# Best time to apply Tenacity to Kill Nimblewill in Bermuda?



## cglarsen (Dec 28, 2018)

I've hand pulled a ton of nimblewill but gonna have to couple that with chemical control. I read that Tenacity is the way to go.

Question, when should it be applied to maximize Nimblewill kill and minimize Bermuda injury?


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## moytheboy (Jul 8, 2019)

Following.

Can tenacity be used on Bermuda? I've debated purchasing tenacity for some time now because I haven't gotten a clear cut answer.


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## Wfrobinette (Feb 3, 2019)

moytheboy said:


> Following.
> 
> Can tenacity be used on Bermuda? I've debated purchasing tenacity for some time now because I haven't gotten a clear cut answer.


I used it to suppress the bermuda in my KBG. It turned it white and killed about half of it.


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## Alias-Doe (Aug 9, 2019)

moytheboy said:


> Following.
> 
> Can tenacity be used on Bermuda? I've debated purchasing tenacity for some time now because I haven't gotten a clear cut answer.


It will turn paper white(literally bright white) within days and last for 3-4 weeks . Doesn't completely kill it but it'll put a temporary bruising on it . Not worth it if you're planning on keeping the Bermuda .


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## Arizonalawndawg (Aug 12, 2019)

Alias-Doe said:


> moytheboy said:
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> 
> > Following.
> ...


What if youre applying it to a dormant Bermuda for your overseeded rye?


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## RYBLMC (Apr 2, 2019)

I read up on Tenacity and Bermuda. From what I understand Tenacity is perfectly fine, but only when the Bermuda is in dormancy entirely.


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## Arizonalawndawg (Aug 12, 2019)

@RYBLMC



RYBLMC said:


> I read up on Tenacity and Bermuda. From what I understand Tenacity is perfectly fine, but only when the Bermuda is in dormancy entirely.


I've got some starter fert with tenacity in it. It's from Anderson's fert. It specifically says to put down as last step of Overseeding. Have you read anything about germination and tenacity ?


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## marshtj (Apr 9, 2018)

I've used tenacity on Bermuda to combat nimblewill. It will discolor it, but Bermuda will bounce back.


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## cglarsen (Dec 28, 2018)

marshtj said:


> I've used tenacity on Bermuda to combat nimblewill. It will discolor it, but Bermuda will bounce back.


Rate? What time of year?


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## HungrySoutherner (May 29, 2018)

Yes you can while its not dormant but only if you don't have common bermuda....it will smoke it if its common. If you have hybrid bermuda I would add simazine to the mix to buffer it and reduce the damage to the bermuda. Use the lowest rate of tenacity + simazine and you should be able to kill it in one application without smoking the bermuda. You can check out my lawn journal about how that works and what to expect. Using just straight tenacity is going to make it white for about a month...might out right kill it. How much nimblewill? Pictures?


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## cglarsen (Dec 28, 2018)

HungrySoutherner said:


> Yes you can while its not dormant but only if you don't have common bermuda....it will smoke it if its common. If you have hybrid bermuda I would add simazine to the mix to buffer it and reduce the damage to the bermuda. Use the lowest rate of tenacity + simazine and you should be able to kill it in one application without smoking the bermuda. You can check out my lawn journal about how that works and what to expect. Using just straight tenacity is going to make it white for about a month...might out right kill it. How much nimblewill? Pictures?




I pulled out a large wheelbarrow full of this crap from the front yard - it's impeding the growth of my hybrid plugs so I cleared that area. I have a fair amount mixed in other areas that are mostly common bermuda. Might have to wait until the bermuda goes dormant. Does nimblewill stay green a little longer so I can hit it in the winter?

The back yard is chock full of nimblewill but I don't have bermuda back there - that will be next season's renovation project - so I will treat it there sometime before I overseed rye for the winter.

I failed to remember you are using Tenacity and Simazine to get out the common bermuda.


