# Bermuda newbies: a word of warning



## Rooster (Aug 19, 2019)

If you've never grown bermuda (on purpose, anyway), you probably can't yet fully appreciate what it does.

You've probably read here, and elsewhere, that if you need your yard to thicken up and spread to fill in bare areas, you can hit it heavy with nitrogen and as long as you water:

(1) it will be filling in bare areas very quickly, and
(2) you need to be prepared to keep up with the mowing.

Well, (1) it will be, and (2) you won't be.

I've never seen anything like this. I am doing 0.5 lb N/1000 every week because I had very poorly, dormant-laid 419 front and a newly seeded back that both needed some serious work to get filled in. Let me tell you, it has worked amazingly well. I have gotten several comments from neighbors on how good the front is looking, and the back went from mostly mud to mostly thick bermuda in a matter of weeks.

But I am breaking the 1/3 rule every time I mow, and I am mowing every other day. This, despite mowing on the high side (1.5-1.75"). I have to double cut just to get it all reasonably well, and today I had to triple cut the hell strip.

I mean, it feels like I'm growing a bioweapon as a lawn.


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## Brou (Jun 18, 2020)

Cut back on the N. 2lbs a month is A LOT. You can also try PGR.


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## Rooster (Aug 19, 2019)

Kamauxx said:


> Cut back on the N. 2lbs a month is A LOT. You can also try PGR.


Well yeah, but that's the point. And it has served its purpose, but I was totally unprepared for just how crazy the beast gets.


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## Brou (Jun 18, 2020)

Bermuda_Rooster said:


> Kamauxx said:
> 
> 
> > Cut back on the N. 2lbs a month is A LOT. You can also try PGR.
> ...


PGR will help slow the vertical growth without limiting the lateral growth. Should help you spread your mowings out a bit.


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## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

Kamauxx said:


> PGR will help slow the vertical growth without limiting the lateral growth.


Not really. If you have bare areas, it will cover faster without pgr. Once the area is covered, PGR can increase lateral turf density as it reduces internode length and increases rhizome production.


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## Brou (Jun 18, 2020)

Spammage said:


> Kamauxx said:
> 
> 
> > PGR will help slow the vertical growth without limiting the lateral growth.
> ...


His bare areas are 99% covered. Check out his journal.


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## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

Kamauxx said:


> Spammage said:
> 
> 
> > Kamauxx said:
> ...


I don't need to, because it was meant to clarify for anyone else reading the thread now or in the future. PGR does limit all growth, but increases the lateral density of the stand over time, which is a nice benefit of using it. However, if that isn't properly conveyed, people might buy and use it to the detriment of their goal.


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## Rooster (Aug 19, 2019)

Kamauxx said:


> His bare areas are 99% covered. Check out his journal.


I'd say 90%, and only because I've pushed the N so hard. I'm just warning people that this doesn't come without side effects that are hard to really understand until they hit you.


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## Greendoc (Mar 24, 2018)

Bermuda_Rooster said:


> Kamauxx said:
> 
> 
> > His bare areas are 99% covered. Check out his journal.
> ...


Even 1/2 lb of N per months is heavy if you are trying to keep a reel low lawn


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## Rooster (Aug 19, 2019)

Greendoc said:


> Even 1/2 lb of N per months is heavy if you are trying to keep a reel low lawn


I may not ever be "reel low" . . . it remains to be seen whether I have it in me. My budget for the lawn is too small to do many of the things that others do to get there.

My goal for this year was just to get grass everywhere, and I'm getting close to that. Next year I'll be cranking the N way back.


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## DLav8r (Jun 15, 2020)

Looks great what fert are you using for your N spoon feedings?


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## Rooster (Aug 19, 2019)

DLav8r said:


> Looks great what fert are you using for your N spoon feedings?


Most weeks it's urea, 46-0-0, dissolved and sprayed with a hose-end sprayer. I also have some 13-13-13 and 29-0-4 that I used back when I was seeding so I mix those in once in a while, mainly to get rid of them.

I also supplement with organics, but that supplies very little N. Over the course of the growing season I've thrown down 100 lbs of cracked corn (<2% N), 50 lbs of alfalfa pellets (2.5% N), 50 lbs of soybean meal (6.5% N) and 100 lbs of wood pellets (0% N).


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## DLav8r (Jun 15, 2020)

Bermuda_Rooster said:


> DLav8r said:
> 
> 
> > Looks great what fert are you using for your N spoon feedings?
> ...


Thanks. Still learning here..is it better to dissolve Nitrogen vs just spreading it in the granular form?


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## Rooster (Aug 19, 2019)

DLav8r said:


> Thanks. Still learning here..is it better to dissolve Nitrogen vs just spreading it in the granular form?


I'd say that's mostly personal preference. I have a small yard and feel like I can distribute it more evenly by spraying it instead of spreading granules.


