Welcome to TLF! Glad to have you here. :thumbup:

If you haven't yet, you'll want to read through the Bermuda Bible: The New Testament which will give a new bermuda lawn owner a great head start on how best to maintain and care for your new lawn. Once you read through that thread, The Bermuda Triangle will help you get some insight into the bare minimum of herbicides that you'll find easiest to treat most of the common weeds that you'll face in your lawn.

I've got to stress to you how important getting your preemergent (PreM) treatment down in the Fall and Spring are in order to have as weed-free a lawn as you can get. This practice, along with proper mowing are going to be some of the best practices that you can give yourself and your lawn and give you the edge over 90% of the neighbor's yards.

I didn't put a PreM down on my renovation last year, because I wanted to go herbicide-free for the first 2 seasons, but if I had to do it over again, I'd definitely use PreM at the minimum. That's what I would suggest for you this year. You can go with Prodiamine, or Dithiopyr, or whatever your main weed problem would be during the summer and winter. If you can identify those main weeds that will give you trouble, it'll help you decide which one will work for you. For example, my main issue that I had in my yard was goose grass in summer, and poa annua in winter. I'm still trying to decide on whether I'm going to stick with prodiamine for the winter to hold back the poa, but with the amount that I had, I think I might try something else. However anything is going to be better than nothing at this point.

Feel free to check my journal to see the application rate for the GCF products that I'm using (I've got them all), and use that for reference.

 

Thanks @Colonel K0rn !

I've got Prodiamine already, so I will use that I suppose.

What rate per 1000 do you use in the fall, and and what point in the season? Will it hurt my young grass?

 

Thanks Colonel K0rn !

I've got Prodiamine already, so I will use that I suppose.

What rate per 1000 do you use in the fall, and and what point in the season? Will it hurt my young grass?

You'll want to check your soil temperatures around the 2" depth and when it reaches 70° and declining. September 15th is probably a good date, to apply; that's what I'll be shooting for.

To make it easy, you could do a split application, which would basically be half the rate of a 6 month rate. You can apply between 1-2.3#/acre on bermuda per application. Since this is basically the first winter I'll be using PreM, I'll be putting down 1#/A on September 15th, then doing another application at a later date (more than likely mid November)with a different PreM since I have a poa problem.

 

Thanks man! Much appreciated!

Day 2 update:
Ants are trying to mound up with my seed. May need to put out insecticide to allow this to go without them screwing it up.

Put out 3/4 of bag of Milorganite today - why not right? Also put down Humic12 at 6oz/1000.

 

July 27 2018 - 4 Days After Seeding

Not much to show on the picture side of things. I've been watering at 6am - 10am - 2pm - 6pm and then I turn the water off for the day and set the timer again in the morning before work.

The ground is staying moist but not soaked, so I think everything is going great on that side of things. It's been warm here - 80s up to 90 during the day, and upper 60s at night. So again, optimal temperatures for germination.

No storms since I seeded, which is fine with me. I'd rather the seed have a chance to germinate and not deal with storms washing seed away or anything like that.

And as far as the ant situation goes.. I did a blanket spray of Talstar P (2 days after seeding), and I haven't seen any more mounds of seed trying to form. Hopefully that helped that situation.

I am hoping to get visible results by the beginning of this next week. I think everything has worked in my favor (for the things I can't control).

I will be applying RGS this weekend, and I will really be doing everything I can to get the Bermuda established before Winter. If we have another Winter like this past year, then who knows how much will survive (being such young turf).

 

It's been now 1 week since seeding. I'm starting to get very good germination. They are small but in very high numbers across the entire plot. Took a couple pictures of how they look. I expect in the next week, I look forward to the results!

Having a moss problem in the higher shaded areas. Hopefully the grass will take over that. I may need to limit any water to that area for a couple days? Or maybe something to spray on it?

I've applied lime a month ago because of 5.5ph. So don't really wanna add any more lime.

 

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_txKTBVbJKk[/media]

 

It's been now 1 week since seeding. I'm starting to get very good germination. They are small but in very high numbers across the entire plot. Took a couple pictures of how they look. I expect in the next week, I look forward to the results!

Having a moss problem in the higher shaded areas. Hopefully the grass will take over that. I may need to limit any water to that area for a couple days? Or maybe something to spray on it?

I've applied lime a month ago because of 5.5ph. So don't really wanna add any more lime.

I wouldn't worry too much about the moss. I had it crop up in spots when I seeded but once I cut back the watering after germination it died off fairly quickly.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about the moss. I had it crop up in spots when I seeded but once I cut back the watering after germination it died off fairly quickly.

We had some good rain earlier this week and I feel like it actually helped some. I noticed it had lost some of the "green" on the dirt.

Also, not sure if it's just the nature of seeding.. I feel like 85% of area is coming in pretty good, and then there are some areas where it's not nearly as full as the rest. We didn't have any downpours to wash it away.. maybe some just didn't germinate or maybe the water wasn't reaching that area enough - cause it does seem to be more towards the edges.

 

That's how mine was as well. I also had to deal with a tropical storm shortly after I seeded. I ended up reseeding a few areas that got washed away. Don't sweat it too much though, its only been about a week. Start fertilizing it after the first mow and fertilize hard and it will spread very quickly. I didn't seed within about 4 feet of the road and its already grown all the way to the road in the 3 months since I planted.

