# Bermuda germination



## robertmehrer (Feb 28, 2019)

What is the expected time frame for Bermuda to germinate from seed? I just threw down 25lbs of mirage 2 and I'm not seeing squat. When I threw down winter ryegrass it was showing lil baby groots in about a week.

I checked the ground temp and in the sun it's averaging around 95-99deg, in the shade it's mid to high 80's. From what I read on mirage 2 above 65deg and around 100 should be perfect for germination.

The seeds look ehhhh to me now that they have sat for a week. I've watered every other day enough to have water just start to not absorb.


----------



## Tellycoleman (May 10, 2017)

Wow I really don't know where to begin.
How much direct sunlight do you get in those areas your wanting to seed?
I really can look at your grass and tell. It's not enough that is one of the reasons you have thin spots. To much shade. 
You are in Florida with sandy soils. You are only watering every other day. In the perfect situation you are watering 4-5 times a day. In a sandy soil probably 6-7 times.

Long story short. You need to do some research on this site.
Don't buy anything else until you do your research. Chuck this up to inexperience. Read read read. 
You should absolutely NEVER have to overseed Bermuda grass. If your grass is thin you must fix that issue causing it. Putting out bermuda seed will not help.
But to answer your question 10-14 days of germination under ideal conditions and water?


----------



## robertmehrer (Feb 28, 2019)

Tellycoleman said:


> Wow I really don't know where to begin.
> How much direct sunlight do you get in those areas your wanting to seed?
> I really can look at your grass and tell. It's not enough that is one of the reasons you have thin spots. To much shade.
> You are in Florida with sandy soils. You are only watering every other day. In the perfect situation you are watering 4-5 times a day. In a sandy soil probably 6-7 times.
> ...


The back gets full sun for about half the day, front all day. The yard has been washed away from the hill behind the house. I just seeded a winter grass of perineal ryegrass to hold the soil in place and keep a yard through winter. Ignore the back really, since I have dogs it will never be turf quality. The front is where I do most of the work, I just happened to be in the back yard and took the pics. The winter mix had some common Bermuda in it for a sun and shade mix.

I set watering every other day for over 10-15 minutes be zone. The ground stays moist as it's clay over sand, the site used to be orange groves. I have water sensors in the ground as well as a weather station hooked to my b-hyve time. It smart waters based on those inputs and that I have a high water rate set. It watered this morning and is supposed to rain so it's canceled today's schedule.

Im attempting to just get the grass to take hold until I have the time to strip, level, and properly seed the front and back. For me to do that requires hoa approval. The seed I purchased was an oh crap they have that here and it's on sale ...

I only ask what common germination times were because what I've read from the cultivator and other sites varies widely.

I am on here to learn and figure out the process. However I'm fighting a stupid *** natural preserve on a hill and drainage my idiot neighbor messed up. His yard would stay wet so he installed 4" pipes between the houses when no one lived here. This causes the water to move to the least path of resistance and washes the yard away. But his stays dry lmao.

Any advice you can give other than read read read is helpful.

These are three frames about 4 hours apart from this morning. Sunrise up till about 2 it gets full sun then starts to shade as the sun drops behind the trees.


----------



## Visitor (Jul 23, 2018)

If I were looking for germination under your scenario, I would set an additional program on the bhyve for everyday, maybe 2-3 minutes 3-4x a day. You want to keep the ground moist for the seed to germinate. For regular watering or to promote existing Bermuda to spread you want to water deeply and promote deep root growth.

If it were me, and I already had seed down, I'd probably top dress with black kow or some other type of organic matter like peat.

If you feed and water your existing Bermuda, and it gets ample sun, it should fill in pretty quickly as well. Good luck.


----------



## erdons (Apr 3, 2018)

PRG germinates a lot faster than most other seed. I once seeded marathon Fescue seed and it took like 20 days to finally start seeing germination, Bermuda seed is going to take maybe 14-21 days if all conditions are good.. the key with most seed is to keep it moist so instead of watering 1 long period every other day, water it multiple times per day for shorter periods. 
I think you do have enough sun to successfully grow Bermuda, probably enough sun that your seed is drying out.

