What is best time to plant Bermuda plugs?

Bermuda, St. Augustine, Zoysia, Centipede, Bahia, Paspalum, etc
Post Reply
User avatar
lbeck
Posts: 25
Joined: September 29th, 2010, 10:42 am
Location: Hillsborough, NC
Grass Type: Mixed Bermuda & Fescue
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

What is best time to plant Bermuda plugs?

Post by lbeck » December 18th, 2017, 1:25 am

I have a fescue lawn being taken over by bermuda. The Fescue is not very hardy and I want to plug Bermuda in the difficult and bald areas - mostly due to trees (shady) and poor soil. The Bermuda is doing better than fescue.

Rather than fight the bermuda, I want to join in its fight against the Fescue. When is the best time to plug? I have a plugger tool where I can lift Bermuda plugs and place them in the bald or poorly performing fescue areas.

User avatar
Dchall_San_Antonio
Posts: 3339
Joined: December 17th, 2008, 1:53 am
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Grass Type: St Augustine
Lawn Size: 5000-10000
Level: Advanced

Re: What is best time to plant Bermuda plugs?

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » January 25th, 2018, 10:56 am

Simple answer is to plug it in the heat of summer when the bermuda is growing fastest. Any deviation from that timing is less perfect, but not disqualifying. Bermuda is bermuda and will take hold and spread. So if the summer is best, then any other time is not that terribly bad. Even dormant bermuda plugs will awaken in the spring.

If you have any shade, the bermuda will not do well there. Fescue would still be a better choice for those areas.

If you plug bermuda into fescue you will have a weedy looking lawn until the last fescue plant dies. Some of those weedier fescues can last a good long time. One way you fight the fescue is to withhold water and mow low. Those are perfect for bermuda, but even the bermuda will not look good under restricted water. This is to say you might want to kill off everything before putting in the bermuda.

The bermuda that is invading is likely to be common bermuda. If you want to wait until June you can seed with more common bermuda, or a mix of bermuda seeds with varying cold tolerance and color appearance. Wait until June because bermuda seed will not sprout until the soil is warm enough. Seeding now, even though the shelves are FULL of bermuda seed, will give you a good 5 months of frustration until the soil warms. Now is a good time to buy bermuda seed, but not a good time to plant it. Sodded bermuda is a different plant and looks different enough that you might not like the mix, so stay with common. Only common varieties come as seed.

Why is your fescue not doing well? Is it heat related? Disease? Lack of water? Wear and tear? Something else?

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests