Killing Crabgrass & Yellow Nutsedge in newly-seeded bermuda lawn

15 years ago

I seeded bermuda 12 days ago. Prior to seeding, I killed everything with roundup four+ weeks ago, aerated and fertilized. Now, I have a profusion of crabgrass and yellow nutsedge. The new bermuda is just starting to peep out from under the straw. Is it safe to spot-apply a selective herbicide such as Ortho Weed-B-Gone with Crabgrass control to such a young lawn? BTW, I know now that I would have done better to till a few times after the roundup and/or not wait so after the roundup to seed. But, barring starting all over from scratch, I want to know if it's worth trying a selective herbicide first. I'm concerned that the crabgrass and sedge will smother the baby bermuda if I let it go too much longer. Thanks for any advice on this

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Comments (9)

Billl
15 years ago
You'll need to wait until after the 3rd mowing to apply weed-b-gon.
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beav420
15 years ago
I did the same steps as above. I have healthy baby bermuda coming up and now all of a sudden, lots of crabgrass. Can I spot spray MSMA on the majority of the crab grass? I am afraid it will choke the babies.
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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 :-)
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Thanks dchall! I've seen you around on all the lawn forums for ages so I know you know your stuff. I based my seeding time on the UGA soil temperature website (http://weather.uga.edu/aemn/cgi-bin/AEMN.pl?site=GAAP&report=st), which says that soil temps for my area for the first two weeks of May averaged between 65-70 degrees from 2-8 inch depths, which seemed warm enough for bermuda. It got unseasonably hot this year in GA and stayed hot. We were in the nineties with regularity by late May. I generally try to time my fertilizer applications with expected rain. We've gotten a fair bit of rain this year (11 inches since May according to the UGA website) and I haven't noticed any burn. I've been trying to decide on the watering issue. I know it would help the lawn, but my husband really hates seeing people run their sprinklers so I don't know if he'll support me on that. I'm a stay at home mom and I do all my lawn maintenance generally during the day the two days a week someone else has my kids so I have to contend with some timing issues as well. Plus we have water restrictions in place. If the HOA didn't demand bermuda in the front yard I'd consider replacing the lawn with something easier but as long as I have to have it up front I might as well try to get it everywhere. My current thought is that if there's not a lot of bermuda in the back yard after I kill off the crabgrass that I may try to slit seed next spring/summer and invest in the hoses and timers and sprinklers needed at that time. I know that for cool-weather grasses you and others generally try to avoid aeration, but I haven't been able to get a sense of whether that applies to warm season grasses like bermuda. If I can avoid aerating again anytime soon, I would prefer that. I did it myself with a rental and it kicked my butt. I only managed to do one pass and I was so exhausted by the end of it that I had to get a neighbor to help my husband put the machine in the car to take back. Thanks for the tip on the phone. I took the pictures on a whim after posting the first post and tried to duck out and get back in before my two year old noticed I was gone. She caught me at the front door, though, and then there was a tantrum because she wanted to be outside too.
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Well, you guys have convinced me. I have some crabgrass that is hit and miss in small spots around the yard but I also have some pretty good sized concentrations. Even the smaller spots with just one or two plants, the plants themselves are mature, large and spread out so that it would be fairly easy to spray just that plant and not get too much else around it. Also, the RoundUp I had for another area where I didn't want anything else growing back for a while was the RoundUp Extended Control. Regular RoundUp says you can replant after 3 days. So, I think I'm going to try and hit the worst of the infestation with RoundUp, then I'll go over the whole yard with a light spray of Tenacity for the Yellow Nutsedge. When the crabgrass starts to knock back and die off, I'll rent a dethatcher and go over the yard with that, then rent an aerator, then a power seeder and reseed and fertilize. Oh, and unless we have an unseasonably cold fall or a really fast-coming winter, we can stay in at least the mid-40s at night and mid-60s to mid-70s all the way until Thanksgiving around here. It's really hit or miss and, my luck, we'll have a really cold fall, but I'm really not too worried about sowing grass in mid to late September. I've looked at some of the information from the local county extension agents and they say that as long as the seed is in the ground by the end of September in our area, the grass should have time to be well rooted before winter hits. Sometimes it will still be good when seeding as late as mid-October but, with the way the weather is around here anything past the end of September and I'd really be pushing my luck. Soooo, that gives me a month to kill the worst of the crabgrass, dethatch, aerate, power seed and fertilize. Oh, I need to find the time to close down and winterize my pool too. It looks like September is going to be a really busy month! I may have to cancel my vacation days before Thanksgiving and take a few Fridays off instead to extend a few weekends and get everything in. Thanks for the advice guys. - Byron
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There are two sedges that look alike until they flower. Those are nutsedge and green kyllinga. Nutsedge is a swamp plant that loves frequent watering. Green kyllinga tolerates very dry soil far beyond what would kill nutsedge. In wet soil, nutsedge will spread like wildfire. Green kyllinga is not nearly as aggressive in either wet or dry soil. I have had nutsedge try to invade my lawn. It will pop up in thin areas when we got a lot of rain. Many weeks after the rain is gone and I go onto deep and infrequent watering, it disappears. I also got a dose of both nutsedge and bermuda when the city replaced our water meter. Both died out within the same growing season from the watering and competition with St Augustine.
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schreibdave
15 years ago
I have a lot of nutsedge in my new lawn. I have been pulling it by hand - very time consuming but also thereputic.

The following link from Rutgers.edu might be useful.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rutgers.edu
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thebman42
15 years ago
I have a 39 day old newly seeded Yukon Bermuda yard that has crabgrass and nutsedge coming up. I purchased some trimec classic and sprayed it with recommended amount. It is slowly killing the crabgrass and nutsedge but it has turned small patches of the bermuda light green to brown. Texas Weed posts on this forum and is usually a good source for advice. You might check out his bermuda bible for ongoing maintenance.
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glennds
15 years ago
i ahve been a homeowner and member of this board for five years. i never heard of , or experienced any weed as tough as nutsedge. i found this board and was relieved to know i was not the only homeowner exasperated by this incredibly resilient weed.

listen. screw the hand pulling, digging up your lawn, roundup etc. buy sedgehammer. period. its expensive but worth EVERY penny. it really works. you can find it on ebay. i spent $140, but it is enough to last several years.
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wrager
15 years ago
Would it be ok to "paint" the offenders with Weed-b-gone and not hurt the baby bermuda?
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texas_weed
15 years ago
Baby Bermuda in Atlanta? Baby Bermuda is an exclusive product of Easton Sod farms located in OK. It is also a hybrid and there is no seed. How did you get it?

Anyway crabgrass is easy to control with post-emergence products. But as stated you have to wait until the lawn is mature and has been mowed a few times. Otherwise you risk injuring the grass.

FWIW you could paint it on, but if you are going to that much trouble, why not just pull it out to begin with and cast that demon back to he!!

Nut Sedge is another issue and very difficult to control. Most of the post - emergence controls just makes it mad and the nut underneath the ground sends up three replacements for every one you spray. There are a couple of product out there like Manage and Sedge Hammer that are effective but very expensive.
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schreibdave
15 years ago
I know that weed b gone isnt supposed to work on nutsedge - but it worked on mine. I sprayed half the lawn with a hose end sprayer but ran out and never got around to doing the second half. The part that I sprayed has substantially less nutsedge now.
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rdaystrom
15 years ago
It is not necessary to wait for Bermuda to mature before spraying post emergent herbicides. Studies have shown little to no injury and with all signs of injury gone in 30 days.
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Killing Crabgrass & Yellow Nutsedge in newly-seeded bermuda lawn

Comments (9)

Billl

beav420

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