You make a good point dchall. I'm being careful. The hoa mandates and fines people who do not upkeep the yard. The elderly man I helped most of the yard is weed . I actually had to use a string trimmer to cut it down to a level of which I could even work with a mower. But you are right sometimes things are intentional. For the most part people do get their yards cut when needed. During peak seasons Bermuda can grow quick and especially weeds can grow fast between regular scheduled cuttings. Entire neighborhood is Bermuda.

I'm excited to put down the food. You wrote earlier depending on microbe life it may take a while to consume...so the sooner I put it down the better. It may be on yard a while.

I used Milogranite for the first time on my bermuda in middle of april and really didnt see any difference compared to using a straight all purpose nitrogen 34-0-0 fertilizer that I always used in the past. Is that because its organic and it takes time?

Organic fertilizers take 3 weeks to see the improvement. There is a problem with using nothing but chemical fertilizers repeatedly over the years. What happens is the microbes in the soil never get enough nutrition to thrive. Inasmuch as they are integral to the health of the grass, their loss can reduce the effectiveness of chemical fertilizers. Once you use the organics, it resets the soil biology and should restore the effectiveness of the chemical ferts. In other words, your application of Milorganite was not wasted whether you could see the difference or not. What happens a lot is that you apply it and carefully watch it every day. After about 2 weeks you give up staring at it and forget to check. Then a week later, SUDDENLY, you notice the grass is much greener, more dense, and growing faster than it should be.

That's a big dose (34) compared to the Texas tee which I believe is 6.

I noticed my local dollar general has baby shampoo for $1(the DG brand).Does it matter which one I use? The other name brand(johnson and johnson )is $4 for the same amount.

I use that much nitrogen because in spring I have a problem with dollar spot in certain areas of my yard..Its little spider webs in my lawn in the morning.Over time they become small dead spots .My bermuda is nice and green then I will have random small brown circles in it :( By applying a strong dose of 34 it will go away in less than a week..Using milogranite didnt do anything ,so I had dead spots alot longer since I didnt use nitrogen.After applying nitrogen last week the dead spots are almost gone now.

I think what happens is the spider webs are like a magnifying glass, when the sun gets strong making the sunlight so intense that it kills the grass.I think dollar spot could be a insect/spider problem?? Thats what I think happens .My bermuda always has a lot of dew on it in the morning too.

I used the generic . Not familiar with dollar spot.

The Texas tee was a little difficult to apply because it seemed to drain from my spreader too quickly. The Alfalfa I put in a 4 pound jar and hand fed like dchall advised. I gave it wash down after. I'm planning to throw down some milorganite this weekend. Also going to do another round of the fish food. That should complete this month's application and be a strong amount of total food. It's definitely adding up now that I think about the cost per item per month to treat poor soil and put down adequate food supply. 25 for Texas tee, 14 for milorgsnite, 10 for Alfalfa, 8 for fish stuff and 2 for baby shampoo turns into about 60 dollars on Lawn care . Next month maybe I should switch to a low cost chemical high content fertilizer, and throw down the 25 pounds left I have of Alfalfa., then the following month resume with just organic, and go chemical (back and forth )until dormancy...

This may be a dumb question... does applying a chemical Pest Control granule designed to kill all pests....negate the organic I'm putting down. Meaning are all the microbes and organisms I'm feeding in soil....will they be harmed and killed by the lethal chemical?

The shampoo does not have to be baby shampoo. I use it as an example in my examples because everyone knows what it is. It is a clear shampoo - clear meaning something you can see through in the bottle. What does not work quite the same is a cloudy shampoo like Pert. Pert and many other shampoos contain oily conditioners that cloud up the product. The soil microbes do not decompose oily materials easily, so since it is just as easy to avoid them, we simply stick to clear shampoos. Not that long ago the recommendation was for any liquid soap including dish soap, but dish soap now contains anti bacterial agents which harm the microbes.

