Weed Control · Louisiana
Dollarweed: The Weed That Tells You About Your Water in Louisiana
UF calls dollarweed a reliable indicator of wet environments. Clemson's first control step is not a herbicide — it is checking how often you irrigate.
Regional Hub
Louisiana Lawn Care
Lawn care built for Louisiana: St. Augustine maintenance, regional weed and disease control, and a season-by-season calendar for USDA zones 8a–9b.
Dominant Grass
St. Augustine
USDA Zones
8a–9b
Soil
Mississippi alluvial clays down the delta; loess bluffs along the river; sandy loams in the north and west
Humidity
Very high almost year-round, and the slowest-drying turf canopy of any state we cover
Weed Control in Louisiana
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Weed Control · Louisiana
Dallisgrass vs Crabgrass: One Comes Back Every Year in Louisiana
Dallisgrass and crabgrass look alike and need opposite strategies: crabgrass dies at frost, dallisgrass comes back from the same crown for years.
Weed Control · Louisiana
How to Get Rid of Crabgrass: Timing Beats Chemicals in Louisiana
Crabgrass is a timing problem — but one pre-emergent pass is not a whole season. UF/IFAS: season-long control takes a second application 6–9 weeks later.
Weed Control · Louisiana
How to Get Rid of Nutsedge: One Pull Does Nothing in Louisiana
Nutsedge ignores ordinary weed killer because it is a sedge. UC IPM: one pull does nothing — but pulling every 2 to 3 weeks drains the tuber underneath it.
Weed Control · Louisiana
Kill Dandelions Without Killing Grass — For Good in Louisiana
Killing dandelions without killing grass comes down to the taproot: the selective herbicides that reach it, and the month they actually work.
Weed Control · Louisiana
Spring Weed Control: Soil Temp, Not the Calendar in Louisiana
Spring weed control is decided by soil temperature, not the calendar — a pre-emergent applied two weeks late does nothing at all. The trigger, and the plan.
Lawn Diseases in Louisiana
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Lawn Diseases · Louisiana
Gray Leaf Spot: One Name, Three Different Diseases in Louisiana
NC State: perennial ryegrass loses turf in a few days, St. Augustine is the most resistant host. Same pathogen — so your grass decides how worried to be.
Lawn Diseases · Louisiana
Mole Crickets: Treat in June, Not When You See Them in Louisiana
Mole crickets in a lawn are noticed in spring and autumn — the two worst times to treat. The window is small nymphs in June, and a soap flush confirms them.
Lawn Diseases · Louisiana
Lawn Disease After Flooding: What Follows the Water in Louisiana
Flooding moves the pathogen, stresses the plant and leaves the leaf wet. The hour thresholds that trigger Pythium and brown patch, and why nitrogen cuts both ways.
Lawn Diseases · Louisiana
Dollar Spot Treatment: The Disease Nitrogen Fixes in Louisiana
Dollar spot is the one lawn disease caused by too little nitrogen, not too much — the exception to every other fungus guide here. The hourglass lesion confirms it.
Lawn Diseases · Louisiana
Armyworms and Sod Webworms: Which Ate Your Lawn? in Louisiana
Green to brown in two days means armyworms; closely cropped patches mean sod webworms. Both are caterpillars — which rules out most grub products.
Lawn Diseases · Louisiana
Chinch Bugs: How to Confirm Them and What Kills Them in Louisiana
Chinch bugs: two species, two grass families, and a float test that confirms them in five minutes. Plus the documented resistance nobody prints on the bottle.
Lawn Diseases · Louisiana
Fire Ants in Lawns: Kill the Colony, Not the Mound in Louisiana
Treating fire ants in lawns by drenching the mound kills workers and moves the colony. Bait reaches the queen — that difference is why most attempts fail.
Lawn Diseases · Louisiana
Lawn Grubs: How and When to Kill Them in Louisiana
Most lawns never reach the grub treatment threshold, so count before you buy — and curative products only work from August through October.
Lawn Diseases · Louisiana
Brown Patch Treatment: Fungicide Alone Won't Fix It in Louisiana
Brown patch treatment needs two things: the right fungicide, and the summer nitrogen habit that caused it. Fungicide alone buys you a repeat next July.
Grass Types in Louisiana
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Grass Types · Louisiana
Centipede Grass Lawn Care: Dark Green Is a Symptom in Louisiana
UGA lists dark green foliage as a symptom of centipedegrass decline. The colour most people are aiming for is the first sign this grass is failing.
Grass Types · Louisiana
Perennial Ryegrass: The Fastest Grass, and Its Price in Louisiana
Penn State: it germinates in 5 to 7 days and is very competitive with other turfgrasses. Both halves decide what care this lawn costs you.
Grass Types · Louisiana
Zoysia Grass Care: The Grass Nobody Defaults To in Louisiana
Zoysia is a secondary grass in 25 states and the dominant one in none. You choose it deliberately — and three of its costs are never on the sod invoice.
