# Using Celsius WG Herbicide on Bermuda Grass During Spring Greenup



## FlowRider (Apr 7, 2019)

Good day, y'all...! First post, but I have been reading this forum for months now learning all I can from the forum members. This site is an invaluable resource for do it yourself homeowners like me. Like many of you, I've been mowing grass ever since I could reach the handles, and I really enjoy having a nice lawn to look at and enjoy the outdoors activities a nice lawn and landscape brings into your life.

I have Bermuda grass. It has been scalped down to 1.25 inches with rotary mowers. I use a John Deere X350 and Honda HRX, both equipped with baggers, and have a mulch kit for the lawn tractor I have not installed yet. The Honda mulches with a flip of a switch on the deck. I use the Honda for cutting in and reaching tight, rollover unsafe, or tricky spots I cannot mow with the X350.

About two years ago I injured my knee and had to hire a lawn mower service to cut my yard while I recuperated. The guy was a very conscientious guy who showed up regularly and did the usual mow, edge, trim, blow and go routine. He also weeded my mulched beds, and would mulch or spread fertilizer as long as I supplied the chemicals or paid him to buy and place the mulch. Great guy, owned a ranch in Mexico, legal immigrant with work visa, took pride in his work, but he was not a landscaper or licensed professional. He was more of a lawn equipment operator than anything.

He didn't blow his mowers off between jobs, and halfway through the summer my newly sodded and carefully finished grade lawn went from green grass to a weed farm as a result of seed importation, and the natural infestation that Mother Nature ensures biodiversity exists with.

Once I got back to full strength, I bought the mowers, some Stihl yard work tools, a tow-behind spreader and sprayer, and politely let the guy go on his way last Spring. Just was not happy with the yard then.

So now I do it myself. The money I used to pay him is now paying for my equipment. He cut the lawn real high - three inches plus. So he left me with rampant weeds, leggy Bermuda, a layer of undecomposed clippings that thinned out the lawn, and every kind of weed growing in Texas.

So I spent last season restoring the lawn back to health. I killed weeds until I could not see any more. Used blue marker dye, and my lawn had blue polka dots all over it from spot treating for six months.

My neighbors thought I was crazy probably, but they also watched me bring the lawn back from weed-o-rama to a nice lawn, and pretty soon I was being asked for advice by the friendly neighbors, and spied on by the weird ones (yeah, those who you see hiding behind their window blinds cracks or peeking at you through the foliage)...ah, suburbia.

So, fast forward to today. I scalped all the dormant straw and dead weeds down to as low as I could go without cutting dirt circles. I have spread dithiopyr pre-emergent (Sunniland 0-0-7 granules) and Scott's Turf Builder lawn food, and watered it in, and had a nice rain since then. The lawn looks real good so far, in my humble opinion. Okay, my bride said so, too.

But now the opened up canopy is breeding the winter weeds and I have a nutsedge invasion (again).

So, here is my question for you folks who use Celsius WG herbicide (my first time so I am a rookie with it). I read a Clemson university article that says Celsius can be used on Bermuda before full greenup even though 2,4-d and similar winter weed herbicides can damage Bermuda coming out of dormancy. In your experience, can one put down Celsius (using ATV tow behind sprayer - big yard, bad old knees) at the proper mixture and application rates without harming the emerging turf grass? I live near Houston, my turf is probably at 75% green, and today it will be sunny and near 90 degrees. Yeah. Texas. Gonna be a long hot summer....

May I please ask what those of you who use Celsius think of this?

My other option is to cut everything at 1.5" to knock the weeds down and wait until full greenup to spray the other "herbs" I have.

Please enlighten this Celsius rookie. Thank you!


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## FlowRider (Apr 7, 2019)

The second set of scalped clippings - 28 bags at 3.5 bushels each. The other 29 bags left two weeks ago. The yard debris collector guys hate me, probably, but I am too tired to care right now!

You can see the greenup phase behind the bags....


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## w0lfe (Mar 19, 2018)

As long as Celsius is applied at the label rates, I've yet to have a single issue whether it's during green-up or 100+ degrees outside.


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## w0lfe (Mar 19, 2018)

Also, I forgot to add.. For nutsedge, you'll want to grab something like certainty to combat it.


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## Austinite (Oct 4, 2018)

First, welcome to TLF!

