# New bermuda sod on clay soil - my plan



## chocolate_soymilk (Jul 12, 2020)

Hi all, I just moved into a new construction house with a lawn of about 10ksqft. The builder laid down Tifway 419 sod (so I'm told) over most of it, maybe 9ksqft, and left the remainder bare soil. I'm in an area which has very rocky, sandy, clay soil and it wasn't leveled very well prior to the sod going down, nor was the sod installed the same day it was cut. It's obviously quite thin right now with a lot of large dead spots. I have lots of broadleaf weeds that have popped up in the last couple weeks. I moved in Saturday so I'd like to start to take control of the lawn sooner rather than later.

The builder is not going to change any of that, so I'd like to focus on what I can do to help it recover as much as possible before winter and then think about ways to make the most of it. Here's my plan so far for the rest of this season (usually remains pretty warm where I am until November):

Get a soil test, follow any advice
Apply preemergent now
Spot spray Image product containing quinclorac for the crabgrass/other weeds
Put down 1lb/1ksft Nitrogen now

Next year, in addition to following the bermuda triangle advice, I would like to do a 50/50 soil/sand leveling in the spring. My thought there would be to add some OM to my sandly clay soil in addition to leveling it. It will probably take a few rounds of leveling to get anywhere as bumpy as my yard currently is.

In addition to general feedback and advice, I do have a couple questions regarding the lawn I'd appreciate if you'd take a look at:

The sod has been in the ground about 1.5 months and like I mentioned is weak in some spots - is it too early to be spraying herbicides like Image?
I've thought about applying one of the kelp/humic products to the yard before winter - would that be worth it?
The sod was laid directly on sandy clay - I'm curious to know if one of the many biochar products would help amend the soil and help it hold on to nutrients a little better.

Here's a picture of the lawn:


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## Wfrobinette (Feb 3, 2019)

Just remember. Weeds and even the Bermuda add their own organic material into the soil(roots die off). I'd even consider an overseed this winter with annual rye or PRG to put more organic material into the soil.

Honestly, How do you think humic and kelp are going to get into the soil?


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## Jeremy3292 (Apr 30, 2020)

Put a 10-10-10 down NOW to get any growth you can and to amend the soil before the season is over. What part of SC are you in? I'm in the upstate and I'd say no more fert after your 10-10-10 app. Don't worry about the summer weeds as they will die soon enough. But make sure to put the pre-M down on Sept 15th for the winter weeds - now is too early (POA ANNUA!). Don't fret about the sod; you can easily fix that more next spring/summer. Just do what you can do now and realize it won't happen overnight. All new builds are trash soil and plenty have beautiful lawns.

EDIT: https://yardmastery.com/collections/fertilizers-granular

This is a good website above many of use for fert products. Keep it in mind for next spring/summer. The XSOIL product could be an option for you.


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## rjw0283 (May 11, 2020)

I think your going about it right. Get a soil test. Invest in herbicides such as Celsius and Certainty to use next season. You'll be glad you did. 
Get a soil test ASAP, waypoint is a really quick turnaround, I had results in 3-4 days.


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## Tellycoleman (May 10, 2017)

Do NOT OVERSEED with rye grass your 1st year. It will do a lot of damage to your new turf. You have to apply just as much nitrogen as phosphorus and potasium. You need to check for insect grub or army worms. Check for that ASAP. That's what i am looking at because your sod is so new. Also make sure your water schedule is good. How much do you water? If you say you water for ___ minutes thats the wrong answer. No one will know what that means or how much water you have put down. Last question is how much direct sunlight does that area get? How many hours. This does not include filtered light through the trees


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## Darth_V8r (Jul 18, 2019)

+1 to telly's post on water, light, and insect activity.

Right now, your turf is on dirt. Soil is dirt plus root cycle activity. The good news is, in SC, we have plenty of hot days left to push growth. Growth will push root development.

