# Bermuda Burning?



## Art James (Jun 18, 2019)

Hello,

I recently found this forum and have learned a lot since joining. I am having an issue with my common bermuda that I am hoping I can get some help with. As you can see in the pics I have some real problem areas. Up until now the lawn has been doing really well, although it didn't thicken up the way I wanted it to. Now that we are in a high heat these spots appeared on the lawn and these areas have already started to die off. In the past 4 years this has happened. In the exact same spots and I cannot get those areas to recover for the remainder of the summer. I have been hitting these spots with extra watering but I think it has only slowed down the issue. A little background on what I have done so far up until this point. I I dropped some Humic DG in Feb, applied compost in late March, dropped 10-10-10 in april along with Andersons Innova organic fertilizer. I have also applied 2 applications of the Doc's Super Juice. I know his products are somewhat frowned upon here but at the time it what the best material I could find to help with my lawn. I had been cutting alot shorter but once I saw the signs of the stress in the lawn I raised the height in hopes that it would help. Any ideas what can be causing this year after year and how can I recover from this and prevent it from happening. Thanks for any help you can provide!


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## brianuab (Jun 6, 2018)

Get a soil test from the local extension office.


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## Art James (Jun 18, 2019)

Yes, I do plan on getting that done. I guess I would have to get 2 tests done. One for the good area and another for the trouble areas.


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## ktgrok (May 25, 2019)

Can you post up close pictures of the grass and some blades?
Also, you can do a soapy water test to look for insects - 1 tablespoon dish soap to 1 gallon water and saturate an area on the border between the good and the bad area and see if anything comes up - could take a few minutes, watch closely. 
And I'm sure someone will recommend the screwdriver test as well, to see f there is something buried under there causing issues - jab a screwdriver in there and see if you hit anything.


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## Art James (Jun 18, 2019)

Here are some photos. I will try the soapy water test tomorrow afternoon. I haven't heard of that method before. The screwdriver test I can do but I know just from digging from time to time there is rock underneath. Some smaller and sometimes finding larger pieces.


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## ktgrok (May 25, 2019)

The rocks can get hotter than the soil, creating localized hot spots, as well as more shallow roots. But do the bug test too, to cover your bases. i though I had local dry spots, and found tons of army worms.


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## Art James (Jun 18, 2019)

Good info. I will do the bug test. Every year I think I solved the issue and then July rolls around and boom, dead grass.


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## BermudaBoy (Jun 27, 2019)

A spot in my lawn looked a little bit like those thin blades about a week ago. I thought something serious was wrong because they had a blueish tint but it was the first sign of a lack of water. Since I don't have irrigation I had to start hand spraying those weak spots twice a day and now they've recovered. It's time consuming but it's what I gotta do until the temperature comes down a bit.

As for your lack of thickening earlier in the year it sounds like your lawn is probably "hungry". You haven't put anything significant down since April that would push growth. That Super Juice, which I've used, is a good supplement if your lawn is already in great shape but it's not something that will produce any meaningful results when used alone.


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## Art James (Jun 18, 2019)

I have been watering those areas by hand as well trying to keep them going and will continue. Do you think it's to late to put down anything else to push growth? If it's not then what exactly would I put down?


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## BermudaBoy (Jun 27, 2019)

Art James said:


> I have been watering those areas by hand as well trying to keep them going and will continue. Do you think it's to late to put down anything else to push growth? If it's not then what exactly would I put down?


It's a tough call. During the summer I like to go with an organic. I'm partial to Milorganite and have grown quite fond of the smell but I'd only do something that is slow release. The Innova isn't a bad choice but when you break it down by the cost of nitrogen it's $23/lb. That's pretty high. There are plenty of organic alternatives that are much more affordable.

Of course none of this matter unless you determine whether there are other factors outside of irrigation and fertilizing at play.


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## adgattoni (Oct 3, 2017)

I would get on the watering before pushing growth. The grass blades appear to be needling (curling up) which is an indicator the turf is thirsty. Get some sprinklers and irrigate the area heavily for a few days, then put down some fertilizer.


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## Art James (Jun 18, 2019)

Yeah, I have my irrigation going daily for the time being and I'm supplementing with some hand watering. It's just this has happened yearly in the same areas and I need to find root cause, pun intended.


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## Kballen11 (Mar 26, 2018)

Just thought I would add that your bermuda is going dormant not dying. As others have said, it is stressed. My guess is from shallow roots due to the rocks.


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## Art James (Jun 18, 2019)

Looking shorter term, other than digging everything up to try and remove all of the rock what are some options to help this? Product wise.


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## Kballen11 (Mar 26, 2018)

Maybe someone else will chime in but I believe you are fighting a losing battle. I have a few spots around sidewalks where they got carried away with the gravel base and my grass goes dormant every summer. I try to stay on top of it by doing spot watering but until I dig everything up I am not sure there is much you can do in the form of adding products.