Grass Types · Louisiana
Growing Grass in Shade: The Two-Hour Minimum in Louisiana
Growing grass in shade has a hard floor: fine fescue is the most shade-tolerant lawn grass and still needs two hours of direct sun. Below that, no seed works.
Grass Types · Louisiana
Bermuda Grass Care: Mow It Lower Than You Think in Louisiana
Bermuda grass care starts with mowing lower than feels right — 1 to 2 inches. Plus when to scalp, how much nitrogen it takes, and the schedule that works.
Grass Types · Louisiana
St. Augustine Care: Mow High, Watch for Chinch Bugs in Louisiana
St. Augustine grass care: mow high, watch for chinch bugs, and know it cannot be seeded — only sod, plugs or sprigs. Plus the herbicides that damage it.
Grass Types · Louisiana
St. Augustine vs Zoysia: Shade or Traffic Decides in Louisiana
St. Augustine vs zoysia comes down to two questions: how much shade, and how much foot traffic. One tolerates each — and they are not the same grass.
Fertilizer in Louisiana
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Fertilizer · Louisiana
Winterizer Fertilizer: Right Idea, Wrong Bag in Louisiana
Purdue backs late-fall nitrogen and faults the bags: rates run too low, the potassium needs a soil test to justify — and warm-season lawns should skip it entirely.
Fertilizer · Louisiana
Lawn Soil pH: When to Lime, When to Add Sulfur in Louisiana
Lawn soil pH decides whether lime or sulfur is the fix — and the right answer inverts between Georgia and Arizona. What the soil test number means.
Fertilizer · Louisiana
When to Weed and Feed: Two Bags Often Beat One in Louisiana
Weed and feed does two jobs on two different calendars, so one bag rarely times both right. The month it works, and the lawns the label forbids.
Fertilizer · Louisiana
When to Fertilize: Autumn Matters More Than Spring in Louisiana
When to fertilize a lawn: autumn matters more than spring for cool-season grass, the reverse for warm-season — plus the state laws that close the window.
Fertilizer · Louisiana
Why Is My Lawn Yellow? 9 Causes, Not Just Nitrogen in Louisiana
Your lawn is yellow and nitrogen is only one of nine causes — feeding the wrong one wastes a season. Diagnose by pattern, blade and timing first.
Lawn Care Guides in Louisiana
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Lawn Care Guides · Louisiana
Lawn Recovery After Flooding: The Clock Starts Underwater in Louisiana
How long turf survives underwater, why the damage shows up days later, the 1-inch silt rule, and the survival percentage at which replanting beats rescuing.
Lawn Care Guides · Louisiana
Lawn Ruts After Storm Cleanup: What Repairs, What Doesn't in Louisiana
Shallow ruts take a ¼-inch topdressing; deep subsoil compaction from heavy equipment on saturated ground is, in Penn State's words, practically permanent.
Lawn Care Guides · Louisiana
Waterlogged Lawn: Test It Before You Fix It in Louisiana
Water standing after every rain has four possible causes and they need different fixes. A 15-minute hole test tells you which one you have before you spend money.
Lawn Care Guides · Louisiana
When to Stop Mowing the Lawn: Watch 50°F, Not the Calendar in Louisiana
Cool-season grass stops growing when daytime highs stay below 50°F — that's the last-mow trigger. Too tall into winter invites disease; scalping is worse.
Lawn Care Guides · Louisiana
Winter Lawn Care: The Damage Happens in February in Louisiana
Penn State: crown hydration is the most common and destructive winter injury, and it happens in late winter after thawing and freezing — not in the deep cold.
Lawn Care Guides · Louisiana
Summer Lawn Care: What Helps and What Hurts in Louisiana
Summer lawn care inverts by grass type: feeding a warm-season lawn is routine; feeding a cool-season lawn is the classic mistake.
Lawn Care Guides · Louisiana
Fall Lawn Care: What to Do, and in What Order in Louisiana
Fall lawn care is the one season when doing more genuinely pays — for cool-season grass. On a warm-season lawn, autumn is mostly about stopping.
Lawn Care Guides · Louisiana
How to Aerate a Lawn: Spike Tools Make It Worse in Louisiana
How to aerate a lawn, and when not to: spike tools compact the soil they punch through, core aeration pulls plugs out, and most lawns need it rarely.
Lawn Care Guides · Louisiana
How to Fix Bare Spots in a Lawn — Or Leave Them in Louisiana
A bare spot smaller than your fist closes on its own. The bigger ones are a symptom — and the shape of the spot tells you which cause to fix first.
Lawn Care Guides · Louisiana
Lawn Mowing Height: Your Deck Setting Is Lying in Louisiana
Your deck setting is not your lawn mowing height — measure it once and most people find they cut lower than they think. The real number by species.
