Adding fescue in dormant bermuda?
weigojmi
15 years ago
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iforgotitsonevermind
15 years agoweigojmi
15 years agoRelated Discussions
new post re my bermuda/fescue lawn - advice wanted
Comments (0)I started a post a few weeks ago, got some good advice. Now I'm thinking along different lines. Original post is http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/lawns/msg0911454920679.html?11 When my Bermuda is completely dormant, could I then kill all the fescue? Would reseed with Bermuda whenever the time is right in the spring. I've gotten all the Bermuda out of the beds it encroached on - that was laziness on my part not doing it earlier. Plan to do shallow(ish) trenching so managing it will be simpler. What do you experts think of this? My thanks in advance, Rosie, Sugar Hill, GA (n, Atlanta)...See MoreFescue: dead, or just dormant?
Comments (8)Straw colored and brittle describes a good portion of it, so dead seems to be the verdict. The question is, now what? I'd say a good 75% of the lawn is still green, but its patchy, and I've got a lot of weeds. I was away on business for about 5 weeks in early spring, right at the time I needed to feed the lawn and put down a pre-emergent, so it didn't get done. Our spring was also unusually wet and humid, so I also had a lot of brown patch. Follow that up with a scorching hot summer with little rain, and now I've got a 25% dead lawn. Suggestions?...See Morefescue going dormant in summer
Comments (5)Dear Pretty Petals, Thank you very much for your inquiry. Tall fescue is a great choice in your area, and unless watered judiciously during the summer months, will go dormant and there is not much you can do, as you have learned. The good news is that is comes back (and most likely better than if you over water and it gets diseased and dies instead of just going dormant). I hope that makes sense. As for another grass, I am afraid that the other grass would need to be a warm season grass, most likely bermudagrass. I have seen this done and it can work, but you have to manage the yard for tall fescue, not bermudagrass (which means you will not fertilize the bermudagrass during the summer) otherwise the bermudagrass crowds out the tall fescue and during the fall/winter you will not be as happy. If you do use bermudagrass, go with a common bermudagrass. One word of caution, if you put bermudagrass in your lawn, there is no turning back, as this grass is impossible to eradicate. Perhaps you could describe how you manage the tall fescue and maybe there would be some things to prolong it into the summer months. Again, thanks for the question and let me know if you have more. Respectfully Trey Rogers, The Briggs & Stratton Yard Doctor, YardDoctor.com...See MoreConverting a Fescue Lawn to Bermuda by tilling and seeding
Comments (4)I'll start with the elephant in the room. Rototilling is the very worst thing you can do to prepare for a lawn, and it only gets worse for bermuda. So the term, 'proper tilling' means nothing. There is no proper tilling. There is only improper tilling. Why? I'll summarize The surface will settle unevenly and it is very hard to ever get a smooth surface again. It kills the microbes that give your soil health. It destroys the existing soil structure both structurally and biologically (sum of 1 and 2). Reestablishing a new soil structure takes 3 years. Grass seed sprouts on the top surface of the soil. You don't need to bury the seed into soft soil. Yes, nurture the current grass until the very day you decide to kill it all. Do that at the end of April. Spray with RoundUp and start watering lightly, 3x per day, every day for a week. This will sprout all the crabgrass and other summer annual weeds that may be lurking in the soil. After a week of daily watering, spray the area again with RU to kill everything that sprouted during the week. This approach may work better if you start watering a week before the first RU app. Oh and mow it short to let the sunlight in. Search this forum for the topic of sprigging. That is another way to get a very expensive lawn for not much money. You do some prep work, but the result is an expensive hybrid lawn for the cost of a few pieces of sod....See Moretexas_weed
15 years agoiforgotitsonevermind
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15 years agotexas_weed
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9 years agoDSpro
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