I scalped when I first I saw a few green sprigs here and there. It looked mostly like dormant bermuda and dirt. Average day and night temps are 85 and 65. I'll post a couple pictures shortly

Kvn, I have Bermuda and live in Holly springs. We're basically neighbors. :) I can tell you a lot about established Bermuda but not so much starting from seeds. With that, I'll give you my opinions. First off, nitrogen in October was way too late. I normally put down my last dose of milorganite in mid September. Not sure how putting it down so late would effect your grass. Also, I'm not sure about putting down pre-emergent less then a year after seeding. It could be fine but just something I wonder about.

Hey Sherm. I've seen some of your photos recently...good looking yard! I guess it's possible that applying nitrogen that late could have promoted unnecessary growth/strain on the young grass when it should've been getting ready for dormancy. In hindsight I've also thought about the pre-em coupled with the the dose of celsius earlier could have hurt things. And last but not least my soil test doesn't seem conducive for bermuda. Especially considering the centipede in the front is thriving (it loving low fertility and acidic soil). I wonder if I'm better off trying to fix things for the bermuda or giving up and putting centipede down. Centipede is actually not a bad grass I just love how tough bermuda is and it makes a great yard for kids.

Bermuda can grow in anything, I wouldn't worry about that. It looks like some is coming in, but you may have stunted it a bit scalping too early. Have you fertilizer yet this year? Nitrogen is always appreciated by bermuda

I haven't Fertilized yet. I had planned on waiting until I had decent coverage and growth. Didn't want the app to be a waste. I have milo, 10-10-10, and straight nitrogen sitting in the garage. I'll put something down now though if it's worth a shot. I also still have some seed left that I could put down. Or maybe even aerate to open things up a bit and put down more seed if it would be worth the trouble. I really thought after all the work I put in last year things would be a tad easier this year. Ha guess I was wrong

Well, I hate to say it after all your hard work but...seed sucks. It's a pain & it's got a low success rate with warm season grasses but that's all behind you. Might as well drop the rest though, it cant germinate if its sitting in the garage.

You have roots in the ground, so you have Bermuda, let's just treat it as if it's slow to wake up. I would not aerate at this time, compaction is not your issue & we don't have active growth yet. Your temps are a bit low for full throttle growth but you're getting there & you have no shade to hold you back. I would drop the triple 10 & see if you can kick start the growth. Once you're into the real heat, pure nitrogen is all she needs. A liquid foliar like fish fertilizer or tiger bloom will be good for small stubborn areas but it's not cost effective for an area that large. Drop the 10 & water thoroughly for a week & see where that gets you. You can go back to deep infrequent after it's growing

If I had known then what I know now I definitely would've just laid Sod. But here we are. I'll see what the fertilizer can do thanks

If we can believe your soil test it looks more like strip mine tailings than topsoil. If you can find the 0-18-0 and 0-0-60 products, I would do that. In addition something like Milorganite and even dry Ironite would help get your metals up. I would expect to see relatively yellow grass but still I would expect to see grass.

Can you please post a picture of your centipede, too. We don't have any good pictures of happy centipede here.

What's done is done, but using the Skid Steer was not necessary. Skid steers and Bobcats are much better used for hauling soil around and not for scraping or raking soil.

From me looking at the pics it looks like this is on a slope?

Another thing I noticed is the close up you took of the bermuda, it looks the soil has been washed out from under the roots/tallons?I bet over the winter months when the bermuda went dormant and when it rained real heavy it washed away most of the new roots & dirt, because from that one picture it appears you are getting some wash out.I also live on a slope and have this same problem with my bermuda

Also that weed you have(The miniature tree thingy).I have pulled at least 50 of these from my bermuda in the last month.They have a real strong aroma.I dont ever recall having a problem with this particular weed in the past.Its like it just randomly showed up this year.

There is a slight slope and I've had problems with erosion at the corner of my property. That's why I put the ryegrass across the back. Never thought it was sloped enough to even be a concern until a few months of being in the house and a freaking sinkhole started forming. I swear it's always something.

