Texas-Weed wrote: > You can lay the sod now, just not the optimum time to do it... But you have raised a huge RED FLAG. You are in DFW and want to replace Bermuda lawn with Saint Augustine? Why? You just as well go to the Middle East and promote the USA and Christ as that will be easier, take less time, and more rewarding. ======== Texas-Weed wrote the above in a different thread but I thought I'd reply in this one. I'm an atheist, although I still enjoy attending Christmas services. I guess I just read too many science books in high school. I should have said ZZ-chromosome male frogs, not XY male frogs in my post above. Regading not seeding improved varieties of common bermuda into a vegetatively produced hybrid bermuda lawn, I imagine the bermuda experts may say the hybrid bermuda is a much higher quality lawn; it looks a lot better than a seeded bermua lawn, or so I'll guess that's what they'll say. I'm not an expert on bermuda though. I know zoysia much better since that's what I grow. Zoysia looks sooo good and it's much less work than bermuda. For example, you don't need to cut zoysia as low or as often as bermuda to keep zoysia looking good. You can even cut zoysia as high as 2 inches, just once a week, or even less frequently in times of drought. During this last drought, I only needed to cut my zoysia after 5 weeks! Zoysia doesn't grow vertically as fast as bermuda. Bermuda grows tall like a weed :-)

While it is true that you can put down St. Augustine any time of the year but Fall is the best to do so. Why because the heat doesn't get to it. Water, right now you would not have to water near as much as in spring or summer. Plus if we had a wet spring it's a mess trying to work getting the sod laid down. If you have trees that have not lost their leaves may I suggests that once the leaves fall to leave them on the ground. This will help like a mulch and with the first sign of spring mow over the leaves. I did this one year and the grass really did great, even better than all the other areas that I've laid sod. If you don't have trees then don't worry about it but DO NOT USE REG. MULCH it's not the same. Don't use chemical fertilizers. Get some box's of Bone meal and Blood meal spread it over the grass and water it in. It takes at least 6 months for blood meal to work but bone meal helps right away with roots. You may still have a little time left for the roots to start taking hold before the grass goes dormant. I'm by no means an expert this info as only my experiences and I've been working on my yard for four years for ST. Augustine to take over it's nearly there but I've been doing plugs and playing the waiting game, for it to take over.

I should be more detailed about the cut height progression... If you try to work down to 1 inch this year, you're a bit late & you'll have to use the 2 steps back, 1 step forward method, which is not as easy as it sounds, especially while in a weed fight. It'll be easier next year & you won't have to live with cheetah print lawn. To do so next spring, you'll want to do a proper scalping as soon as temps are done freezing for the year to remove this year's lawn. That's your mowers lowest setting, probably about an inch for most rotary machines. You'll be at that setting for 1 week, and you should be able to see dirt below without trying during this time. This forces the stolons to start making green leaves at dirt level. Fertilize after scalping, then bump up to the second notch for the next mowing to get back your "green top" & keep it there until the cheetah print look starts to show (3 or 4 weeks). When the stems begin to show through & the cheetah effect starts, iron will help to delay this by a week or so if you have a special occasion. One more notch will always produce more green on top, but it's a balancing act to avoid 3 inch "leggy" Bermuda--If you let it get too high too early, you'll be stuck there for the season. You're already stuck for this season in my opinion, taking off too much green right now will reduce photosynthesis, which won't help your cause. Scalping can be done anytime in the growing season once healthy, to reset the height, but it's a big job so I only do it once at the beginning of the season. Basically the Bermuda grows like miniature trees. There's the roots, then a crown area of rhizomes & stolons at dirt level, then the brown stem which is the area you control via cut height, then a green top on each stem. Get it right & all your little trees are the same height at the same time & you get a nice consistent green lawn. Now my fingers hurt!

@todd I'm in CA, just south of Stockton. We are "fescue country" around here, which is crazy because it's hot and never rains. We don't even get clouds, but fescue is the top selling grass followed by KBG. You can't even reliably source bermuda sod. But if you look around you can see bermuda everywhere. The native species is taking over lawns left and right. People just dig in and keep fighting. I know a guy a block away that re-sods his lawn every Spring because he refuses to water "because of the drought." I really don't understand his thinking at all, but it's been his thing for the past 4 yrs. We also have bermuda bushes: 3 ft tall bermuda "bush" bermuda crossing the driveway 6 ft tall bermuda "bush" sucked the life right out of it's host. After host died lawn service started spraying "weed killers" every 3 months but it lives on. People have just given up in my opinion. Almost everyone here has a lawn service. So people are actually paid and these are the common results. Sadly, the top picture is one of the better looking lawns around here. Others have resorted to converting their lawns to rock gardens, concrete slabs, or artificial turf. Some city programs pay homeowners up to $4k for lawn conversions. I can imagine this happening more across the country when hearing about so many restrictive water bans.