bermuda care

rdhdfmn – posted 12 May 2001 07:31

I recently prepared my soil to plant Bermuda grass. Now that I have it seeded what else can I do to accelerate the growth of my seed? Will lime help it? When do I need to fertilize? Also I planted another area last year and It looks like its still dead. Will it grow back. Do I need to fertilize? Thanks

seed – posted 14 May 2001 16:22

rdhdfmn, the biggest problems in turf establishment are water and weeds.

Water must be sufficient to wet the rootzone, and seedlings must not dry out. Too much water can wash away the seed or encourage diseases.

Weeds quickly germinate and try to smother newly seeded turf. Depending on what type of weeds you have, and the age of the bermudagrass seedlings, it may or may not be safe or appropriate to use some type of preemergence herbicide such as Ronstar or a postemergence herbicide such as one of the 2,4-D mixtures (for broadleaf weeds). Read the label carefully and do not go beyond anything that it says.

Sometimes you can just wait until the weeds start to overtop the turf, then mow.

Lime is added to the soil usually before planting, because it does move very far on its own, and if you have an acid soil, it helps raise the soil pH to a more neutral range.

Fertilize to increase the growth of the bermudagrass, once it starts growing. If there’s not much visibly going on, then the fertilizer will mainly help the weeds.

Phil