What I would do is go to Lowes and get a bag of the sunniland blue/white bag 24-0-11 fertilizer with micronutrients. Lots of good stuff in there to help amend the soil. Secondly, I would get humic acid down soon and do it once a month at least until october. It's messy, but if you do liquid humic, it will get into the soil faster vs granular and start helping it, but it's a long-term benefit. Short term, you don't see much from it. In my yard, I noticed after two treatments of humic, it was far easier to dig in the clay vs before, and the sandy patches were bound together better. Helps alot with root depth, especially going into winter. I switched to granular humic because it's less messy. After the fifth treatment was when I noticed the benefit to the grass itself.

As to herbicides, as mentioned above, I would look into celsius and certainty for a good hit now without doing any damage. Over a month on the ground is more than long enough for most herbicides. Image might not be the best bet, since it can stress an already stressed yard.

After fertilizing and getting some growth started now, you'll be able to run a pretty good pre-M program mid september with low risk.


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## Wfrobinette (Feb 3, 2019)

Tellycoleman said:


> Do NOT OVERSEED with rye grass your 1st year. It will do a lot of damage to your new turf. You have to apply just as much nitrogen as phosphorus and potasium. You need to check for insect grub or army worms. Check for that ASAP. That's what i am looking at because your sod is so new. Also make sure your water schedule is good. How much do you water? If you say you water for ___ minutes thats the wrong answer. No one will know what that means or how much water you have put down. Last question is how much direct sunlight does that area get? How many hours. This does not include filtered light through the trees


I did it my first year(last year) and my sod looked awesome this year. Seriously, how is it going to damage a dormant plant?


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## Wfrobinette (Feb 3, 2019)

Darth_V8r said:


> +1 to telly's post on water, light, and insect activity.
> 
> Right now, your turf is on dirt. Soil is dirt plus root cycle activity. The good news is, in SC, we have plenty of hot days left to push growth. Growth will push root development.
> 
> ...


I'm not completely sold the humic acid argument. There is very little research done on turf(plenty on crops). And that research seems to point to positive results in root mass in the lab( pure sand and hydroponic) but nothing to the appearance of the turf itself. There is no conclusive evidence to suggest it works in the field.

All the research I can find that says it's a wonder drug for the soil is from the manufacturers themselves.

https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu...e/hortupdate_archives/2002/jun02/art4jun.html

https://www.turfmagazine.com/lawn-care/the-case-for-humic-acids/

https://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/tgtre/article/1999aug6.pdf

https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/agj2.20199

I am of the opinion based on what I have read and seen that getting organic material into clay and sand can be done through normal growth and death of roots and the breakdown of surface material such as clippings.


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## Darth_V8r (Jul 18, 2019)

That's fair enough. Anything I can offer is anecdotal personal experience. It might just be that it's nothing more than expensive carbon in the soil. it might be that it jumpstarted the organic cycle.

All I can tell you is my house was built in 1986, and the yard was done around the same time. So a pretty mature yard. I bought the place in July 2018, and it was a battle to keep it going, I honestly feel like the humic acid did more for the yard than fertilizer did -- now that said, I have a SA/centipede yard, which has low N requirements anyway. And Bermuda will grow in concrete, whereas centipede and SA will not.


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## Rooster (Aug 19, 2019)

I'm just not ready to spend money on another product. It sounds like humic would be helpful, but feeding the microherd and growing healthy plants are the best things (IMO) you can do for soil in the long term.

I'm growing my yard on clay subsoil that the builder left, and I'm not doing anything fancy. Feed the grass, add some organic goodness via topdressing, leave the clippings, and water. Pretty sure it'll change the soil dramatically, though of course it'll take a while.


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## Wfrobinette (Feb 3, 2019)

Darth_V8r said:


> That's fair enough. Anything I can offer is anecdotal personal experience. It might just be that it's nothing more than expensive carbon in the soil. it might be that it jumpstarted the organic cycle.
> 
> All I can tell you is my house was built in 1986, and the yard was done around the same time. So a pretty mature yard. I bought the place in July 2018, and it was a battle to keep it going, I honestly feel like the humic acid did more for the yard than fertilizer did -- now that said, I have a SA/centipede yard, which has low N requirements anyway. And Bermuda will grow in concrete, whereas centipede and SA will not.


