[UNCrph]

Searched the forums and cant find much about Discovery Bermuda. Seems like possibly it's because kind of region specific, but luckily I have a local place that sells it here in southern North Carolina. One of the biggest draws for Discovery is that it is super low maintenance when it comes to mowing, only needing to cut it once every 3-4 weeks. The drawback is it is $200/pallet, while I can get Celebration for $115/pallet.

Granted I know next to nothing about bermuda grass (current yard and only experience is centipede), but what am I missing here? Seems like Discovery has all the advantages of Celebration with less maintenance and more shade tolerance. I plan on getting rid of my centipede, laying sod and buying a reel mower to hopefully start dominating my neighborhood!

 

[Tellycoleman]

Very interesting. It grows so slow I wonder how well it does in divot recovery.
I would find out If you have kids or dogs. Growing slow may be a blessing and a curse.

 

[Redtenchu]

I honestly didn't believe it, but sure enough...

https://robertasgardens.net/pub/media/growing-guides/R52994.pdf

 

[Ecks from Tex]

With discovery, you plant it and discover new things to do with your time. There's some truth in advertising for you

 

[raymond]

With discovery, you plant it and discover new things to do with your time. There's some truth in advertising for you

:lol:

 

[BakerGreenLawnMaker]

With discovery, you plant it and discover new things to do with your time. There's some truth in advertising for you

:nod: :lol: :lol:

 

[Bunnysarefat]

So basically you apply PGR to Discovery every 3 weeks and you mow twice a year? What kind of sorcery is this?

 

[Tellycoleman]

I vote you get it and let us know how it is.

 

[Movingshrub]

So basically you apply PGR to Discovery every 3 weeks and you mow twice a year? What kind of sorcery is this?

I wonder how slow it grows with PGR. Also, curious about damage recovery from kids, pets, and weeds. Could be a game changer for people not wanting to cut bermuda three times a week, sans PGR.

 

[Spammage]

I thought hard about Discovery a few years ago when I put Palisades in the back yard. The shade pretty much forced my hand. One of the articles I read about it indicated that they were struggling with a decline in quality year-to-year and couldn't figure out why.

 

[Tellycoleman]

I thought hard about Discovery a few years ago when I put Palisades in the back yard. The shade pretty much forced my hand. One of the articles I read about it indicated that they were struggling with a decline in quality year-to-year and couldn't figure out why.

I also saw this article and it was solved by using 2 pounds of N per 1000 per month.
With that expense I would want to know someone personally who has it.

 

[tcorbitt20]

I just joined the forum, and thought I'd give my short experience with Discovery Bermuda.



When we moved in, I hated it. No matter what the "lawn guys" did to fertilize it, it wasn't working. I was ready to rip it out and put something else until I asked a friend who owns the sod farm that grew it what he thought. He gave me a list of things to do (aerate, put a bunch of fertilizer - organic and synthetic - and top dress it with sand) and it should turn around. It did!

From talking with him and other guys at the farm, you pretty much can't over fertilize Discovery. I think I've put about 10 lbs of N per 1000/sq ft since May. I love it now!


With all that fertilizer, it does grow. I'm having to cut mine about every two or three days to keep it fairly low. I think the big advantage with slow vertical growth for Discovery is that it doesn't seem to get as tall left unchecked, or maybe past a certain height it really slows down. This was after 8 days of no mowing due to a vacation and rain.

 

[M311att]

Wow! That really does look fantastic. Thanks for posting pics.

 

[Iriasj2009]

@tcorbitt20
Nice lawn! Very interesting, thanks for sharing.

 

[dtillman5]

@tcorbitt20 10 lbs N per K total in just 4 months. Wow! That's a lot of N. But your yard looks great!

 

[tcorbitt20]

Apparently our little neighborhood had several yards that the sod farm convinced the builder to use Discovery instead of 419 (and a couple of other neighborhoods, too). A lot of people haven't been happy with it because all the lawn services treat it just like any other Bermuda, and it doesn't green up well. It takes more Nitrogen early in the spring to really get it going, and it'll take all you want to give it the rest of the summer. It's just a matter of how much you want to cut it. That picture above after 8 days of no mowing was too much grass for my rotary mower to handle. Some of the other Discovery lawns are barely green. It's weird to see. I'll try to get some pictures of them.

 

[jayhawk]

It's would appear the advantage of Bermuda wear/recovery (vigor) is not a discovery attribute.

Have you seen a fine bladed Zoysia ....2lb N a year, grows slow in shaded lawns. Yeah, it's a few more bucks up front but proven

 

[Tellycoleman]

Just a side question. How in the world did you builder get away with slopping your back yard toward your house in the back !! Tell me you have a channel drain in or around your flower bed. Does water get around your foundation?

Ok ok I like your lawn. Can you show up close pictures of the blades? How is your green color compared to 419? Is it lighter or darker? Do you use pgr? And what's your height of cut. I wonder how it would do with spoon feeding liquid nitrogen.

 

[tcorbitt20]

There's a French drain running in the lowest spot of the yard. Water barely even puddles in a big rain. I'll get a close up picture this afternoon since I'm at work at the moment. The color seems about the same to me. I didn't use PGR this year, but I want to next year just to see how thick it'll get. In those pictures, they're about 1.5". I've been cutting lower lately.

 

[tcorbitt20]

You can kind of see where the drain runs here.