I would do 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm maybe 4-5 minutes each every day.

I have the b-hyve also, I love it.


----------



## J_nick (Jan 28, 2017)

I agree with @erdons you need to water 4-5 times a day for a few minutes. Take the smart feature and disable it on your controller for the next few weeks. You want to make sure the seed is staying moist. During my renovation I was watering at 7am, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7pm for 4-5 minutes. It was also 100°+ so you could probably scale it down a bit. I started seeing some germination at day 5 and a lot around day 7 with my Riviera. That was in June so the days were longer but I'd expect ~10 days this time of year.


----------



## Bbq freakshow (Mar 9, 2019)

I'd think a little top dressing would help. Just enough to cover the seed.


----------



## robertmehrer (Feb 28, 2019)

Thanks for all of the suggestions guys!! Much appreciated!! So I'm hearing water more often for less time and top dress slightly with organic material.

This is why I love b-hyve


----------



## sanders4617 (Jul 9, 2018)

Hopefully the seed is still good and everything will work out.

Just water multiple times a day, for short periods of time. Keep the ground moist. That is the key.. keep the ground moist. Do not let it dry out. Do this day after day.. and it will germinate.

I'd definitely top dress.. you want to make sure it has decent contact with dirt.

In complete agreement with what others above have said.. but I figure 1 more person to hammer it home wouldn't hurt haha.

I wouldn't care if it's gonna rain later today or not.. I'd have it set and leave it. Turn it off if it does start raining, but otherwise, leave it on.


----------



## robertmehrer (Feb 28, 2019)

sanders4617 said:


> Hopefully the seed is still good and everything will work out.
> 
> Just water multiple times a day, for short periods of time. Keep the ground moist. That is the key.. keep the ground moist. Do not let it dry out. Do this day after day.. and it will germinate.
> 
> ...


I'm starting to see lil baby groots everywhere now. I've been watering it every three hours for five minutes and the grounds staying moist. I can even tell a difference in the grass already there starting to green up a bit. Once our HOA company completes switching over (third time this year) I can submit an app to the ARB board and get approval to strip the yard level it and properly grow some grass.

None of the sod companies around here carry any turf quality sod only st aug because well it's florida and that's all they know how to grow. I've boight a couple bags of the Mirage 2 since it was so cheap and mismarked, so I may strip and reseed if it's possible. May have to wait till next season.

I'm learning a lot on here and mostly how many mistakes I made during normal yard maintenance. My neighbors think I'm insane lol

I want to get it back to at least this level of fullness and color. It's not perfect for Frankenstein-grass but it's better than washed out mud and weeds that it was.

Thanks again all.


----------



## TN Hawkeye (May 7, 2018)

@robertmehrer this place is truly amazing. So many people with so much knowledge. Just remember that there are no stupid questions. Someone on here will be able to help. Mistakes are simply chances to learn. Best of luck with the seed germination.


----------



## robertmehrer (Feb 28, 2019)

Welp after massive amount of watering and rain I have lil Bermuda sprouts all over the place. It's going to be thick. Thanks for the help guys.


----------



## erdons (Apr 3, 2018)

robertmehrer said:


> Welp after massive amount of watering and rain I have lil Bermuda sprouts all over the place. It's going to be thick. Thanks for the help guys.


When you get the chance post pics!


----------



## robertmehrer (Feb 28, 2019)

erdons said:


> robertmehrer said:
> 
> 
> > Welp after massive amount of watering and rain I have lil Bermuda sprouts all over the place. It's going to be thick. Thanks for the help guys.
> ...


Will do, I'll try and get some today.


----------



## TN Hawkeye (May 7, 2018)

robertmehrer said:


> Welp after massive amount of watering and rain I have lil Bermuda sprouts all over the place. It's going to be thick. Thanks for the help guys.


Man that is awesome. That's why I love this place. If you come in with an open mind and ready to accept the advice you get, you really can make a huge difference in your lawn. Best of luck to you.