Second, I did not read your entire post (I will later), but to answer the question, yes, Celsius can be applied during spring greenup, the only things you need to look out for are rain and temperature. You don't want rain or irrigation for at least 24 hours after application. And temperatures need to be warm. I waited until temps were 75+ daily before I applied. Otherwise it will be extremely slow and weak to kill.


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## SGrabs33 (Feb 13, 2017)

I've blanket sprayed celsius at half the annual max the last few springs with no issue.


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## FlowRider (Apr 7, 2019)

Many thanks for your replies, men!

I also read the Certainty label to see if it addresses the greenup issue.

I decided to let the lawn have a little time to grow in more before I spray it.

The Bermuda took off today - record heat - and I think this week it will get to the point where greenup will be a non-issue. Just hate to leave those weeds alone but I think the grass is on its way to really surge in growth, so I will let it get some sun and grow some more, and then "carpet bomb" those weeds with blanket sprayed Celsius and Certainty. A little more foliage on the weeds may actually help the kill....

Appreciate the responses and sorry for my lengthy post, if I lost anyone!


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## J_nick (Jan 28, 2017)

I sprayed my lawn yesterday with 2, 4-D and if anything it looks 10x greener today. Maybe not 10 times but enough where my wife even said it looked a lot greener today.......and the broadleafs are hating life right now

Sunday 


Tuesday


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## FlowRider (Apr 7, 2019)

Your lawn is greening up and looking real good, @J nick!

My strategy to give the grass a little break after scalping, putting down dithiopyr, and fertilizer, followed by watering it all in and then getting a nice spring rain, turned out to be great for greening up the yard.

The weeds are also thriving, but actively growing young greens make post emergent herbicide work much better. Expecting rain all day Saturday, but three days of sunshine after, so gonna blanket spray with some liquid nitrogen fertilizer and I think I am going to use up some liquid weed killer concentrates I bought before learning about Celsius and Certainty (and then finding a place to buy them from). Then I am going to follow the Bermuda Bible once I run through the other stuff, or we get farther into the dog days of Texas summer heat and humidity....

Weeds not nearly as bad as last season, but it is still a smorgasbord salad bar out there. I may post up before and after pictures - not sure I am journal worthy yet, but one never exactly knows what the future may bring!


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## high leverage (Jun 11, 2017)

As a proffesional applicator I have to apply durning green-up. This season I'm lucky enough to be able to experiment with a handful of customers lawns. I plan to post my experiences a few weeks after green-up is complete.

I hope to assess what the following does Durning green-up of Bermuda and Zoysia

Glypho at 44oz/ acre 
MSM at .5g/ acre
Three-way at max rate 64oz/ acre 
Carfentrazone at 1.2 oz/ acre
Monument at 15g/ acre 
Dismiss at 12oz/ acre

Most of these will be tank mix combos


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

Austinite said:


> First, welcome to TLF!
> 
> Second, I did not read your entire post (I will later), but to answer the question, yes, Celsius can be applied during spring greenup, the only things you need to look out for are rain and temperature. You don't want rain or irrigation for at least 24 hours after application.


Celsius just needs to dry on the leaf blades and then it is rain fast after that.

Copy and pasted from the label:

IRRIGATION
Weed control and turf tolerance is best if turf is growing well and not under stress at the time of treatment. For best results, irrigate prior to treatment if grass is under stress. After application, *do not irrigate until spray has dried.*


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## FlowRider (Apr 7, 2019)

Here is an update on my ongoing lawn rescue project. The decision to not spray herbicide (Celsius or otherwise) worked out very nicely, in my humble opinion.

Here is a shot of a portion of my yard, taken April 2, after scalping with the JD X350 down to 1.25 inches:



Here is a shot taken today, April 20, of the same area, showing the full greenup and some of the weeds that took advantage of the opened up canopy:



I also sprayed this area with the North Star 31 gallon sprayer, in an effort to put an end to the surging weeds.



I decided to use up a supply of Roundup for Lawns for Southern Lawns that I had on hand from last season. I have blanket sprayed the entire front yard so far (beautiful day, calm with almost no wind) using the handheld wand and the red fan tip to spray the entire front. My yard has a lot of hardscape areas - lot of flat work (concrete sidewalks, walkways and driveways) and flower beds with trees and ornamentals that I did not want to get dicamba onto the root zones or leaves of the plants and trees, so I had to use the wand to control the spray. It took about an hour to spray, thanks to the electric pump sprayer.

