Q1. Should I put down any type of weed preventer with the sod being so new A1. Not at this point since it was laid dormant. You will have to put up with some weeds this year, but if you mow,water, and fertilize properly you should be OK. Just get aggressive with hand pulling for now. Q2. When should i do my first fertilize treatment and with what A2. This is a bit hard to answer since you did not mention whether or not a starter fertilizer was used or not with good amounts of P & K. I will assume you did not so with that said as a professional I would recommend the first application be with a balanced slow release urea formulation with either a 3-1-2 or 4-1-2 ration (ie. 15-5 -10 or 20-5-10) Lesco makes excellent fertilizers. After that and every month after up till a month before the first frost use a straight slow release nitrogen urea like 39-0-0. Oh yeah wait until the grass is about 50 to 75% green before first application. Q3. I had the lawn rolled after the install, but it still seems not to be as smooth as i want, is this just because of the age of the new sod and will it smooth itself out, or should it smooth more with sand of some sort before spring hits? A3. Wait until the grass is rooted, fully greened up, and growing vigorously. Then you can top-dress with sand, good top soil, or a pro mix of 50/50 sand and peat. What ever you use, just do not smoother the grass, leave some green showing, and apply incrementally to get level. If you have the means build a 4x4 frame with lumber and stretch some chain link fence on it and use to screed the soil smooth and level. If it is a really small area just use the back side of a yard rake. Q4. My yard is rather small, so what type of reel mower should i purchase so i can keep the yard as short as possible? A4. You are on your own here and it depends on budget and how much elbow grease you want to put into it. You want to keep Tifway-I between ½ to ¾ of an inch. For powered reel mowers there is McClain and Tru-Cut. Push types look at ScottÂs. Q5. Any other suggestions for a newbie with tifway? I have done some searching on this forum for some tips already. Use quality slow release urea fertilizers every 45 days (Lesco makes the best) or you can go the organic route if you wish and do not mind the extra expense and time it takes to convert. I do not suggest going organic yet or sudden switch, but something to think about, keep it watered and mowed properly. Come fall we can talk about pre-emergence for fall and spring apps.

I just ordered a manual reel mower (Great States 16 inch 7-Blade, which is apparently the best manual mower for Bermuda, and better than the Brill and Sunlawns for Bermuda). I though about getting a gas powered reel mower, but decided again it because by lawn has a lot of curves and turns and thought that a manual reel would be easier to maneuvier. I plan on scalping with my gas powered rotary at lowest setting, and then use the new reel mower to further cut it down to 0.5 inches (and keep mowing it at that height at least 2x per week, if possible - which will be a big change from 3 inches last year). My lawn is also a little bumpy in some areas, and I plan on leveling with sand (type unknown) in June.

I'm in California and a lot of people don't actually use bermuda all that quite often. When I bought the sod, I double checked to see if it was labeled tifway 419. The one I just laid, was still semi-dormant so I gave it couple weeks to settle in. Now that it's fully growing, I can tell the difference between both areas of grass. The darker green bermuda has definitely finer blades and no signs of seed heads while the one I laid just recently has coarser blades and I already began to see few seed heads popping up. I'm not sure if doing a pollen test with the seed heads prove anything yet...

I think it has been a slow spring to warm. Once you get over night temps in the high 60's/70's, it will take off. You should get a soil test if you didn't before. Maybe it's lacking one of the important elements or the pH is off.