Bermuda grass taking over St Augustine

rsp2001 – posted 18 August 2003 12:15

We are in South Florida and have a 50 yr old St. Augustine yard. Unfortunately a 6 ft round patch of Bermuda grass last year is now almost half of our back yard! The patch is maybe 75 ft wide and 20 ft deep. We have a lot of shade in the yard – tall pines and a tall back hedge. We don’t cut the grass short. We tried weed & feed back in March and again in May. Now we’re considering digging up the yard and resodding but we’d prefer to get rid of it chemically. What will kill the Bermuda but not the St. Augustine?

Sara

Jaz – posted 19 August 2003 15:48

Try getting a small paint brush and a small can of round up and painting the bermuda leaves. Be carefull not to get any on your st. augustine grass. It is a tedious job but it has worked for me.

Dchall_San_Antonio – posted 21 August 2003 00:23

Are you saying that you have your mower set to the highest setting and the bermuda is choking out the St Aug?????

Are you on sand? probably.

How often do you water?

rsp2001 – posted 21 August 2003 09:23

HiThanks for your replies. Not sure my knees are up to painting all that Bermuda grass!

DSchall-We’re on sand and our sprinklers are running every night in 15 minutes cycles. There are 2 zones for that area. And we’ve had quite a lot of rain in the past few weeks. It dries up in a couple of months and the Bermuda turned brown last year.

Sara

Dchall_San_Antonio – posted 21 August 2003 12:55

I realize you are on sand, but can you try changing the way you water?

You have grass that is addicted to frequent watering. You have no drought resistance at all. Again, I realize you have sand, but maybe if you start doing things differently you can develop significant amounts of organic matter in your sand to retain the water much longer.

If you stopped watering, how long would the St Aug go before looking wilted? I don’t care about the bermuda, only the St Aug. I’m going to suggest you turn off your automatic waterer (bane of mankind) and go to visual observations to determine when to water. I’m going to suggest that you watch every afternoon and wait for wilting. When it looks wilty, don’t water yet. The next morning look and see if it is still wilty in the morning dew. If the dew revived it, GREAT! If not water right away in the morning. Water for about an hour to ensure the sand is saturated as deeply as it can be. Then watch again to see how long the St Aug goes before looking wilty. Repeat the drill about the dew and wilt before watering again for an hour in the morning. It may be the next day or a couple days later before wilting again. What you are trying to do is stretch out the watering so that you don’t have to water every day to keep the St Aug alive.

The deep watering will develop deep roots that can absorb water from much greater depths. Eventually you should be able to go without watering at all for a week. The sand may dry out completely in the top inch but the grass looks great for several more days. I’m there right now on about a 10 day schedule.

The deep roots and deep watering will also allow organic microbes to live deeper in your soil/sand and those guys will build your sand into soil for you.

One thing you can do to really help build the sand into soil is start using organic fertilizers. I’m not suggesting the expensive ones, I’m going to suggest alfalfa pellets or corn meal. Apply either or both at 10-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet of area. You can get these products at feed stores for $6 for 50 pounds. These fertilizers feed the soil microbes and allow them to thrive. If you use any chemical ferts, you will be stuck with no life in your soil and the same “perfect drainage” you have now.

Jaz – posted 21 August 2003 15:37

Dchall,I had the Bermuda weed. I live in Texas and seems this Bermuda weed is every where. My Father could not get rid of this stuff and it eventully took over the St. Augustine. My father always mowed his grass with the highest setting on his mower. With this weed mowing high does not do a bit of good. It seems like this stuff just grows like crazy no matter what you do.

rsp2001 – posted 21 August 2003 15:47

whoops! didn’t see your earlier reply and thought my reply hadn’t shown up yet.

We didn’t irrigate for about four months as our sprinkler system was down and we didn’t want to fix it til after rainy season. But then rainy season started late so ended up fixing it. We are on a well for the sprinkler so we’re not using up the local fresh drinking supply. The well water is extremely smelly and rusty. The Bermuda thrived during our self imposed drought. That’s when it did its extreme expansion. We have about two inches of ‘soil’ before you hit pure sand. It probably needs some fertilizing or other help. I’ll try the pellets idea.

Dchall_San_Antonio – posted 25 August 2003 09:42

Jaz,For that lawn that was taken over by bermuda, did it get much water or only rainwater. Because St Aug will die out never to return from a drought. Bermuda just goes dormant and will return.

Todd_Cibolo – posted 25 August 2003 11:15

Dchall,

I would very much like to talk to you about this subject (Bermuda taking over St. Augustine). I’ve been fighting this for years and am losing rather quickly here lately. I’ve checked with Bexar Extension Service as well as A&M Extension and I am down to sending off a soil sample to find out what my problem is. I am debating on putting down all new sod next spring and starting over. E-mail me at te****@ex****.com if your willing to talk to me about this.

ToddCibolo Texas

Gator – posted 26 August 2003 09:56

here in fla…we use to have a chemical called asulox(asulum)it wuld clean up bermuda in st augustine…does anyone know if this chemical is still available????

Jaz – posted 26 August 2003 11:45

Dchall,

That lawn was very well taken care of. My father takes a lot of pride in his yard and waters on a regular basis. I always look at lawns now and notice it is very common to see the bermuda weed taking over the St. Augustine lawns. The Scotts Bonus S weed and feed is suppose to kill bermuda but this stuff seems to thrive on it. This bermuda looks like the grass you see all over the highways, or the sides of roads down here in Texas.

rsp2001 – posted 26 August 2003 14:14

Thanks Gator and Everyone ElseI looked up Asulox. Haven’t found a place to buy it though. We may just end up resodding when our neighbor does.

Sara

jr – posted 26 August 2003 18:49

the manufacturer changed the label on asulox in 99 from turf and ornamental to sod farms and golf course only. therefore, it is no longer available (legally) to the home owner or pest control operators. there’s still some properly labeled asulox floating around out there though. i still have 2 gallons of it myself, but if you find anybody with it you are going to pay dearly for it.