Here is the herbicide I sprayed:



Eventually I plan to switch to Celsius and Certainty, but the herbicide I used also kills yellow nutsedge, which is trying to make a comeback after I knocked it out last summer season.

The lawn is nice and lush now, and it is sending out stolons (runners) now, so I think it can withstand the herbicide mixture. We'll see...!


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## FlowRider (Apr 7, 2019)

The herbicide contains Penoxsulam, Sulfentrazone, 2,4D salt, and Dicamba. 0.14% of the first two chemicals, 1.46% 2,4D, and 0.41% dicamba. 32 fluid ounces, mixed at 2 and 2/3 ounces per gallon, along with blue marker dye and non-ionic surfactant.

Very happy with the North Star sprayer so far. It really helped me knock out this lawn project so far.

Now, to the much larger and much easier to spray back yard.

I will cut in a perimeter using the handheld wand, then go to using the two sprayer nozzles on the dual arm sprayer to knock that out....

I am really enjoying this!


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## soonersfan4512 (Jan 21, 2019)

I have nothing to add to this thread except Celcius is amazing!


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## FlowRider (Apr 7, 2019)

soonersfan4512 said:


> I have nothing to add to this thread except Celcius is amazing!


I am looking forward to using Celsius in the future.

It gets hotter than 40 Hells in Houston during the summer, so that is what convinced me to buy Celsius.

The Roundup for Lawns was taking up space in my garage, and the temperatures were perfect for using it now. I really just wanted to use it up so I can move on to something better.

Having said that, that Roundup for Lawns works really well. A number of the weeds are already slumping or wilting, and the dandelions and thistles are starting to discolor and turn from green to purple and red. The leaves are all showing spots of damage from the spray drops.

If Celsius works better than this, I will be very pleased I bought it.


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## FlowRider (Apr 7, 2019)

I thought I would post a few pictures of the effects of using Roundup for Lawns for Southern Lawns on my post-scalp greened up Bermuda grass, and why it may be prudent to wait until full greenup before spraying 2,4D and dicamba on a lawn in early spring.

I sprayed on 4/20 in the morning and here are some pictures about 55 to 60 hours later. The Bermuda seems unaffected. The weeds are clearly impacted, only ~2 1/2 days later (reapplication should wait until 21 days have passed, per the label). I don't usually leave my lawn looking like this, but it is a bit of a science experiment for me now, so here is how the blanket spray worked on my residential turfgrass:

Here is a shot of the strip between the sidewalk and street; note the variety on this weed salad bar:



Here are some closeups of various weeds:



Nutsedge giving up the ghost:



Dandelions:







Some other weeds with the hurt put on them:









So that is how things look now.

Kill 'em all!!


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## FlowRider (Apr 7, 2019)

One final question for the weed killer experts out there.

How long should I wait before I cut the grass and let the John Deere rotary machetes cut these weeds off and into the bags for the trash?

Not sure if it is better to let these wither and wilt further, or now that there has been contact, will the herbicide be into the cellular structures enough to finish killing these? My instincts say let the herbicide keep working, but the label and literature on say to wait two to three days before mowing after spraying the herbicides.

Any advice to share with the curious on that subject? Appreciate your thoughts and advice - never stop learning, right?


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## FlowRider (Apr 7, 2019)




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## FlowRider (Apr 7, 2019)

Update 4/29: Nine days after blanket spraying Roundup for Lawns:

Sedge dying off, Bermuda going strong:


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## FlowRider (Apr 7, 2019)

Bermuda growing great, weeds turning white:



All these weeds are dying off, slowly but surely:


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## chanticleer (Apr 28, 2019)

I sprayed Celsius two weeks ago and clearly mega-stressed my Bermuda lawn. It flat out killed the poa annua and the Bermuda is light green and brown in spots and has stopped growing completely. I'm assuming I overdosed like an idiot.

Despite all the warnings, I used the small cup it comes with (filled about 2 mm over top of bottom portion) in 3 gallons water with surfactant.

My neighbor tells me the Bermuda will come back. Any suggestions? Anything I can do? It's been 70s lately and pretty wet. Big warmup coming.

Thanks!


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## CenlaLowell (Apr 21, 2017)

Yes it will come back. Water, fertilizer, and time is all that is needed. Anytime you use Celsius or any granular chemical weight it using a digital scale


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## chanticleer (Apr 28, 2019)

Thank you. I won't do that again! The good news, I can see some new Bermuda growth and no more weeds. Still, overkill.


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