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## andymac7 (Oct 30, 2018)

I'm certainly interested in eradicating nimblewill. This is honestly the first I've heard of it, as I thought it was some sort of very hardy common bermuda before now. Lol. It does stay green longer in the fall, that I know, because I noticed it last year. It looks bad in my Yukon bermuda because it's so much lighter in color. So, as @cglarsen asked, what rate and at what temps should we apply?

Also, if I were to go nuclear on it next year and spray gly, should I plug bermuda into the areas, overseed, or both?


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## SWB (Sep 22, 2018)

What I found is the Niblewill will stay active a few weeks after the Bermuda goes dormant. I sprayed with gly at that time. I tried Tenacity several times but the Nimblewill always came back. I have 1 1/2 acres of bermuda and the niblewill was literally overtaking my lawn. Its a nasty weed.


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## andymac7 (Oct 30, 2018)

SWB said:


> What I found is the Niblewill will stay active a few weeks after the Bermuda goes dormant. I sprayed with gly at that time. I tried Tenacity several times but the Nimblewill always came back. I have 1 1/2 acres of bermuda and the niblewill was literally overtaking my lawn. Its a nasty weed.


Geesh, and here I thought I just about had things under control and all I really had to battle next year was nutsedge. . I'm guessing the nimblewill will be even harder for me to get rid of further north, as I read that it seems to like shade. Am I to assume then that it will be more tolerant of my slightly cooler temps? And were you able to get rid of it with gly?

Last year I spot sprayed gly in my bermuda and it really showed burn spots come green up time. So, I'm really hesitant to try that again. I would consider blanket spraying at a low rate, then putting down a high N fertilizer. What rate did you use for the gly?


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## SWB (Sep 22, 2018)

You have to realize that I was dealing with a very large area. My nimblewill was growing in full sun and it was completely out of control. I actually let it grow for a couple of years because I didn't know what it was. The Site One guys said one thing and the extension office said another. I finally went with the extension office after 3 different agents there identified it as Nimblewill.





The top pic was taken in the spring. The bottom pic was taken in the fall...not the same years. I found if I waited until fall when you could actually see the difference enough to spot spray. My lawn was heavily fertilized so any damage was minimal and quickly filled in after spring greenup.
If I had a smaller property my approach might have been a little more conservative.
The gly was applied at the lowest rate recommended....it doesn't take much to kill nimblewill.
My Bermuda was common seeded so I'd say different varieties might respond differently.
That stuff is nasty....I hope you get it under control.


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## SWB (Sep 22, 2018)

Couple more pics....


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## andymac7 (Oct 30, 2018)

SWB said:


> You have to realize that I was dealing with a very large area. My nimblewill was growing in full sun and it was completely out of control. I actually let it grow for a couple of years because I didn't know what it was. The Site One guys said one thing and the extension office said another. I finally went with the extension office after 3 different agents there identified it as Nimblewill.
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Wow.. ok well I'm glad I figured this out when I did. It is hard to see in my lawn now of course, but I'm afraid mine might also be out of control. I have about 16k sq ft, and I'm thinking about 1/3 of that could be nimblewill. I will post post a photo in the morning to just confirm 100% that's what I'm seeing.

As far as competing, will nimblewill eventually choke out bermuda? That would be hard to believe if so. I mean, we're talking about bermuda here. Lol. I could see it overtaking cool season grasses, especially in these 90+ degree temps.


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## andymac7 (Oct 30, 2018)

SWB said:


> Couple more pics....


Ok yes, I don't think I need to take pics after seeing this.. I have it for sure . I even thought it could be zoysia at one point. I mean hey, at least to me it doesn't look as bad as crabgrass and other weeds, appearance-wise. But it will certainly make the yard look patchy, so it will have to go. The battle is on :evil:


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## SWB (Sep 22, 2018)

andymac7 said:


> SWB said:
> 
> 
> > You have to realize that I was dealing with a very large area. My nimblewill was growing in full sun and it was completely out of control. I actually let it grow for a couple of years because I didn't know what it was. The Site One guys said one thing and the extension office said another. I finally went with the extension office after 3 different agents there identified it as Nimblewill.
> ...