Yea those weeds are new to me as well. Didn't see a single one last year and now all of the sudden they're all over the place. They have almost a Christmas tree smell to them

Weird. The only good weed is a dead weed, sulfentrazone FTW on Bermuda grass

Its like the slow rains are a thing of the past now.All we get now are mostly hard rain fall which hurts me as I am on a pretty good slope.Even with a healthy bermuda lawn that does great and looks good in the summer months, but in the winter, when its dormant I get places where I will have to fill in with top soil in the spring time because I get alot of wash out.Dormant bermuda doesnt hold up to good with alot of heavy rainfall flowing over it, at least it doesnt for me.

I'm spoiled, in SE TX we have a 9 month Bermuda growing season & virtually no winter

You have Ultisol in that area, so when you said you limed, I assume it was dolomite and not just calcitic lime? The soil test was not really showing much Mg, that I could see anyway with this sites failure to allow zooming on photos on my mobile device.

trickyputt yes when I limed it was dolemite. The soil test showed everything as low or lacking other than Sulfur, sodium, and copper

I am interested in Ultisol because it is the soil I have. Miserable stuff to start things upon. And upon is the right word. My soil sample never settled. I have had the best success re-innoculating the soil in the presence of protein heavy fertilizer. The change in tilth and other factors is significant, and the fungal root structure that develops seems to be the only thing that can battle the extreme density and low oxygen environment that the fine clay is capable of to any depth. Where oxygen reduces acidity in this type of soil this establishment has helped a great deal. My yard laughed at 40lbs D lime per 1k. It has 80lbs and I would suggest the incredibly increased surface area of such an old ground up powder such as Ultisol would play some part in that. I have also been placing fine charcoal, and the soil in those areas has been markedly different in moisture retention.

It is extremely dense stuff. Protein heavy as in soybean meal/alfalfa meal etc? I'll look into fine charcoal. I have sprayed baby shampoo as others on here have suggested to try to increase tilth and while it may have helped some I don't think it helped very much

I don't garden in the south, but I do in AZ and have tif bermuda, front and backyard (Phoenix, AZ.) Fertilizing in late fall here doesn't cause winter injury, but it may in NC due to the colder winters. So probably don't do that again.

Your soil sample results stumped me: I don't know why you'd come out with low micronutrient levels with your low pH (?) I'd consider having your soil tested again somewhere else. If you want to boost your calcium and mag without raising pH, I'd go with gypsum (not sure if it's sold there) and epsom salts for magnesium and S.

I've read some fairly positive reviews of Princess 77 seeded bermuda, BTW.

BTW, I wish I knew what variety of tif I have in my yard. I have no complaints with it- I just would like to know its name. Anyone know how I can find out (other than having a genetic test done on it, haha?)

Richsd, unless you paid upwards of $250 per pallet, then you have TIF 419 ($50 per pallet).

kvn, if you want to get a different soil test, get the $25 test from Logan Labs in Ohio. They have an excellent reputation for accuracy, reliability, repeatability, and give the best deal for quantity of tests for the money.

I gradually came into soybean meal at 47% protein per 50lb bag. 20lbs SBM per k bi annually for my growth phase, no later than the 3rd and 9th month.

So why did you scalp in April? Here it is necessary because Burmuda is so high in nitrogen that fungal attack and aerial pests such as moths laying out a carpet bombing campaign of army worm larvae makes the dryness and nutrient removal a practical issue. Would you consider letting the grass grow through a few seed head cycles?

I found the advice on this page extremely helpful: natural lawn care for the lazy

The main points are:

Must do:

• Set your mower as high as it will go (3 to 4 inches).
• Water only when your grass shows signs of drought stress and then water deeply (put a cup in your sprinkler zone and make sure it gets at least an inch of water).

Optional:

• Fertilize with an organic fertilizer in the fall and spring. I recommend the Ringer brand.
• Have the pH of your soil professionally tested. Add lime if it is below 6.0 and gardener's sulfur if it is above 7.0.
• How much top soil do you have? See how deep a shovel will go into the soil. How deep can you dig a hole in one minute? Four inches of topsoil will make for an okay lawn. Eight or more inches of topsoil will make for a great lawn.

But if you read the page you can learn all the reasons and details.

I will say that because burmuda loves nitrogen, in turn fungus and the larvae from moths and other insects love it too at least when conditions are right. Being in the humid SE long grass in early warm wet summer is a early blight attractant, and heavily fertilized late summer grass is salad for armyworms. Imagine the nightly waves of moths dropping eggs across your lawn like some malformed micro version of the D-day invasion.