One of the major classes of microbes in the soil is microarthropods. That means microscopic insects. If you use a non specific insecticide that kills everything, you are killing out the entire class of microbes. That might be similar to killing all the birds or all the mammals. It can't be good. Fortunately soil is resiliant and will recover in time, but if you don't need to treat for insects, I suggest you don't. I've had lawns since the 1950s and only used insecticide against flea beetles in dichondra. I've never needed insecticide in a real grass lawn. Having said that, if you think you have an insect issue, say grubs (usually a July/August issue) or chinch bugs (hot weather issue), write in and ask about it, because there are ways to determine if you have bugs. Once you can identify them, then you should treat, but you should not anticipate having them and treating a perfectly normal lawn.

You seem interested enough in this that you might want to read up on soil biology. Here is a link to the Soil Biology Primer written by Dr Elaine Ingham. Get comfortable first, because it's about 50 pages long. It explains all the types of life in the soil and how they work.

Little Brown spots caused by spider webs sounds like sod webworm to me. You get those in the spring? Fungus is pretty rare on Bermuda unless you live near a golf course, or as I recently found out, Alabama. Florida gets a lot of turf fungus too because they have golf courses on every corner & people water daily.

Yes champ, it's perfectly acceptable to bounce back & forth between chemical & organic fertilizers

This is what I am talking about.This was last june 2016.This year I have it again, not as bad but still aggravating.

Yeah that's weird for June, looks similar to webworm for sure. Pick up a bottle of BT bacteria at the nursery & kill those suckers. The bacteria paralyzes them & keeps them out for years

Thanks dchall I will read the soil literature. I won't put down the insecticide. We have the usual pests many homes get like ants , small spiders, nothing serious has been seen. Daughter gets bites and so do I but those are probably the flying bug kind. Wife is allergic to ants and other we have to keep epi pens for her. Daughter doesn't share the affliction thankfully. I'll just spot treat any any piles if seen and won't put any spread of granules on yard. I'll sell off my bag . I've had it in garage unopened for some time. We had Pest Control service come out and do a perimeter of something around house and also in house . I want to say they used organic entirely but there is a chance the perimeter around house might be other. I'll have to call and ask . Porch and against outside exterior walls...is what I'm not sure about.

I'm going to raise the mower up another notch try to get it around .65 to .75. I think that might help. Plus give me an extra few days off from the mowing. Early next week maybe Monday should be ready to mow to the new hoc.

Reeljake, I have been doing alot of work in the yard.Ive been fixing bumps in my yard over the last month by taking a shovel and cutting the bump out.I then take that sod piece and put it in a spot on the other side of the yard.I level the bare spot off with top soil and in 2 months it fills back in with bermuda.. With that said I have never seen any worms doing this.Wouldnt they be noticeable??

Insects I see in my bermuda are those dark brown, almost black crickets, brown spiders and small grasshoppers.

I have to do something.I mowed today and its actually pretty bad. My yard looks like crap with all these beige spots.Some of the worse spots are in the places that are the healthiest/greenest. My question is will any insect killer work? Ive got some insect concentrate in the garage I can spray on tomorrow..Will sevin concentrate work?It reads on the label for lawns...I also have some bayer concentrate that says it kills alot of insects including crickets...Will any of these harm my bermuda ? I just put down nitrogen 34-0-0 6 days ago.

A lot of the constant readers on the site might be ignoring my thread as the issues have been addressed and assessed or have read it and not following along anymore. The best way to get some more eyes on your issue is to start a thread with the title of the problem. Ive been posting so many times my particular thread title might not be opened by much of the site. A new title with pics and history of yard would surely get some fresh faces interested. I think it's important to figure out exactly what you have on yard before putting chemicals down. I would title the thread something like identification help and add some description. Users might read that alone and trigger something in memory or solution or possible info on what it is.

I had put down grub product earlier and posted pic of product but I probably didn't even need it. I probably wasted money and time as well as may have killed some important microbes or other.

I made three stupid mistakes recently. First one being that I added chemical fertilizer early this week burning the yard, and second taking the yard height down low too quickly. The third mistake was selecting a hoc on reel but not fully making the right adjustment to achieve desired hoc. I didn't understand manual or read carefully enough. I intended to go down to an inch and I'm well below it.

