Good for you Hawkster.

Sorry to hear about your sod issues.

If you are planning on doing a soil test again next year (hope you will), would you mind posting it here? It would be interesting to see if your CEC and Na moved and how much.

Thank you.

Moved a lot of dirt today. I really didn't think we would get goods results, but I'm impressed so far. I have never leveled a lawn. Just MacGyvered my way through it with a 2x4, a string level, and some wood steaks. Still have a ways to go, gotta fine tune the slope & do some rolling tomorrow.

Any input/suggestions are appreciated. This is my 1st time doing this & I want to make sure it's OK. I do notice the issue with removing the hill & exposing my already failing fence & rotting posts. I'm looking into solutions such as a retaining wall or whatever, not sure yet. The city owned lot next to me is sloped & dictates any remedies I can do to the fence itself.

Hell yeah, you putting in irrigation?

@ Green Machine,

Yes, I am. I'm replacing 3/4", sch 20 (?) pipe with 1", sch 40. Every year I spend lots of time & money repairing breaks in our irrigation system. The old stuff was so brittle that you could crush it in your hand. Many places in our yard you could actually see the pipes sticking out of the ground. The redo will ensure better trenching and allow me to create better zones.

You definitely do not want to add lime. The sodium levels are not high enough to warrant adding gypsum. P, K, Mg, Ca levels are plenty high. The only fertilizer you need is nitrogen. Over the growing season you should apply approximately 2 to 2.5 lb N per 1000 square feet.

p.s. I have previously posted numerous university studies that clearly show the base saturation percentage ratio is meaningless. Plants respond to actual levels. Plant roots can differentiate between various ions and, although they do interact one with another, studies have not been able to identify optimum saturation ratios that are universal across soils. Concentrations, on the other hand, can be compared from one soil to another.

There's a Benjamin Franklin quote that I can't find that says something like, "People accept only the facts that support what they already believe."

azdoctor,

Are you calling into question the soil test, which shows low calcium? Or are you interpreting it differently from the previous replies?

And I have previously posted many articles on how to tune up a Hobie 16 catamaran for racing, but I'm trying to stay on topic, so I don't mention that. Your mention of base saturation percentage ratio is likely more on topic than my sailing articles. Can you explain it better? I've never seen your numerous posts, so maybe they were not on this forum.

People have recognized the importance of plant nutrients, including nutrient cations (potassium, calcium, magnesium) for over a century. In most soils, clay particles carry a negative electrical charge that attracts and holds cations. These are 'exchangeable cations'. In your soil test, these cations are often removed or exchanged from the soil with a salt extractant (often ammonium acetate). This gives a relatively accurate measure of these cations. The question is, how best to interpret these values. One way is on a mass basis, usually mg cation per kg soil (ppm). Or it can be on a charge basis: either meq/100g or cmol of charge/kg of soil (they're the same thing). The two are different because the weight and charge of each ion is different. Alternatively, one could measure how much of the cation exchange capacity (CEC, the total amount of cations held by the soil) is filled by each cation. Since these cations are (mistakenly) called base cations, this is called the base cation saturation ratio (BCSR).

Beginning in the late 1800's people noticed that plant performance varied according to BCSR in individual soils. Subsequent research showed that optimum BCSR's were dependent on the soil (the optimum ratios are different for different soils), and were particularly affected by the CEC. This brought people back to concentration (ppm), which is much less affected by individual soil properties.

The community of professional soil scientists long ago abandoned the BCSR approach, but a few test labs still use it. And the method has many devotees who are either unaware of or uninterested in the research results. I post a few, but you can find many more.

Bear, F.E., A.L. Prince, and J.L. Malcolm. 1945. Potassium needs of New Jersey soils. Bull. 721. New Jersey Agric. Exp. Stn., New Brunswick.

Graham, E.R. 1959. An explanation of theory and methods of soil testing. Bull. 734. Missouri Agric. Exp. Stn., Columbia.

Johnston, A. and R. Karamanos. 2005. Base saturation and basic cation saturation ratios – How do they fit in northern Great Plains soil analysis? In News & views. PPI & PPIC.

Liebhardt, W.C. 1981. The basic cation saturation ratio concept and lime and potassium recommendations on Delaware’s coastal plain soils. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 45:544-549.

