Bermuda watering woes

[kruppa]

I know I'm supposed to be watering my yard as infrequently as possible, and watering to a depth of 6 inches, but the majority of my bermuda grass is doing poorly due to lack of moisture.

I bought a new house in December of '02 and they had just placed the sod on the ground. How do I (by means of watering) encourage the roots to grow deep, without having grass that looks dry for the whole year? What sort of watering schedule should I use? Should I try to keep the soil moist at a depth of 3 inches for a month, then 4 inches...?

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

Bermuda is a strange grass. I hope there is an expert who can verify this or correct it, but here's my observation.

IMO bermuda likes the same conditions as most weeds. It likes to be mowed short (1 inch) and watered every day for 10 minutes.

[Ray Brown]

1 inch?? That's pretty short...mine's probably pushing 3", should I drop the blade?

I've been watering once or twice a week, for 15 minutes or so. I've noticed the grass is green and the weeds are brown...i like it that way!

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

At three inches, bermuda will actually shade itself out. It loves to have every single blade of grass, the entire blade, exposed to the full sun. When the grass is tall, the bottom half of the blade is in the shade of the blade next to it.

This is why it is relatively easy to eradicate bermuda from St Augustine lawns. St Augustine has a blade that is 5x wider than the bermuda blade. Tall St Aug provides copious amounts of shade to lower plants.

[kruppa]

My yard is currently not level enough for me to cut it much lower than 2 inches, but there are places where the grass hasn't really started growing this season, like it's still dormant.

On that note, should I use compost, lava sand, or a mixture of those or some other things to help level out the yard?

[Soils Alive]

Bermuda should be mowed between 1/2" - 1" tall to about the 1st of June. Then raise it up a notice every few weeks. I would not raise it more than 1.5". Bermuda gets stalky and unattractive when cut high. Also by mowing low the grass is forced to grow dense and thick. When left to grow high it puts a lot of energy into vertical growth instead of spreading.

Watering: I have clients who can go 5-7 days during the hottest times of the summer without watering. I have yet to water my front yard this year. Granted I have shade but the point is if we fertilize correctly you can save on water. Plus you are forcing your grass to grow the deeper root system.

Leveling: A good way of leveling a lawn is to core aerate then rake the plugs into the low spots. Adding compost, lava sand, and or greensand helps speed up the process.

To answer Kruppa’s question about weaning the grass off of frequent watering, you have the right idea. I have seen homeowners watering everyday get information about watering less frequently and deeper and they try to transition too quickly. Slowly increase the time between watering. Use your finger to see if the soil is actually drying out.

[kwl1763]

This is one of the reasons I much prefer St Augustine.

In my front yard when I moved last year was half Bermuda and half St Augustine. I started cutting it every week and sometimes twice and it stayed pretty but half and half just doesn't look right to me. Bermuda in my opinion has a much higher maintenance requirement and I like a lush St Augustine better anyway.

Earlier this year I had read where Bermuda doesn't like being left long.
I decided I wanted to attempt to let the St Augustine take over so after mowing the first time at ~1.5" I set the mower as high as it will go (~3.5"). The St Augustine is already beginning to take over and I predict by the end of the season the Bermuda will be very limited and it will be a 90% St Augustine lawn.

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

Another, more dangerous way, to level an uneven lawn is to RENT a mower to scalp with. I wouldn't want to do this with my own blade. Rent the mower, set it as low as it goes, and let it do the scalping and leveling for you. Wear sturdy shoes with socks and long pants because rocks, twigs, and dirt will be blowing out of that mower. Make sure there are no people or pets nearby and go very slowly. Bermuda doesn't mind being scalped and will refill if you actually chop dirt out of the uneven high spots.

Filling the low spots should be done with sand or soil. Compost will not fill but will evaporate away completely after a year leaving the same low spot as before.

Compost is a good idea for bermuda, though. Any turf for that matter. If you are having trouble getting water to penetrate, try a thin layer of compost.