Pre-season preparations

NC_Bermuda – posted 15 March 2003 17:16

Hi, I’ve been a lurker off and on for some time now. I installed bermuda sod last spring and by the end of the summer I had the best looking lane in the neihborhood. I also purchased a new reel mower during the winter and look forward to using it this year. I left grass long over the winter and just this week cut it to about one inch. My questions: 1)I see a number of references to burning the dead growth. DOes cutting it very short have the same effect? 2)I am also worried about uneven spots in the underlying sod that may cause scalping. Any recommendations for evening out the sod?3)I also see references to using Roundup while still dormant. What are the risks? Are there other methods to kill weeds before new growth starts?4)We also intended to put down pre-emergent but are now thinkng that it may not be necessary since we hand pulled all of the weeds last year and so far there are no signs of any new weeds this year. Would you recommend still using pre-emergent?I live in the Raleigh,NC area.Thanks in advance for the help!!!NC_Bermuda

frenchman – posted 15 March 2003 19:43

If you mow it low you’ll still have to rake the grass up. The reason of burning is to get rid of the thatch. Yes you still want to put down the pre-emerge because this won’t allow any weeds to germinate and if your neighbor has any weed it can be blown from there yard to yours. If you scalp your yard it will be ok since you can’t kill bermuda. It will recover quickly. Just aerate your yard, water it and then roll it to level your yard

George777 – posted 15 March 2003 20:09

I’ll try to answer your questions as best as possible.First you have a true mower for cutting bermuda. What type of bermuda do you have? tiff 419? Hybrids should be maintained from 0.5 -1″.If you desire to maintain your lawn like a golf course you will be on a seroius cutting cycle. The shorter the turf the thicker it will become. this is a good thing because a healthy thinck lawn will be weed free. Bermuda is a high maint turf. You can do an irrigation check and place some cans around the lawn and measure how much water you recieve in 15 min. you want 1″ of irrigation per week for bermuda. It is best to irrigate deeply and infreqently. If you have a sand soil then you will need to compansate for the water because sand does not have good water holding capacity.

I would bag the dead turf up before green up. Here in Alabama we are starting to green up and so I’ll stepping down the turf. this will help with green up. After turf is green I would mulch because you will return the nitrogen back to the soil instead of the landfill.

Bermuda is a hungry plant for fertilizer. Make sure you don’t over fert because you will increase thatch.

If you are starting to see any green in your turf do not use round up for weed control. I use Pre emergent herbicide and my lawn is weed free. Pre-M is to help prevent the germination of weed seeds (timing is important). It does not kill the seed, but when the seed is germinating the seed will uptake the herbicide and kill it. If you have not taken a soil sample I would take one. Your local extension agent will be able to help you better because he is in your area. In my yard I have clay soil with a ph of 6.0, this is great because bermuda likes 5.5-6.5 pH. the type of soil you have is more important then most people think. Different management goes along with differnt soils.

George777 – posted 15 March 2003 20:16

I forgot to tell ya the pre-M I put down now is to help prevent crab grass in the summer.I will put another application of pre-M in april and I pretty well set. You wont see the weed seeds that are in you lawn until they germinate.A seed needs the following in order to germinate1. Air@. water3. Light4. Temperature

NC_Bermuda – posted 16 March 2003 18:31

Thanks to both of you for the replies. I do have Tifway419. I will take your suggestions and apply pre-M. Will the aeration be enough to take care of thatch as well or should I do something else?Thanks again…NC_Bermuda

frenchman – posted 16 March 2003 22:08

Either verticut or burn you yard. If you verticut you will have to rake it. Burning is the easiest way to go

George777 – posted 17 March 2003 15:54

If you have more than 1/2″ of thatch than I would consider de-thatching. If you have soil compaction then I would core aerate. Core areation does ok with some thatch, however de-thatching whould work best. What kind of soil do you have?

Is the turf starting to green up?If you have a clay soil then core aeration will be a big help, however it will brake the pre-m barrier. This is not to big of a deal because in apr i put out my next app of pre-m with liquid fert.

visitor – posted 21 June 2003 23:30

easiest way to level a lawn is using sandyou need a rake and some sand. you can only do a 1/4 inch at a time good time to do it is after cutting as you tend to notice low spots. place sand in the low spot and rake out to 1/4 inch. leave and let the grass grow in and then repeat this is the easiest way to resolve the uneven spots