St. Augustine (Stenotaphrum secundatum)

Advantages:

St Augustine grass makes a beautiful light green to dark green turf. It forms a dense turf that grows well in most soils throughout the south. St Augustine also has good shade tolerance even under the beautiful live oak trees the south is so famous for. Great shade tolerance is one of the reasons it is preferred over Bermuda grass. Bermuda grass has very poor shade tolerance and will only grow a couple feet into moderate to heavy shade.

Disadvantages:

St Augustine grass has poor wear tolerance. It will hold up well under to normal traffic of a home lawn, but not under the heavy traffic of an athletic field. The coarse texture makes it unsuitable for golf courses and is only used in a few places. St Augustine also has poor drought tolerance and will not always hold its color without irrigation.

Raleigh grass is a cold-hardy cultivar released by North Carolina State University in 1980. It is often described as highly tolerant of shade, drought, and cold.

Palmetto grass is a semi-dwarf grass, giving it a plush appearance similar to Seville and Delmar, but Palmetto grass is less prone to becoming thatchy, even in full sunlight.

Floratam is the most widely used St. Augustine Sod. It is coarse-textured and grows vigorously in warm weather. Stolons of Floratam are large and purplish-red in color.

Amerishade St. Augustine is the most shade tolerant St. Augustine grass available.

FJ Select: can tolerate the Texas heat and is the ideal grass for areas with moderate shade.

Del Mar: More shade-tolerant than Raleigh. More drought-tolerant than Zorro or Emerald. Requires 4 hours of sun. Sprigs will take 1 year to establish from planting. Susceptible to grey leaf spot.

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