Campbell Vaughn: Try These Tips To Keep Centipede Lawns Looking Healthy

We have a lot of people in the city who have beautiful old-fashioned millipede lawns. And if you understand the centipede correctly, lawn care requires minimal maintenance.

But there are a few things you need to have a beautiful and healthy lawn centipede.

Centipedes are easy to prepare by soaking, sowing, or if you're ambitious, seeding. But you need to know a few things to get the most out of it.

The centipede is spread by stolons, which we commonly refer to as stolons. Essentially, grass traverses the surface of the earth and takes root as it crawls along the ground. This is fine if you want your weed to spread, but it means the centipede doesn't have very deep roots.

If the roots are not very deep, problems may arise.

Centipedes are fairly drought tolerant, but like any plant, the deeper the root system, the better the health of the plant. Regular watering promotes the development of superficial roots. Deep, less frequent watering promotes deeper rooting. I will hire a billboard to promote this claim.

Excessive weeding can also lead to weak root systems. Essentially, the roots will try to attach themselves to the dead organic grass clippings rather than the soil, which is not ideal. We need roots in the ground. Keep the weeds and heartwood aerated while the soil compacts.

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Centipedes need full sun to thrive, not to mention a slightly lower pH, and require as little as one pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet of grass per season. Granny Smith apple green is the color you want for a centipede. Too much nitrogen will make them dark green one season, but will look dead and dirty in later years.

Use 15-0-15 with a 5 pound iron per 1,000 square feet in mid-May and that should help this year. The cut height should be about 3.8-5 centimeters, and at the end of summer it can be even higher.

With centipedes, weed control is a little different. Avoid traditional pre-emergence millipede culture. Most pre-emergence products act as root growth inhibitors (annual seed germination and pre-emergence inhibit root formation and seeds die). The root system of the centipede can stunt the growth of the roots, leading to a deterioration in the overall health of the grass in the long run.

Use a weed control product such as Atrazine in late December and again in June. Image Kills Nutsedge is another great product for controlling other weeds that may lack atrazine. Another product that only works on centipede and not other traditional warm season herbs is sethoxydim (a high yielding weed killer). Setoxydim is a type of herbicide that removes deergrass, goose grass, johnsongrass, and bermuda grass that may have gotten into lawn centipedes.

Some centipede problems to watch out for are winter death and some mold problems. A smaller root system may mean that the plant is less robust, and in severe frosts, the cold can kill some of the grass. If you see yellow circles on the grass, it's probably a big mushroom. Treat with Morbus Scott EX, especially in autumn.

This article first appeared in the Augusta Chronicle: Campbell Vaughn shares tips on how to make millipede grass look good.

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