Should I add extra water or just carry on and give it time? Once I saw the burn I watered heavily that night or night after. Then next day or day after I cut grass and ended up shocking it. I'll take a picture this upcoming day and I'm going to correct the hoc on the reel.

Does the chemical burn hurt the soil and the organic material benefits I just applied? My thinking was that after reading people apply high nitrogen content fertilizer..in the 30's .i figured my lawn could handle a small dose of chemical on top of the Texas tee and milorganite and fish food and Alfalfa pellets...and I was either crazily wrong or I excessively applied the products poorly and put down more nitrogen than I thought I was....

Unless you spilled fertilizer, it shouldnt be too bad of a burn. Definitely don't need to fertilize for a while though!

What happened with the HOC? I wouldn't sweat it too much, just enjoy not having to mow this week. The Bermuda will come right back with a fresh green top. Check out fraise mowing online--They go so low they remove a quarter inch of dirt & cut the bermuda plants off at the crown. It comes right back from the roots a few weeks later. You can't kill this stuff

Here is a youtube video.
Fraise mowing

Isn't that incredible? Hard to believe Bermuda is that indestructible

It's not hard to believe for me, been fighting the bastard for years :-)

Cool. Fraise mowing never heard of it. Interesting. Best comment I ever read on Bermuda durability is when in a leveling discussion thread. Poster was worried they would kill grass with intense amount of sand. Someone simply replied..."some of my best Bermuda is growing through the cracks in my sidewalk." (Something like that) meaning that not even concrete will kill it.

Poa annua. Just realized I dealt with that this year after seeing that in the fraise mowing description and googling Poa annua. Celsius or certainty should kill that right? I need to find the best deal on those products as well as a quality sprayer 2 gallon preferable 3 gallon max sprayer. Hand pump is fine for my size yard. Smith and Chapin are looking like the contenders. I read some people use salt or vinegar or something acidic. One of the reviews on a product warned that it wasn't meant for acidic substances, just like some sprayers aren't meant for flammable or diesel. Viton seals sound good. Is a plastic container best or worth investing in a steel Smith pro container? Are acidic substances worth applying at all? Or just stick with Celsius and certainty?

I used a greenmax Scott's product to supplement the organics. It was just some extra we had in a bag and thought it wouldn't hurt to add. No spill. I had already applied full bag of Texas tee, full bag milorganite, and 25 pounds Alfalfa. And good amount of fish . I must have exceed 40 number nitrogen mark in total.

On hoc I was trying to get all the reel Mowers same hoc. On my push I changed to what I thought was 1 inch. I even took a measuring tape out there after cutting some and it seemed about an inch. I cut with the power mower first and still had great green color in some areas which weren't burned. Then I used push to try and achieve the one inch mark. I have to stay at inch or under to utilize all my reels. And I'm going to keep at one inch for remaining of year probably. Next year when grass is fuller, hoping to play around more with lowering.

I use cheapo plastic sprayer, they work fine. I have one for fertilizer, one for selective herbicides like sulfentrazone and a third for roundup & brush killer

Some pics . Tough to see compared to last update.

Thanks to reel Jake there is a new member to the family here. I should have taken a picture of the first run cut I did with it before screwing up the yard with my push....but ill get one next time for sure. The hiatus from cutting will give me some time to do maintenance on all the equipment I have and some cleaning.

Thanks again Jake.

Was a happy father's day weekend receiving such a tool from a great person here on houzz . And my family got me the roller for it as a present. My dad came across the roller being on sale during father's day time period so they were able to get it for a great price. Other than this stuff I keep a really old great states push reel at my grandparents. I keep a regular husquevarna rotary at my parents. And I keep a bladed gas edger at my parents which presently needs some work. Wont stay on. Briggs engine on it needs to be cleaned or adjusted.

And here is all that cleaned up....i need to figure out some wall mounts for some tools. And maybe some overhead storage for some things. Power reel gets it own special place elsewhere. All my old stuff fits in a corner and I just now started hanging the reel catchers on the garage track.

Nice collection & congrats on the roller, those make a huge difference in the cut quality. Glad to see it has a great new home & some chlorophyll in its teeth again!

Champ, it's been 2 months. A month ago it looked much better than that. Or are these recent pictures a reprint of your 'before' pictures?

