You may not be mowing short enough for it to grow horizontally. That's the lesser of the 2 issues. The main concern is the lack of color. Where are you located and is that Bermuda in your neighbor's yard? Depending on where you are, end of march may have been a tad early to put out fertilizer. It's June and by now you should have fertilized at least two more times but not with the same 15-5-10 fertilizer. Look for something with more nitrogen (first number around 30) and iron. I remember getting my Bermuda sod laid in my backyard and I asked the guy who did the install why my lawn didn't look like one of my neighbors who had a very nice lawn at the time. He looked at mine and looked at his and told me my neighbor used a lot more fertilizer then I did. Your grass looks as if it's weed free but definitely lacking fertilizer.

By watering 6 inches, I can only assume you mean to a depth of 6 inches and not 6 inches of water. If so, that should be fine.

Change the entire regimen. These are in order of importance and pertain directly to bermuda.

Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall.

Mowing: Mow at the mower's lowest setting once or twice a week. If the mower scalps it, take not of the places where it scalps. Scalping is caused by holes in the lawn where the mower wheels fall down. You will want to fill in the holes with sand to bring them up to the grade of the rest of the lawn. If you do that by hand, only use a little sand every week.

Fertilizing: Fertilize as often as you can afford with a very high N fertilizer. Something like a 48-0-0 applied once a month is perfect for bermuda. I would supplement the chemical fertilizer with an organic fertilizer at least once a year. I like alfalfa pellets, soybean meal, corn gluten meal, or whatever you can find in a 50-pound bag at your local feed store. Milorganite works, too. Application rate is 15 pounds per 1,000 square feet.

I realize you are frustrated with your lawn, but there are a lot of people who would kill to have theirs look as nice as yours does. Also it is rare for a builder to put down common bermuda sod. The reasons is that the sod farmers only grow the improved varieties of bermuda. It is more likely to be Tif 419. Tif 419 is the "common" grade of bermuda grass used by builders. It also happens to be an excellent quality of grass - easy to grow. Yours looks good except for the color. Changing the watering, mowing, and fertilizer (all 3) should fix it.

The problem with high amounts of nitrogen, is that it causes excessive growth and extra mowing. Its better to apply an organic fertilizer with iron ( like 'Milorganite') .....you get good color without all the surge growth.

I live in Houston and we have had a lot of rain in the past few weeks so I doubt a lack of water is the problem.

Yes that's bermuda in my neighbors lawn. He just recently put down Scott's Green Max and it helped a ton; I'll try that. His grass by appearance grows horizontally but he cuts with a rotary and not sure how low he goes. If I cut even lower (1 inch), my rotary --which is sharp -- will jam frequently and I'll scalp. I already scalp at 1.5 inches! Having uneven spots doesn't help. Thanks

It'll get there, the grass doesn't have real roots yet so your job this year is just to keep it at a reasonable height & keep it healthy. I would bump the mower up a notch if you're not happy with the color, get more leaf area. Sulfur & iron will green it up as others suggested, but a good organic feeding is also a good idea. Next year you can scalp it down to the dirt & get horizontal growth. If you do it this year, success is not likely as it will grow back patchy & uneven with lots of dead spots.

I'm in cypress, just NW of Houston. The green max is a good product, it'll definitely cause some surge growth but nothing too drastic--Give it a shot. Scalping is a way of life with bermuda! Levelling helps a lot though, then you only have to scalp once a year on purpose... The neighbor looks green, but a bit tall for my taste. That works the first year but will cause it to thin out after that. If you're not already doing so, you should be bagging the clip not mulching. Mulch mowing a new Bermuda lawn on our tight Houston soils is a recipe for thatch. Once you have a good herd of earthworms & bacteria to break it down in a few years, it becomes a matter of preference but I hate all that Brown gunk it leaves behind. The dog is always bringing clippings in the house too

I need to buy an attachment to catch the clippings on my Fiskars then. The clippings can concentrate on my lawn in one area from rain water flowing out of my yard. That sounds like a good plan. I'll baby the grass the first year and make sure it's well maintained. I'll try to get the sucker growing sideways next year, lol.

