AZ Bermuda Grass

bkube01 – posted 09 December 2003 15:57

I’m looking for some advice. We live outside of Phoenix. About two years ago our landscaper planted a bermuda hybrid in sod form. It is quite “clumpy” in areas, while in other areas very matted, which never seems to grow. The matted areas really never green up during the growing season. I hand de-thatched the entire yard this past September, hoping that would help especially the matted areas, but it hasn’t. It appears to get enough water during the growing season. We do not overseed in the winter, and I cut watering back to every 10 days or so. I fertilize regularily per published guidelines.

Does anyone have input on care that I’m missing? Any/all ideas are welcomed. Thanks!

Dchall_San_Antonio – posted 11 December 2003 11:39

From what bermuda amateurs are saying, the best investment they ever made was a reel mower. Then they could mow it to 1/2 inch high without creating half moons all over the yard.

This may seem like a crazy question but are you on sand? I will go ahead and assume you are. I’ve spent plenty of time in AZ and know that there are a lot of decomposed granite lots with no soil or drainage at all.

In sand, if you can apply some sawdust as a top dressing, you will start to build a place for organic matter to reside in your soil. Contrary to what many believe, sawdust does not steal nitrogen from the soil when used as a topdressing. If you tilled it in, then that’s different.

But first, here’s what I’d do. Lay down a thin layer of excellent finished compost (not the stuff in bags at Home Depot or Lowes). Excellent finished compost is dark brown and smells wonderful. If it smells like sh*t, then it is still manure and should be composted for a few months. The compost app rate is 1 cubic yard per 1,000 square feet of turf. Sling it around and/or blow it around with your leaf blower. Follow up with a push broom dragged behind you to knock the compost off of the grass blades. I’ve seen bermuda smothered out completely by using too much compost and not sweeping it in. Who’d of thought you could kill bermuda at all, let alone killing it with compost???

Then water the compost in. As long as your grass remains green, water it when it wilts or changes to that blue-green color. Once the grass goes dormant, continue to water the soil on a monthly basis. Water about an inch of water. Your soil microbes need water all year. Next year, only water when the grass looks wilty, but then water it for about an hour at a time. If you’re on sand, that should provide water to a depth of about 5,000 feet (c; or so. But you want water at some serious depth so that the roots can find it when they go looking. If you water every day for 10 minutes, you will have roots that are actually surviving on top of the soil/sand. You want deep roots.

If you want to try organic fertilizer, try this. Find your nearest feed store and find out what they have in 50 pound bags for cheap. In my area it is corn meal and alfalfa pellets. Cost is about $6.50 per bag. I use both at a rate of 10-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. I fertilize on Valentine’s Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day. If you really want to go after performance, fertilize every 90 days all year long. Of course bermuda can use the full rate dose even more often than that, so you can’t hurt anything.

There’s several ideas here. If you use them all, you should turn your clumps around.