# Spongy newish Palmetto (St Augustine) lawn



## NewLawner (Nov 28, 2021)

Hi all,
First time poster here and newish lawn owner.
We recently built a new house and was persuaded to go Palmetto. It's been 3 months and I think the grass is well established.
The problem is, from day one the grass has felt spongy making mowing very difficult as the mower is hard to push and wheels dig in. 
I understand when a lawn feels spongy there's a chance that it's thatch, but that doesn't happen to new turf right?
I'm thinking it also could be the length of the grass. It's currently about 3 inches (as low as i can go due to the mower deck catching on the grass)

Is Palmetto just a "spongy" grass? I mean it looks fantastic but I'm questioning whether the lawn guy installed some rubbish.


I've got other question regarding top dressing Palmettto and dealing with thatch, but that'll be for another post.

Thanks for any advice.


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## LoCutt (Jul 29, 2019)

I had a customer many years ago with this very problem. The thatch was very thick and my crew did not want to do this lawn. I think it's an inherent problem with this cultivar and dethatching is the only thing that will help.

I think this can be explained if the grass already had this problem when it was installed.


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## ionicatoms (Mar 8, 2020)

Hi @NewLawner

Is your mower self-propelled? My St Aug is maintained at 3.25" and it's a bit spongy, but the Toro doesn't have any trouble on it.


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## LoCutt (Jul 29, 2019)

ionicatoms said:


> Is your mower self-propelled? My St Aug is maintained at 3.25" and it's a bit spongy, but the Toro doesn't have any trouble on it.


The mowers in use at the time were not self-propelled. I normally used a riding mower, but this lawn was inside a fence with a gate that was too narrow for the rider. I used LawnBoy 2-cycle commercial mowers which were normally used as trim mowers. Great mowers by the way.


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## Amoo316 (Jul 8, 2021)

St. Aug and Centipede both will feel spongy by nature if you are used to other grass types. Yes they have stolons just like some other types, but they develop a thick mat of stolons at the base of the grass/dirt line, which will cause anything to feel "floaty" on top of them.

Maybe see if somebody else in your area has some St. Aug and ask if you can take a walk on their lawn for a few minutes. It could be too much thatch, but thatch is part of life with St. Aug and not something I would dethatch personally. I'm leaning more towards the feel of the grass type itself.

For giggles, pull up a runner and look at it yourself. You'll get a good idea of just how thick those runners are and should explain your sponginess. IMO it's a sign of a healthy stand of both of those turf types I mentioned.


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