Those were the pics in full sun after chopping off 80 percent maybe of blade of grass and burning most of the yard. Large areas of white and yellow. The yard is already bouncing back and in 1 or 2 weeks once the 50 dollars worth of organics kick in, will look best of the year. No more chemical for me for a while. I'm doing strict organic fertilizer next 2 months.

And I finally finally finally FINaLLY lol after last night and the other day have both my mclanes EXACTLY and correctly at 1 inch according to the manual. I also understand the height adjustments pefectly on both machines. No more wrongly cutting height and 1/3 height cut rule will be followed again as well as frequent mowing. There will be no more errors or problems caused by me this year.

My records indicate I applied the Texas tee and Alfalfa pellets 6/13 so it hasn't even been a full 2 weeks since that (13 days ago) I burned the yard 8 days ago approx. and I chopped off all the green out of the grass 6 or 7 days ago. Those pics were from last week when I posted on Thursday or Friday and this week things already looking better.

The milorganite was applied I believe 6/14 and also the fish food.

My guess is in 8 days exactly, on the 3 week Mark, I will start getting tremendous growth from the 110 or more pounds of organic food I applied. I'm happy we got rain this weekend not as much as some but a nice even spread that was enough to postpone me watering a few days. I believe I should be doing twice a week right now due to Temps. I'm also thinking I will apply another organic at the 3 week Mark from the last one.

I'm curious if we don't have great soil yet or good depth of top soil ...and nitrogen doesn't retain well, and we have that incline in front yard ...areas of pooling...between house's when it rains, could it possible be smarter for me to use organic foods every two weeks at a smaller dose per application...rather than a huge dose of organics every month or 3 weeks. I know runoff was mentioned above and that it may be hard for some to retain nitrogen...does it make sense if that is our case ...especially during one hundred degree plus Temps we have had and 2 a week watering needs , to apply more often but less?

That way there is more frequent 3 week activation times happening per month rather than just one three week activation for the previous product applied per month? Does that make sense , my question? I'm using the word activation to describe what everyone has said about the slow them it takes to notice improvement with organics (about 3 weeks to see difference )

Kind of like in humans eating more small meals a day better than 2 big ones ...maybe the yard can intake and retain nutrients better if more frequent smaller applications of food put down rather than one big one per month ? I know water is opposite, larger dose less frequently to stimulate root growth etc.... But perhaps the food loving Bermuda would like constant small feedings?

There will be no more errors or problems caused by me this year.

Bwahahahahahahahaha...(gasp)...hahahahahahahahahaha. I wish I could say that about myself.

I think the microbes would enjoy the continual meals.

That sound good then. End of the week maybe the weekend I'll put down a full bag of low N organic, either texas tee or milorganite. Actually....I've got half the bag of alfalfa left. I'll throw down all of that on Friday. Thats low N. Then next week I'll do a new bag of something. I think 4 bags of organic per month should be fairly good, combined with my gallon jug of fish food sprayed sporadically when I intend to water....and i should be doing very good. Me sticking to organic will be good for family and fool proof. Just expensive. The fast I can get a full coverage thick yard the better it will be for next year and for weed prevention.

I've got to make that investment for the celsius/certainty and also get a dedicated sprayer for that. I'm sort of not happy with my ortho...sometimes it doesn't seem to expel the fish food well. I stood spraying for way to long last time and it doesn't do a good job and barely any comes out at the highest setting. I need to try cleaning the nozzle and the internal component again. I wonder if I'm better off just putting in a bottle and direct spraying onto yard and then running sprinkler so I don't have to stand for 2/3 hours at a time because of our ridiculous water pressure.

I might hold off applying any more fertilizer for a few weeks, but that's just me...

The fish liquid or Alfalfa nitrogen content is too much too soon? I can wait a little longer longer then.

We are going to get rain soon .

You'll push way too much top growth with that level of application, just let the roots catch up a bit. Give it 2 weeks

Rain again today. Grass is looking more carpet like by the minute! Lol. Green is spreading. Burn yellow grass is slowly being replaced with fresh green. It was the chemical that did the most damage. Not the extreme cutting. Supreme shock cut to chemically damaged turf. Double negative.

