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ala_grower

Nutsedge in Bermuda

ala_grower
10 years ago

Hi all,

I'm looking for advice on techniques and/or herbicides to kill/controll nutsedge. I have a one month old tiff 419 Bermuda lawn. I just fertilized using milorganite and am about to begin a regular mowing regimen to get the height down to around 1" (I've mowed several times already, but have waited until now to begin more regular and aggressive mowing).

Most of the weeds I've encountered we're easy enough to maintain simply by pulling, but I have two sections of my lawn that are full of what appears to be nutsedge.

Will my Bermuda be able to choke this out or should I look to herbicides to get rid of it? What brands/companies are most promising?

Thanks in advance for all your help!

Comments (4)

  • ala_grower
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I'm posting some pictures for reference

  • ala_grower
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    A little closer up

  • dchall_san_antonio
    10 years ago

    Will my Bermuda be able to choke this out or

    Bwahahahahaha! Sorry, uh, no, bermuda will not choke it out. Where do you live? Are you ready to start withholding water?

    Nutgrass is a swamp sedge. It is not a grass although it looks like one. Once you back off on your watering from the schedule you used to get the sod established to one of maintenance, the nut grass might disappear. I've had it disappear many times in my lawn. It will appear in the winter or spring and disappear in the summer. Ideally you should be watering only once per week in the summer. Summer might be here already depending where you live. I live in San Antonio and, while the heat is here, we keep getting clouds all week and rain every weekend so I really have not watered yet, this year. Then again, other people have been watering - I'm just not a stickler for being the first on the block with green grass.

    Next time you water put out some tuna or cat food cans. After your normal watering cycle, check how much water you collected in the cans. If they are full that is just about an inch of water. What you need to know if how long it takes to water an inch. Then you can start backing off on your watering frequency. Don't water again until you see a part of the lawn turning color and the leaf blades folding up. Then water immediately but water a full inch. If you get runoff, stop immediately and let the moisture soak in. Start watering again in 15-30 minutes until you get the full inch into the soil. Then wait again until the grass looks dehydrated. If you follow this plan of using the grass, you will end up watering about once a month in the winter and gradually moving to once per week in the hottest heat of summer.

    So after saying all that, keep in eye on the nutgrass, too. I would suggest that you not have to spray it with Image or Sedgehammer. Wait until July to see if backing off on the water helped or got rid of it. But I am serious in saying that mine just goes away by itself when I have full control of the moisture going on it.

    There is another sedge called green kyllinga that looks just like nutgrass until it gets a seed head. Green kyllinga is not a swamp grass and will thrive right along side bermuda. It is much slower to spread but still persistent. You can use Image or Sedgehammer on that.

    Yes, get that mowing height down.

  • ala_grower
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    thanks for the tips, dchall.

    i'm in alabama. we're scraping 90 degrees most days with 95+ on the horizon. i'm at once per week watering and, as i said, starting the process of mowing down to around 1" today.

    i'll try to choke it out with my watering regimen. i was hoping to not use sedgehammer, but if it comes down to it, i'll do what i've got to do.