Lawn Care Guides · Louisiana
Should You Bag Grass Clippings? It Costs Nitrogen in Louisiana
Bagging grass clippings throws away up to a quarter of your lawn's nitrogen — and clippings do not cause thatch. The three times bagging is still right.
Lawn Care Guides · Louisiana
Spring Lawn Care: Do Less, and Do It Later in Louisiana
Most spring lawn damage is done in March by people being helpful. Spring lawn care runs on soil temperature, not the calendar — and the order matters.
Lawn Care Guides · Louisiana
When to Overseed Your Lawn — and When Not to Bother in Louisiana
When to overseed: late summer beats spring for cool-season lawns, most warm-season lawns should not be overseeded at all — and pre-emergent blocks your seed.
Lawn Care Guides · Louisiana
How Often to Water Your Lawn: Twice Beats Daily in Louisiana
How often to water a lawn: twice a week beats every morning, and one inch a week beats guessing. Measure your own sprinkler — the timer is not telling you.
Product Reviews in Louisiana
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Product Reviews · Louisiana
Best Weed Killer for Lawns: Match It to the Weed in Louisiana
There is no best weed killer for lawns, only the right one for your weed: the seven chemistries that matter, what each kills, and the one that kills grass too.
Product Reviews · Louisiana
Organic Weed Killer for Lawns: The One That Works in Louisiana
The organic weed killer that works on lawns is iron — it burns broadleaf weeds and moss in hours without harming grass. What it won't do: kill the roots.
Louisiana Lawn Calendar
What your St. Augustine lawn needs, season by season.
Spring
- Pre-emergent late February to mid-March — the season starts earlier here than anywhere else we cover
- Mow St. Augustine at 2.5 to 3 inches and never take more than a third of the blade
- Hold nitrogen until the lawn has fully greened; midspring is the earliest
- Large patch flares in warm humid spring weather, not in the heat of summer
Summer
- At least 1 lb of nitrogen in June, then again in early to mid-August
- Watch for southern chinch bugs in hot dry spells — yellowish brown areas in full sun
- Scout for tropical sod webworm damage, which can strip a lawn in days
- Do not spray herbicide above 85°F or onto drought-stressed St. Augustine
Fall
- Last nitrogen by mid-August — later feeding pushes soft growth into disease weather
- Large patch returns as nights cool and humidity stays high
- October and November are the good post-emergent months for winter weeds
- Overseeding is not the practice here; St. Augustine is repaired with sod or plugs
Winter
- Spot-treat dollarweed, annual bluegrass and buttonweed while the lawn is dormant or semi-dormant
- Keep traffic off dormant St. Augustine — it repairs slowly from crown damage
- Improve drainage now; standing water is the root of most problems here
- Soil test before any phosphorus, and plan sod repairs for spring
Official Louisiana resources
Three things every guide here eventually sends you to do — and all three answers are specific to Louisiana rather than national: test your soil, read your own land-grant programme, and check whether the state has added anything to a product's federal label.
Soil testing
The land-grant lab that tests soil for residents here:
LSU AgCenter Soil Testing and Plant Analysis LaboratoryA routine test is about $6 a sample and unusually includes texture analysis alongside pH and nutrients — useful here, because whether your ground is silt loam or heavy clay changes the drainage answer as much as the fertility one does.
Why the number matters more than the bag: soil pH in Louisiana.
Turfgrass research
Every guide here defers to your own land-grant programme somewhere. This is it:
LSU AgCenter Lawn & GardenLSU AgCenter
Publishes a Louisiana Home Lawn Series with a separate guide per species, plus two things worth downloading before you buy anything: Louisiana Lawn Maintenance (pub. 2293), which gives mowing heights by grass — 1 to 2 inches on bermuda and zoysia, 2 to 3 on centipede, 3 on St. Augustine — and a Suggested Chemical Weed Maintenance guide (pub. 1565) that is revised annually, so the edition year matters. Its fertility guidance is species-split rather than seasonal: centipede can be carried on a single slow-release pound of nitrogen in April, while St. Augustine takes April and June.
Where their advice and a national rule of thumb disagree, follow theirs — they trialled it in 8a–9b.
Pesticide regulation
Pesticide authority sits with the state department of agriculture:
Louisiana Department of Agriculture & ForestryPesticide & Environmental Programs
Restrictions we found printed on labels: Louisiana product restrictions.
Municipal Watering Restrictions & Microclimates
Hyper-local drought regulations and watering schedules for major metropolitan areas in Louisiana.
Lawn Health Newsletter
Seasonal lawn reminders, on time
Pre-emergent windows, disease alerts and fertilization schedules for your region — one short email, right when your lawn needs it.
Free forever. Unsubscribe anytime. US lawns only (for now). This season's companion: the printable summer checklist.