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## Art James (Jun 18, 2019)

Unfortunately in my area it's not just what the builder did a poor job of cleaning. Its just very rocky underneath the soil. Lots of work ahead of me, I guess.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

It looks like heat stress to me. I have a spot that does that so I started "syringing" this year which is setting my sprinklers to go off for 5 minutes per zone each day in the heat of the day to cool the canopy down. It is working very well. I actually do it twice, once at 12PM and again at 3PM. On top of that, I added a third day per week of full watering cycle. Have you done the tuna can challenge yet in those areas? Have you done any top dressing in the past?


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## Sublime (Jun 15, 2019)

Art James said:


> Looking shorter term, other than digging everything up to try and remove all of the rock what are some options to help this? Product wise.


It depends on if it is indeed just junk under the soil, or if there is some sort of compaction or other issue with the soil itself. You could try to use some sort of wetting agent for a short term fix. I haven't used any before so I can't speak to the efficacy of any one product, but they could help the water seep into the soil better. I was recommended to try turf2max, but haven't gotten around to it yet as that was only two days ago. Might be worth checking into.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

Sublime said:


> Art James said:
> 
> 
> > Looking shorter term, other than digging everything up to try and remove all of the rock what are some options to help this? Product wise.
> ...


Good point. I thought about mentioning Hydrotane but it can be expensive and I have never used it. I don't know how it would work on his soil. I've only seen it used by LCN in those tests he did on the SA plugs on the side of his house.


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## Art James (Jun 18, 2019)

This is all really good information on things to try. Keep the ideas coming and thanks for the responses.


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## WillyT (Jun 26, 2019)

I have a new build as well in TX. Had signs like this and tested the ground to find it hard as a rock. The clay from construction was rock compacted even though I core aerators this spring! Thought similarly to you thinking rocks were everywhere. I purchased a liquid aerator and upped my watering and the grass bounced back 10 fold. Try some screwdriver tests around the yard and try the liquid aerator which made a huge difference in the whole yard. I also detached and this made a big difference as well. Hope this helps.


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## WillyT (Jun 26, 2019)

Here's some pictures. First pic is from June 7th. I did scalp it as I purchased a reel mower. Detached and liquid aerator with fert around the 4th of July. Last picture was today. Yard is still recovering from going short.


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## Art James (Jun 18, 2019)

interesting, I'm going to give this a shot. Which liquid aerator did you use?


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## WillyT (Jun 26, 2019)

Lawn star liquid aerator. I even dug up an area because I have found so much shit in my yard from construction (rocks, bricks, 2x4s, bottles, cans!) The clay was absolutely rock hard. I couldnt break some of it with my hands. Day of spraying the liquid aerator I could not put a screw driver or aerator in that area but the day after I could fairly easily. I will do another round of it in the fall.


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## WillyT (Jun 26, 2019)

Front yard for kicks, leveled it this weekend and pic is from this morning.


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## Art James (Jun 18, 2019)

Looks good! Leveling is another undertaking that I will need to do. Maybe next spring. I will give the aerator a try as well as a few of the other suggestions that have been posted. Thanks


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## Art James (Jun 18, 2019)

I wanted to give an update to my post and and get some additional advice. Two of the heat stressed areas burned out a bit about a week after posting. The grass basically looked like it went dormant. I hit the areas with a rake and the dead grass just came out. I hit it with liquid aerator and made sure lawn was getting enough water. I also did a humic treatment and fertilized with some milorganite. The pictures show the current state of the lawn. You can see the dark green blades are in the areas that burnt out. The rest of the lawn is my questions now. The brown tops of the blades mainly. Some of it is scalp marks but for some reason I cant get the rest to green up completely. I just got in some Feature and I want to hit it with that. Before that should I consider resetting the HOC to help the green up?


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## WillyT (Jun 26, 2019)

Spots came back nicely, what did you do with the grass? I think taking the hoc down was the right thing to do. Sucks that you didnt get help on this. I have had some questions out there that didnt get help with but for the most part people tend to help on here.


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## Art James (Jun 18, 2019)

There has been more progress since. I scalped and bit the bullet and purchased some carbon x to use for my last fertilizer application. It was strange, after I scalped it seemed like it wasn't going to recover. Grass seemed like it stalled for about 2 and a half weeks. Then From one week to the next the grass exploded with green. Still a couple of trouble spots though. I will have to take some pics tomorrow. It looks much improved. Cutting at the lowest I can without scalping due to lawn being so uneven.


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## WillyT (Jun 26, 2019)

Yeah when you scalp it down to the stalk it takes more time for it to recover. I have done it twice this year with going lower and it sucks but after that it is more enjoyable. Glad it got better for you.


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## Art James (Jun 18, 2019)

Thanks, big lesson learned this year with the value of a scalp or reset. I will definitely be leveling next spring. Bermuda looks so much better when its cut low.


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## ctrav (Aug 18, 2018)

Art James said:


> Thanks, big lesson learned this year with the value of a scalp or reset. I will definitely be leveling next spring. Bermuda looks so much better when its cut low.


It really does...


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## Art James (Jun 18, 2019)

Here Is the lawn in its current state. Came back nicely.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

Looks great! Just in time for Halloween domination.


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## Art James (Jun 18, 2019)

Oh, yyeeaahhh!


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## WillyT (Jun 26, 2019)

Nice!


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