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Texas lawn infested with annual rye

15 years ago

We bought our house last year and are new to Texas. Due to house renovations we only kept the lawns watered and mowed. Mainly bermuda and some St. Agustine in the shaded areas. Now the lawn is full of annual rye grass...really thick in some areas. How to we get rid of it with out damaging the grass?

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Comments (11)

iforgotitsonevermind
15 years ago
Look into atrazine. A lawn service will have to apply it for you.
Or you can spray roundup before the bermuda comes out of dormancy.
chad_la
15 years ago
atrazine will help but this late in the winter season i'd just mow it down for now. it burns off when it gets hot weather. pre-emergents in the fall will prevent it from showing up in the first place along with rescue grass and poa annua too.
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Yes it is cause for celebration when we drop down to the low 90s...in late October. The big thing you have going for you in Sacramento is the unfettered sea breeze. The fact that you were able to do it once and have it look that nice says it can be done...unless that was right after you seeded. New seed is pretty resilient until the heat kicks in. Bermuda is like a predator and will continue to invade. There is simply no getting around that. If you can kill it, please report back with specifics. I forgot to respond to your watering plan for this year. I would not rely on soil moisture sensors. They may be better than I think, but what really works is visually inspecting the grass. When the grass looks wilty, it needs water. I have been doing an experiment in my lawn since Oct of 2011. That is when I stopped mowing. The idea is to see how long it can go without water. This lawn is on the edge of the Texas desert where temps run just over/under 100 degrees for several months. There is still one shady spot in my lawn where I have not provided supplemental water for 16 months. I'm not sure how deep the roots go there, but the surface soil has to be dry as a bone. Still the grass looks pretty good (for 30-inch tall grass). The point is you need to watch the grass, not the soil. Deep watering and tall grass promotes deep rooting. Deep roots can draw moisture from deeper in the soil for a longer time. Thus deep watering on an infrequent basis is the mantra.
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Yeah I have to agree with Texas-weed. A shorter summer means the Bermuda has less time to recover before going dormant again so it is definitely more risky to overseed with rye the shorter your warm season is. Now, back to leveling. I would like some more opinions about the soil I should use. Sharp sand vs rich mix. I looked up what the rich mix has and it is 47% topsoil, 30% "clean sand", 12% compost/manure and 3% gypsum. That doesn't add to 100 but it's close. I have used this stuff before in garden beds so I know that the consistency is good, screened well, etc. I would love to use it for nutrients it would provide vs sand but I dont want so much o it to decompose that in a couple of years it's like I didnt put anything down. So with that lets hear some more opinions. Oh, I also purchased a used tru cut 20" reel today with 4 hp Honda engine. The shop is sharpening/adjusting it and then it's ready to go! Anyone ever tried to make a homemade roller bar to replace the front casters? 200 bucks for a roller on a 550 dollar used tru cut seems a little much. Just curious...
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Okay, way, Way, WAY, WAAAAAAAYYYYY too much information. Please try to stay on topic. If all your tenant agreement says is "maintain and irrigate," you're screwed. Your definition of maintain and irrigate is apparently different from theirs. It's your opinion against theirs. Your word has nothing to do with it. It's all opinion because you used loose language. If you want to ensure you get 100% crabgrass coverage by July, follow your current plan. If you want to get rid of crabgrass do this... 1. Water deeply and infrequently. You're almost there with the 5-day flood plan. Can you stretch that to 14 days this time of year and gradually work it up to 7 days when the temps get into the 90s? 2. Mulch mow at the mower's highest setting. 3. Fertilize once in the late spring and twice in the fall. 4. WAIT UNTIL FALL to reseed. Crabgrass seed only germinates in the spring and only when it lands on moist soil which remains moist for several days. If you withhold water and allow the soil surface to dry out completely, then you have a shot a not having any crabgrass. But you need a dense turf. Fescue has that problem of becoming less dense over time unless you continually reseed in the fall. So it was not your tenant's fault that you have crabgrass in his lawn.
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We have bermuda and over seed with Winter Rye. I did this because of the thatch that was produced by the bermuda during the fall and winter months. The kids and dog always brought it into the house. I noticed that winter rye is great for removing stickers, and chokes out other weeds. It also gives our bermuda nutrients, and it comes in better every year. We don't have to water it much in the winter months because we usually get enough rain. Also, during the spring my neighbors are either spraying roundup or digging out weeds. We never have to do this. The winter rye looks velvety and great each year and definately helps our bermuda.
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texas_weed
15 years ago
Are you sure it is annual rye and not annual blue grass?
chad_la
15 years ago
i wondered the same thing, most likely its rescue or poa
dchall_san_antonio
15 years ago
If it is annual anything it should die by June. Then the question is how to keep it from returning from seed. The answer to that is to have a very dense turf.

What is your mowing height for the bermuda and for the St Augustine? Are you mowing them the same?

How often are you watering and for how long?
mla2ofus
Original Author
15 years ago
When I did a second search I found the excellent post on how to take care of Bermuda grass. Hopefully if we follow that regime that will take care of the ? weed grass. I would like to ask, as our Bermuda and St. agustine are mixed at the shade/sun edge, how do we mow the Burmuda short and the St. Augustine tall??
steveleb
15 years ago
What ever you do, DO NOT I REPET DO NOT APPLY ROUNDUP to what you may think is dormant Bermuda. After 2 years I still have a patch of bare ground.
lou_spicewood_tx
15 years ago
You just change the mowing height. 1 inch for bermuda and 4 inch or whatever your mower is at the highest setting for st augustine. They tend to do best when mowed high esp in the shade. However you do have to mow more often on bermuda to maintain its density, twice a week during summer. Water deeply when needed. My rule of thumb is whenever 50% of lawn start to wilt, it's time to water deeply. For me it is usually every 10-21 days depending on the weather.
denverdude
15 years ago
If rye is really what you have, you can use a product called revolver to help you transition back to bermuda. It is used during the spring transition by professionals to get the cool season turf to die off when the bermuda starts coming back. It is not, however, labeled for us over the top of st augustine.
texas_weed
15 years ago
If rye is really what you have, you can use a product called revolver to help you transition back to bermuda. It is used during the spring transition by professionals to get the cool season turf to die off when the bermuda starts coming back. It is not, however, labeled for us over the top of st augustine.

Don't give away trade secrets :>)

I don't know about CO, but in TX only licensed professional can use Revolver. Otherwise homeowners have to use granular atrazene formulated for Saint Augustine lawns to do the trick.
mla2ofus
Original Author
15 years ago
Thank you for all of your advise. Believe me, we need all the help we can get!

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