I called some feed stores and they carry 1/4” and 1/32” alfalfa pellets. Has anyone used these sizes and is there a benefit of one over the other?

Where in East LA are you? As far as Pomona? Because things change a little bit when you go over the hills east of West Covina. It's warmer and less humid starting at Pomona. What have the temps been for you this past month?

Both sizes of alfalfa pellets are great. Now shop for price. I think neither one will go through a normal lawn type fertilizer spreader although 1/32 is pretty small. Mine are 3/8" and don't come close to falling evenly through a broadcast spreader. The application rate is the same for either size, because it goes on by the pound. I use a 2-pound coffee can to carry a load (about 2 pounds) to the yard and then guestimate how much a 10-ft by 10-ft (100 square feet) area is. Then I throw all 2 pounds of stuff inside that guestimated area using my hands to toss it out. So the rate is 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Since it comes in 50-pound bags, one bag will cover about 2,500 square feet. If you over apply, no problem for the grass, but you would need to get more stuff. When I'm finished with the application, I water it very lightly just enough to moisten all the pellets. They will absorb the moisture, swell into a larger worm shape, and sit on top of the grass. Then I come by with a hose the next day to drag it over the green alfalfa worms. That knocks the alfalfa flakes down into the turf where it goes to work.

The weed you're looking at is either black medic or oxalis. I get them mixed up because I don't really care what their common names are. All I want is the solution for St Augustine. Unfortunately I don't think you can buy the easy solution in California, but the easy one is any herbicide with atrazine in it. Here's the one I use.

This stuff works like a miracle in St Augustine. It kills all the weeds and all the weed seeds leaving nothing to return next season. It kills most of the grassy weeds with the exceptions of dallis grass and bermuda grass. Again, not available in CA because atrazine is really bad stuff. I believe CA has banned it since the 60s or 70s.

Otherwise I would suggest using Weed-b-Gon Chickweed, Clover, and Oxalis Killer if you can get that there. But know that it is not particularly beneficial to St Augustine.

Just be careful and use pieces of cardboard to shield the St Augustine from the spray when you spray it on the "clover". Also know that these herbicides don't necessarily kill weed seeds which might already be sitting on the soil. Watch for new growth of the weed and spray it quickly before you see the yellow flowers.

As for watering, for a rectangular lawn where wind is not a factor, an oscillating sprinkler will give you a more reliable pattern of water than a rainbird type any day of the year. If you already have a system in the ground, do what you can to get an even distribution and not squirt all the water over top of the grass to the perimeter of the spray circle.

Mowing: Reset your mower to the highest position. St Augustine should always be mowed at 4 inches if you can, or even higher if you can. The tall grass promotes a deep root structure which can gather moisture from much deeper in the soil.

There's one more step you can take to make the soil suck up water better. Spray the yard with shampoo at a rate of at least 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet. You can go up to 30 or 60 ounces per 1,000 but 3 ounces is usually fine. Going higher will not hurt anything. Use any clear shampoo that you like the fragrance of. A friend of mine gets the apple scented stuff from Dollar Tree. If you have 1000 square feet to spray, put 3 ounces into a hose end sprayer and fill the bottle, carefully, with water. Then spray it all out onto the yard, at any sprayer setting, until it is gone trying to cover the entire area. Shampoo works by allowing moisture so sink into the soil much more quickly and more deeply. This sets up the perfect environment for the beneficial fungi in the soil to open it up to breathe. You might think that dish washing soap would work, but it has antibacterial agents in it that actually harm the beneficial microbes. Three full weeks after spraying you should notice that when you irrigate the soil will be softer afterwards. OH! Wait! First do this test on your soil. Stab a screwdriver into the soil before you do the shampoo. Try it dry and try it wet. Get a feel for how hard it is to stick into the soil and how deep you can penetrate. Then, after 3 weeks, do the screwdriver test again dry and wet soil. This test is not quantitative, but it give you an idea of whether the shampoo worked. Repeat if you want it softer.

