Fertilizing Bermuda Grass

If you’ve ever walked through your local home improvement store you’ve seen the racks and racks of fertilizer.  There are many brands and many types and each uses a slightly different blend of nutrients to arrive at the final fertilizer.

A few of the nutrients used to formulate bermuda fertilizer are urea, ammonium nitrate, ammonium phosphate, urea formaldehyde.   Each of these chemicals provide a quick shot of nitrogen which thick lush bermuda lawns need more than phosphorus and potassium.

Nearly every fertilizer you find on the shelf these days will be in a granular form.  This allows quick application to the lawn with a broadcast spreader and will last up to 3 months before another application is necessary.

The First Application

Bermuda grass goes dormant during the winter months.  It won’t come out of dormancy until the ground temperature hits a balmy 65ºF.  It’s likely that your grass will be about 50% greened up at this point for a visual reference.  This is the perfect time to drop your first application of fertilizer on your lawn.  It’s likely it mid-April when this first application will be needed as a point of reference.

For this first application you’re looking for a high nitrogen content.  That means the first number should be high like 31-3-9.  However a product that has 29-3-4 is going to give very similar results.  If all the products have a high nitrogen content pick your fertilizer based on price.  The higher premiums you’ll pay will likely add in slow release nitrogen to keep your lawn green between feedings.

Subsequent Applications

Your bermuda grass is going to thrive off fertilizer.  You’ll want to apply another bag of bermuda fertilizer in 6 - 8 weeks (June 15).  Drop a third bag 6 - 8 (August 15) weeks later and you’ll have the greenest lawn in the neighborhood.

Winterizer

Again depending on your area of the country you’ll want to drop a bag of winterizer on your lawn in the mid-September to mid-October time frame.  The idea is to get the fertilizer down and watered in before the grass goes back into dormancy.  This will feed and protect your lawn during those brutal winter months.

Weed Control

One area we failed to mention earlier was about weed control.  Several fertilizer brands out there mix in some weed control products like HALTS.  It’s likely you’ll find a winterizer with a weed control product.  That will be your best bet for the winterizer fertilizer application.  In the mid to late February time frame you’ll want to consider a broad leaf weed controller like HALTS to keep your lawn weed free.  If you’re lucky you can mix this in with your first application if the grass has greened up enough.

A healthy well fed Bermuda lawn is a weed free lawn.

Aerating Bermuda Lawns

Aeration is the process of poking thousands upon thousands of holes in the soil.  After a years worth of the kids playing and water packing the soil down, nutrients simply can make their way to the roots.  Poking holes in the soil will allow water, oxygen and other nutrients to penetrate the roots of your lawn.

There are two types of aerating devices.  One with spikes and one with plugs.  The devices with spikes are generally pulled by a tractor and do little to penetrate the hard packed clay over much of the southeast.  Ask for a “core aerator”.  These machines have hollow spoons which pull up plugs of soil as the machine moves.

The process is much like mowing the grass.  Twice.  Yes you’ll want to aerate your lawn in one direction and then go back over your lawn at 90º.  This criss-cross pattern should give you the necessary 12 holes per square foot.

Wondering when you should aerate Bermuda?

Aerate in the fall and you’ll have a lawn full of weeds or rouge grass.  This will be a thorn in your side until late in the summer when the Bermuda finally takes back the lawn by force. Therefore, aerate your bermuda grass in the early summer when your lawn is growing quickly.  After aerating an application of fertilizer and a deep watering will help your lawn to recover quickly.