# Nitro's St Aug Journal - Killing Bermuda & Lirope...Let's Go Boys!



## nitrobass24 (Mar 6, 2021)

Alright well here's the deal bought myself a house in 2016 here in Dallas, where the previous owner had reduced the size of beds and laid new st. aug yard. Looked great when i bought it, but i was a first time homeowner, spent 5 nights a week on the road for work and was now house poor. I found the cheapest lawn crew I could and neglected it.

Fast forward 4 years Covid hits, I am home ALL THE TIME....looking at my crappy yard.

I now have a ton of free time and like most other things I do, I tend to go deep and over-rotate. Soil Test comes back, basically everything was bad, so last year was all about Bio-Stimulants, amending the soil, mowing and edging regularly and properly, spraying for weeds.

What I've learned in the past year is that they used a creeping lirope for the beds, which if you have it you know its incredibly invasive. Also my neighbors do even less than i have in the past 4 years so weeds and wild bermuda are a major battle. The yard is looking 7/10 at this point and if you just drove by you'd never know about these issues, but they have been driving me crazy. 


So I know everyone says you can't kill Bermuda in St. Aug and that Lirope can't be killed in St. Aug without using a non-selective herbicide. Well I'm no expert, but I have read dozens of labels on DoMyOwn, talked to a guy that runs a sod farm, read dozens of posts here and elsewhere and have come up with this plan.

*Bermuda:*
These are all being applied at the labeled rates, tank mixed. It's admittedly a bit late in the season to do this, should have really started in March, but like everything just getting some of these chem's took some time.


Asulox @ 1.84oz / 1000
Prograss @ 9/16oz / 1000
Atrazine @ 8oz / 1000
Non-ionic Surfactant
Crop Oil Surfactact

Here's the starting point. 


*Lirope:*
So this one I don't have a ton of confidence in because I have no way to tell what species I have or if I even have Lirope at all. My beds are Lirope, but the stuff in the yard could be old Mondo that was never dug up, and there are some sedges mixed in as well. Unfortunately mowed Lirope looks like a Sedge. However, my best guess is that its creeping lirope (Liriope spicata)
Fun Fact: Creeping Lirope is also from China...thanks a lot guys!
Fun Fact2: Lirope is a close cousin of Wild Onion and Wild Garlic....turns out MSM is labeled to kill those in St. Augustine.


MSM @ .1627-.3254g / 1000
Non-ionic Surfactant

Here's the starting point. 


Ill post new pics in about 14 days.


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## CenlaLowell (Apr 21, 2017)

Welcome to TLF

You may want to label you thread a st Augustine journal or something similar as this looks like your just looking for suggestions.

Go to the warm season section and there's a write up on this question


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## UltimateLawn (Sep 25, 2020)

@nitrobass24 , how are things coming with your lawn?


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## nitrobass24 (Mar 6, 2021)

Well no noticeable progress unfortunately. This common bermuda seems to not be affected by shade.

I was out of town and it rained every day for the last week or so and the bermuda is taller than my St Aug!. I'm about to go Mow it and do another application of my mix posted above.

On the lirope side, I did a second app about a week ago and its done some damage to the plant but not enough IMO. I can go a bit higher on the MSM rate without damaging the St. Aug, so will do that this weekend.


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## UltimateLawn (Sep 25, 2020)

Thanks @nitrobass24 . I pretty much gave up on my StAug coming back through a good fourth of my lawn that had been overtaken by common bermuda. I sprayed Glypho and then cut it out. We will see how things go, but it seems obvious that in our DFW summers, I'm probably going to have to keep a watch on it and simply replace small pieces of sod when the common bermuda encroaches.


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## nitrobass24 (Mar 6, 2021)

Here are some photos of my 8 Inch+ tall bermuda. In this first photo I mowed a strip down the middle for perspective. My mower height is set to 4.5Inches. 




So on the Lirope/Sedge side of things this is after two apps of MSM +Sedgehammer. Though in both cases it rained within a few hours of application.
There is some plant tissue damage, but not enough to kill it. Will likely hit it again next week when I know i can have a few sunny days.


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## UltimateLawn (Sep 25, 2020)

Eliminate Lirope = Glypho + Time + New StAug Sod. 

Also struggling with the strong Bermuda in my StAug. Watching closely on your progress. Also I did the 'Ego Thing', but back to Honda to handle the StAug portion of my yard that is growing well.


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## nitrobass24 (Mar 6, 2021)

I like my Ego Mower so far, second season for me. I only have a 4k SQFT yard, so its more than enough for me. Plus i was already invested in the Blower so i had batteries and chargers.


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## nitrobass24 (Mar 6, 2021)

Just Bombed the bermuda spots with another round. Added some sedgehammer as the nutsedge is out of control.

