Not enough info given to determine best advice.

what kind of bermuda do you have, how often do you deep water your grass, is your soil fast draining, is there a high salt level in the soil? Is the soil hard packed clay, silt, loose sand, or a loose loam? Is there a heavy thatch layer around the roots, etc?

I have red clay, but did add top soil two years ago. As far as salt I dont know.I water 4 nights a week. As far as thatch goes I am not sure, but I have been wanting to aerate since I never have. The water does not drain the fastest but no standing water or soggy spots in the yard. as far as deep watering how much is "Deep"

Educate me here, why does it seem no one wants Bermuda lawns and why is it bad if it goes to seed? I have always thought a very thick Bermuda lawn was very nice. Tell me please? What type of grass do people prefer?

David

Chris,

I don't consider myself an expert on lawns by any means, and I HATE bermuda grass for reasons I'll detail below, BUT any time that bermuda grass is setting seed heads in mid-summer, that is a sign it is under some sort of stress.

Katrina's questions seem aimed (and properly so) at helping you determine what is stressing your bermuda grass, therefore causing it to send up seed heads. Obviously in our summer weather, drought and dry weather conditions are the most obvious source of stress. Everything else, from the type of soil you have, how often you fertilize, etc. can just aggravate the heat stress problems. You are MOST LIKELY to have stressed bermuda grass on soils that have low fertility, are poorly draining or have high saline levels in the soil--either because your soil is naturally higher in saline than most, or possibly from years of overfertilization--esp. if your lawn receives rain run-off from other areas over which you have no control.

Deep watering once or twice a week is better for a lawn than a lighter watering every other day or so for the simple reason that the roots will go deeper to get to the water (up to a point) and will be healthier and more shielded from heat/drought. (Deep-rooted plants always handle stress better.)

I think that common bermuda is more likely to set seedheads than the more refined golf-turf type hybrid bermudas. And, seed heads relate to shorter day length, so you are more likely to see them after June 21st, as day length shortens.

As long as you are mowing every week, and aren't letting the grass get too tall, the seed heads probably are not making viable seeds. It takes about 3 weeks for a bermuda seed head to set seed that is capable of sprouting.

If I have seed heads pop up in my yard, I do the following:
1) evaluate what might be causing stress--heat? yes drought? yes, yes poorly drained clay? yes, yes, yes
2) then I fertilize it IF it hasn't been fertilized in a while; and 3) water deeply, which means I water only once a week for a longer period of time, as opposed to watering 3 or 4 times a week for shorter time periods; and 4) mow, mow, mow--once or twice a week. Also, mow at a shorter height to forestall seed head formation--but not so short that you are scalping the lawn. If you are doing all 4 of these, and still have seed heads, you still need to figure out what is stressing your lawn.

A soil test might be needed. You might want to do a perc test to see how well your soil drains, and how deeply. You might want to de-thatch annually and aerate your soil annually. You might want to topdress annually with compost. Or, you might want to kill all your bermuda and try some other kind of grass!

David,

Many, many of us dislike bermuda primarily because it is so aggressive that it will invade ALL our garden beds, including those areas where we prefer to grow trees, shrubs, ground covers, perennials, vegetables, fruits, etc.

Once it invades an area like that, it can be very difficult to remove...usually years and years of effort are required to get rid of it and to prevent it from returning, especially if you prefer to garden organically. It will grow up through the black fabric weed-block type mulches. It will grow on top of those weed-block type mulches right there in the bark or cypress mulch placed on top of the cloth. It is a pain-in-the-neck for someone who wants to grow anything else on their property in addition to the bermuda grass.

I have seen it grow up through the vinyl lining of children's wading pools and above-ground swimming pools. I have seen it grow underneath wooden decks and try to come up through the tiny space between the boards. Get the picture? You can rototill soil to clear an area of the existing vegetation and, although that will work with many plants, all it will do with the bermuda is chop it up and replant it. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people rototill an area and plant something....shrubs, roses, a vegetable garden, etc., and within 2 or 3 months they will have a solid sea of bermuda grass again. If you have 1/4" of a piece of bermuda stolon every 3 feet, it can regenerate and cover an area very quickly. So I would say the problem most people have with it is its sheer invasiveness.

