Ridding weeds from shade tolerant Bermuda lawn

8 years ago

i have a sodded lawn. It was sodded about 4-5 years ago with "shade tolerant Bermuda (cant remember exact name I'm sure someone can help me maybe tifgrand 419?) . About 12-15000 SF. It is in pretty good shape but I'm still not completely satisfied. The end of last growing season I put down a pre emergent (halts) for winter weeds. Didn't really help at all. Or at least I still had plenty of weeds. In mid February I put it down again for summer weeds. I think it did help quite a bit this summer. However, I still have weeds. One section of my yard is pretty shaded and has weeds mixed all in and I can except that i guess. Most of the sunny part of my yard is weed mostly weed free. Except for about a 200 SF area near a retaining wall. This area gets plenty of sun. I put plenty of pre emergent in this area because it was a problem area last year. Not sure what to do. I will try and post a picture of the weeded area. Please advise.

Ps. I live in middle Georgia, and I fertilize regularly.

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Comments (2)

dchall_san_antonio
8 years ago
I suspect the idea that Tifgrand is shade tolerant is a lot of marketing BS, but you're the first I've read from someone who actually installed it. Weeds would be expected in a normal bermuda lawn in the shade, so that sounds like what you're getting.

By fertilize regularly are you saying you use a high N fertilizer every month? That would be normal for bermuda if you want it to look good.

How high/low are you mowing? Bermuda will become the most dense (to keep weeds out) when mowed low. It thins out when it gets up above 1.5 inches.

Are you watering once a week? When you water more frequently you are encouraging weed seeds to sprout and take root. If you let the soil surface dry out for several days and even get really warm, that usually keeps the weeds out. Of course sometimes Mother Nature will send rain that you can't control.

If you're doing all the above, then the problem in the shade almost has to be the grass itself not being all that shade tolerant. There is a zoysia variety called Shadow Turf that sort of looks like hybrid bermuda and will tolerate deep shade. You might look into Diamond zoysia. Supposedly it is shade tolerant and is likely more available in your area. St Augustine does not look anything like bermuda but it would likely grow dense enough to keep weeds out in the shade. Or you might decide to change to a different kind of ground cover altogether.
t_d_harvey
8 years ago
I have installed 2 pallets of Tifgrand under a cedar tree and in another area near my patio on the north side of the house that does not get full sun. It is about 2 years old now and under the tree it is doing decent. Lost some of the sod during installation and parts of it has recovered nicely. Some areas are dead and have yet to come back. The areas that did take well are doing fine and have yet to show tinning.

The area near the patio is doing great and it does get more sun than the area under the tree. It is starting to fill in areas around it that I did not install the sod. What I do to help maintain the fullness of the sod is cutting it a .5 or so above what I maintain the rest of my Bermuda lawn. It has seemed to do pretty well considering the lack of full sun. Giving what it is, I have no complaints, but I understand that I cannot expect a lot trying to grow it in shaded areas as well.

I do not have major problems with weeds in any of the areas...
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Comments (2)

dchall_san_antonio

t_d_harvey

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