 

Day 12 Update. I've changed my watering to every 2 hours and for half the time vs every 4 hours. Gonna see how this works out to keep ground at a more even moisture content vs wet and then drying out and then wet, etc.

Of course the last week has been more overcast and mild than sunny and hot.

Here is some of the growth. I'm picking out weeds left and right. The weeds are loving the fertilizer. Thankfully the ground is not dry and I can pull them with little effort, root and all.

Some areas are really good and some don't have much growth at all. I thought I seeded very evenly and made multiple passes. May just be the nature of the beast 12 days in? Some seed can take that long to germinate?

 

Looks like it's coming along nicely. You've got enough germination to have a good grow-in. Moving forward, it wouldn't be a bad idea to spray the area with Celsius 6 weeks after germination. That should knock out most of the weeds that are competing. If I had to do my yard over again, I would have sprayed glyphosate 2x and then seeded, killing off most of the weeds that were going to compete with the grass.

With a pH of 5.5 get used to applying lime, you're going to need a lot of it. My yard started at that point, and I've probably put several hundred pounds down over the past year.

Keep the seedlings moist, if it dries out, it dies out. Plan to do a PreM application when the soil temps get near 70°F.

 

I was recommended to apply Ammonium Sulfate to the Bermuda, but would this not cause the Ph to drop? Or would you apply so little that it wouldn't? @Colonel K0rn

And I did glyphosate 3 times! Lol. Still have weeds try and come up. All the water and fertilizer bringing them up. Next time I may push the weeds to grow in between rounds of glyphosate.

Here is a wide picture, where you can see the green showing from a distance now.

 

The amount of AS needed to cause a meaningful drop in pH is huge. Using it as fertilizer shouldn't cause issues.

 

@Crabbychas Do you have recommendations on where to buy it? I looked on Lowe's and nothing came up. Will it be a specialty, like go to a Coop or something ?

 

Your best bet to find AS is either a SiteOne or a Co-Op/Feed & Seed store. I lucked out and have a F&S store that has water soluble urea for $18/50# bag. It's super easy to apply with my sprayer. I've been spoon-feeding my yard 0.25#/N the past few months, and I'm pretty sure it's made the growth a lot more consistent, as the lawn has a constant supply of food, and there's not a flush of top-growth when the fertilizer is applied.

Oh, and if you still have a problem with ants, pick up some Bifenthrin or Imidacloprid, and it'll take care of them. Bifenthrin is inexpensive.

 

Today makes 2 weeks since I seeded the Riviera Bermuda. Some areas have taken very well and others not so much. Not sure what happened. I spread seed evenly and had no downpours for the first week.

I put out a low dose of RGS yesterday and put out 1 lb. of Ammonium Nitrate today. Equivalent of about .2 lb of nitrogen. Matt from TGF suggested I spoon feed weekly of low doses of N.

Still pulling weeds. A lot of spurge it seems.

Here are a couple broad pictures.





I'm waiting a couple more weeks before I spray any weed killer. And not sure if I'll put out a pre-m this fall. On the fence whether or not it's a good idea. Luckily with 1000 sq ft, I can pick em out.

But if the Bermuda doesn't fill in the bare areas, weeds will take over.

I may end up seeding an annual rye grass in the bare areas if I have to - just for keeping the mud down during the winter.

 

I've noticed some young germination coming up. Maybe something happens and I'll get a little more to fill in the lesser areas. Here's an update. Good growth since yesterday.

 

Took these tonight. This stuff is growing insanely fast now. Me like

 

Posted a video on Day 16 Update.

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEU8BtPIIWE[/media]

Won't be doing anything special till Monday/Tuesday of next week. Do another light dose of nitrogen, RGS, and MicroGreene.

 

What a difference 3 days makes. Top is Monday afternoon (14 days) and bottom is today (17 days).

 

Top is Tuesday. Bottom is Today. About 4 days.

 

The grass is noticeably getting darker. In picture above, it looks lighter than the weed/grass to the left. Today you can clearly see that its much darker. Part could be because I cut the grass yesterday (both the new bermuda and the other).. but even way back 150ft away I could tell a big difference.

For those who may read this.. I'm looking for just a little bit of extra Riviera Bermuda Seed. I'd like to throw out a little more seed in the areas that haven't taken well. I'm gonna rake up any obstruction and seed again if I can find some.

I don't want to buy another 2lb jug for $40-$50 after shipping. But if someone has just a small amount to spare, I could purchase that?

 

Did you try posting in the marketplace section of the forum? You might get a wider/different audience there.

 

Grass getting darker. More dense. Still got bare areas that I've got to remedy very quickly. Thanks to another TLF member, I'll have a little extra Riviera Bermuda seed to put out over that area.

Still hand picking weeds. Easy to do over 1000 sq ft. Gonna try and not use herbicides till maybe sometime in September.

I'll be putting out RGS and MicroGreene tomorrow at the low low rates. Already done my Ammonium Sulfate for the week.

Thanks to @thegrassfactor for his recommendations on fertilizing and incorporating GCF into the plan.