A very thick, lush bermuda grass lawn can be lovely, but only if it can be kept completely under control and within boundries, which is hard to do!

As far as seedheads, they just detract from the flat, green carpet appearance that many people desire.

All different kinds of lawn grass are preferred by various people. Common 'substitutes' in Oklahoma for bermuda are St. Augustine if you are in a warm enough zone that it can survive the winter, or zoysia or fescue or buffalo grass, (if you can tolerate buffalo grass' taller height). It is hard to grow buffalo grass, which is VERY LOW MAINTENANCE, if you have bermuda grass on any side of your property, though. Why? If the area is irrigated at all, the bermuda grass will invade and overtake the buffalo grass. Without competition from bermuda, and without any need for irrigation, buffalo grass can be a lovely grass....but it grows in tufts and is not maintained like a 'green carpet'.

My favorite grass is St. Augustine, because I grew up with it in Fort Worth and also had it at my first home there. A lot of people don't like its wider, coarser blades, but I love it. My second favorite is buffalo grass, because it is low maintenance. I have it on some of the parts of our 14 acres that we don't water, and seldom mow. Slowly we are ridding our land of bermuda, but I doubt we'll ever completely get rid of it.

Dawn

thanks for the good info. I do mow twice a week with a reel mower. I did just put down ironite two weeks ago, but haven't put fertilizer on for about two months, which I am fixing to do(spizz). Even though I would like to possibly switch to a good fescue or another grass. That is more time and money than I want to spend since I probably wont be in this house more than five years.

Thanks, Dawn for giving the expounded information that I did not have time to give. Only, I think the Zoysia will also create root spreading problems, if given enough time.

Chris, There is a grass called St Augustine 'Palmetto' that can grow in sun or shade. It is hardy down to your zone 7. If you use a power reel mower. The 'Palmetto' St Augustine variety will benefit much better from that type of mower then even the bermuda benefits.

St Augustine 'Palmetto' grass does not spread by root. It does need about 6 inches of topsoil before the roots grow into the hardpan clay. If the roots encounter too much subsurface water that has pooled along the hardpan clay, and start to turn brown, simply apply a couple more inches of top soil to those spots that are browning and wait. In a little while the grass will develop enough roots in the drier soil level applied and once again send up nice green shoots.

If you later begin to desire to convert your grass to the 'Palmetto', now before grass goes dormant is the best time of year to do that when the bermuda is still green but already stressed.

the following explains a reasonable way to do it. Start with a smaller area, such as maybe the front yard and front side yards. Or any other area that is most important to you.

First install an 18 inch deep root barrier that will divide your area from neighboring bermuda sources.

Next use a systemic herbicide that does not bind to the soil.
(ex: Round-up grass and weed killer.) Apply it to the entire area that has been isolated by the root barrier. wait for a couple weeks and repeat the process on any new growth.

Once there are no more bermuda regrowing from roots, install a top barrier just out side of your previously installed root barrier. Make that surface barrier at least 4 inches high and stable enough to resist weed trimmer strings around your area in any place where neighboring bermuda surface runners are trying to invade.

Mix into your top soil of the desired grass kill area with a 50/50 mix compost and loosened dry comressed sorgumn peat. fill the area with water, and when it drains fill it up again with water. repeat this watering process three times. fill the area with more 50/50 mix and water three times again.

Since each time the water drains the soil will compact you need to repeat adding the 50/50 mixture and the watering process until you have at least 6 inches of top soil above the hardpan clay below.

Let the area rest until September or wait until after the last freeze expected in the spring. Inspect the area weekly and kill any bermuda or weeds that invade, plus add more 50/50 mix if the area settles below 6 inches.

Then in either Sept. or after last predicted spring freeze lay your 'Palmetto' cultivar of St Augustine sod. Resist the temptation to plant cheaper common St Augustine or other St Augustine varieties. As far as I know, only the 'Palmetto' St Augustine variety is reported to survive the winters in USDA zone 7. There is a sod farm in Northeastern Texas that sells the 'Palmetto' sod. They can not grow it from sprouts due to their cold winters, But in sod form the 'palmetto will survive in the zone 7 winters. They ship that sod in from a grower near the Houston area.