I can laugh about it now but I'm not kidding when I say I battled this stuff for years. Granted I'm not an expert in lawn care but I can not adequately explain how much of this stuff I had. Every time I'd kill off one patch 6 more would show up.


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## cglarsen (Dec 28, 2018)

I can testify that nitrogen will burn nimblewill faster than Bermuda. But I still need to pull as much as possible and use a herbicide to knock out the majority of it this winter. Most of mine is in the shadier part of my lawn bit it has no problem in full sun either. I hate the stuff almost as much as crabgrass.


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## andymac7 (Oct 30, 2018)

cglarsen said:


> I can testify that nitrogen will burn nimblewill faster than Bermuda. But I still need to pull as much as possible and use a herbicide to knock out the majority of it this winter. Most of mine is in the shadier part of my lawn bit it has no problem in full sun either. I hate the stuff almost as much as crabgrass.


Yes, I can attest to the Nitrogen burn as well. I had a patch of it in the backyard, of course thought it was common bermuda, and urea absolutely fried it. So do you have a certain strategy when trying to burn the nimblewill back with it? Possibly wait a little bit before watering in?

I still can't believe this stuff actually competes with bermuda. I'm shocked, really. A frickin' bermuda imposter. This sucks.


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## cglarsen (Dec 28, 2018)

andymac7 said:


> cglarsen said:
> 
> 
> > I can testify that nitrogen will burn nimblewill faster than Bermuda. But I still need to pull as much as possible and use a herbicide to knock out the majority of it this winter. Most of mine is in the shadier part of my lawn bit it has no problem in full sun either. I hate the stuff almost as much as crabgrass.
> ...


I found the N burn by accident but it does help although not a complete strategy. It's amaxing it does so well considering its leaf sparseness. I'm going to try Tenacity this winter. Or maybe gly again. Wish we had more options. It's a grassy weed from hell.


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## andymac7 (Oct 30, 2018)

Ok @cglarsen thanks.

While we wait for cooler weather, I walked around yesterday evening and had a closer look at my lawn, to see just how much nimblewill was in my bermuda. I feel slightly better about my situation. The upper portion of my lawn, closest to the house, has virtually no nimblewill at all; It's only the bottom 1/3 that seems to have it, and even then, the bermuda really does seem to be running into it, almost trying to choke it out.

Have a look at this photo here...



You can see bermuda runners on the edges (tried to outline in green) of this nimblewill patch (tried to ouline in red), seemingly coming in from all sides. Now it could just be me trying to be optimistic of course, but it sure looks like that's what's happening. On another bright side, if this and nutsedge is now all I have to deal with, well, things could be worse I suppose. The nutsedge will be easily all but eradicated next year, and I'll just literally have to "plug away" the nimblewill patch by patch.


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## SWB (Sep 22, 2018)

One thing that helped me in the fall.....when the summer growing season was coming to an end and I was only mowing every 2 weeks or so I would walk the lawn every night and drop a small colored flag to mark the ninblewill. Then I would go back and spray all at one time. I also left many of the flags in the lawn thru the winter just to see if the nimblewill came back in that spot. Thats how I realized that spraying after the Bermuda went dormant worked.


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## andymac7 (Oct 30, 2018)

SWB said:


> One thing that helped me in the fall.....when the summer growing season was coming to an end and I was only mowing every 2 weeks or so I would walk the lawn every night and drop a small colored flag to mark the ninblewill. Then I would go back and spray all at one time. I also left many of the flags in the lawn thru the winter just to see if the nimblewill came back in that spot. Thats how I realized that spraying after the Bermuda went dormant worked.


Ok, yes, good idea!


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## andymac7 (Oct 30, 2018)

SWB said:


> One thing that helped me in the fall.....when the summer growing season was coming to an end and I was only mowing every 2 weeks or so I would walk the lawn every night and drop a small colored flag to mark the ninblewill. Then I would go back and spray all at one time. I also left many of the flags in the lawn thru the winter just to see if the nimblewill came back in that spot. Thats how I realized that spraying after the Bermuda went dormant worked.