As a reminder, where do you live and what have your temps been for the past month?

I live in West Covina before the hills. Temps have been in the 70s all June, but are now getting into the 80s this week.

Thanks for all the advice!

Exactly my thoughts concerning the 1/32” pellets, I’m planning to try it through a spreader and will let you know how it goes. I’ll do the screwdriver test and apply the shampoo before applying the alfalfa.

I have a friend who has every chemical known to man. I’m guessing that you wear ppe and a vapor mask when applying these type of herbicides?

What about the lumpy SA? I’ve been thinking whether i need to add soil there. Will shampoo and fertilizer make it fill in?

I already had an existing sprinkler system, but the 4” are too short in the areas where the SA is doing pretty well. That’s why I‘m planning to change to 6” bodies and maybe rotary sprayheads(costly).

The splotchy area should fill in. With temps in the 70s and 80s, St Augustine usually takes off sending out runners like this. Notice the splotchy appearance - this is a St Augustine farm.

I've seen it grow up to 15 feet in all directions with about half in the spring and half in the fall. With your cooler temps it might spread over more of the growing season.

A possible reason the grass is not thriving in those conditions is the health of the soil. The alfalfa and shampoo should clear that up.

For herbicides I probably should use PPE, but I just follow the directions. First is to figure out which way the wind is blowing. That's easy when you live in Covina, but there might be swirling gusts that you don't want to blow products on you. Assuming you know the wind direction, lay the hose out so you can walk backwards into unsprayed areas with the wind at your back. Spot spray only the weeds. Wear shoes that keep the spray off your bare feet.

Watch the weather. It looks like you're getting a high pressure system that will really warm things up for you. If you get Santa Ana winds, I'd wait until they go away before spraying anything.

Covina - that's what I meant, not West Covina. It's hard to tell the boundaries once you get west of the hills. When I was at Cal Poly (1970s) it seems like there were horses all over Covina and feed stores everywhere, but not so much any more. Here is a list and none of them are particularly nearby.

Yorba Linda Feed Store

Kruse Feed & Supply

Whittier Narrows Feed

Cantrell's Feed Bin (Store)

Call first to get price and availability. They might ask you what you are feeding or why you want the pellets. Tell them you're feeding the lawn, and they won't ask any more questions ;-)

I got this from my local store. They are 1/4.

Don't have to be this brand.

Thanks for thr advice folks. I ordered the 1/32” alfalfa pellets for next week. Here’s the order that I’m planning to follow.

This week 1:

Screwdriver test before and after watering this week.

Week 2:

a. Spray herbicide when I get some next week and wait 5-7 days to water.

b. Shampoo when watering

Week 3:

a. fertilize with alfalfa and maybe mix some blood and feather meal or milorganite

If I had 50 pounds of feather meal, 50 pounds of alfalfa pellets, and 5 pounds of blood meal, I would mix them all together and apply at 15-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. The feather meal and pellets will not blend perfectly, because they are not similar sizes, so there's that. Is alfalfa meal available? Sometimes it is and sometime not. Pellets seem to be more available, so I save myself the hassle of shopping for the meal. Tractor Supply might have meal, but it's a bit of a drive. It's on I-15 just north of Corona. Again, call ahead to see what they have.

Here is the alfalfa pellet that i purchased - the worker said 1/32” but they are actually 5/32” - so no chance that they will get through the drop spreader. I think the smaller size spreads more evenly.

I put down about 30 lbs with 12 lbs of milorganite today after mowing the lawn on the highest height. It didn’t cut anything in the stunted section but i hope that changes in a few months or a year.

I waited on using the herbicides since it’s a little windy. Will it harm bushes or flower plants?

Right on, I sprayed it down and it already expanded. I plan on running a broom over the expanded pellets tomorrow.

Hearing your advice about herbicide timing, I’m glad that I waited.

Hopefully, I’ll have some good progress to report in a few weeks.

Herbicide works best on thriving weeds, so if you fertilize in early September, then you can spray the herbicide a few weeks later.