bermuda grass

14 years ago

My fiancee and I rent a duplex in the Sacramento Valley, near Yuba City. It has a very small back yard, and we have permission to garden in it. I spent most of last summer trying to kill off the extremely weedy lawn with RoundUp. I noticed a little bit of bermuda grass then, but the weed causing the majority of the problem last summer was foxtails. (It was especially important to eradicate the foxtails, because we have two dogs.)

Over the winter, the bermuda grass and foxtails both disappeared completely. Annual bluegrass was the major weed problem instead. We also had horrific drainage problems; more than half the back yard was underwater continuously for more than a month in December and January. I shoveled a lot of dirt around to fix the drainage problems, digging a drainage ditch and piling the excess dirt from the ditch into the other low spots throughout the back yard to raise the level of the land. Throughout the fall, winter, and spring, I also began planting various native plants, and now the back yard is finally beginning to look a little bit like a real garden.

The annual bluegrass isn't much of a problem anymore now that the weather has turned summery again. The foxtails have resumed being a problem, but they're not as bad a problem as last summer - probably because last summer I hadn't moved in here yet, so I only had a chance to pull them when I visited on weekends. (My fiancee doesn't garden at all.) However, the bermuda grass is a much bigger problem this summer than I remember it ever being last summer.

When I shoveled dirt around to improve the drainage problems, I left one half of the yard a little lower than the other and planted native grasses and water-tolerant plants in it - not true wetland plants that would require a lot of watering, but deergrass, clustered field sedge, valley sedge, milkweed, elderberry, and currants. In the dryer half of the yard, a fairly dense cover of California poppies sprouted. Some bermuda grass grows under them, but it's not much worse than it was last year. In the wetter half of the yard, none of the poppy seeds I scattered survived the winter flooding. Instead, bermuda grass has been completely taking over. I've been trying to pull it by hand daily, but it seems to be growing back about equally as fast as I can pull it. I haven't tried really digging it up yet; I've just been pulling up as many stems and rhizomes as I can with my hands. I also haven't tried mechanically weed-eating it yet; our weed-eater has been on long-term loan to the residents of the other half of the duplex, and I haven't yet asked for it to be returned.)

Here are my questions:

1. Does the bermuda grass prefer the wetter area of the yard primarily because it's wetter, or because there aren't so many plants competing with it there?

2. Is the bermuda grass worse this summer than last summer primarily because I shoveled the dirt around to improve the drainage, or because most of the other weeds that competed with it last summer are gone this summer, or because I'm no longer spraying RoundUp?

3. Will the bermuda grass temporarily vanish over the winter again, like it did last year, or did I just get lucky last year?

4. If I plant a denser crop of native perennials and shrubs in the areas it's currently growing, will that help get rid of the bermuda grass? I read that only heavy shade from dense trees, rather than from short shrubs, is enough to inhibit its growth. Our back yard is so small that there isn't really any room to to plant trees.

And the big one:

5. What's the best way to kill the bermuda grass without killing my plants? Should I dig it up? Should I weed-eat it? Should I paint it with an herbicide, and if so, which one? Should I try to smother-mulch it? Or some combination of the above?

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Comments (6)

hosenemesis
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
In my experience, the only way to kill bermuda is with Round-up or a similar weed killer. Roots go on to China, weed-eating makes it stronger.

It must be sprayed in the spring when the grass first begins to sprout, and then you water until it sprouts again, then spray, as many times as necessary.

It will grow best where there is water. Competition from other plants will not phase it. It grows through concrete.

I usually dig everything out of a bed that has been infested with the evil weed, but if you want to try to tackle it leaving the plants in situ, I recommend making a paper cone out of a few sheets of newspaper with a little hole at the bottom. You wrap your cone around the piece of grass and carefullY spray or brush on Roundup. My stepdad uses empty toilet paper rolls and leaves them over the weed after he sprays until the Roundup dries.

My heart breaks for you. Good luck.
Renee
sautesmom Sacramento
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I have eradicated Bermuda grass by removing the grass part, and then smother-mulching it. (I don't use herbicides, as I don't want to poison my pets) This works best with a base layer of overlapping cardboard and then covering it with thick mulch. Grass clippings over cardboard also work if you are going on-the-cheap. Or SMUD offers free wood chips if you have a trailer and want to drive to Sacramento. If you have a small yard, smothering should be perfectly do-able, and then you just have to keep vigilant for sprouts in the future.

And to answer your question, yes, Bermuda goes dormant in the winter. And it probably is worse because in spreading the soil for drainage, you were spreading seed/pieces.

Carla in Sac
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Tilling would have been the wrong thing to do, especially for bermuda, so don't hate on your installer. He did it right. Still the surface is not level. You can deal with that in December or wait until next June. The grass either needs to be completely dormant or growing like crazy. Your soil is not likely to be compacted. You can drive bulldozers over it all day long and it will not compact...unless the soil is saturated with water first. If the soil was saturated and then mechanically compressed, that would cause the particles of soil to squeeze the air out and that is the definition of compacted soil. Bricks are made of compacted clay. Adobe is made of compacted silt and sand. Almost no yards are truly compacted. However, many (MANY) yards are hard from a lack of adequate biology. New yards are especially prone to this because they don't get watered, fertilized with organics, and don't have a history of grass growing in them. Here's how to fix yours fast. ...and when I say fast, I mean in 3 weeks. Spray it with shampoo. Shampoo is a surfactant that will allow moisture to penetrate much deeper into the soil. When that happens the microbes in the soil have a more hospitable environment (cooler and moister) in which to thrive. It is the microbes that soften the soil for you. The shampoo application rate is 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet. If you have 3,000 square feet, put 9 ounces into a hose end sprayer, fill it with water, and try to spray it evenly until the sprayer bottle is empty. You can repeat this as often as you want to, but wait for 3 weeks before you decide to repeat. Before you spray it test the soil by pushing a screw driver into it. Do that before you water and after. Then spray the yard and apply a full 1/2 to 1 inch of water all at one time. You'll have to time how long to leave the sprinkler on yourself. Do that by placing cat food or tuna cans around the yard and time how long it takes to fill them. I can tell by looking at your (dry) yard that 25 minutes is not nearly long enough. Mine takes 8 hours with turbo oscillator sprinklers on a 3/4-inch hose. That time to water 1 inch is the time you should reset your sprinklers for. Once you know that number, reset the timer and set it to water only one day per week. Bermuda in Fresno should be able to handle one day a week watering easily. I just visited a St Augustine lawn in Phoenix that only gets water once a week, so you can do it with bermuda. When the soil is right it will be very soft when moist and very firm when dry. The shampoo treatment is a replacement for aerating. You won't have to aerate ever again. Use a clear shampoo like baby shampoo. Don't use one with conditioners in it. Cheapo shampoo is fine. Generally you are correct to use the highest nitrogen number you can get easily with zeros for the other numbers. You might want to spend $25 for a soil test at Logan Labs to see if you need P or K in your fertilizer. If you do that, post your results here on this forum. Morpheuspa will read it for you and tell you how much of anything you need to apply, when to apply, and where to buy it. In addition to monthly feeding with high N, I would urge you to add at least one app per year of any organic fertilizer. The organic fertilizers feed the soil microbes so that they can help you take care of the grass. For example they keep the soil from getting hard. They also feed the grass, and there are other benefits. You can apply organics at the same time you use chemical ferts, or any other day of the year. Have you tried mowing down to 1/2-inch and letting it come back up to 3/4? Do you actually hit the ground when you mow lower than 1 inch or does it just scalp off all the green and leave brown stems? Brown stems are normal until you get it down to the 1/2-inch range. If you mow it 3x per week at 1/2-inch it will start to grow horizontally like you see on putting greens at the golf course. That's often the objective for serious bermuda growers.
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patdagardenguy
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
1. Grows anywhere, prefers water and sun, more dense and hardy there. But will grow in shade, just more lanky.
2. Probably because you aren't spraying roundup.
3. Goes dormant in the winter.
4. NO, absolutely will not get rid of Bermuda. The only way to get rid of it in my experience is to completely dig it out. There are a ton of roots to the stuff. You can't spray enough roundup on it to kill it long term. The foliage will die for awhile, but there isn't enough foliage to absorb enough roundup to kill all the roots, in my opinion and experience. If you plant other plants before eradicating, the bermuda will find a home in your new plants root system and then you'll never be able to get rid of it fully.
6. The best option is to dig out. I've spent hours/weeks getting it out. It is hard work. Amazing how many roots it has. If you leave any, it grows back from the parts of roots you left. I would start with that and then spray any stragglers. But, its not a one time thing, its a process of following up with the stuff you missed.
cebury
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
If you need another (of the same) opinion, I agree with the last posters.

I was able to keep it mostly under control in a 100% shade area under a large tree, after I dug up 6-12 inches to destroy the roots.

My neighbor and I eventually gave up and went for the bermuda grass look in our yards.

It's amazing how a huge stubborn clump will grow from the smallest tad of dirt in the concrete or asphalt.

If it's really a new threat, you may not be in the worst possible situation. Dig out a section as deep as possible to see how far down the roots actually are.
deneciepie
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I have had pretty fair results with using RoundUp as a spray as long as the weather is warm and the stuff is actively growing. Then use your mulches/barriers as you like. Follow up any new growth with about a 1 to four ratio (way stronger than recommended) of roundup and water applied with a small brush to the bermuda only. As long as you are diligent to get the new growth as it appears it will only pop up a few times before giving up the ghost. You must remain vigilant since it can blow in as seeds from the neighbors. It is a never-ending problem.
nil13
14 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
When we plant "meadow/prairie" areas with Bermuda grass, we make sure to complete at least 2 grow kill cycles to prepare the soil. That involves making sure that everything is actively growing and spraying Roundup and spreading a pre-emergent. Bermuda grass produces an enormous amount of seeds if allowed to set. We let all that die and let a new round of weeds come up followed by another round of Roundup and pre-emergent. That is about all most people are willing to endure, although if I had my way I would complete another round. Each round takes about 3 weeks. Then we go in with native grass plugs leaving the ground untilled. If you till the area you will just expose more weed seeds. After about 6 months, the grass will be filling in nicely and you can heavily sow the wildflower seeds. There may be some bermuda grass that survives, but it is controllable by either roundup or digging it out. Just be careful with the spray. With these types of gardens, site preparation is incredibly important if you want to increase your chance of success.

bermuda grass

Comments (6)

hosenemesis

sautesmom Sacramento

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