McGahan, D.G. R.J. Southard and V.P. Claassen. 2009 Plant-available calcium varies widely in soils on serpentinite landscapes. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 73:2087-2095

McLean, E.O., R.C. Hartwig, D.J.Eckert & G.B. Triplett. 1983. Basic cation saturation ratios as a basis for fertilizing and liming agronomic crops II. Field studies. Agron, J. 75:795-799

Olson, R,A,, K.D. Frank, P.H. Grabouski & G.W.Rehm. 1982. Economic and agronomic impacts of varied philosophies of soil testing. Agron J. 74:492-499

Rehm, G.W. 1999. Fertilizer recommendations based on cation saturation ratio. In The Soil Plant Analyst. p 3-4, Summer 1999. Soil and Plant Analysis Council, Inc.

Rehlm, G.W. and R.C. Sorensen. 1985 Effects of potassium and magnesium applied for corn grown on an irrigated sandy soil. Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. J. 49:1446-1450

Sautoy, N. 2007. Soil acidity – part II correcting the problem. Available online at www.senwes.co.za/afr/Landboudienste/Artikels/Soil%20acidity2%20Jun07.pdf.

Simson, E.E, R.B. Corey, and M.E. Summer, 1979, Effect pf varying Ca:Mg rations on yield and composition of corn and alfalfa. Commun. Soil Sci. and Plant Anal. 10:153-162

Stevens, G, T. G. Motavalli and D. Dunn. 2005. Soil calcium:magnesium ratios and lime recommendations for cotton. The Journal of Cotton Science 9:65-71 (2005). Available on line at www.cottonlorg/journal/2005-09/upload/jcs09-065.pdf

Crickets...

lol I'm here. I just been trudging along digging ditches & moving around dirt. My last resource for St Augustine grass fell through as well, so I'm going with Bermuda. Since dc already gave me the lowdown on it & several other threads are going about Bermuda, I didn't have many questions.

I chose Yukon Bermuda from Hanck. I bought 200 lbs alfalfa, 100 lbs cracked corn, 15 lbs 21-0-0 ammonium sulfate w/ coated urea, 50 lbs gypsum, 20 lbs potassium sulfate, 3 bags of Milorganite, and a big bottle of baby shampoo.

I should have the irrigation system dialed in by this weekend & plan on seeding 6/1. I will provide some updated pictures when I seed & fairly often after that.

Is there anything else I may have overlooked? It's been a fairly steep learning curve.

Thanks

Hooray beer!!! I mean...Bermuda. I hate that your hand was forced, but I think you'll like the Bermuda in the long term. It's ridiculously green & soft, you can't trample it, it loves the heat, needs almost no water, etc. Yukon has great reviews, but I would have definitely recommended sod over seed for quick establishment. I've been keeping my Tif 419 & Bermuda triangle at about 1" & mowing every 7th day for years, so don't put too much stock in the old advice of mowing twice a week & dumping huge amounts of nitrogen on it every summer. You can do that, but it's certainly not required in any way. Be patient, seed takes a while. And good luck!

@ reeljake yea at least for now I'll be forced to mow higher than desired. I'll make attempts to level with sand over the next few years as it settles from my tilling.

It is going to love all that sun!

Most recommend not to seed this late in the year especially when 100 degree weather is right around the corner or does that not apply to Bermuda seed?

Bermuda seed loves crazy heat

Good to know, thanks.

21-0-0 fertilizer - done

Milorganite - done

Gypsum - done

Seeding - done

Alfalfa - done (5 days early)

Started off watering today in 10 min intervals at 1100, 1600, and 2100 (cancelled) + 5 min intervals at 0900, 1300, and 1730. High today was 103 so I wanted to play it safe. It may have been overkill. 10 min = 1/4 inch of water so I'll make adjustment tomorrow depending on soil moisture. Probably will move to 5 minute intervals at 0600, 1100, 1330, and 1730. Temps this week will be 103 - 106. Looking at possible 95-99 the following 2 weeks.

With all the watering, the uneven ground & contours really stood out today. Despite many days of leveling the ground & rolling it, the yard looks horrible. I'm taking notes of the worst spots in hopes it will help leveling at some point.

