# Stogie's Arizona Bermuda



## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

Long time forum lurker, I just recently joined a month or so ago.

So much amazing info here, I am learning a ton.

I have a 900 SF patch of common bermuda in the North East part of Phoenix, AZ.

I use a 20 inch Scotts push reel mower, and can mow as low as 1" (heresy, I know!) but have typically kept the HOC around 2" (damn near vines, right?) because I have a 2 year old and a one month old, and frankly mowing more than once a week often doesn't happen. Scalping and trimming is with a string trimmer.

I overseed with PRG every year, but until joining here, never knew about kiling off the PRG manually before the bermuda green up. This past spring, my bermuda really never came back, so I scalped it to the dirt and re-seeded with new bermuda. Through this forum, I learned to love Milorganite, and also put some gypsum down to combat the clay, and had a really thick, healthy lawn all summer.

This past weekend I used the string trimmer to scalp the bermuda to the ground and then dethatched/scarified with a rake, put down 10# of Champion GQ plus some milorganite/gypsum and a starter fertilizer. I topped it with organic top dressing (my wife refers to this as "poop dirt") and have been watering it 8 times a day for 2 minutes each time using a Bhyve timer and my irrigation system.

Prior to the scalp



Midway through. This was pretty back breaking with a string trimmer, but I have a hard time justifying anything else for such a small area.



Nearly done, and I realized I might not have any idea when the bermuda was starting to come out of dormancy if I overseeded the whole lawn, so I put a bucket over a circle of bermuda and never touched it.



FInally, I was done. I wet the ground a little and used a bow rake to scarify the ground and pull up most of the remaining horizontal growth/thatch.



On went seed, fertilizer and the top dressing.





Any remaining bermuda growth poking out through the to dressing will be clipped as soon as I start mowing, so I am not too worried about the "ragged look" right now. In retrospect, I should have rented a roller to try to flatten everything down as much as possible.

Now, to try like hell to keep the birds from feasting at the "germination buffet" for the next week...

I will post growth updates as I am able.


----------



## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

Seeded on Saturday, took this picture last night (Thursday evening):



I have a few areas that the sprinklers applied a little too much water and in some cases it pooled for 30 minutes or so as it absorbed, and those areas are not seeing any sprouts yet. I reduced the watering times for the overseed period and just put a little seed that I held in reserve down today, so hopefully those spots come in as well.


----------



## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

Seeded the PRG on the 12th, this is the result on the 20th:



The spots that received too much water (out of frame in this pic) are slower to come in, but since I put additional seed on those areas a few days later, I expect them to catch up soon as I am seeing shoots appear there too.


----------



## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

WOW! That's filling in quickly. What HOC are you going to keep it at through the winter?


----------



## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

Redtwin said:


> WOW! That's filling in quickly. What HOC are you going to keep it at through the winter?


Thanks, I was a little surprised, too! I over-watered the south portion (right side of frame and beyond, so I reseeded that area with some seed I held in reserve and it is progressing slower but it's coming up too.

I use a Scott's 20" push reel, so the lowest I can go is 1". I am going to see if I can keep it there for a while to see what it looks like, but may end up closer to 2" based on appearance.

I need to DIY my push reel to mow lower than 1" for the spring... I think I may know how.


----------



## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

I dumped some Pennington seed from Lowe's on the bare spots to help with fill in, and started milorganite this weekend. I mowed it at about 2 inches for mow #1, but will be reducing that once it fill in better.

I can say that using a manual reel mower, this winter Rye is a dream to mow compared to the Bermuda. No effort required to cut the grass. I am going to miss this in the spring!

I am seeing some weeds show up in the more bare spots. I posted in the cold season grass weed thread to try to ID it, but am putting this here for reference for me for next year. I need to get on a pre-m schedule...


----------



## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

18 Days post overseeding


----------



## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

21 days post overseed and all the bare spots have (mostly) filled in. I am going to try to adjust the HOC from 1.5" down to 1" to see how the grass responds.


----------



## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

Cut the PRG last night at 1" and it really helped with the mower wheel tracks not getting cut. Follow up mow this weekend will tell for sure, but I think it's a winner.

Pre-edging:


----------



## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

Prodiamine went down 12/1/2019. I put .4oz (~11 grams) in one gallon of water. I actually needed a little less than a gallon and need to either walk slower or use less water next time.


----------

