Bermuda grass, or Cynodon dactylon, is one of the most common types of turfgrass in America. It’s an excellent grass for yards because it has an attractive color and texture that can withstand foot traffic and tough weather without showing signs of wear. But if you’ve recently planted Bermuda grass in your yard, how do you make it spread?
Read on to find out about how to make Bermuda grass spread.
Contents
- How to Make Bermuda grass Spread
- 1. Apply Water Generously
- 2. Ensure the Bermuda Grass Gets Enough sunlight
- 3. Mulch the Yard
- 4. Mow the Law Often
- 5. Apply Nitrogen Based Fertilizer
- 6. Consider Lawn Soil Amendment
- How to Make Bermuda Grass Thicker
- 1. Ensure the Grass Gets Enough Water
- 2. Use More Seeds on Your Lawn
- 3. Balance the Soil pH
- 4. Ensure Maximum Aeration
- 5. Eliminate Weeds
- 6. Use Fertilizer on Your Lawn
- 7. Sunlight Is Important
- How to Make Bermuda Grass Dark Green
- 1. Use the correct fertilizer
- 2. Get the pH Levels Correct
- 3. Water Regularly
- How to Get Bermuda Grass to Grow In Bare Spots
- How to Keep Bermuda Grass Green in Winter
- How to Make Bermuda Grass Spread (FAQs)
- How often should you fertilize Bermuda grass?
- How do I fix patchy Bermuda grass?
- Will Bermuda grass choke out weeds?
- Author
How to Make Bermuda grass Spread
1. Apply Water Generously
Constantly water Bermuda grass generously. If you don’t have a sprinkler system that keeps your yard watered, use the hose to water your Lawn daily. Watering helps keep the Bermuda grass blades wet and encourages them to spread outward.
In addition to keeping your Lawn alive, frequent watering helps the grass grow in a thicker patch and enables it to come back faster after you mow.
2. Ensure the Bermuda Grass Gets Enough sunlight
Bermuda grass is just like any other type of plant: It requires sunlight to stay healthy. If your yard doesn’t get enough sun, the Bermuda grass will thin out and die back on itself.
This occurs because it doesn’t have the light it needs for photosynthesis.
To help your Lawn get enough sun, mow the grass shorter so it doesn’t block out light from reaching the rest of your Bermuda grass.
3. Mulch the Yard
Mulching your Bermuda grass will help keep moisture in the ground, which helps to keep it green and healthy. Mulch also discourages weeds from sprouting in your lawn, which can be a big problem for Bermuda grass.
Weed prevention is key to maintaining healthy lawns because if you don’t get weeds out of the ground before they grow, they’ll quickly choke out the rest of your Bermuda grass.
4. Mow the Law Often
Mowing Bermuda grass regularly also will keep it healthy and encourage growth. Repetition is the key here, as you should mow every three weeks throughout the growing season.
Cutting too short can cause your Lawn to look patchy, but if you let it grow too long, it will thin out as you mow.
A good rule of thumb is to cut your Bermuda grass down by no more than one-third of its total length each time you mow.
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5. Apply Nitrogen Based Fertilizer
One of the best ways to encourage your Bermuda grass to spread is by putting nitrogen fertilizer on it. Apply this type of fertilizer every three weeks during the growing season.
It takes time for the nutrients in a bag of nitrogen-based fertilizer to work into your Lawn, so you should probably wait about three weeks before seeing results.
Check out this Nitrogen Based Liquid Fertilizer
6. Consider Lawn Soil Amendment
If you’re having trouble getting your Bermuda grass to spread, the problem could be that your soil doesn’t have enough nutrients or that the soil type and quality are wrong.
In this case, you may need to consider lawn soil amendment and add some fertilizer to help the Bermuda grass grow.
Lawn soil amendment is the practice of adding organic materials to poor, sandy soil. You can do this by taking some composted manure and mixing it with your Bermuda grass seed before planting it in your yard.
This will help balance the soil pH and improve aeration.
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How to Make Bermuda Grass Thicker
1. Ensure the Grass Gets Enough Water
Bermuda grass can be a temperamental type of grass. It requires plenty of water and sunlight to stay healthy, but it also doesn’t like getting too much moisture in the ground around its roots.
Too much humidity can encourage the Bermuda grass to grow thin and patchy as it allows weeds to grow underneath the blades. To keep your Bermuda grass healthy, always make sure you’re watering it just enough.
2. Use More Seeds on Your Lawn
The best way to make your Bermuda grass grow thicker is to use more seeds when planting. The more seeds you put on a patch of land, the thicker your Lawn will be when it comes out of the ground.
Ensuring that each seed has its patch of earth to grow will also encourage it to spread outward into its full thickness.
3. Balance the Soil pH
Having the correct pH level in your soil is essential to making your Bermuda grass grow thick. The optimum pH range for Bermuda grass is between 6 and 7, so if yours falls outside of this range, you will need to do some work to adjust it before planting your seeds.
