Have you ever noticed long pieces of your St Augustine grass on the surface? Sometimes these pieces of grass can be 12-24 inches long. We refer to them as “runner” because it looks like the grass is running on top of the surface. Your entire lawn is actually made up of a woven mesh of these long runners called Stolons. We tend to see this more in the Spring when the grass is coming out of dormancy. Typically a few are normal and you should just mow over the top of them. After a few weeks the issue will correct itself and go away. It is happening in most cases because the grass is growing and looking for new areas to weave into and form the thick mat St Aug is known for. Some things you may be doing to make the matter worse are:
1: Mowing to short-when this happens the grass is not allowed to grow up and the stolons are exposed and can now be seen. Just raise the deck and mow around 3-4 inches.
2: Compacted soil-when the grass is compacted and hard the new runners have a hard time “pegging” into the ground. Usually watering more to soften the ground helps and depending on how bad it is aeration may be needed.
3: Thatch Build Up-if the thatch layer is too thick the runners can’t make it to the ground to root themself. Depending on how thick the layer is, de thatching may be needed.
You don’t need to be worried about your grass dying and typically this is a harmless issue that will fix itself in a short amount of time. Just make sure you’re following all the proper steps to give the grass the best shot possible to thrive and your all good!