Hey dchall. Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely water, fertilize and level. I am hesitant to go any lower than 1.5 right now because even at 1.5 I scalp. I was hoping after 2-3 months of scalping at 1.5, the grass would grow some green leaf back but it hasn't. Maybe it'll change with more ferttilizer. The biggest thing tho, is that it's going to be a heck of a lot of work mowing any lower. Here's what'll happen if I mow any lower, lol:

At 1 inch I'll hit an uneven spot, and the mower will jam and I lose all momentum. I have to take a few steps back, and push through it like a linebacker. Repeat every 5 feet or so. I don't know how y'all have the strength to scalp a lawn with a reel, no joke.

Our reels are gas powered brother. I used the fiskars my first 2 years & you're right, it definitely burns some calories! I have a gas powered McClane reel if you're interested in making the jump. I really only use my rotary

How much do those cost? The Fiskars is already $200 msrp but I bought I used.

I scalp with my rotary. I use a push, 7 blade reel that I can push fairly evenly. I couldn't imagine scalping with it. The rotary is to scalp and to cut my grass low if I'm out of town and I miss a cut or two. I bought the cheapest rotary with a bag I could find on craigslist.

I haven't used Scott green max but it appears to have good reviews outside the threat of staining concrete. I would use some sort of synthetic with iron to give your yard a quick boost and green up and then maintain with milorganite. That is pretty much my strategy.

McLane was close to 800 shipped but I got my use out of it. Heck a good rotary is over 400. You can spend several thousand on a trucut, California trimmer or Allett. Used greensmowers online run around 1000. Welcome to the big leagues!

For what it's worth, I've noticed they have changed the Scott's Green Max, if you want to use it. I used it as my first feeding for the year. Instead of it being orange and staining concrete, it's now white, and doesn't stain anymore.

I live in Houston and we have had a lot of rain in the past few weeks so I doubt a lack of water is the problem.

Lack of water is not what I was saying. Too much water was my point. Too frequent irrigation will wash nutrients through. If you have had lots of rain and are still watering once a week, you're watering waaaaay too much. In Bandera we don't get that much rain and I've only watered twice this year. We got an inch two weekends ago and 1/2 inch this weekend. Unless we get some really dry air and wind, I should not have to water the rest of this month.

I leave my sprinkler turned off and manually turn it on once a week. Water costs too much for me to water after heavy showers lol.

I bought Vigoro Super Green and fertilized this morning. My spreader was clogged and I didn't realize it until halfway through fertilizing. I still have half a bag left (supposed to use the whole bag for my 5k sqft lawn) and so I'll probably go back and spread the rest on the lowest setting I have. Fail.

I'll post pics when it greens up.

Once a week is too often to water unless you have temps in the 90s.

Here's how my grass is looking after putting down Vigoro Super Green. I'm color blind so not confident if it's green or light brown. I'll post more progress pics at the end of the week.

On a side note. I have an area of lawn that's shaded maybe 90% of the day and now there's some small patches dying. It doesn't help that water prefers to flow out towards that side and grass clippings concentrate there blocking even more sun. I'll tackle that after my grass looks good.

Man it's been a long time since I saw the cheetah spots & chop ridges from a manual push reel mower...bringing back memories! Grass looks good, it's coming in well

Bermuda needs 6 hours of unfiltered sun to thrive. When you start subtracting sunlight from 6, it will thin out. Below 4 hours you pretty much have no chance for bermuda. St Augustine would be the only grass choice for that area.

Reeljake, lol @ chop ridges. To get a more consistent cut with my reel and reduce chop ridges, I cut it twice making the 2nd cut perpindicular to the 1st. I can cut, edge, and blow the clippings in about an hour so not too bad.

Are you saying that most push reel mowers give those wavy cuts?! I'm doomed. I thought it was because mine has a one or two dull blades...but then again I just sharpened it in March. I put extra effort to mow perpeninduclar in the front only lol.

The bermuda on the side of my house does not get 4 hours of sun. It's destined to die :(

I'll probably buy a bunch of pebble rocks to cover that area once it's all dead. Will post pics in another week.