Bermuda Cocktail @ 2 Gallons
Asolux @ 3.7OZ
Prograss @ 1 oz
Atrazine @ 16oz
Sedgehammer @ 2 scoops (.06oz)
2x TBSP NIS
1x TBSP COS


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## CenlaLowell (Apr 21, 2017)

nitrobass24 said:


> Just Bombed the bermuda spots with another round. Added some sedgehammer as the nutsedge is out of control.
> 
> Bermuda Cocktail @ 2 Gallons
> Asolux @ 3.7OZ
> ...


Can't wait to see the outcome of this. I'm thinking spraying prograss and atrazine is better in the summer months. Look at this


I didn't do anything different just sprayed when it was hot.


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## nitrobass24 (Mar 6, 2021)

Yea Atrazine does have an 85*F heat restriction on it. Curious if on a hot day it will damage the St Aug too much though. Was 86 last evening when i sprayed, so right on the line of acceptable.


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## nitrobass24 (Mar 6, 2021)

@CenlaLowell How many days before you see damage on the bermuda after spraying? Mine looks unphased at this point.


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## CenlaLowell (Apr 21, 2017)

nitrobass24 said:


> @CenlaLowell How many days before you see damage on the bermuda after spraying? Mine looks unphased at this point.


Took five days to see this, but I still don't know why. The only thing I did different was spray when it was hot outside.


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## nitrobass24 (Mar 6, 2021)

Yea my bermuda almost a week later is not even phased by what I put down. I think I need to use a finer mist opposed to the floodjet tip I have been using.

And I am going to bump up the rate of ethofumesate. I am using the Right Line 4SC @ 42% concentrate and based on its label it calls for 9/16oz per 1000. However the Bayer Prograss at 19% concentrate calls for 3-6oz per 1000sqft.


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## nitrobass24 (Mar 6, 2021)

Ok so I resprayed the Bermuda at the double label rates when it was about 96* outside. A week later the bermuda is scorched pretty bad and the St. Augustine did have some yellowing, but is fine overall.


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## UltimateLawn (Sep 25, 2020)

@nitrobass24 , what's the latest on the bermudagrass battle?


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## nitrobass24 (Mar 6, 2021)

I'm definitely losing! It did some damage on the first two apps I did. But I feel like it came back stronger and faster than the St aug spread.

I think the biggest challenge is mowing and the seed heads. Even tho I mow those areas last, and bag, it still spreads seeds all over the place.

I sprayed some spectracide weed and grass killer as yesterday that someone else noted that it didn't kill their St Aug. sketchy but I figured what the heck.

It's been fun to try different stuff and approaches to the Bermuda but I'm probably close to a cost breaking point of just re-sodding those areas.

The MSM+sledgehammer definitely works on the lirope. I also hit those spots heavy with some D-thatch on hot days and a few of those spots have almost completely filled in. The other spots were much larger and I should have plugged or sodded some, but at this point I'll just wait for spring and re-assess.


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## UltimateLawn (Sep 25, 2020)

So far the only approach I have found is to glyphosate the Bermuda concentrations, chop it out and resod. I had good results in some spring sod lays. Not as much in summer lays. By then the bermudagrass was overtaking the fresh sod.

I guess my approach will be to do this every year and hopefully push it back to lesser amounts. It is fun spraying the glypho on the Bermuda!

Eventually I may renovate with Zoysia. It might have a better chance in slowing the Bermuda attacks.


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## Buffalolawny (Nov 24, 2018)

Mow at 50mm - 2.5" and go for the thickest, densest, trimmed buff/couch lawn on the street.

Concentrate on killing weeds and invasive species.


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## nitrobass24 (Mar 6, 2021)

So here's the 48 hour update on the Spectracide thanks to the wife.


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## UltimateLawn (Sep 25, 2020)

That looks encouraging.


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## nitrobass24 (Mar 6, 2021)

Two week update. It's certainly done some damage to my St aug, but it's overgrown and under watered since I've been on vacation.

Bermuda is very damaged. Might need a second app to really kill it off but will wait until next season to do that and let the st aug recover here as much as possible before going dormant.


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## Buffalolawny (Nov 24, 2018)

Wonder if you got a manual dethatching rake or a very stiff rake and lightly drag across th top of the grass and pull off the top of the couch / bermuda


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## nitrobass24 (Mar 6, 2021)

So not to be a Debbie Downer but I guess my situation was worse than I realized. Just mowed and it's clear there is tons of green Bermuda underneath. Especially where it was thick, the stolons are undamaged on the Bermuda.

Sprayed some green county D-thatch to try and speed up the decomposition process on the burnt grass as well.


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## Buffalolawny (Nov 24, 2018)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riEJRyL6t64


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## UltimateLawn (Sep 25, 2020)

@nitrobass24 , one thing is for sure about bermudagrass...three rounds of glypho and good strong StAug sod really knocks it back. My problem is the 150 ft² I left at the beginning of the season has spread to about 400+ ft².

Another season knocking back the bermuda. At least it makes my happy dropping glypho on it!


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