I am converting from fescue/common bermuda to Patriot bermuda this summer. The common is taking over my lawn and I want a nice bermuda if I am going to have it. A PhD turfgrass extension/research specialist did bring up a very important point to consider. He suggested that I till to a depth of 4' to 6' and here is why. He stated that RU will kill the top portion of the plant but not the rhizomes underneath the ground that are laying dormant. By tilling, it brings the rhizomes to the surface. Upon doing this he suggested to wait 2-3 weeks after tilling. When/if the rhizomes begin to generate new shoots hit it again with another blast of RU or equivalent. One thing he stressed, and others on this board have too. Hit the bermuda with a shot of nitrogen 2 weeks prior to applying RU to really get it growing. When you apply the RU hit it with Roundup Pro or generic equivalent and the full 4 quart per acre rate. He stated that if you merely make it sick it will not take in any more RU, unlike other herbicides. When the rhizomes begin to grow shoots hit it with the 3% solution of the 4 lb per gallon RU. He stated that he once was unable to till on his property due to erosion issues and fought killing the rhizomes with RU for a long time since he was unable to till. To be sure, I DO NOT want to till. But, given the tendencies I have experienced with my lawn, I am considering it. I once thought my neighbors bermuda was encroaching on my lawn, which it is in some areas. However, base on his information, I now think that some of the once-dormant rhizomes are a big reason why I now have widespread bermuda showing up and choking out my fescue. I have only lived here a year and can only speculate what the previous owner did. But, both of my neighbors have the same bermuda that I have and am left wondering if my lawn was at one time the same. I do not want to till for other reasons too. But, if I have a choice to till and fight leveling or not till and fight this darn common bermuda I think I would choose to deal with leveling. This is just my opinion but I really want to do all that I can to get minimize it. He did state that if the bermuda was not that widespread in my lawn then he would not see a need to till as he does recognize that there is a great deal of extra work involved. Given this, I guess each person has to make his own determination of what might be right given their own individual circumstances. That's what I am fighting with now.

FYI. A number of years ago I filled a sizable depression with a mixture of good screened topsoil and about 30% peat. For a couple of years after, that area was spongy to walk on and prone to "indentation" when the rider ran over it. You want a good solid base under your lawn and I think 40% peat would be counter-productive. 3" of new soil in itself is going to need plenty of rolling and watering cycles to give a good base for sod.

Sorry, but not much you can do right now other than hand pulling. By the time the sod is established, it will be mid summer and too hot to apply post-emergence. Wait til fall and next spring to get aggressive with pre-emrgence, then next year mop up what is left with post emergence. If you do your routine maintenance for the rest of the year, zoysia will choke out a lot of the weeds so just be patient, zoysia takes a year or two to get going.

Patience. Moist, not soaked, is good. You did a lot of extra stuff that will come back to haunt you in 3 years, but the single most important thing you did right was to roll the sod down. Chances are the sod was in a "pre wilt" condition sitting on the pallets or rolled up or however you received it. As soon as sod is cut from the ground it has no source of moisture. And if it is rolled up or piled up, then the air supply is cut off. So it is in shock. You should be watering 2-3x per day for 5-10 minutes each time. After a week try to pull up a corner of a few pieces. It should be knitting to the underlying soil. As soon as it is knitting down, start to back off on the watering frequency and extend the time you're watering. If you had mature grass this time of year you would be watering only once every 2-3 weeks based on your temperatures. It will take time this summer and fall to develop a mature root system, so be patient with this, too. As the grass grows this summer, back off to watering once a day, once every 2 days, 4, 6, 8, etc. The only time you should water more than once per week is with temps in the 90s. Measure how long it takes your sprinklers to put 1 inch of water by placing cat food or tuna cans around the yard. Time how long it takes to fill those and remember that time. That will be your watering time from now on. This deep watering will minimize weed issues and should prevent disease issues. What you did wrong ( and I am saying this to warn you what to watch out for and to warn others who might be doing research on new sod) was to rototill the ground, remove existing soil, bring new soil in, and apply lime without a soil test to tell you what kind of lime to use and how much. The only way you can tell if soil is up to par is with a soil test. It can take years to bring soil up to par depending on what your definition of par is. Your new soil needs to be tested to see what it needs to bring it up to par, too. Look on this forum for the topics with Logan Labs tests and see the kind of replies they generate. As for soil structure we already know that it has no structure because the structure was rototilled out of it. And we know the biology is off because the subsurface biology was stirred up with the surface biology and those two kinds can't live in the environment of the other one. Your new and rototilled soil will take about 3 years to reestablish a new structure. Rototillers buck up when they hit a rock, root, or hard spot and dig in when they hit a soft spot. That bucking and digging leaves the subsurface profile uneven. As the fluffy soil on top settles to the subsurface profile, it will become uneven at the surface. I'm dealing with that now at my new house. I almost turned over a riding mower that fell into a hole on a slope. By the way the sod installation looks excellent. You're off to a good start. Just be patient. You might look into leveling to see what you're looking at for 3 years from now.