# Introduction and Advice Needed for TifTuf Bermuda



## anthonybilotta (Aug 11, 2018)

Hello everybody!
Just wanted to introduce myself and get some advice on my tiftuf bermuda. My name is Anthony and I live in Southeast Houston.This is the first time I have had a bermuda lawn and and my goal is to have the best lawn on the block. I spend a lot of time outside during the week, and have no problem with mowing up to 3x per week. My bermuda grass plot is small, roughly 2200 square feet. I have two mowers for now, a honda HRX and a manual scotts reel mower (does not cut very well due to the thickness of the bermuda), so I mostly rely on the HRX. The yard gets roughly 9 hours of direct sun a day.

Now for a little history:

Prior to 2018, I had St. Augustine grass that was in great condition and was mowing 2x per week during the summer months. Additionally, last year I had a soil test done which indicated that my lawn was only deficient in nitrogen (I do a soil test every 2 years). In the fall, my lawn got destroyed after Hurricane Harvey submerged both my lawn and my house in in 4+ feet of water. So I decided to switch over my lawn to tiftuf bermuda. To do so, I sprayed the lawn with glyphosate 3x, then scalped the lawn, and used my dethatcher to remove the rest of the lawn. I then leveled with builders sand (applied about 1 inch across the yard) and waited 6 weeks. After six weeks, I applied a light amount of starter fertilizer and the lawn was laid.



I followed a standard watering schedule that I found online for new sod, and in a week or so I had weeds popping up between all the pieces.



So I decided to go ahead and do some weeding, I handpicked everything as I was told not to use any herbicides on the lawn this year as it was still immature. The results were great and after about 8 weeks the lawn was looking amazing. Here is a shot at 1.75 inch cut



With the lawn turning a bit light green, I decided to fertilize with a 1/2 pound of nitrogen (29-0-3) and 3% iron via ironite, and after a week the lawn greened right back up. My current schedule is 1/2 pound nitrogen every two weeks, and about 1-1.25 inches of water a week, split between two session, one on Monday and one on Thursday.



However, since this last shot in the beginning of July, it has been all down hill. The lawn started to lose its color, despite fertilization, the lawn growth has slowed down. I have tried both increasing and decreasing the amount of water on the lawn, I have also used my basic rapid soil test to check for N-P-K and the lawn seems to be okay with these 3 basic nutrients. The soil is not compacted, and I can easily drive a 6 inch screwdriver down into the soil. I have been monitoring my soil moisture with a moisture probe, and the top 2-4 inches of soil is always moist, but not wet. I have just sent out for another soil test. In hindsight it was most likely a mistake not to get a soil test done after the hurricane, as I imagine there was a bunch of pollutants/chemicals that leeched into the ground following the storm. Excuse the front flower beds, still plenty of work to do outside following the hurricane. Here are some picture of what the lawn looks like now at 1.75 inches.













My current thoughts are:
Nutrient deficiency/excess, should get my soil test back in a week.
HOC needs to be raised/possible scalp?
Adjustment in watering schedule?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


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## TN Hawkeye (May 7, 2018)

I'm new to the Bermuda game but it looks like you are seeing a lot of brown stems. Perhaps someone with more knowledge of fungus could eliminate that as a possibility. I would raise your height of cut to 2.25" and see how that does. If you still aren't happy then you could scalp it down to 1.25" and let it come back up to 1.75". Other than the color the lawn looks in very good shape.


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## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

How tall are you cutting the grass?


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## anthonybilotta (Aug 11, 2018)

I cut it at 1.75 with my Honda. I plan on doing more leveling next spring so I can cut lower. Trying to convince the wife to let me buy a reel mower, however, my wife is winning that discussion right now


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## roundrockag (May 17, 2018)

If the argument is about what cutting the lawn shorter, with a leveled lawn, and the type of cut that reel mower produces, then you need to show her what it looks like by letting her see the lawns of some of the folks on here. Bermuda wants to be cut shorter, and is at its healthiest when it is.


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## jayhawk (Apr 18, 2017)

I'm not so sure anything is wrong. Keep in mind, most of those that have top Bermuda lawns thru the summer here, they either reset the growing point of the Bermuda (ala summer scalp) or use a verticut of some sort to thin out the canopy.....along with mowing frequently.

You do have a great lawn, sod prep and practices sound solid.

Soil test may be insightful.