To balance out pH levels in the ground, consider adding agricultural lime to your soil.
4. Ensure Maximum Aeration
Another way to get your Bermuda grass to grow thick is by aerating it regularly. Aeration increases the amount of oxygen that gets into the ground, which helps increase drainage and growth.
To ensure maximum aeration, use a garden fork or lawn aerator once every year in mid-Summer. This will remove some of the soil between the blades and will help ensure maximum drainage.
5. Eliminate Weeds
One of the main reasons Bermuda grass grows thin is because it’s competing with weeds for nutrients. Weeds steal moisture and food from your Lawn so that they can grow, which means your Bermuda grass has to fight to stay healthy and whole.
If you want thick, healthy Bermuda grass in your yard, eliminate all the weeds on your property by using a weed killer or pulling them out of the ground.
6. Use Fertilizer on Your Lawn
Another way to get thick Bermuda grass is by feeding it some fertilizer. Apply a nitrogen-based fertilizer once every two weeks during the growing season, and your Lawn will start to grow faster and thicker than usual.
7. Sunlight Is Important
Another vital factor to getting thick Bermuda grass is ensuring that it gets plenty of sunlight. This means planting the seeds in an area that receives at least six hours of sunlight per day, preferably more.
If your yard only receives about two hours of sun per day, consider removing any shade trees or bushes.
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How to Make Bermuda Grass Dark Green
1. Use the correct fertilizer
When you’re applying your fertilizer to the Bermuda grass, make sure that you’re using one that provides nutrients for growth and dark green color. Look for a fertilizer with nitrogen (N) in it so that your Lawn will grow faster and start to turn dark.
2. Get the pH Levels Correct
The ideal range for Bermuda grass is between 6 and 7. This means if you have been using too much fertilizer or your soil’s pH is not high enough, your grass will be yellow or light green.
To get the pH levels correct, consider adding agricultural lime to your soil before planting Bermuda grass seeds.
3. Water Regularly
Bermuda grass doesn’t like dry conditions, so if you let the ground go without any water for too long, your Lawn will start to turn a light shade of yellow or green.
To ensure that it never dries out, water it whenever the top inch has dried out.
How to Get Bermuda Grass to Grow In Bare Spots
If you are looking to cover bare spots in your yard with Bermuda grass, the first thing you need to do is ensure that the soil underneath is healthy and has good drainage.
You can add a layer of compost or manure on top of the ground before planting any seeds to help improve growth.
Once you have ensured proper soil conditions, you can start planting the Bermuda grass seeds after a good rain or watering. When you plant the seeds, place them about 1/2 inch into the ground and rake them over with a lawn roller for even distribution. The seeds should stay moist throughout this time to get the best results.
The other important factor is timing. Make sure you plant the seeds at the right time of year. In most areas, this is between late August and mid-September, when the temperatures are moderate. Use this Scotts Turf with Miss Control to use on bare parts.
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How to Keep Bermuda Grass Green in Winter
One of the key things to keeping Bermuda grass green in winter is ensuring that the ground does not freeze. To do this, keep mulch close to your Bermuda grass at all times during cold weather.
This will protect it from any frost that may be occurring on the soil’s surface.
Stop applying fertilizer and any other chemicals to the Bermuda grass in late summer before fall sets in. Doing so will help give your lawn time to rest and prepare for colder temperatures, making it easier to keep it green throughout winter.
Nitrogen stays long in the soil, which may rejuvenate the growth of young shoots in winter, and the cold temperatures may damage the shoots. So, it’s better not to fertilize your Bermuda grass during the winter months.
How to Make Bermuda Grass Spread (FAQs)
How often should you fertilize Bermuda grass?
How often you need to fertilize Bermuda grass depends on why you are doing it. If you try to get the Lawn to grow dark green, then a mid-spring application is best.
How often after that will depend on how quickly your plant grows. After about two weeks of growth, fertilize again and continue throughout summer as long as desired.
How do I fix patchy Bermuda grass?
How do you fix patchy Bermuda grass depends on what is causing the problem. If it’s simply a matter of not enough sunlight and water getting to your grass, then watering and mowing can help.
In other cases, problems like pests or diseases may be responsible for poor growth.
Will Bermuda grass choke out weeds?
A lush lawn of Bermuda grass will naturally choke out weeds. The only instances where Bermuda grass doesn’t choke out weeds is when there are too many other plants growing on the Lawn.
In these cases, pulling or weeding can help remove some of the weed growth and allow Bermuda grass to take over again.
Knowing how to make Bermuda grass spread faster is essential if you want to enjoy your Lawn for the long haul. First, it’s critical that you apply the right fertilizer at the right time of year.
You also need to ensure that pH levels are correct, or else your Lawn will turn yellow or light-green. If you want a beautiful yard with deep green grass all year round, consider following the above steps to maintain healthy lawn.
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