----------



## TN Hawkeye (May 7, 2018)

J_nick said:


> I agree with @erdons you need to water 4-5 times a day for a few minutes. Take the smart feature and disable it on your controller for the next few weeks. You want to make sure the seed is staying moist. During my renovation I was watering at 7am, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7pm for 4-5 minutes. It was also 100°+ so you could probably scale it down a bit. I started seeing some germination at day 5 and a lot around day 7 with my Riviera. That was in June so the days were longer but I'd expect ~10 days this time of year.


Now that he has germination, when should he look to back down on the watering a little bit?


----------



## J_nick (Jan 28, 2017)

It depends how developed the plants are. Take a toothpick and pull up a few seedlings and see how long the root structure is. Once the roots are ~1/2" you could back off to 1-2 times a day depending on soil conditions. I liked to back off watering on the weekend so I was there all day to see if anything was drying out.


----------



## robertmehrer (Feb 28, 2019)

The ground is so wet I can't walk on it without it mushing up. We had heavy rain for two days and the watering... it's wet fairly deep down. You can see it popping up everywhere. I need to roll the yard and fix everywhere I walked.


----------



## robertmehrer (Feb 28, 2019)

J_nick said:


> It depends how developed the plants are. Take a toothpick and pull up a few seedlings and see how long the root structure is. Once the roots are ~1/2" you could back off to 1-2 times a day depending on soil conditions. I liked to back off watering on the weekend so I was there all day to see if anything was drying out.


I'll pull some tonight when I get home and check it. You guys are awesome!!! Thanks for all the help!


----------



## Darrell_KC (Mar 20, 2019)

Hey guys, this has been excellent information. To piggyback on the thread a bit here, is this watering schedule something recommended for all grass seed, or just bermuda in these conditions?

I recently threw down my bluemuda mix seeds, and I bought 2 hose outlet timers. I originally thought you were to water 2x a day for about 20 minutes each time. Ive been doing 7am, running home from work at lunch, and then 7pm for 20 minutes per turn.

Should I change the program to water shorter durations more frequently? For instance, I could set them to run every 2 hours for 5 minutes a cycle? My timer cycle options are hourly, 2hrs, 4hrs, 6hrs and 12hrs.

I planted my seed on Saturday, and our temps have been 70s-80, but we are heading into a cold spell down into the 50's and 30's at night for 4 days, then back up into the 60's-70's. I know germination for bluegrass is about 10 days, and bermuda closer to 14, and I did plant these in topsoil mixed with some organic mulch, and a sprinkling of starter seed mulch to give it the best possible chance.


----------



## robertmehrer (Feb 28, 2019)

Not very deep but progressing


----------



## robertmehrer (Feb 28, 2019)

Mowed the back yard down to nada and I can start to see the "undercoat" of Bermuda poking out everywhere. The bare spots are of course growing faster than the covered spots but it's everywhere now. I'm gong to keep up the same watering for now unless someone tells me other wise.

Once this gets more established I can begin to think about leveling the yard out. The back gets dog abuse but I'm happy to see it take hold.


----------



## J_nick (Jan 28, 2017)

Looking good. Even that 3rd one down that looks sparse will be covered within a month. Once you see stolon development give it a 1/2# N and watch it spread like a wildfire.


----------



## robertmehrer (Feb 28, 2019)

J_nick said:


> Looking good. Even that 3rd one down that looks sparse will be covered within a month. Once you see stolon development give it a 1/2# N and watch it spread like a wildfire.


Awesome ! I'm very surprised on how dense it grows. I did put down 25# of seed in like 2k sqft lmao. I need to start getting the other trash grass out too. It's never ending.


----------



## J_nick (Jan 28, 2017)

That was a bit of overkill to say the least. I used 25# to seed close to 10k


----------



## robertmehrer (Feb 28, 2019)

J_nick said:


> That was a bit of overkill to say the least. I used 25# to seed close to 10k


The bag was $98 and I guessed on the spreader rate... I'm more of a over do it guy versus do it twice and measure never lol. I didn't think it would hurt honestly. I want that trash grass gone !!!and I was honestly worried about wash out. The back gets so much water flow I didn't want it to all wash away.


----------

