Bermuda Removal Before Sodding With Empire

vivona – posted 01 November 2010 08:15

I had my entire yard sprayed twice with Glyphosate, with 10 days between sprayings. 10 days after the second application, when all the existing Floratam, and the infestation of Bermudagrass, was dead, I had the turf removed with a sod cutter. My new Empire Zoysia sod is supposed to be laid today or tomorrow, but this morning I found a lot of Bermuda shoots had popped up in my back yard. Do I stop the sod installation and have the Bermuda sprayed with Roundup, or is it okay to lay Empire over it and deal with the Bermuda afterwards?

vivona – posted 01 November 2010 11:29

Well, I could not reach my sod installer by phone, so I left a message and went ahead and sprayed Roundup on each sprout of Bermuda. I figured that not broadly spraying the area would reduce the amount of Roundup in the soil. As I understand it, after a few days it is okay to sod the area. Correct?

mrmumbels – posted 01 November 2010 17:09

Be sure that Bermuda is dead. It’s hell to remove from empire. Where do you live? Be sure to mix in some really good organic material into your soil or your empire will look like crap after a few years. Empire is pretty impossible to kill in drough but, it will go dormant before than any other turf and look aweful. The fix is good top soil. Something that can hold moisture. I’ve been fighting this problem for 4 years now.

vivona – posted 01 November 2010 19:27

I’m in Central Florida. The soil is 85% sand. I had a portion of the front yard that had problems with St. Augustine, so I had the top 4 inches of soil removed and replaced with topsoil. But, with that costing as much as the sod is costing, it would essentially double my cost if I did that with the whole yard. Since the rest of the yard did okay with St. Augustine I am trusting that the soil will be okay.

[This message has been edited by vivona (edited 03 November 2010).]

turfgrass – posted 03 November 2010 18:47

if you’ve ever had bermuda…you will continue to have bermuda.

it is what it is. can’t make nature perfect, but you can try.

go ahead and buy some “Acclaim”(fenoxaprop), sounds like you’ll need it.

vivona – posted 12 November 2010 12:24

Because it was just shoots coming up in an area that previously had a Bermuda problem, I mis-identified the new growth as Bermuda. It turns out that it is Nutsedge. I just applied a second spraying of RoundUp. My sod installer says it should be ready for sodding in 10 days. He said any remaining Nutsedge after the 10 days should be pulled out by hand.

However, threads about Nutsedge in this forum seem to say that it may not be that easy to get rid of the stuff. I am installing Jamur Zoysia which they say is too dense for the Nutsedge to handle, but I am not confident with that marketing claim.

[This message has been edited by vivona (edited 12 November 2010).]

mrmumbels – posted 13 November 2010 19:07

If Jamur is like Empire then you don’t have to worry about weeds too much. You’ll get a few in the spring but it eventually chokes out everything except bermuda. Make sure that Bermuda is dead. If your neighbors have bermuda, I’m sorry, it’s hell to remove from Zoysia. I’ve been working on it with a mix of fusilade 2 and turflon ester…

Houndawg – posted 27 March 2013 20:49

I’m using Ornamec® Over-The-Top Grass Herbicide , it kills Burmuda and leaves the Zoysia alone. It’s kinda pricy, but it works.

Houndawg – posted 27 March 2013 20:56

The area I planted last season had Bermuda in spots. I didn’t cut the Zoysia the whole summer, and I let the Bermuda grow..it grew way faster , when it got large enough to spray I nailed it. Over the Top works.