Replace it with Tall Fescue :-)

How many months of green do you get out of Bermuda? I'm in Greensboro, have had thoughts of going to a warm season grass and using PRG over the winter.

For sure I get June, July, and August. With the right care and conditions I could probably get part of May and part of September. I just have to stay on top of the mowing come July and August because it grows so fast.

The below pictures were taken last year at the end of June. If I could get this look from May to September, I'd be happy. It does take a lot of work though.

I use iron by itself in the early & late months--Fertilizer with iron added just makes it grow too fast.

Reeljake,

A couple of questions:

1. Do you have any pics?

2. Can you tell a noticeable difference in green up from using iron alone?

3. What do you use? I had looked at Bonide in the past.

4. When do you put down nitrogen?

The pics above are from using a combination of synthetics and milorganite. I use a Lesco 32-0-8 w/iron every 6 weeks and milorganite every 3 weeks.

I don't have any real pics from this year yet, but I'll snap a few when I get home. This is from October last year.

I haven't tried bonide iron, I just use ironite at half strength out of my ortho dial & spray. I get results in about 24 hours from that. I don't use much nitrogen, mostly because I don't want to mow every 2 days... Most of my fertilizer is Microlife organics, which do include some iron with them as well as bacterial & fungal supplements to balance everything. I put that down quarterly & use the liquid version to spot spray any weak spots. Since I switched to that organic hippie fertilizer, I've noticed much more lateral growth & it grows in more evenly than it did before, almost like using a growth inhibitor--Kinda weird I know, but I'll take it. I was using a combo of milorganite & synthetics like you for the first few years, but been on this for the last 2 years. Definitely smells better than Milo!

Found a close up I took in March of this year. You can see the density of leaves on each stem & overall height of about 1"

Thanks for the comment. I have heard that liquid iron gets fast results. I've heard very good things about bonide and even saw texas weed suggest it. I may try that in a few weeks to see if I can get some fast results. When I read about it, I always see application rates described in terms of foliage spray application vs. ground soaking. Do you know much about that or what that means? I understand what it means from an application standpoint but not from a results standpoint.

What part of the country are you in that allows you to get green grass like that into October?

St. Augustine capital of the world--Houston, by God Texas! I think I'm on the only street with Bermuda around these parts. We are blessed with tropical heat most of the year.

If we're talking about a lawn, foliar spray would be virtually the same as a ground soak I think. On a shrub or tree, foliar is spraying the leaves, where a ground soak is exactly as the name implies, soaking the base or crown.

I can't imagine the results will vary much between the 2 methods, but maybe the ground soak lasts a bit longer? Foliar works really fast though.

Thanks for the input reeljake. On a sidenote, I live in Mo. City back in the day.

You have brought up a lot of interesting points that I may try out. Right now, my grass is greening fast as we are getting some warm temps. I'll probably put down some nitrogen fertilizer and liquid iron to get it all the way green and use milo during the summer to maintain the green. I'll give it shot of lesco as needed throughout the summer. I really don't mind cutting the grass throughout the summer but anything that will reduce how often I have to cut it would be great. Thanks again for the input.

Time for a fresh blade on my rotary--Auspicious start with these swirlies this early in the season.

Sorry I hijack but reeljake - do you use the microlife multipurpose? Your lawn looks great. I used multi purpose microlife for the first time a few weeks ago. I'm trying to decide whether to use again just because the cost is much more than soybean meal, cottonseed meal, milo, etc.

I do use the multi purpose every few months & it's been great, but it is pretty expensive compared to the grains by themselves. Milo I think works just as well, but I can't stand the smell so I pay more for the Microlife. All have iron in them, for the OPs info--Not sure if it's available up there though.

I have never seen or heard of Microlife. I saw it on Amazon and it is expensive. I can get Milo for about $13 dollars a bag. It takes about a bag and a half to cover my entire yard. For whatever reason, I never get the strong smell I hear people complain about so that is likely the way I will go.

Microlife is only really available in Houston or online with a big upcharge. Milo will give you the green you are looking for.

Yup, Milo is a great product

Found this at tractor supply co. $30 for 2.5 gallons. Not bad. My grass is already about 80% green as I have fertilized twice this year........3 times if you count cracked corn. I sprayed already so I'll see what I get.

I bet that will be the greenest lawn in the state! What rate did you use? Full 10oz per 1k?

Update. My grass is nice and green and thick. It's only May and temps have been relatively cool. The pics were taken near sunset so the grass appears a little darker then what it really is.

Looking good! Big improvement. I bought the bonide liquid iron to try but haven't used it yet.

Very nice! Granules sure are convenient, but I'm always shocked by the speedy results you get from a liquid app.

Thanks guys. I believe between the liquid iron and fertilizing every 2 weeks, that really helped it "wake up" and green faster than what I have seen in the past. Considering some of the temps, my grass wouldn't normally look like this until sometime in June. Hopefully milorganite will sustain me the rest of the year.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/turf/publications/spring.html

I read the above article which had some good info. The main thing I took away from it was increasing the fertilization frequency until full green up was achieved.