The good news is that tan Bermuda is simply just dormant. Its not abnormal after laying new sod. Gray is bad, usually means dead. The pic shows when I installed a pallet of TifGrand. It now looks really good.

If you're not getting rain, you really should be watering a couple times a day until it roots. You could apply some root stimulator, but that's $$$.

Here is a pic, more coming

This is the front! Believe it or not there is more green then two weeks ago!! Thanks for the reply already! What do you think with the pics?

What do you think with the pics?

My first thought was, did they roll it? then I thought what a nice job they did laying it out... surely these were pro's and they must have rolled it good. The my final thought is that it's thirsty and needs water more often (not to be confused with more water)

This post was edited by jacksnife on Thu, May 9, 13 at 22:17

Where are you at in TX? What I see is dormant Bermuda. North TX has the coldest spring on record and many parts the Bermuda has not woke up from its winter slumber.

@texas weed I am in Austin. Apparently the first pallet was even worse, this was the better one! We are getting a lot of rain today and tomorrow so I will see what it looks like in the next couple of days

As to watering more often I cannot for two reasons, first I work as does my wife, second and more importantly Austin is in a sever drought right now with insane water restrictions. With new sod I get some exceptions but not a lot! As it stands I can only water every other day for 1 more week then it is 2x a week for a couple of weeks then I am on full restriction. Every Sunday before 10am OR after 7:00pm. That is why Bermuda is now the only grass to code. No more st. Augustine.

Austin should be pretty well greened up. Do the restrictions allow hand watering with a hose? If so all you need is enough to keep the sod moist.

I can hand water, which I tried a couple of days ago and things did get greener so I am sure that is it!

Do you think that front is in remission? It was worse then that when they installed!

Get a programmable Orbit hose timer. It's the one that takes batteries - about $32 on Amazon.

Your water restrictions are plenty sane. In San Antonio we are limited to 7 hours per week all on one day, and my St Aug is doing great...with the timer.

We've heard that the rest of the cities in Texas are looking at San Antonio as the model for good water restrictions. Ours are supposed to become a little more realistic so you don't have to be up at 3am to start your watering. That part of the program necessitated the use of something programmable. But they are doing away with that. Don't know what the final changes will be.

If you see green, there is hope.

Kind of funny, after all this rain the past two days the back has gone very green and the front has even more green! So looks like it was just water!

I will get one of those hose timers!

When can you start mowing sod? The front was really long when installed and I am not sure if that slows down the growing process with Bermuda? I am from Colorado so I know Kentucky blue not Bermuda

Bermuda does not tolerate late mowing very well. Have to mow consistently to keep it looking decent. If you wait too long and it gets too tall, you end up with brown spots after mowing. St Augustine grass is much more tolerant on that. It's kind of dumb that 'Floratam' cultivar is not allowed considering that it is very drought hardy. Zoysia 'Palisades' would have been better choice than bermuda for it's shade tolerance if you have trees. Look for Texas Weed's Bermuda Bible on how to care for bermuda. Kinda demanding if you want it to look decent.

So mow after a few weeks? Week three starts this week