An electric reel mower is best to use on the St Austine grass, and if a Norther blows in that is unusually cold, if the root system is well develped, and even if the 'palmetto' browns from the shock it's growth near the roots should stay green. Once the temperature returns to normal, the grass should begin growing again, and as you mow the brown will be cut off to reveal beautiful green blades.

lots of slow saturating rains come in the fall or winter, and the grass starts to suffer from a fungus that just means that your topsoil has sunk too low to for the roots room to grow before reaching the slow draining water that pools at the hardpan clay level. The solution is as mentioned above, just spread a couple inches of topsoil on the spots that are browning, then give the grass time in the new soil to grow fresh roots that will sustain healthy green top growth.

There also is an organic way to kill the bermuda, that involves covering the area with a thick black plastic, and making sure the plastic is secured well enough that the vegitation is smothered and deprived of light. Some people get use bales of straw on the plastic, others cover the plastic with enough topsoil to hold the plastic down. Just remember the plastic must be removed once the all the bermuda roots are dead. Once the black plasic is secured down that root kill process could take about 4 weeks. Make sure there are no holes in the black plastic which will let light or moisture through.

This organic method will only work if you have installed the root barrier as described above in areas that are exposed to neighboring bermuda sources. If you use dirt to hold down the plastic then the above ground boarder described earlier will need to be in place to block the above ground grass runners from invading the top dirt covering the plastic. If those barriers are not installed the neighboring bermuda will grow again into the grass killed area. Given enough time the bermuda will recover the area and make it look like you had never done anything.

Snowbuilt: Even though I would like to possibly switch to a good fescue or another grass. That is more time and money than I want to spend since I probably won't be in this house more than five years.

I overseed my bermuda with fescue grass. I really like the fine bladed fescue, and I use whatever brand is handy usually. The two grasses seem to coexist fine. Grass seed goes further if you are just overseeding and the fescue greens up a LOT earlier than bermuda so you get a greener yard in the spring. I don't water my lawn per se, but I do use a sprinkler to water all my perimeter flower beds, so most of the lawn gets hit with water while I am watering the flowers.

Lisa

I will take a shot at this. You are watering way too much and not mowing enough.

Regardless of what type of grass you have only water infrequently and deeply. By infrequently I mean only when the grass just starts to show signs of stress. Those signs are a slight change in color, leaving footprints, and even a rougher fell to it. But do not wait till it goes dormant. By deep watering generally means 1-inch to penetrate down to 6-inch soil depth.

Deep infrequent watering will encourage deep root growth. The more you practice it, the longer intervals will be between watering. Shallow frequent watering encourages shallow root growth and ripe conditions for weed seed germination.

Bermuda is a very fast growing grass and needs to be mowed very short and often (twice a week). How short depends on the variety like common or hybrid. Hybrid types need to be cut around .5 to .75 inches and common types between 1.25 and 1.75 inches. Keeping it at the right height will stimulate runners and keep the Bermuda very thick and carpet like, which in turns chokes out weeds. Let it get tall, it will send up seed heads, thin, get leggy, and allow weeds to mature and produce seeds.

Bermuda is very nitrogen hungry and needs fertilized every 4 to 6 weeks during the active growing season. Rather than rattle on and on go down the Bermuda Bible It will tell you everything you need to know about maintaining Bermuda lawns.

I am putting down spizz today so hopefully this will get it back to green. I have not watered for a couple of days and plan on putting out some containers in the yard tonight to see how much time I need to get the inch of water in each zone. So would you say you need to do that once a week or twice. thanks again for all the info.

snowbilt, you water only when needed or when the grass shows signs of stress. The interval depends on the conditions like heat, soil type, and wind. In this hot weather that could be every few days.

Keep an eye on the grass, when it changes color slightly from leaf curl/wilt, or you notice footprints do not spring back, soak it.

Again derek to the rescue. The spizz absolutely turned it back to a dark green. I have reduced the watering down, but the back yard went yellow quick. Since the backyard was so big and I just have oscilating spriklers in the back and misters in the front. I accutally had to increase my original time in the back to get the one inch level. so everything is on track.