I put down 2 bags of the Andersons DG stuff last year, had carbon-x fertilizer about 1/2 the apps and put down 10lbs of kelp per 1000 last year. This year it's been carbonX all year as a dwindle my supply from bulk buy last year that cost me $22 a bag. Frankl, my yard looks the best after a bag of plain old scotts green bag stuff. Most stuff I can find at Ewing or Siteone around here is slow release 3 month stuff.

I do think it is probably adding something but I don't know if it justifies the cost.

This has been a bad year grass wise for me. My reel mower crapped out and was cutting rotary from mid-june to mid August. Went from .625 to 2 inches and back down to .5 scalp. It's still recovering. IT did look really good at 2 inches.

Anyway I digress.

I'm due for a soil test in the spring so we will see how much organic matter I have now.


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## Tellycoleman (May 10, 2017)

@Wfrobinette did you see his lawn picture. His grass is week and failing. Would you really overseed rye? his grass isn't even established yet. And It is not wise to make it compete with allopathic grass like rye grass. Rye grass will produce a chemical when the bermuda begins to wake up that acts like selective herbicide and the rye will try to kill the bermuda. If he does that in his grasses current state it will probably win. With the new rye grass that's genetically made today, it doesn't just roll over and dye in the summer. That is a very bad idea. I repeat Do NOT OVERSEEDING!!!! You probably sprayed out your rye? Would a newbie know to do that or when to do that or how to do that? Does he know even Know how to calibrate a sprayer. His focus should ONLY be on establishing turf roots an fertilizer. I am not a fan of humic acid in established turf. It might help it might not.

I WOULD NOT APPLY ANY HERBICIDES!!! Do not!!
The hardest thing to grow grass on is bare dirt. If you kill the weeds with Celsius and Certainty you really don't have enough season to grow bermuda over the area. So you will go all winter with no cover over those bare areas and erosion. 
I would buy them and preemergents for next year but there is no way I would stress out my lawn before winter trying to kill summer weeds thatS already gonna die in a month or 2. 
Focus on root growth.

I would apply insecticides ASAP. If you are seeing grubs. Or do a soapy water test on you lawn to see if you have bugs. 
Ultimately it's your lawn. And if you do overseed and apply herbicides it's your choice. Some people play it safe. Some people are more aggressive. I just know that my neighbor HAD a very well established Zoysia lawn that he overseeded in rye and he didn't spray the rye out and now he has a well established salad bowl of grasses. But I Strongly Recommend you take my advice. 
By the way did he answer about the amount if available light he is getting?


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## chocolate_soymilk (Jul 12, 2020)

Thanks all for your help and very well written answers.

On Friday I got a tape measure and did the legwork of measuring the actual square footage of my lawn (~10ksqft) and put down 10-10-10 for a rate of .8lb NPK/1000sqft. It was quite a workout pushing 60lbs of product around in my spreader for the 6300 sqft backyard.

Lots of good discussion about kelp/humic and soil conditioners - I think I'll be interested in trying some next season but it doesn't seem like I need to be in a hurry. It seems like a lot of research and time that I'd rather be dedicating to getting the rest of the house up and running. In the same vein, I plan to leave the weeds alone right now to avoid stressing the grass too much and then put down some granular prodiamine in a few weeks and then again in the spring.

To follow up on some questions from you all:

90% of the yard is 6+ hours sun, and the vast majority gets 8+. 
I don't see any signs of grubs/worms which is relieving
I have not yet done the tuna can test - I will be watering using time until I get a chance in the morning to measure this coming Friday.

So now my plan is really just going to be to keep it watered, mow it often, and leave the clippings to help build up the soil. I'll be looking out for additional problems as I head into winter but it might just be 'hurry up and wait.' I really can't wait to get some sand and soil in to level it out in the spring.


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