Minor leveling with sand afterwards is pretty simple, especially if you take good notes like that

So far my little sprouts are doing well. Pictures below are the same spot. I added increased watering by 0.5 inch (up to 1.5 inch/day, was 1 inch/day).

6/9/2016

6/11/2016

I also decided to go ahead and renovate the rest of my lawn areas. It's an additional ~2500 sq/ft. I was originally going to wait til next year but seeing all the brown TTTF being molested by weeds got to me. I'm going to order more Yukon Bermuda tomorrow. I do have 1 area of concern in my front lawn that gets some shade. I won't round-up that area (~200 sq/ft), I'll just let nature take it's coarse.

I am postponing Morpheus' recommended potassium application. I can't walk on the soil without sinking & damaging the new grass. Will do it as soon as the yard fills in more & the ground dries out a little.

I have lots of this stuff. Does anyone know what it is?

Is this sand ok for leveling? It's available at my local landscape supply store. It's screened at 1/4 inch. I could screen it even further if needed. Only other options are bags from big box stores.

6/17/2016 Same area as previous close up pictures. If my entire yard looked like this, life would be great.

Continuing ground prep & irrigation redo for area outside of rear gate. Will be ready for seeding by July 1.

updated pics from 6/21

I applied potassium sulfate at recommended rate, some Milorganite @ 1/4 rate, cornmeal and soybean meal @ 10 lbs/k each. Temps running high 90's to low 100's next couple of weeks. I am satisfied with the filling so far.

I have some native bermuda that grows super fast & has runners going out for than 1 ft in all directions, plus tons of weeds. Will look into mowing @ 1" or less this weekend.

Continuing work on area behind fence & hell strip. Irrigation complete, 12" x 70' of dirt removed, and 5 yards of 2" lava rocks removed (rocks from front yard also removed). I'm working up plans to build a retaining wall 2 ft high that may better showcase the bushes. It's taking quite some time because it's hot and I am fairly clueless as to what I am actually doing. I do know that having all those rocks around the house would have made mowing low a horrible experience.

Future site of wall. It is a 2' drop over 10 ft. Stakes & strings are there just to make it look like I know what I'm doing.

Very nice! There's a bit of weed pressure, but that's normal when you can't use chems because you have fresh seed sprouting. If it hasn't filled in by end of season, you may have enough root mass in the good areas to plug some good grass into the bad spots.

Hancock seed confirmed it's illegal for me, even as a private citizen, to ship celebration Bermuda plugs to California because there is soil attached. Bummer. The good news is once you've grown your Yukon on native California soil, you can legally sell plugs to your neighbors who are all going to be jealous of your non dead fescue lawn!

lol I forgot about your previous post asking about shipping plugs, I was planning on responding. But yes, CA is strict about imports. Many things I have been able to "illegally" acquire, but many things also get stopped by the shipping companies and/USPS. It's really hit or miss & I would never put an innocent civilian in jeopardy. There are many money grubbing companies willing to take that risk.

Right? I'd imagine anything with a "live plants" sticker is simply thrown in the trash!

So by happenstance I found out yesterday that the sod farm near me, AG Sod, actually does have a field Celebration bermuda growing. It took a guy in Fresno who installed it 2 years ago to call this local farm and get them to confirm it was there & contact me. After contact with the local farm I confirmed my coming in today to get sod. On Saturdays they harvest while you wait, no pre-ordering.

Upon arrival I asked about Celebration bermuda, told the lady at the office I wanted a couple of rolls for it's drought & shade tolerance. She picked up the phone, called the guy in the field harvesting & in Spanish told him I wanted there Elite Plus. After she hung up I again told her that I wanted bermudagrass, the Celebration. She tried to steer me towards the fescue & offered the brochures as evidence. I laughed & said I really wanted the bermuda, so she called him back.

I ended up driving around in their fields for 20 mins trying to find the correct field for pickup. There was no signage and quite a few fields. I was not really impressed with the product, especially since it was freshly harvested - it looks worse that seeded bermuda. I ended up leaving with 4 rolls of Celebration & 2 of the Fescue.

My intent now it to see if either product will look better with time & attention. I added fertilizer to half the lot & will give them a week or two to see what happens. I have some Celebration in full sun & some in the shade with the fescue. If the color perks up & it does well in both sun & shade then I will create sprigs & plant it.