So I went and bought me some flags  Red ones for large patches I'm going to circle and blue ones to put in the middle of small patches. I'm very nervous as to how much nimblewill I actually have. Every day I sort of glare out my front window with a fierce determination to destroy it. :lol: But seriously, I know it will be a slow process, and I have accepted it. Like I said, there are some worse-looking weeds, in my opinion.


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## SWB (Sep 22, 2018)

andymac7 said:


> SWB said:
> 
> 
> > One thing that helped me in the fall.....when the summer growing season was coming to an end and I was only mowing every 2 weeks or so I would walk the lawn every night and drop a small colored flag to mark the ninblewill. Then I would go back and spray all at one time. I also left many of the flags in the lawn thru the winter just to see if the nimblewill came back in that spot. Thats how I realized that spraying after the Bermuda went dormant worked.
> ...


I'm sorry you have so much nimblewill but stay after it and you will get ahead of it.


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## andymac7 (Oct 30, 2018)

SWB said:


> andymac7 said:
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I appreciate the encouragement! :thumbup:


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## SWB (Sep 22, 2018)

andymac7 said:


> SWB said:
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## cglarsen (Dec 28, 2018)

SWB said:


> andymac7 said:
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Well I'm going to apply label rate Tenacity to the whole lawn on November 1 then. Shouldn't ding the bermuda as hard going into dormancy right?


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## SWB (Sep 22, 2018)

cglarsen said:


> SWB said:
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I'd probably be more concerned that the Tenacity has time to work. I think it recommends 2-3 apps 10 days or so apart if I remember. Heres a pic of my lawn after Tenacity...


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## andymac7 (Oct 30, 2018)

Ooohhhkayyy.. It's FINALLY about time to try and kill some nimblewill! My yard is a patchwork of greens and tans, with some parts getting the "tiger stripe" look to them. So, I can now see the patches of nimblewill starting to reveal itself, compared to the areas of bermuda, and.............

It's really not as bad as I thought it would be . And here's the thing, for me, if I don't 100% snuff it out all in one go, I'm not going to be too bent out of shape. I figure I'll start up at the top of the yard closest to the house and work my way down (I have a slight downhill grade), being strategic with the patches I want to take out first.

With that said, does someone have an amount of gly they mixed per gallon that seemed about right? My hope of course is to mix just enough to take out the nimblewill but spare some bermuda.


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## SWB (Sep 22, 2018)

I used the lowest rate per the label. I think it was 1/2oz - 1oz / gallon. It doesn't take much.


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## andymac7 (Oct 30, 2018)

First of all, thanks for the info @SWB, I guess I never replied.

Second, and this might be slightly off topic, but I was wondering about nimblewill and HOC. Have any of you noticed it not liking lower cuts? If so, that could be another strategy to use on it. When I've looked closely at it's growth habit, it seems to grow fairly vertically, as opposed to bermuda.


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## SWB (Sep 22, 2018)

andymac7 said:


> First of all, thanks for the info @SWB, I guess I never replied.
> 
> Second, and this might be slightly off topic, but I was wondering about nimblewill and HOC. Have any of you noticed it not liking lower cuts? If so, that could be another strategy to use on it. When I've looked closely at it's growth habit, it seems to grow fairly vertically, as opposed to bermuda.


I cut between 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 and it thrived in my lawn.


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## andymac7 (Oct 30, 2018)

SWB said:


> andymac7 said:
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> > First of all, thanks for the info @SWB, I guess I never replied.
> ...


Yeah see that is definitely higher than normal for bermuda (not saying it's a bad thing), so I'm just wondering at heights say, under 2" if there might be any suppression of the nimblewill. I guess the only way to know is to try it out.


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## andymac7 (Oct 30, 2018)

Hey all you nimblewill haters! It's that time of year, when I'm already starting to think about how much nimbewill may have spread in my bermuda this season. So here are my questions:

- Does anyone know of a new awesome herbicide that's been released that will kill nimblewill in bermuda? 
- What is the consensus on the best time of year to apply glyphosate so to (hopefully) kill nimbewill and spare most of the bermuda?
- Any new genius ideas on how to git rid of this evil stuff?

Thanks!


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