the ground. This can be hard because in Georgia, there can be some hot/dry spells and believe me, it can cost mucho dinero to water the lawn.

So here’s the summary: Pre-emergent in November, spot managment if necessary, weed and feed fertilizer with low nitrogen once the grass is completely out of dormancy, a healthy deep watering throughout the growing season. Repeat for the next year. Hopefully this plan will make my lawn the envy of the Masters! We’ll see. There is also some good information here. Now, marvel at our lawn work this weekend.  We really took advantage of that extra daylight!

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any tips or ideas about managing a centipede lawn.