Assuming those last 3 are the celebration? Doesn't look too bad, but give it a month. They've been cutting it like fescue, so give it plenty of sun & a proper mow height, it'll start growing properly. It shades itself out getting cut at 4 inches like that.

Hmm my post from earlier didn't upload I guess...

@reeljake I also assumed the same. Before I left the farm I confirmed that they mow the bermuda at 3/4". Since I witnessed them harvest it I can rule out any issue of sitting out on a pallet or other maltreatment. It's just a completely different texture & color than I was expecting. I'll give it some time to see if I can green it up more & get it closer to what I "think" it should look like.

Farm picture comparing color of fescue to bermuda

It's important to remember that their Bermuda will be showing a lot more of the tan-ish brown rhizomes at the soil level than your freshly seeded Bermuda that has no rhizomes yet. I'm surprised the cut height is that low, but I guess I misjudged it from the pics last night. Too much maker's mark I guess! It'll grow in just give it some time to really root & you'll love that stuff.

So I scalped this just to show you! Kidding, I got crazy with the weed whacker on Thursday. This is celebration, but I wanted to show you the stolons below, then the border. Brown is normal...

How are the seedlings this weekend hawksster? Any guesstimate on germination percentage?

I'm going to say ~80+. Keep in mind that I've been forcing growth with low mowing & heavy feedings. I'm also not cultivating the 12 ft around the house. I will do a concrete walkway/patio there.

The other areas of the property are behind schedule by at least 2 wks. I just have too many irons in the fire right now. My simple projects keep getting bigger...

I did get a McLane 20" 3.5 HP mower today for $150. It's several years old but rarely used, 8-10 times the guy said. The blades and bed knife are still sharp from the factory. Went down to 7/8" with it tonight (mow #5).

I expect another bump in coverage over the 4-5 days. I applied more Milorganite, cracked corn, soybean meal, and Vigoro SG. Hopefully can get down to 7/16" (or lower) by midweek so I can level with sand.

Leveling front lawn BEFORE seeding this time.

7/2/2016

7/2/2016

7/2/2016

6/27/2016

6/28/2016

6/28/2016

Looking good! Order yourself a few new clutch belts for the McLane now. They'll be the first thing to bust on you mid mowing

Currently down to 7/16" and have not watered since Sunday (1/4"). I thought I moved to every 4 days but lost track of time I guess. Temps 90s this week and grass is green, moist to touch with minimal water.

I did some spot weed treatment withWeed B Gon + in 95 heat. Weeds & some common bermuda is dying, seeded stuff unphased. I will do broadcast treatment in a week if the grass remains ok.

I sanded the front lawn (~1500 sq ft) and seeded. I will definitely need to do more refined leveling next Spring.

The Celebration experiment continues. This stuff has not grown at all. It has greened up nicely, even the heat/sun damaged sections are recovering. It threw up a lot of seed heads and dropped roots, but not really any grass growth or runners. This is the least aggressive bermuda I have ever seen. I was expecting the ability to plug this stuff & get fast spread but that's not going to happen.

Front/side yard - lots of old mole tunnels & divots covered

Neighbor with mirror image property design declined the opportunity free landscaping - my back thanked him.

Side strip sanded & seeded last weekend (?)

7/16"

This is seriously the best germination rate I've ever seen or heard of. Your time, sweat & effort have paid off!

My celebration wasn't really doing much lateral growth either until about 30 days. I was kind of enjoying leaving the edger in the garage! It has now started to grow some runners across the concrete & into the beds, mostly in spots where the sod was cut or trimmed to fit--Seems it's good at making daughter plants at damage sites! That would make sense given the heavy cultivation it was made for on golf & sports fields. Rough up the edges a bit & see if it'll spread out for you. The seed heads are a stress indicator, so it may need a little more water for now.

CONGRATS!

I did an update this past weekend but the internet monster ate it I guess...so here I go again.

I have been "playing" with my lawn and testing things out. It's insane how much bermuda can withstand. I spray glyphosate on my lawn (broadcast) and it just turns yellow then greens up in a week or so. Of course I spot test some areas first using various concentrations, but I finally settled on 75% recommended rate. I tested other products as well but if glypho didn't kill it, I was sure nothing else would. My final "kill all" formula was:

1. Glyphosate (75%)
2. 2,4-D
3. MSM
4. Quinclorac
5. Prodiamine
6. Tenacity

Everything was mixed in 1 tank and full recommended strengths (except glyph) and broadcast. I no longer have a weed problem. I went from 80% coverage down to around 60% (yea, I was counting the weeds as lawn coverage). Now I am back up to maybe 90% with the understanding that the 12 ft area around the house is not counted (behind schedule for building walkway/patio).

