# No Freeze Bermuda/Kikuyu Care



## Obi-Lawn_Kenobi (Aug 13, 2019)

Tl;dr winter care for non frost zones

Joys of southern California living. This is my first winter actually having a 'clue' on whats going on in my lawn.

Last year my lawn stayed green year round without any fert or mowing. Ive lowered my hoc this year to 1.5".

Long term goals are to push out / eliminate kikuyu and have a full bermuda lawn with a hoc of .75" but I have a lot of leveling and dethatching to do before then.

Low temps get down to about 45 at night at the coolest point of the year with highs getting to low 70's. Ground temp avg go down to about 55.

My plan is to hit it with some drive xlr8, scarify, detach and overseed in the spring.

Do I keep up my normal fert/maintenance schedule through the winter (a little less fert due to cooler weather) or just jump back on the program in the spring.

Can I do my spring plans now or are ground temps/ temps too low to get good growth?


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## LoCutt (Jul 29, 2019)

You're way out of my knowledge/experience level. But we do have some people from warmer climates than I've lived in.

Good luck


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## Francoix (May 16, 2019)

@Obi-Lawn_Kenobi i just finished cutting my lawn also in so cal and was wondering the same thing. I would like to dethatch. I am jumping in to see peoples response.


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## viva_oldtrafford (Apr 4, 2018)

As temps and hours of sunlight decline, your lawn will slow down too. Dial back the watering, fert, and mowing. I switch to a predominantly foliar program in the "winter", and mow once a week. You should have a lot more time to monitor the progress of the yard since you won't be doing as much work in the yard. For those of us in these climates, we almost enter a 3-4 month holding pattern.


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## Darth_V8r (Jul 18, 2019)

Obi-Lawn_Kenobi said:


> Tl;dr winter care for non frost zones
> 
> Joys of southern California living. This is my first winter actually having a 'clue' on whats going on in my lawn.
> 
> ...


i have nothing to add to your dilemna other than to say I think we're enemies...? LOL


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## Greendoc (Mar 24, 2018)

viva_oldtrafford said:


> As temps and hours of sunlight decline, your lawn will slow down too. Dial back the watering, fert, and mowing. I switch to a predominantly foliar program in the "winter", and mow once a week. You should have a lot more time to monitor the progress of the yard since you won't be doing as much work in the yard. For those of us in these climates, we almost enter a 3-4 month holding pattern.


No truer words spoken. Fertilizer is cut back. Mowing is reduced to as needed. This is not the time to be pushing the turf lower and lower. Prevention for Large Patch has been applied. Even in Hawaii, I am in a holding pattern from November-April. Important one is no dethatching/scalping or heavy topdressing until May. I think these principles apply to the parts of California where warm season grasses stay green all year long as well.


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## Obi-Lawn_Kenobi (Aug 13, 2019)

Darth_V8r said:


> Obi-Lawn_Kenobi said:
> 
> 
> > Tl;dr winter care for non frost zones
> ...


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## Obi-Lawn_Kenobi (Aug 13, 2019)

Greendoc said:


> viva_oldtrafford said:
> 
> 
> > As temps and hours of sunlight decline, your lawn will slow down too. Dial back the watering, fert, and mowing. I switch to a predominantly foliar program in the "winter", and mow once a week. You should have a lot more time to monitor the progress of the yard since you won't be doing as much work in the yard. For those of us in these climates, we almost enter a 3-4 month holding pattern.
> ...


Awesome thanks. I didnt get any pgr down this year so I'm still getting pretty rapid growth. Doesnt help that today thru Wednesday we have 95 degree weather. That and i applied some fert/weed killer down last weekend


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## Greendoc (Mar 24, 2018)

Ignore individual days. Look at trends and means statistically. Turf management is about the long game over months and years.


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## SoCalBermuda (Feb 22, 2020)

I'm down here in San Diego and I really didn't need to mow my Bermuda more than once a month-ish in DEC and JAN. I too have Kikuyu (only in my front yard thank GOD) and I hope to take it out eventually but it's one difficult SOB. Check out the avg soil temps at: http://www.greencastonline.com/tools/soil-temperature. End of March seems to be the jump off into growing season for me as avg temp jumps over 65. I applied my pre-emergent a few weeks ago but neglected my winter application so I had some poana and other weeds pop up. This weekend I was planning on scalping but my mower broke down a bit so that will have to wait until next weekend.


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