gojacket74 – posted 08 October 2004 14:39
My bermuda lawn is less than a year old and I can not get it to green up. I fertilized in late spring and summer and the majority of it has stayed brown. I have three or four areas around my house that are green and lush, but the rest just looks like its half awake. I barely have to mow except for the few green areas, and the stems are brown in the middle with very few green tips. Please help. I am planning to fertalize again before winter, but I want to make sure I havn’t already burned it. Any help would be appreciated.
Buck – posted 12 October 2004 11:46
What are you using for fertilizer. For bermuda is should have a ratio of about 5:1:3. Most products available in your home store or garden store are not close to that ratio.
You seem to consider that you may have burned the turf with fertilizer. Not sure that is really possible. Unless you just dumped a real load, completely covered the turf. In the spring we apply 6-2-0 to get it kicked off, about 100# per 1,000 sq feet, that’s right 100# per 1,000 square feet. Never witnessed any burn.
Have you applied Round Up earlier in the year when the turf looked dormant? If you do so a little late it will take out the bermuda and a long time to recover. Also, have you applied Manager or Image to control nutsdege? That also will produce a kill that will last for awhile.
Finally, what are you now planning to use for fertilizer? You need something low in N, say 5:10:31 or so. The last thing you want now is Scotts Winterizer. The ratio is completely out of synch with bermuda and puts way too much N down at just the wrong time.
Hope this helps.
gojacket74 – posted 13 October 2004 10:36
Thanks for the info. From looking at your reply and some other information I dug up it doesn’t appear that I was not fertilizing enough. I have only been applying about 1lb of fertilizer per 1,000 ft2, which amounts to about .25 lbs of nitrogen per application. Everything I have found recommends at least 2-6 lbs. per 1000 ft2 annually. I am only at .5 lbs so far this year.
Thanks,