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## Still learnin (Sep 9, 2017)

Bermuda_Rooster said:


> If you've never grown bermuda (on purpose, anyway), you probably can't yet fully appreciate what it does.
> 
> You've probably read here, and elsewhere, that if you need your yard to thicken up and spread to fill in bare areas, you can hit it heavy with nitrogen and as long as you water:
> 
> ...


This is very true. I've been laying down the N and with the rain, I can't keep up with the mowing. Soggy ground and zero turns don't go well together.


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## cavince79 (Jun 18, 2019)

I've been pushing 1/2lbs of N(46-0-0) per week on my TifTuf and have been less than impressed with the results. I've been waiting for the Bermuda to overtake my children and house as promised, but it's just not doing it. With as much rain as we've seen in Georgia, I expected to me mowing daily, but I'm only at every 3-4 days.


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## corneliani (Apr 2, 2019)

Spammage said:


> Kamauxx said:
> 
> 
> > PGR will help slow the vertical growth without limiting the lateral growth.
> ...


Great clarification on this @Spammage

I recently decided to let mine come out of regulation for the season as some of my thin areas were not seeing any fill in. I was under the impression that I would still get that lateral growth but nope. I'm seeing a nice surge now, as expected .... but nowhere near as bad as the OP. 😳 I wonder if this Georgia clay is holding it back from running too wild (?).


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## douggmc (Jun 17, 2020)

corneliani said:


> Spammage said:
> 
> 
> > Kamauxx said:
> ...


TLDR: Thanks for clarification on PGR re: its effect on _density vs spreading_ bermuda AND check your pH!

I'd agree that this is very helpful. Thank you! I also misinterpreted the statements that others have made about how PGR would help with spreading into/over bare spots. It now makes sense what @Spammage is saying i.e., it improves _density_ of already established bermuda, not so much with spreading over moderately large bare spots.

I'm glad I read this today, my front is coming off regulation just now and I'm gonna stop any more T-Nex applications likely for remainder of year. While my front yard grass is looking great (super dense) where it is was already filled in, the couple thin areas and bare spots haven't been filling in as fast as I had hoped.

On another note, the first soil test I've ever done in June came back with pH of 5.2. It hadn't been responding to nutrient applications like I'd expected and I've learned that this was probably why. Applied fast-acting lime at 1 bag / 1000 (30lb bags if I recall) and my grass exploded. I'm going to test again here in the next month to see where I stand now, but expect likely to be doing more lime application over next 6 months to get up to what I understand is right pH (6-7).


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## Rooster (Aug 19, 2019)

On the lateral spread side of this, just an anecdote . . . I seeded this summer in two rounds. The back washed out the first time and got the second round of seed in early July. I have been pulling runners ranging from 12" to 36" long from these plants trying to grow into my back flowerbed.

At the very earliest the parent plant of these runners germinated around Memorial Day, and very likely a month later. I couldn't believe it, and it made me think you could actually see this stuff grow if you were patient enough to park it there for a day.


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

cavince79 said:


> I've been pushing 1/2lbs of N(46-0-0) per week on my TifTuf and have been less than impressed with the results. I've been waiting for the Bermuda to overtake my children and house as promised, but it's just not doing it. With as much rain as we've seen in Georgia, I expected to me mowing daily, but I'm only at every 3-4 days.


I'm in the same boat with the TifTuf and Nitrogen. I did sprig some Tif 419 or TifSport (I'm not sure which one) in a small strip and it's lateral growth is 2-3x that of the TifTuf.

It's lead me to believe that TifTuf just doesn't laterally spread as fast as some other bermuda, but it could be because it's still "young".


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## cavince79 (Jun 18, 2019)

probasestealer said:


> cavince79 said:
> 
> 
> > I've been pushing 1/2lbs of N(46-0-0) per week on my TifTuf and have been less than impressed with the results. I've been waiting for the Bermuda to overtake my children and house as promised, but it's just not doing it. With as much rain as we've seen in Georgia, I expected to me mowing daily, but I'm only at every 3-4 days.
> ...


Interesting.... That's a little concerning as I was hoping the TifTuf would hold up to a large dog running. I began questioning if N only wasn't providing the rest of the necessary nutrients for lateral spread, so I decided to begin supplementing with a more complete fertilizer to see if that makes a difference. Yesterday was the first app so I hope to see a change this week.


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

@cavince79 I think it will be fine. I sprigged an area and it looked great at 4 weeks with near complete fill in at 6 weeks. So it has the power, but seems slower than the other I sprigged about 3 weeks prior.

It's the longer retention of fall color and earlier spring green-up that drew me to it.

It also seems to be very dense and suppressing the common bermuda much better than I expected. But my common seems to spread in other areas like 22" a week..


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