I also went ahead and decided to make an attempt at sand leveling the backyard. It went better than expected with one little hiccup, the weight of the sand itself cause extra compaction/settling. I guess this is a good thing? I have a long way to go though before I have a truly stable, flat lawn surface.

7/2/2016 Weedfest

7/8/2016 after 1st broadcast of killer mix

7/8/2016

7/8/2016

7/12/2016 Sand leveling

7/12/2016

I started building the wall without a plan or any knowledge of what I was doing. When it came time to actually build, it was a very large game of lego with 60 lb blocks.

4/19/2016 "before" - green TTTF + weeds. Since I'm going bermuda in the backyard, I sigured I would make changes here also.

6/13/2016 Began replacing old 0.5" sch 20 pvc with 1" sch 40 pipes .

6/17/2016 Lava rocks removed and excavation started

6/19/2016 Rear pipes connected and tested

6/19/2019

6/19/2016 Still no plan for wall

6/27/2016 Bought 1/2 pallet of blocks to try design ideas. Tried digging between each bush to make 10 round pop-outs - 1 per bush

6/27/2016

7/24/2016 Yes, it's been about a month and a lot of back pain but I settled on a design - 2 bushed per pop-out. Each block on the base level took about 45 minutes to place, get leveled, and back filled. I'm sure I was doing something wrong because this took far too long. Temps 95-107 didn't help either.

My "helpers." I knew I was in trouble when they volunteered to help me then started grabbing the beach gear, snack, and the tablet.

2nd - 4th levels went up in seconds. My boys couldn't figure out why the project was taking so long since missed most of the 1st level going in.

8/2/2016 Done!!!

8/6/2016 My "topsoil" made up from my excavated dirt, rock, and clods looking good so far. Neighbors thought I was crazy for doing all this work then not bringing in "good soil."

I will get updated pictures from the front lawn and the newly sprouted seedlings from the hell strip area up this weekend.

Oops, almost forgot the updated pictures from the backyard since the weed killing blitzs and sanding.

8/2/2016 Not nearly as bad as one would imagine with all the abuse I put it through.

Now I need to start cleaning up my messes & think about the patio.

That looks great. Is Bermuda green year round where you're located?

That's looking fantastic!

I'm not sure, no bermuda lawns around here. I never really noticed the 200 sq ft bermuda patch that invaded my TTTF ever turning brown, but at the time I didn't pay too much attention to it because it was a "weed" not bermuda. It does not snow here and the only "frost" we get occurs 2-3 times a year and melts off the car windows by 0900. Our estimated 1st frost of the year is November 21 and last is February 21. So I would presume I should know more around the 1st-2nd week in November. Some info I have read states that keeping it watered and fed can put off dormancy for some time. I will keep updating and we shall see what happens.

Great updates! I'm seriously thinking of renovating with Celebration Bermuda in Fresno, front and back yards. Wife likes the "softness" of Bermuda.

Your growing season is as long as mine! My yard goes brown maybe 45 days? It's not much & you can always throw down rye to keep it green those colder months, though I don't usually bother doing that

I'd jump on the Bermuda wagon in a heartbeat if it was only brown for 45-60 days.

I would say it starts to go brown mid November, fully brown by Christmas, then starting to come back mid February. Fully greened up by mid March. We don't really have but 2 seasons down here

Upates:

Front yard is coming in well. It's been ~6 weeks. There are still area that need work but time will take care of that.

That going to be one serious domination line!

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Releveling this area. Neighbor on the left wants to get started on his lawn. He has been converted.

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With all the watering some TTTF decided it wanted to grow. Low mowing and drought training will fix that.

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Had sprinkler malfunctions that lead to washout of seeds. Time will fix it.

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Seedlings fro terrace/hell strip area. Seeded 8/2/2016. This area is now involved in some fertilization experimentation with j4c11

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Removing some alfalfa from test area. Seedling doing well.

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