I would like to kill bermuda coastal on 2 acres of land to plant fruit trees. Can this be done without roundup? Can I cover the soil with black plastic then put down mulch? I have plenty of mulch and horse manure and tractor. Any suggestions? Any advice would be appreciated!! We have been organic for the past 10 years.

Maybe lots of applications of vinegar or orange oil or cedar oil applications?

Sometimes strong undiluted anaerobic organic teas make great herbicides.

If you never want to plant anything on the property, then salt water works great! (LOL)

I think your idea of using lots of plastic or heavy paper or cardboard as weed controls is very smart and economical.

Happy Gardening!

just this week i am going to put down 20 rolls of 9 by 100 foot 6 mil plastic where i plan to plant blackberries in the fall. i hope to boil the soil over the summer and thus rid the rows of the pesky bermuda. i'll let you know how it goes.

You might not have much difficulty getting rid of it. From what I understand, Coastal Bermuda is ill-adapted to growing in this area.

Let us know how the solarization goes.

if by ill-adapted, you mean can seemingly live forever under 120+ degree plastic, then yes, i'd say it is ill-adapted. the plastic was not a complete waste of time and money as it knocked it back enough i think i'll be able to spot spray andf dig for a while and maybe can eradicate it. next round i'm going with removing the top 2 inches of bermuda and soil, however. btw, whoever said coastal was not adapted to n texas was as wrong as possible.

Interesting, thanks. You might try the herbicide Scythe. It is acceptable for use in an organic program. You can mix it half and half with the vinegar herbicide recipe to make it go farther.

Vinegar Herbicide Recipe: per 1 gallon of 10% (pickling strength) vinegar add 1-2 oz orange oil (or d'limonene), 1 tablespoon of soap and a tablespoon or two of liquid molasses.

http://www.planetnatural.com/site/scyth ... icide.html

Why do you want to get rid of it? Plant the trees, apply mulch 2-3 feet deep between the rows, and forget about the weeds. The shade from the trees and the mulch will take care of most of the weeds.

Keep the mulch away from the trunks of the trees. Root flare needs to be exposed. If your soil is already chemical free, you should consider dusting the holes with Actinovate to keep cottony root rot away. That stuff works but only in an organic program.

Spending money to kill weeds in an orchard is a huge waste of money. I grew up among the orange groves in Southern California. The groves that were sprayed with diesel to keep the weeds down did not live as long as those where conservation tillage was used. Nutgrass was thought to be the problem weed, but when they simply stopped trying to manage the weeds, their profits went way up and hassles went way down. And most of the nutgrass went away (shade and mulch).

I like Dchall's approach even better! For good information (but a somewhat tedious read IMHO), pick up the book Weeds by Charles Walters. He sheds some light on weeds and the many benefits these misunderstood plants provide.

Getting rid of bermudgrass organically, is mostly something to laugh at. While growing things may prove to be more productive than traditional ways, killing weeds organically, is not!

For those that know how bermudagrass is grown and harvested for sod, well then you might understand the difficulty of trying to eradicate the stuff.

You could work against it, with tillage, but it would have to be very frequent, & deep... and you would need to get out each time and pick out as much of the stolons and rhizomes, as you possibly could.

Cultivation and shading, are your two best solutions for controlling bermudagrass. A fall planted cover crop can also help to compete against the bermudagrass.

Otherwise, remove it from your tree rows, and work with it in the alley ways. Shred/mow it often, and don't fertilize between tree rows... that will keep the bermudagrass in check. Bermudagrass loves high nitrogen conditions, and does not do well without it.

And yes, to say coastal bermudagrass is not adapted to Texas, is a major joke! It does well in North, South, and East Texas. True West Texas, is the only place it has a little difficulty growing.