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Buffalo Lawn Care Tips (aka St Augustine turf) - Lawn Green Lawn Care

Buffalo Lawn Care Tips: How to look after your Buffalo turf in Australia...

Buffalo Turf Grass (also known as St Augustine grass in North America) is a warm season turf grass made very popular in Australia with the relatively new soft leaf Buffalo varieties such as Shademaster (in the 1980s) and Sir Walter Buffalo (in the 1990s).

Just for a quick categorization: There are two (2) types of grasses, that is, cool season grasses and warm season turf grasses.

In the cool season grasses we commonly have rye and fescue grasses.

With the warm season grasses there are many including the different soft leaf Buffalo (St Augustine) grasses, Queensland Blue Couch (this is a totally different grass to your garden variety Green Couch turf grass), Couch / Green Couch (also known as Bermuda grass in North America), Kikuyu Turf, Zoysia and so on.

Buffalo and Queensland Blue Couch differ from all the other Warm Season Grasses in that they are built only with above ground runners known as Stolons. On the other hand, green couch, kikuyu and zoysia grasses are built with both above ground runners (Stolons) and below ground runners (Rhizomes).

Originally, Buffalo grass (Stenotaphrum secundatum) was the old hard leaf variety. Back then, it was the only Buffalo variety available. However, since the 1970s, turf farmers have experimented and delivered more desirable Buffalo turf grasses. These varieties including Sir Walter Buffalo (which is the best Australian bred Buffalo) have a softer leaf and are more tolerant of shade than the other turf grasses.

In our experience as Lawn Care contractors, we believe Sir Walter Buffalo stands “head and shoulders” above all the other Buffalo varieties due to its tolerance of herbicide sprays and its superior green colour in Winter. For a clear graphic picture of Sir Walter in action go to our Sir Walter VIDEO now.

When spraying for broadleaf weeds (including clover, bindii, dandelions, etc) in Buffalo turf you need to use the selective herbicide with the main Active Constituents being 200g/L Bromoxynil and 200g/L MCPA.
 
The Australian retail products for this selective herbicide include Chemspray’s Bin-Die and Searle’s Buffalo Master Selective Herbicide. If you are looking for a product similar to these you need to compare them based on the Active Constituents of the product. You will notice that on some of these products they say their product is not suitable for use on the ST buffalo varieties including ST26, ST85 and ST91 buffalo.
 
Any selective herbicides (suitable for turf grasses) which contain Dicamba as part of the Active Constituent should not be used on Buffalo Turf. Buffalo Turf suffers from bad leaf burn to death if sprayed with Dicamba based herbicides.

If You want more information about Caring for Your Lawn, please register for our Free Report on "The 5 Secrets To A Great Looking Lawn" - or call the Lawn Expert on 1300 55 74 72 now for a FREE QUOTE to be on Your way to a Lush, Beautiful and Greener Weed free lawn.