Weedless Bermuda?

Shotgun Willie – posted 23 January 2003 12:51

I’ll try to make this short. I’m in North Texas, McKinney, I have an irrigation system, and on average, I mowed twice a week last summer. My (first) home came from a family that mowed, at best, twice per month in the summer for the first 5 years of it’s life. As a result, I have a yard that’s 3/4 bermuda and 1/4 weeds. Also, .75 to 1 inch of thatch over the whole yard. After fighting with it all summer, I gave up, defeated. At the beginning of this winter, I brought my brother and dad over with their reel mowers, scalped the backyard to the dirt, and removed 22 bags of clippings and thatch from a 2500 square foot backyard. I planted winter rye back there, and aside from a couple of bare patches, I’m finally satisfied. My front and side yards, however, are a different story. The bermuda is drastically overshadowed by the weed problem. I used concentrated round up in a hose end sprayer a week ago, but it seems not to be helping. I truly hate picking weeds, but this yard has given me plenty of opportunity to hone my skills. I’ve spent tha last few days surfing the net trying to get the answers to my problem.

I should have finished lawn college, but here’s my best guess…

Wait until the weather warms up enough to get the weeds growing strong again, but not so long that the bermuda becomes, uh, undormant (?) and try the round up again. Wait seven to ten days, till the ground to a couple inches, level as necessary, and reseed with the Princess Bermuda.

Will this work? I’m probably going extreme here, but I would really like for my lawn to be one color this year. Can I mix 1/2 of the Princess with 1/2 store brand, seed maybe twice this year, and have a good, thick, weedless yard? What kind of pre-emergent/fertilizer should I be using?

Being a young, new, and poor homeowner, I’m too stubborn and can’t afford to hire somebody to do this for me…

Unless somebody wants to trade services for beer and BBQ.

Thanks in advance for any help and advice.

Mike

Reader’s Digest condensed version: Green good, weed bad.

DuHon – posted 17 February 2003 12:42

Relax, this will be easy. Yes I said easy. First, do you want a green lawn in the winter? If so, overseed in the fall when temperatures max out into the lower 80’s and water enough to get the seed going. You realize that you will want this seed (rye or annual bluegrass) to die out in late spring when temperatures get warm to hot as it will take to much water to keep it going. Bermuda love the heat so let it do its thing. Go to the store and get a fertilizer with pendimethalin or other preemergent in it. This will keep most of the weeds from getting started. As for the existng weeds, yes Rounup works. Make sure your bermuda is not actively growing. Mix it in a hand sprayer (not hose end) and go spray the weeds. Get them wet, not soaked and let it work. In cool temps. it may take 15 days to see results, summer 2-3 days. Fertilize your bermuda May -Sept. This is when its growing and needs fed. If you have 75% bermuda, I would feed it and let it fill in, and it will. Reseeding, unless its a totally bare area is a waste of money. If you have any patience at all, you will have a nice yard by June.

frenchman – posted 17 February 2003 20:36

Also, if you have weeds in the summer, get some type of 2-4D and spray the yard. This will not kill the bermuda, just the weeds. You can go to Southern State and get some 2-4D Amine and this great for the weeds.

VooMan – posted 20 February 2003 10:52

Absolutely, I am in agreement…

If your yard is 75% bermuda all it needs is water and proper weed control and it will definitely fill in.

My yard was maybe 30% bermuda when I bought my house. There was no irrigation and weeds had taken over. I had a sprinkler system installed and the guy told me not to worry about seeding or reinstalling any sod. He said that with water and proper fertilizer/weed control it would fill in. I didn’t think it possible, but by the end of last summer I had nothing but bermuda. That stuff is a relentless crawler! 🙂