St. Augustinegrass [Stenotaphrum secundatum (Walt.) Kuntze] is a widely used lawn grass in the southeastern United States. St. Augustinegrass is typically vegetatively established from plugs or sod. Establishment of St. Augustinegrass sod can be slowed due to weed competition. Weed-infested sod may not be harvestable and is less desirable by end users. Preemergence herbicides are used to prevent weed infestation; however, preemergence herbicides often negatively affect sod grow-in. Current research evaluated the effects of contemporary preemergence herbicides on St. Augustinegrass grow-in from plugs. Grow-in was evaluated using visual estimates of percentage St. Augustinegrass cover, as well as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Ratio Vegetation Index (RVI), and Chlorophyll Index-Red Edge (CI-RE) collected by handheld and aerial multispectral sensors. A sharable workflow was created in ArcGIS Pro to extract vegetation indices from aerial imagery. Trends of increased time to grow-in due to herbicide treatment were detected by visual and multispectral assessments.

2 pp. / Describes how to select the appropriate lawn mower to properly mow the species of grass at the correct height for high, medium, or low maintenance levels.