Spring Hail Mary 2019

[s_jager44]

Ok, I'm interested in taking the labor intensive path to growing nice quality grass from seed starting with a 3700sqft yard(2 parts front and back) that's currently full of chickweed,a bit of broadleaf and a few other different types of weeds. doesn't seem to be too much grassy weed but I do have a minimal amount of Bermuda left. I'd post some pics but I cant figure out how to get it to work yet...

I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get some nice grass going. I guess my first question is what strain of Bermuda would you guys recommend for Abilene, Tx(100+ summers). What seed banks are best to purchase from? So far I have my eye set on princess 77, I just want nice fairly thick grass that can stay green throughout our consistently 90+ degree summers.


This was kind of a last minute decision so at this point I've really only done some research, sprayed my first round of 2-4d (been a fairly cold winter here) and have soil samples at Logan labs being analyzed as i type this. From here I plan to hit the yard with another round of 2-4d once it warms up a bit over the next few days, pulling as many weeds as i can by hand then scalping and bagging once everything has seemed to burn up and die off. If i plan to seed about the first week of April or last week of March (it warms up fast here). Can i hit the yard with some tenacity to maybe help with new weeds now and then again at seed time? Depending on the results of my soil test(all I know so far is that its high) ill either add top soil or just make amendments and either rake and clear the rest of the weeds? or just aerate then put seed down with some peat moss and straw over the top?


Any and all recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Just here to learn to grow some beautiful grass from scratch. Wanted a puppy but i decided to grow some grass instead.

[andy10917]

You cannot use Tenacity on Bermudagrass - it is sometimes used (partly effectively) to "control" (read: Kill) Bermudagrass.

Wait until Bermuda lawns in your area green-up before seeding Bermuda.

Also, make sure to read up on how long you need to wait to seed after applying any herbicide (including 2,4-D).

[s_jager44]

Update:


At this point I have 10lbs of princess77 in my possession waiting to go. I'm going to do my best to be patient. the Yard was overgrown with weeds when I started around February 15 and looks pretty good and dead now so I'm happy with the start. Unfortunately my first phase of the triangle didn't go exactly as planned. To start I hit the yard with a round of 24d February 15 and planned to hit it again a week later but the weather has been really cold this winter for my area so It was unexpectedly at freezing or just above for close to two weeks. The chemicals seemed to have little affect so I switched to Round Up and planned to hit the yard twice with that. Well I sprayed the Roundup March 1 and that seemed to really kill off a good amount of the broadleaf and chickweed so I waited for it to warm up again and scalped and bagged about March 12th. On March 15th I raked the yard and also dug up some fescue clumps. I'll post some before and after pics ASAP...

[s_jager44]

[s_jager44]

[s_jager44]

[s_jager44]

This is my yard as of yesterday. I'm kind of stuck between just doing another round of roundup or going to more specialized chemicals for the few types of plants that are left. Right now I for sure have a hundred sq ft or so of st Augustine maybe a little Bermuda, ill post pics of the different weeds im going to want to be killing...

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Are you set on growing from seed and not from plugs?

I've heard that's easier for bermuda.