Listening to the Home Depot guy was your first mistake...Not to sound like a jerk

Don't worry. This stuff is made for St Augustine and similar grasses. Bermuda is a beast compared to these grasses. You will be fine. I don't even know why they have that on the bag. It does not make sense.

westchestergrower was correct, most workers at HD or Lowes know nothing about what they are selling, the are there to stock shelves and keep the store clean.
I agree with dougt, no need to worrie, atrazine will not harm bermuda.
In the future I would just use straight fertilizer and spray for weeds with better weed killers such as 2,4-d.

And I vote with all the above replies. If you want to fertilize, use fertilizer. If you want to kill weeds, spot spray with Weed-B-Gone 2 weeks after you fertilize.

But also, if your bermuda has not been mowed twice, then you fertilized too early. You fertilized the weeds.

The USDA just published something showing that every time you use Atrazine, it becomes less effective than the previous use. Apparently the soil microbes become better and better at neutralizing it and rendering it ineffective.

I'm ashamed to say that i did the exact same thing and it killed my entire lawn. Now I have no idea what to do. Do I need to re-seed? All the lawn has gone dead and crusty, yet the weeds are still there.

Good grief people, don't you EVER read the stuff on the bags. Plus, right on the front of the bag it says it is for use on St. Augustine lawns. Also, Bonus S, kills actively growing weeds. It is not a pre-emergent, and yes, it treats bermuda like a weed. And it sure isn't organic.

To save you a lot of money, locate nearest Lesco or John Deere Landscape store and get yourself a bag of pre-em to prevent weeds (now is a good time).

Also get 39-0-0 Fertilizer. It's a fifty pound bag which will cover 18,000 sqft. Figure out the total of sqft lawn you have and get enough bags to last you all year. Most fertilize bermuda once a month. Don't worry. 39-0-0 is pretty cheap. 25 bucks a bag.

Bermuda don't usually start really growing till April so you wasted money on Bonus S fertilizer. Sorry. Rule of thumb is to start fertilizing when you start mowing.

I would love find a fertilizer that feeds St. Augustine and kills Bermuda. The Bermuda has gotten bad in spots of my lawn.

Pacochu,

Plant more trees and mow high.

I am crushed, we have one of the prettiest lawns in town every year and I believe I just killed it. I have a tall fescue and I applied Scott's Bonus S without reading the entire label. I just looked to see where to set the spreader. How long does it take to kill it? Should I wait to see what it does or should I just go ahead and have the lawn removed and get ready to reseed?

Not a guarantee, but try this. Within the next 48 hours, apply activated charcoal at 5-10 lbs. per 1000 sq.ft. over the affected area and water in.

The charcoal thing might be a waste of time, the atrizine is in the soil once it is watered in. The active charcoal does not dissolve in water so it will just sit on-top of the soil and filter the rain or irrigation water coming into the soil.
Once the atrizine hits the roots, it will be absorbed with in a few hours.
If you put active charcoal down, you will track black coal into your house.

WCP8-this pertains to the atrazine conatined in the Bonus S and its determental affect on Bermuda grass. Your post says you have tall fescue. Why are you worried?

TW said, Good grief people, don't you EVER read the stuff on the bags.

At first I thought he was being crotchety, but GOOD GRIEF! This is going from bad to worse.

I remember when we used activated charcoal to successfully neutralize Simazine herbicide that had been applied too close to a bentgrass putting green. The activated charcoal was applied either 1 or 2 days after the Simazine was applied and watered in on a sandy loam soil. Since Simazine and Atrazine are both triazine herbicides, I would think there is some chance that activated charcoal might be effective.

I'd like to point out that this type of application mistake cannot happen with the modern, grain-based, organic lawn care program.

Very well pointed out Mr. Hall. And it is another reason why I am becoming more of a believer in the organic approach to lawn care.

Geez guys this one is so simple. He used Atrazine on Bermuda which you can get away with sometimes. But read the darn label as it states very clearly DO NOT USE ON BERMUDA

Any questions?

I was responding to the post from WCP 8 concerning the application of Bonus S on tall fescue.

What happened with your Bermuda grass after the Bonus S?

Its the only weed controller I use on my bermuda grass. It works the best for me. I'm in southern TX too.

so will it hurt bermuda grass or not I get 2 different side will it or won t harm my bermuda and if it does how soon after can you reseed

There's not much information in your question HU, but I'll give you several scenarios.

If you already applied it, you will know if it will hurt in 3 weeks. Chances are good that if you did not read the label to see what was safe, then you also missed the part about proper application. You may not get any herbicide effect at all if you applied wrong. But it takes about 3 weeks for that herbicide to work. If you have not applied it, return the bag and get a normal fertilizer. If you need to kill weeds then spot spray the weeds with a liquid herbicide that is safe for bermuda. READ THE BOTTLE to determine if it is safe on bermuda.

If you are planning to reseed with more bermuda, you probably missed the window. Bermuda seed likes hot soil to germinate. The window is from mid June to late August.

If you have a bermuda lawn that is thinning, something is wrong. More than likely the problem is too much shade. Adding more seed will not fix the problem. Either get rid of the shade or get rid of the bermuda in the thin areas. You could plant other grass types (St Augustine tolerates shade well) or you could create a flower bed there.

If you were planning to overseed a bermuda lawn with rye so it will be green all winter, I suggest you don't do that. The approach works for golf courses and football fields, but not for home lawns. The professionals use a herbicide in the early spring to kill the rye, but us home owners cannot buy that chemical.

I am glad i saw this post as i almost made same mistake (not reading the label) i have 13 bags i bought at discounted price at walmart and now dont know what to do with them as everyone around here has bermuda grass.