1604/Potranco = helpful. Here's a brief rundown of bermuda care: Monthly during the growing (green) season Fertilize with a very high nitrogen fertilizer Weekly during the growing season Mulch mow 2x and water 1x. Mow at 1 to 2 inches. Water a full inch all at one time. Measure it with cat food or tuna cans around the yard. For more details, find the Bermuda Bible online and memorize it. It's not as long as the real Bible, so that's a good thing. Grassy weeds look like grass. Broadleaf weeds look like clover or dandelions. Grassy weeds need a grass killer but that will kill the bermuda if it has started to green up. Broadleaf weeds need something like Weed-B-Gone. Ironite recently changed their formula so that it is now not much more than simple fertilizer. It used to be industrial sludge, so this is much better. If the bermuda looks yellowish, use greensand instead. It works much better than Ironite and costs much less. You will never need lime in Texas. Here is SA we live on top of 1,000 feet of limestone. You can't get limier than here. Our problem is acidifying the soil, not liming it. You should find Fertile Garden Supply on 1604 near Bandera Hwy (south of Bandera I believe). Go in and smell the soils. It's quite a resource. You've probably driven by it many times. They specialize in soil materials but have lots of stuff. You can get greensand there. You said the builders laid out the grass. This is excellent. Sodded bermuda is one of the best turf grasses you can find. Just start taking care of it and you should be off to the races. If you want to try organic fertilizers, you live in the right city. I have not priced any of the animal feeds this year, but I go back and forth between corn based fertilizer and alfalfa pellets. These animal feed products also feed the microbes living in your soil. When they are well fed (20 pounds per 1,000 square feet), then they will feed your plants. It's a biological wonder how this works. It will take 3 full weeks to see the effect. If you used it now on dormant bermuda this late in the dormant season, the soil food should be ready to go in 3 weeks. Ladybug is good as is Medina Growing Green. There's another new one on the market. Ask at Fertile Garden. It is poultry litter based but not Medina or Ladybug. Soybean and cottonseed meals are outrageously expensive in San Antonio. Otherwise, if you want to use chemical fertilizers, wait until you have mowed the bermuda for the second time to ensure the roots are actively growing. Then fertilize lightly. Bermuda does not need much incentive to grow fast early in the spring. If you go too heavy too early, you'll be mowing every day to keep up with the grass.

I be honest I cannot tell what the big brown patches are. They are kinda bald dead weedy looking spots. They dont look like new weeds, maybe old dead ones that were left after last mowing. Any recommendation for pre-emergent that wont kill my u-3 spreading? Also I have some seed left from last yr. Is it still good?

The pre-emergent controls only prevent seeds from sprouting. All the current green weeds you see is existing weeds recovering from the winter. Conventional timing is as NJTea said. I am trying to control dandelions, so I wait until they start setting seed before applying corn gluten.

Kathyga, Thanks for posting in response to my questions and concerns of the weeds, they are out of control. Kathy, please tell me where you picked up the corn gluten and how much you paid. the weeds in my yard are giving me nightmares, and I've had a long week work wise then the rain. ARRRGGH! But, alas, today I had a glimer of hope. I was coming from a business related trip from callaway gardens and stopped at "Country Garden Farms" in Newnan on my way home. i found it as an organic distributor online. I picked up two bags of "Nature Safe 10-2-8." It is feather meal, bone meal, blood meal, Potash, and i can't remember what else. It also has Calcium and other elements/minerals? (I'm not a scientist!) which I have heard is good for our kind of red clay soil and that weeds like calcium deficient soil (I'm gonna try to find info on that so that I know it to be true). The other reason that I'm excited is because I see the bermuda coming out of dormancy, much more than 2 weeks ago. So I will mow my weeds down and bag them at least the next two times I mow until the bermuda gets thick and tall enough that I'm mowing it also. Then I will go back to mulch mowing (grasscycling). I will also sharpen my blade befor e I mow the bermuda. So I'm just hoping I will get my lawn thick enough to impede the weeds. My bagging the weeds I'm mowing right now is to keep the seeds from spreading. Oh, I'll also spot treat the perennial weeds and the dandelions. I'm just trying to encourage you, don't fret over those annual weeds, it will soon be too warm for what is blooming now and as the bermuda grows it will begin competing with these weeds. That's my plan for now, don't know what I'm gonna do for fall and winter next year yet, guess it depends on what things look like around August / September. One more thing, I don't think your plan from last summer sounds so haphazard, I've read on here where guys just get something organic and put it out and they say things are working. And these guys that are putting out 20 or even 30 pounds of fert per 1000 sq feet either have tiny yards or fat wallets. I have roughly 8,000 to 10,000 sq feet of lawn. Ok one more thing. the guy at Country Gardens and Farm in Newnan, I think he was the owner, he knew a lot abou organic lawn care, he said that they can do a soil test that gives you not only the PNK, but also a breakdown of percentages of calcium, and other things that are in there as well as how many microbes etc. you have. it is much more in depth than what you get at the county extension. It's like $25 but he also said you might be able to do it directly with the lab which is in Memphis, I think. If you give them a call, ask for Mike. He was very helpful to me on the phone for about 20 minutes, I'm sure he could tell you how to get the soil sample. If you are ever on that side of town check the place out, it was very nice, loads of shrubs, trees etc, and it was rustic and nice. It was pouring down rain today but still loads of people there. Here's the link: http://www.countrygardensfarm.com/ In a month or so I will post how my lawn is looking after the Nature Safe has had time to work. Let's keep each other encouraged and informed. So I'll let you know how I like the Nature Safe, it was $35 a #50 bag. I needed more than one bag so i got 2, which gives me a little more than #10 pounds per 1000 square feet. Ok, enough for now I'm rambling. Let me know how its going and where you got the corn Gluten. Kevin