Hi Lisa,
You have high sulfur which would normally give you a low pH but extraordinarily high calcium, which gives you the high pH. That's classic Texas soil. Growing grass with proper watering and mowing is the best thing you can do for it. Stopping the chemicals and applying compost is second best. Applying organic fertilizer for the bermuda and no fertilizer for the Tech Turf comes last. One thought to keep in mind is that wherever you plant trees, the Tech Turf (the new name for Turffalo grass) will not grow on the east, north, or west sides of the trees, fences, shrubs, or brick mailboxes.

The best way to nudge the soil pH is with cottonseed meal. Ask around at your local feed stores to see where to get it. You might have to work up a deal with a feed lot. Or you might visit some cotton gins and see if you can bag your own.

Why do you think your soil is clay? If it drains well and has nearly no organic matter, it must have a bit of sand. Dump a couple cups of soil into a quart jar of water and see what happens. Anything that settles to the bottom quickly after shaking the jar is sand. Clay will stay in suspension for a long time. Loam will settle on top of the clay over a few hours/days. The organic matter floats.

What loosens the soil is fungi. Compost brings them in if you have none at all. I'm not familiar with expanded shale but it sounds like one of Howard Garrett's ideas. Unless he can explain how shale somehow grows fungi, I would focus on proper watering (deep and infrequent) and mowing (lowest setting for bermuda) with frequent cottonseed fertilizer until you make the change in grass.

I have seen Tech Turf mowed at every height from 3/4 to 4 inches, and it all looks amazingly good...unless it is in any shade. Then it becomes a bare spot. Even bermuda does better with shade than Tech Turf.

Why are you waiting until fall to convert? The Tech Turf may go dormant before you get complete coverage and good roots. I would convert ASAP and take advantage of the heat. If you are going to change to Tech Turf now, then you can skip the fertilizing and ignore the shortcomings of organic matter. Buffalo grass grows along side the highways where the soil is very poor.

Hi d,

Thanks very much for your in depth response. It was greatly helpful.

The reason that I was planning to wait until fall is that I'm adding a patio, several large trees and some shrubbery where there is currently grass. I have A LOT of work ahead of me to get the lawn converted to beds.

Based on what you've said about Tech Turf I may put the beds in this fall and then wait for spring to convert the grass.

Is there no longer a Tech Turf for shade? When I was doing research there was a full sun and a shade version.

Thanks
Lisa

The Turffalo company sells Tech Turf (buffalo variety) for sun and Shadow Turf (zoysia variety) for...shady areas. They are the same color and will grow into each other at the fringes of the shade. Tech Turf will grow a brown seed head at the top of the grass while Shadow Turf has no heads to deal with. Most buffalo varieties shoot the seed head up faster than the grass grows. The cool thing about Tech Turf is the seed head stalk grows at the same speed as the grass.