From what I can tell, I get waviness in 2 situations: where parts of my lawn appear to be unlevel. I can't tell it by looking at it, but the back of the reel will bounce when cutting. I usually see "big waves" when that happens. The smaller waves I see in your picture are a result of the blades not turning fast enough. I normally get that when my grass is too tall aka I went too long between cuts. If I can make out the individual reel blades when I'm cutting then they're not turning fast enough.

I also see you have a fiskars which probably has 5 blades. It is my understanding you'll have much better luck using a 7 blade mower. That's what I use and as long as I cut a couple times a week, it's not bad.

Yeah, 5 blades is what causes that choppiness, a powered reel or more blades is the only solution. I suppose you could try putting a faster (lower) gear on the fiskars but probably not worth the cost. I've been really happy with my 7 blade McLane push reel, but only use it on a small part of the lawn--No chop or ridges at all. My powered 7 blade McLane hasn't been used in a few years, so it's going to a new home

Reeljake, tell me more about your McLane push reel. How do you like it, how does it compare to a 7 blade great states, can you sharpen it yourself, how low can you cut with it? I've seen pictures and it looks a lot heavier then the great states. I'm interested to see how you think it compares.

I've never tried the great states, but the McLane goes down to about 1/4". You can backlap it, but I've never had to. Very easy to push, but the handle is different than most. It is very heavy

Reeljake, where did you get it from and do you see "chop ridges" with it? I like my great states and overall it does a fair job. The McLane just looks like a step up based off of how sturdy it appears to be.

No choppiness at all with the 7 blade push McLane, it has enough blades & a low enough gear to prevent that. It came straight from McLane mfg. in California, about $300 plus shipping. The 10 blade or the push greensmowers are even higher up in quality, as well as price of course.

So I fertilized with Vigoro Super Green and my grass has greened up nicely. Watering to 1 inch and depth of 6 inches. I check with builder again and I have common Bermuda. I guess they went the cheap route and found cheap ass common Bermuda sod.

I mowed my backyard at 2 inches and the reel mower always gets snagged at the brown spots you see in the pic..feels like I scalp it. I know I spreader fertilizer evenly because I did 2 passes at opposite directions. I yanked out a grass stem from a brown spots and a green spot to compare. They both look even in height (so is that technically not a scalp in the brown areas?) however the left one obviously has a lot more green leaf.

1st pic - front lawn 2 inches. Notice that the grass isn't dense. You seem some bare spots.

2nd pic - front lawn 1.5 inches. Cleaner and more level however shows more brown stem.

3rd pic - back lawn. Notice the brown spots. That's always a rough spot for my mower and it feels like I scalp...but look at the 4th pic.

4th pic - comparison of grass from green and brown area in back lawn. Same height yet in obviously has much more brown stem than the other. I compared a few more strands of grass and they are about the same height in both areas.

I can keep fertilizing monthly and watering deeply so maybe the front lawn will grow denser with time.

What's up with my backyard tho? Brown areas vs green areas. Those spots are always brown. Not much green leaf in those areas usually.

Read the thread. I'm seeing great improvement. Vigoro I read is a great product. I've seen it at the boxes stores.

Because of your uneven yard and choppiness of current cuts as well as scalped areas, I would recommend a reel with a front roller. Mowing at 1.5 or 2 inches with a front throw reel with a roller and I'd bet it's impossible to scalp. Unless u have mini volcanos in your yard , it just can't happen. I personally do not like fiskars. I've had success with great states which has a lightweight roller trailing it ....and I've had success cutting with my heavier Mclane push which has a front roller And I'm adding power reel to my repertoire thanks to reel Jake.

Eventually you would want to level. Dchall has written some great info on leveling on other threads. I've attempted it myself and made an improvement in my lawn. On my lawn all my main areas I could take any reel to its lowest and should be fine.

I'll look into getting a better reel mower next year. The Fiskars got some great reviews but I guess it's no good for Bermuda especially because of the choppy cut.

Is it ok to scalp the section of grass at this time?

Of course, you can scalp Bermuda any time the weather is hot & sunny for an extended period of time. It takes a few weeks to come back bright & beautiful. It's a big sweaty job though.

It's not that the fiskars is no good, it's just not the best reel for Bermuda because of its big heavy 5 blade design. A 7 blade great states or McLane is a better Bermuda mower