St Augustine Grass??

[student101]

Visited my local Home Depot and was told that I had to buy St Augustine in the plug or sod form and I could not buy seeds is this true and if so why. we are plannig on using St Augustine on our new place and it would be much cheaper to seed rather than sod

[Bird]

You might want to read a bit at this site. I read recently that seed is or has recently become available, although I don't think it's practical yet, but I forgot where I read it. At any rate, I think the folks at Home Depot told you right. You used to buy it by the square yard, but I recently noticed Home Depot had the sod for $.88 per piece in a size of 16" x 24". I went back a few days later and they were almost out with what little they had left looking pretty bad, so I asked for a price if I took all that and got 17 pieces for the price of 5. They looked pretty dry and sad, but I think they've all recovered but one piece where I wanted to fill in just a little bare area. The sprigs will spread, but do take some time. You can also pull runners from existing lawns, partially bury and water them, and they'll take root and spread.

[Gatorboy]

<font color="blue"> ( Visited my local Home Depot and was told that I had to buy St Augustine in the plug or sod form and I could not buy seeds is this true and if so why. ) </font color>

That's the only way it's done down in Florida. St. Augustine grows up and out -- it's a creeping grass, so if you put in plugs, or strip sod, you can save yourself some money, it will probably take 1 full growing season to fill in -- or you can go with just sodding everything and getting instant grass.

Even trying to grow Bahia is tough from seed down in Florida (at least Southern Florida) -- most all yards begin with sod. I'm not sure how things are done in TX.