Bermuda Grass (rent, Home Depot, buy)

[Jamerican]

The weeds in my Bermuda lawn this year came back with a vengeance. I found a weed killer, but my dilemma is how to reseed my Bermuda grass since a lot of it has also died. Has anyone here ever had to reseed Bermuda before and if so, what type/blebnd of grass seed should I be looking for?

I may have to throw down top soil on the entire lawn for the seeds to have something to hold on to. Any ideas and also, where did you buy your Bermuda grass seeds? I see a number of places online from different brands as well? I know that I can not aerate because Bermuda seeds can not be buried deep in those holes like Fescue. Any help on procedures and how to go about this? Thanks

[Lucky Dawg]

I'd search/ask here:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/garden/

Or, refer to these:

How to Plant Bermuda Grass Seed & Overseed Existing Grass - Till or No Till Methods
How To Plant Bermuda Grass Seed Lawns|Growing Bermuda Grass Seed Lawns
Bermuda Grass Care

[Funky Chicken]

A couple of things.
Bermuda is insanely durable. It will fight back from near death experiences with a vengeance given the chance. That said, most Bermuda lawns (including mine) are not really fully active yet. I am about 60-70% greened up.
I would aerate and fertilize with a high nitrogen fertilizer before I overseeded and give the lawn a couple of weeks to kick into gear. You could even just rake it out before fertilizing to loosen up the surface.
Soil temperatures are not quite there yet for either your existing grass to really begin this season's growth OR for reseeding to have its best chance. Late May is optimal for overseeding if you choose to.
If you decide to overseed and you want to put something down to hold the seeds in place I would mix topsoil and sand in equal amounts and put a light layer down. The sand will help to level the surface. If you can, use what is called "sharp sand"-it is less fine than playground stuff and tends not to clump.
Today's rain will be a big help too. Things are pretty dry.

[The Villages Guy]

Originally Posted by Jamerican

The weeds in my Bermuda lawn this year came back with a vengeance. I found a weed killer, but my dilemma is how to reseed my Bermuda grass since a lot of it has also died. Has anyone here ever had to reseed Bermuda before and if so, what type/blebnd of grass seed should I be looking for?

I may have to throw down top soil on the entire lawn for the seeds to have something to hold on to. Any ideas and also, where did you buy your Bermuda grass seeds? I see a number of places online from different brands as well? I know that I can not aerate because Bermuda seeds can not be buried deep in those holes like Fescue. Any help on procedures and how to go about this? Thanks

Ah, dang. I wish I got to you before you weed killed. I would have told you to just burn the lawn. The weeds would die and the Bermuda grass would come back quickly. You can do this every single year. Professionals do this all the time.

Go to Lowe's and buy the Bermuda grass seed there. I had excellent luck with it. Spread it liberally on top and then rent a heavy duty dethatching machine and set it so that it ends up pushing the seed about 1/8" into the ground. Go back and forth, criss-cross patterns, so all the soil/seed gets touched. Keep the top lightly moist....never dry, never wet....until seedlings take, then start adjusting watering accordingly as it grows.....cutting back the amount of watering so, but watering longer/deeper.

Best of luck.

[BullCity75]

There's no need to overseed Bermuda. It will fill in pretty quickly this summer. If you have hybrid Bermuda, you definitely don't want to overseed or you'll be dealing with seed heads going forward.

If you want instant gratification, get some hybrid bermuda sod and patch the dead spots.

[wheelsup]

What type of Bermuda do you have? If it was installed with sod don't go buy seed, as the seed is common Bermuda and looks more like a weed than a grass.

[The Villages Guy]

I forgot that your grass is dormant so late up in NC, so if you sprayed the weed kill while the Bermuda grass was dormant, then you have no problem whatsoever. That is actually a proper method. If the Bermuda grass was all brown, with no green showing at all except for the weeds, you can blast it with the weed kill and the weeds will die. Once it warms up enough, particularly at night, the Bermuda will come out of dormancy. Just give it some time to see where it is at. I would not touch it until at least June, maybe July. You are probably just fine. Never aerate Bermuda grass while it is dormant or just coming out of dormancy.

[NewUser]

My wife is SO pissed at me. We have Bermuda, and for the last 3 years I have sprayed it with Roundup while it was dormant (mid-February) to kill off all of the winter weeds. This year, for some reason, it is taking longer than normal for the Bermuda to start up. She says "All of our neighbors have green grass . . and ours is BROWN". I keep telling her that our neighbors do not have green grass. They have green weeds, as they also have Bermuda. She went to Home Depot yesterday and came home with 40 lbs of tall Fescue seeds. I said "Take it back!".

[Funky Chicken]

This year is a little slow to green up. A couple of cold nights will do that, and we had 'em.

[sneezecake]

Anyone have tips for killing a bunch of fescue in my Bermuda now?