South Carolina/Georgia border. House is only a few years old, I moved in end of last summer, and doesn’t seem like previous owner ever ran the sprinklers. The ground was super compact, loaded with fire ants and weeds. We have a dog so wanted to avoid herbicides which resulted in manual pulling with grandpa’s weeder. Tilled to loosen the soil and laid starter fertilizer 18-24-6 with Bermuda seed for its resistance and draught tolerance, and random spots of lawn soil on April 7. Water for five minute four times a day to keep soil moist. I’m impatient so threw down more seed 26 April but everything still seems patchy.
Fast forward to today and realized upon closer inspection, the dense grass I thought we had going where the dog does her business does not even appear to be Bermuda.
Do I yoink this other grass/weed? Throw down more fertilizer?
by Expensive-Article963
2 Comments
The grass further down in the canopy looks like Bermuda. More fertilizer is just going to make everything grow. I’d advise cutting it so the Bermuda can get light
Bermuda takes up to 30 days to germinate, is very difficult to start from seed, and its not uncommon to lose the entire stand within the first 2yrs.
Tilling is a bad idea when seeding, it wakes up weed seeds and makes the ground uneven, you did not mention which Bermuda seed you used, what grower and what brand. Also, ground prep prior to seeding is 90% of the germination battle.
The proper prep in this scenario without using chemicals would have been:
1. Get a soil test to make sure the soil is the proper Ph for Bermuda
2. Flame weed once a week every week until nothing green is left
3. Core aerate to improve the soil and loosen it up a bit without waking up weed seeds
4. Top dress with a sand / compost mix to further improve the soil and drainage
5. Scarify the ground to whip up a soft top layer
6. Broadcast the seed
7. Roll the seed in
8. Water as many times a day as necessary to keep the soil moist
Without chemicals it is still likely to fail within the first 2yrs as the weeds come back, but at least you have a chance with these steps.