Does anyone have any advise you can share on what I should be doing at this point. I have been watering it twice a day for at least 30 minutes each time. Overall I think it looks good but I have a few brown patches and a few spots that are not filling in well. I have now cut it twice and both times have cut it on the highest setting. I am not sure exactly which type of Bermuda I have as it was put down by the builders landscaper.

I live in Raleigh,NC and we have been dealing with a lot of heat with most days being 95-100.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

You will need to fertilize with straight nitrogen, but wait until the temps get back into the 80's.

I'd change the watering to 10 minutes. About all you have to do is keep the top inch cool - not saturated by any means. Once the sod has knit into the soil below, you're off to the races. Don't judge anything until you have that accomplished, you start backing way off on water, and get some fertilizer down. Eventually you'll be watering about an inch all at one time. Measure that with cat food or tuna cans to find out how long it takes your sprinkler system to put out that much water. Some do it in 20 minutes and some take 8 hours. You need to know that. In the cool months you'll only need to water once a month. In the warm months you'll be watering weekly.

Drop your mower one notch every week and mow it every other day. After a week drop it one more notch. You will scalp just a little off each time. Bermuda grows blades out from stems. When you mow down below the stems, it looks scalped. But it IS bermuda. It comes right back. By the time you get to the bottom notch, it will have cooled off enough that the lowest setting is the one to keep. If you want it to look much nicer, get a reel type mower and set that down to 1/2 inch. At that point it no longer grows stemmy. It takes on a completely different growth habit called prostrate. At that point it becomes the coolest carpet of grass ever. Picture a putting green.

I would wait to fertilize with chemicals until you have the grass mowed down all the way. Why? No real reason other than to give it that extra time to knit into the soil. In the mean time you can use organic fertilizer. Which ever one you choose, start at about 10 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Then in a month you can up that to 20 pounds and then up to 30 or more if you like and can afford it. Bermuda can take 50 pounds per month if you can do that. Most people opt for chemical fertilizers to simplify the fertilizing.

You need to find the Bermuda Bible and read it. You are doing about everything you can possible do to kill your grass.

At 6 weeks you should have mowed around 12 to 20 times.

The first time I cut my yard I scalped it in a few places becuase my yard has some unlevel spots from when they landscaped. Will those spots come back and what can I do to level out these spots now that the roots have already taken?

The Bermuda Bible, is this a book or is it just a PDF? I have found it on the internet I believe but just want to make sure I am looking at the correct thing.

Dchall san antonio, you mention using and organic fertilizer for right now, is there a particular kind that you recommend that can be purchased from the big box stores like Lowes?

Thanks for all of the reponses.

One of the first things I would suggest you do is to take soil samples and submit them to a lab for testing. You cannot possibly know how to properly feed your lawn until you know what it needs or doesn't need. Too much or too little of a necessary nutrient can significantly impact the development of your turf. It is my understanding that Logan Labs in Ohio has provided an adequate soil test result for many people on this site. The cost per sample is $20 and it is a comprehensve test result. If you post the results here after you receive them, someone will interpret the results for you. The turnaround for receiving results has typically been about 3-4 days.

You will want to gradually start changing your watering schedule so that you are applying more water per application, but the applications are less frequent. Quite frankly, I think one 30 minute watering per day early in the morning is sufficient for now. By doing this, you will be causing the roots to start the process of going down deeper into the soil. Watering more frequently causes turf roots to remain near the soil surface, and this is not a good thing as the bermuda becomes more developed. By Labor Day, your watering schedule should have been gradually reduced to watering once in the morning every 2 to 3 days.

I would say that for now just keep your mower setting where it is. At this stage, you are not going to harm your grass by keeping it mowed at a higher height of cut; but next year will be a different story.

Even in extremely hot parts of the Country like TX to southern AZ hybrid Bermuda should never exceed 2 inches during drought conditions.

If you found the PDF Bermuda Bible, the hint is bestlawn should answer your question.