# Kered's Poor Man's Bermuda Conversion



## kered (May 15, 2019)

My wife and I purchased a new construction house in the beginning of April. It is a cookie cutter home so there were no options for type of sod or anything. The sod that was laid was the worst looking bahia I have ever seen. To make matters worse, no care was given to ensure there were no holes or overlapping and it was a sprained ankle waiting to happen.

Here is the day of closing April 5th. Sorry no pics of the backyard then.



Two weeks in and I decide to go with Celebration Bermuda. What I really should've done is rip up all the bahia and get a skidsteer to level everything out. That would be too easy and cost too much so i decided to do an experiment. I purchased a pallet of Celebration Bermuda and cut random chunks out of the bahia and placed the rectangles of bermuda. It looks funny but my ultimate goal is to have the bermuda eventually take over the yard.

Here April 19. Sorry i didn't take any pics of the front yard then.



I've fertilized with a 10-10-10 and Milorganite and I've put down some Wisdom for the insects. I've also been mowing every 2-3 days. I just have push rotary mower but have the height set to where it just clips the top of the Bermuda.

This is after a fresh mow on May 12th.



and here it is May 15 with a little dew. as you can see I pulled up the trees.





From far away it doesn't look too bad but standing directly over it you see this.





I'm just starting to see the little runners if it spreading but didn't take any pics of them.

Am i crazy? Any tips?


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## erdons (Apr 3, 2018)

I would mow that Bahia as low as possible and feed the Bermuda plugs with 46-0-0 urea and they will spread like wildfire. Milo is slow acting so it won't do much. You can also use a weed wacker to cut the Bermuda shorter if your lawnmower can't get too low, celebration should probably be under an inch. You can probably have a full Bermuda lawn by the end of August if you keep up with this regimen.


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## Jacob_S (May 22, 2018)

Maybe rent a flail blade dethatcher too, get all that brown up and give the celebration more conducive ground to root to. Also celsius will do quite a number on bahia, I took it out in my yard last spring and the bermuda took over by summers end. Celebration should easily take over, I did an experiment on a section of my centipede and planted plugs and its taken over, yours should go quicker with those sections of sod..


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## kered (May 15, 2019)

I actually wasn't expecting that it would fully take over this year. Yea I've got the mower on the next to lowest setting. I'd like to go lower but the yard is just so uneven I'm still hitting dirt in some areas.

Here is the Bermuda after a cut.



Here is the bahia after a cut



I'm planning on borrowing my fathers dethatcher soon. I wanted to make sure the bermuda was rooted good before doing it. It's been almost a month so it should be good now.

I'm planning on waiting a bit for the Bermuda to spread before killing the bahia. I also want to get a plugger once it spreads and plug the Bermuda in to other areas to help it spread quicker.


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## kered (May 15, 2019)

Next year, once the Bermuda has fully taken over I'll level it and then look at getting a reel mower. leveling it is gonna be a BEAST. It's settled out some since day 1 but its still bad. Compared to you guys yards its ridiculous.


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## Handyman (May 19, 2019)

Your bermuda will not overtake the Bahia without help, ie post application with a chemical kill. In a real life Bahia is a weed to a commercial hay forage operation. It is normally kill with chemicals. You can investigate.


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## erdons (Apr 3, 2018)

It will without chemicals if he reel mows at 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch every 2 days, it will stress the crap out of it meanwhile the Bermuda will thrive.


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## kered (May 15, 2019)

if i put out a PGR will that stunt it from spreading and just make it thicker or will it help it spread thicker? I'm already seeing runners of the bermuda spreading. The bahia is just so sparse the bermuda is growing in between. The plan is to let the bermuda fill in more, then spray the bahia. The pieces that are spreading are not very thick.

Also, my father is telling me its too new to dethatch. I disagreed what say you?


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## erdons (Apr 3, 2018)

I personally would holdback on the pgr and just mow as often as possible that will make it spread the fastest. Don't dethatch the Bermuda yet, you probably could dethatch the Bahia to thin it out more and give the Bermuda more space to move in.


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## kered (May 15, 2019)

Well it has been almost a year and the Bermuda has spread quite a bit but of course nothing like I would like. Just in the past month and a half have I been mowing at the lowest setting on my rotary mower. I had to slowly work it down as the grown was so uneven. I have 6 yards of "organic" topsoil coming tomorrow to level and I think that might only do the front and some of the sides. What would you recommend I spray to kill the bahia before moving the dirt in?


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## kered (May 15, 2019)

Actually I remember I was given some Rometsol so I'll be using that. I will post pics next week of the leveling.


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## mre_man_76 (Aug 4, 2018)

Any updates?


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## rjw0283 (May 11, 2020)

MSM smokes Bahia, and it's cheap.


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## mre_man_76 (Aug 4, 2018)

Can we get some pics? I'm thinking of doing something similar to you except with common Bermuda that is growing in my centipede. Instead of sod I'll just plug what's already growing n my lawn


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## kered (May 15, 2019)

Well another year has passed. I had a kid in Feb 2020 and another in May 2021. I haven't really done anything with the yard other than mowing on the lowest setting. I sprayed rometsol last year once in July or August and once more last week. you can tell in the pics that the bahia is yellowing. If i had done it proper I'd be 100% bermuda by now but I'm ok with where its at considering I've done almost nothing.

We started to build an outdoor seating area but are going a different direction so thats the dirt rectangle. I'm planning on being more active on taking care of the yard this year.


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