Is the best price on Celsius or certainty....amazon? I can't believe it's so expensive I'm going to need to do take out a loan for Lawn care products soon. Lol ..I have lots of weed growth on perimeter of back fence. Between house's. And sporadic light growth on yard in general. I need to apply a good weed killers soon to take over for my fingers and pliers I'm using.

Honestly I don't buy those pro grade chemicals, a bottle of ortho nutsedge killer from home depot or Lowe's is enough sulfentrazone to last a few rounds of spot spraying. I buy the big one & dilute it down in my sprayer. It's plenty potent, I get it today, pay zero shipping & it kills everything I've tried it on. Don't drop a bunch of money on pro grade unless the consumer grade fails

Oh, thought you used the certainty. can the ortho nutsedge be put in the high heat? I know you have written a lot on sulfentrazone. Is the certainty just a higher concerntration or dose? What makes it so much more expensive if the main ingredients are available elsewhere?

I'm not licensed or regulated by the state of Texas...but if I was then I would have to buy certainty & stick to label instructions. All we get here is high heat, what's it gonna do, kill my weeds faster? I'm cool with that. Kill em all, let mother nature sort em out

I thought non pro chems kill the grass at high heat? I don't know much about weed killers at all. My main areas of house are not too bad but the sides are very bad .

Recovery is taking a little longer than expected....I still have some patches of yellow in various areas. I may have not watered enough during the heatwave we had. We just recently got hit with 2 days of rain. I'm hoping in a week or two 80 percent of yard will be green. I'm planning to drop a bag of texas tee on the yard in the next few days and water in after.

Great looking lawn! I do think the organics are overrated though. It reminds me of car modifications. Some guys swear by blow off valves for their turbos. Others rave about ultra lightweight crank pulleys. I can't say how many times I've heard that a chip is all one needs for max performance.

I'm not an expert but I think of Bermuda like a car engine. It ultimately just needs a few things to grow/run well. Sufficient water, sunlight, and NPK will typically get you a very good Bermuda lawn. If you have a weed infestation, remove the weeds by any reasonable means and the Bermuda will thrive. It's almost impossible to kill Bermuda by over-fertilizing.

When you have a problem with a Bermuda lawn, the solution is usually the simplest of all the possibilities.

Thanks tech biker. I know less about engines than I know about grass, which isn't too much, but your analogy makes sense. As well as the advice. As far as organic food choice compared to chemical, for me, I think its two reasons why I like it - 1. ease of use ; less chance of human error, over feeding, easier to apply and water in without chemical burn or cement discoloration (which I have a lot of visible mistakes lol) 2. safer for my family, pets, environment.

My current goals are to keep it simple like you say. Adequate food, water, sunlight part I'm working on trimming trees. My father just got an extended chainsaw pole trimmer...we are going to share it. I'll be able to reach further up now to shape up all the trees.

I"m mowing consistently at 1.0 inch height at approx every 3 or 4 days. I'm maintaining my equipment as best as I can. And I'm trying to be as healthy as I can. This last 2 months have been tough.

I just applied texas tee tonight. I gave it a light soak in to keep the dust down. We just had a huge downpour saturday and then we are fried with 105 degree weather sunday and today.

I'm still not pleased with a couple of yellowish areas..but I see some green forming. I'm guessing the recovery from my last human errors have just been taking a while to cure. I'll probably do another round of baby shampoo next time I water. Looking forward to posting some quality pictures soon. I do have some great looking areas though, carpet like.

The sides of our house are still a no mans land riddled with weeds. They grow fast. I'm trying to keep it low. I really hate even cutting it. I feel like I'm contaminated my mowers just by cutting them, and that I'm spreading their guts everywhere infecting the rest of my yard! I'm guessing its 20/25 percent grass and 80 percent weed. Plus one side has I believe saint augustine growing thanks to the previous owner of the house next to us who planted it or something. I'm guessing winter might be the best time to start a weed attack and prevent regimen.

This is a great thread for a novice!! Read through the whole thing and thoroughly enjoyed it.