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## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

My vote is going to be to scalp it down as low as you can, and reset your height. The downside to Tiftuf is that it has a propensity to scalp, color wise.


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## erdons (Apr 3, 2018)

Scalp and level, take the HOC as low as it will go and never look back. Bermuda at those heights rarely looks that good


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## anthonybilotta (Aug 11, 2018)

Thanks for all the advice, I have been thinking a scalp would be the way to go. I won't be leveling until next spring. However, I'm going to sharpen my manual reel and try to get it down to 1 inch either tonight or tomorrow and then hit it with some nitrogen and water. I'll post updates. Thanks again


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## anthonybilotta (Aug 11, 2018)

I went ahead and scalped it from 1.75 to .75 inches. First time scalping and I must say, it is a bit scary to see what it looks like. The grass looks very thin now. Hoping it will bounce back in a few weeks.


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## Tellycoleman (May 10, 2017)

I think you should scalp again in another direction. It seems like you are cutting the same pattern in your lawn. You run the mower parallel to the street. Doing this every time will great grain or a tendency of the grass blade to lay in only one direction. I know its more work mowing the other direction but i would at least mow diagonal once a week. As others have mentioned tifftuf will easily scalp if you miss a mowing. Did the lawn start going down hill coincide with 3-4 days of rain and you just added fertilizer and you couldnt get out and mow? If so hopefully scalping will solve that.
Take close pictures of your lawn blades if it continues a decline after it has grown out of the scalp then watch for fungus.

Oh and i wouldnt be ME if i didnt point out the nice lovely long term Bermuda KILLER you have in your front yard.
The tree is 3-5 years is going to give you HECK in maintaining a nice lawn around it. Take a picture now or next year because once it gets big your grass will never be as lush and green around the tree as it is now.

Dont let anyone tell you your lawn isnt smooth enouph for a reel mower. Get a toro greens mower and move the front roller as close as it can get to the blade = no scalping


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## testdepth (Jul 11, 2018)

What sod farm did you get it from?

Do your self a favor and get a gallon pale of water with dish soap in it and pour over a 3' x 3' or larger area and look for worms.


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## Bunnysarefat (May 4, 2017)

I'm interested to know if you start to see a bunch of seed heads after the scalp. Whenever I scalp or otherwise stress my TifTuf, it grows an unsightly amount of seed heads. PGR suppresses the seed heads almost completely in all situations.


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## anthonybilotta (Aug 11, 2018)

I got my grass from the Grass store in Conroe Texas. In the past when you have scalped the tiftuf, how long before you saw improvements ?


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## anthonybilotta (Aug 11, 2018)

Just a quick update. Here is a picture 1 week post scalping. The lawn is greening up a bit slower than I thought it would. I laid down .5 pounds of slow release and .5 pounds of quick release nitrogen this weekend. I also sprayed some RGS and humic. Lastly, i made sure to alternate mowing directions


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## SputhernThunder (May 18, 2020)

I know this post was a couple years old but having had similar problems cutting mine at 1.75" when I installed mine I thought I would comment in case others come across this post looking for solutions. I had even gone through the sand leveling project trying to get a cleaner cut.

- Check your PH. I got better results once corrected but still had brown stems as I was cutting 1-2 times a week at 1.75" on my John Deere.
- You need to cut this grass 2-3 times a week when actively growing, else you promote higher stems and will consistently have to move higher to prevent scarring,
- Although they say you can cut tiftuf as high as 2", you won't get a consistent green if higher than 1-1.25". Seems only the Top area the sun hits is leafed and green. Keeping it too high shades the lower portion and promotes longer stems. Longer stems means mower scarring and a browner look to overall turf. 
- If your lawn is not smooth enough for a reel mower or the area is too much to maintain by hand, get a quality Automower. 
- Keeping your grass at 1" (husquvarna x series setting 2) will train your tiftuf to grow horizontal as opposed to vertical. This all but eliminates the brown stem issue, helps thicken the turf to fill in any gaps as well as prevent weeds.

As I have close to 17k sq feet I maintain, I switched from the John Deere 42" to the 450x Auto mower at the beginning of 2020. No more scarring, no more brown stems and the grass looked like carpet all year. Only downside is you don't get those nice lines when mowing with reel or other rotary mower.

Photo below shows the result. Ignore Area in left of photo is where we just laid new tiftuf after removing an old garden,


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