Killing or controlling bermuda grass in KBG/fescue lawn

5 years ago

I'm looking for advice on killing/controlling bermuda grass. Quick history...I'm located in zone 5b, central Indiana. I have a .75 acre lawn in a residential neighborhood with a mix of KBG and fescue. KBG is the predominate grass, but in this area with a lawn that big most lawns have a mix which I do. I do all my own lawn care and I do work to keep a relatively weed free lawn, although with a lawn that big I don't even attempt to have a "perfect" lawn. I just purchased this 18 year old home during the winter of 2017 so I've just had one summer with the lawn. It had sat empty for 2-3 years with minimal lawn care, so last summer my focus was getting it back in shape and I made huge strides in one summer. However...I have one patch near the house, approximately 20' x 50' of bermuda grass. Probably got started as a small patch and quickly began spreading when the lawn wasn't being cared for. Through my research last summer, turflon ester seemed to be the most recommended plan for controlling bermuda. I understand because of it's sprawling root system it can be near impossible to erradicate, so I know I may be up for a few growing seasons of work to get this under control before it continues taking over areas of the lawn. I got a treatment of turflon ester down in September and another in October 2018 and saw some noticeable top growth kill. However it began going dormant shortly after so I'm not sure how successful I was. I also thought I noticed a little damage to KBG from the turflon, but I'm not sure.

Sorry for the long post:) Just thought it would be helpful to get all the info included. My question....does anyone have experience with turflon ester on bermuda grass in a KBG/fescue lawn? Are there any other treatments or combination of treatments I should consider? There is still enough good grass mixed in with the bermuda that I feel knocking it back with turflon every 30 days and letting the other grass become dominant is the best course. But I'm open to any and all advice if you've had a similar experience.

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Comments (4)

dchall_san_antonio
5 years ago
You may have posted this before the lawn crowd awakened for the spring, so I'm bumping it.
lawniac
5 years ago
Triclopyr alone is just not going to do it, it will injure but not kill Bermuda, and the suppression rate is at about 50%. You can get much better results by adding in fluazifop, but with bluegrass that's out of the question. The other problem with trying to control Bermuda in cool season grass is you end up having to spray herbicide in the dead of summer when the grass is already stressed due to the heat, and you can end up killing your cool season grass as well.

At this time the best available option for Bermuda control in cool season grass including KBG/Fescue mixes is Pylex + triclopyr.
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Thanks for your input again. I live in a single family home...very small lot....total grass area is 500 sq ft...400 out front (east - partial sun) with a 2 car driveway...100 out back (west - full sun) with about 4-5 hundred sq ft of concrete patio...plus raised bed and misc planting area around the edge. The lot size is about 4000 sq ft. Most of the new houses around here have similar lot size. The house itself is 2000 sq ft. I just sprayed round-up in the area where there is Bermuda growing. I will wait for a week or two and then start digging the bermuda out. I think digging all 100 sq ft would be quite a bit for me as far as logistics are concerned. Why do you recommend bluegrass over Fescue...It seems like most of people here have fescue. What would be a preminum Blue grass? I don't see that around here in the nursery or big-box stores. Can I use a reel mower with blue grass? Thanks for all the information. I never cared about the lawn until I let go of my yard-person and started tending it myself. I have nutsedge under control and if I can resolve this bermudagrass issue I will be in good shape to tend my lawn and yard. Thanks, Kev
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Joe Williams
Original Author
5 years ago
Thanks for the bump and thanks for the advice. I hadn't checked the forum for a while since I wasn't getting any discussion initially.

Ok, so I did some reading on Pylex. Didn't find a lot of real world info, but did find a few reviews from some pros on another forum. I also came across some discussions of using triclopyr with Acclaim or Tenacity. I had great success with Tenacity at removing nimblewill, but I believe bermuda is only labeled as "sensitive" to Tenacity. I don't know much about Acclaim.

Pylex looks to be around $500 for a few ounces...wow:) But if that's what I got to do I will. I would like to get this in check before the patch continues to grow. I see a usage rate of 1.5oz per acre. For a 20'x50' patch I'm probably looking at a drop or two, lol.
lawniac
5 years ago
I will tell you, even glyphosate takes about 3 apps to kill Bermuda. It's like a tank.

If you decide to go the Pylex route, there's another lawn care forum (not on Houzz) where people do herbicide splits, so you could keep what you need and sell the rest to other lawniacs. Last I checked there was quite a bit of interest for a Pylex split. If you look for some GrassDaddy videos on Youtube you'll find it.

Killing or controlling bermuda grass in KBG/fescue lawn

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dchall_san_antonio

lawniac

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Killing or controlling bermuda grass in KBG/fescue lawn

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dchall_san_antonio

lawniac

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Joe Williams
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