Have Bahia, want Bermuda

[Swedevil]

I have Bahia grass in louisiana and it’s horrible. I hate it. So bare and grows and looks ugly 2 days after mowing. Want to start a switch to something else and Bermuda seems to be one of the better growers in the hot louisiana weather.
Can anyone help walk me through switching? What needs to be done and in what order? Don’t want yo just throw money to “Sunday” or another company that isn’t going to do what I want.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Nah. Bad choice sister. Carpetgrass and a lot of other wet choices are better in that place. Most on a UK forum are too Northern to deal with the humidity and heat. For real its almost tropical where you mow. St Aug maybe? Burmuda and Centipede have these skinny little nasty blades that are not lush and do not feel nice barefoot.

 

[Swedevil]

Nah. Bad choice sister. Carpetgrass and a lot of other wet choices are better in that place. Most on a UK forum are too Northern to deal with the humidity and heat. For real its almost tropical where you mow. St Aug maybe? Burmuda and Centipede have these skinny little nasty blades that are not lush and do not feel nice barefoot.

Ok, st. Aug is fine. I don’t do much walking in the grass so it’s not so much the comfort but the look. Either way, I just want this Bahia grass gone. Any advice on that?

 

[Meadowlark]

It won't be easy or inexpensive or without great difficulties...but if you are willing and able it can be done. Once you go to the great effort, expense and trouble then you have a maintenance problem and recurring expenses which shouldn't be minimized. Bahia will return to a Bermuda lawn, and you will be fighting it forever.

The agent, Metsulfuron-methyl, claims it will control Bahia without harming Bermuda. You might check into that, but it does require a use licensee most places.

I watched many lawnowners over the years in Houston area try to go with Bermuda, but they almost always give it up and switch to St. Augustine after a couple of seasons. Bahia in St. Augustine lawns can be controlled without Herculean efforts and with manual methods.

My ranch has Bahia grass pastures, Argentine and Pensacola Bahia, and improved Tifton Bahia hay fields. My yard is St. Augustine, and I would not even consider trying to switch it to Bermuda mainly because I know the Bahia would take it over without great effort and expense on my part.

I wish you luck if you go this route...you will need it.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Ok, st. Aug is fine. I don’t do much walking in the grass so it’s not so much the comfort but the look. Either way, I just want this Bahia grass gone. Any advice on that?

Yeah there are herbicides that will select bahia out but the other side of that coin is what grass they support. This link shows herbicides to concentrate on bermuda and for centipede.

How to Kill Bahiagrass

Bahiagrass, also called highway grass, is often used for turfgrass or forage and can easily infiltrate your lawn, garden, or landscape plot as an undesirable weed. Bahiagrass is easily identifiable by its characteristic Y-shaped seed-head,...

www.wikihow.com

 

[Swedevil]

It won't be easy or inexpensive or without great difficulties...but if you are willing and able it can be done. Once you go to the great effort, expense and trouble then you have a maintenance problem and recurring expenses which shouldn't be minimized. Bahia will return to a Bermuda lawn, and you will be fighting it forever.

The agent, Metsulfuron-methyl, claims it will control Bahia without harming Bermuda. You might check into that, but it does require a use licensee most places.

I watched many lawnowners over the years in Houston area try to go with Bermuda, but they almost always give it up and switch to St. Augustine after a couple of seasons. Bahia in St. Augustine lawns can be controlled without Herculean efforts and with manual methods.

My ranch has Bahia grass pastures, Argentine and Pensacola Bahia, and improved Tifton Bahia hay fields. My yard is St. Augustine, and I would not even consider trying to switch it to Bermuda mainly because I know the Bahia would take it over without great effort and expense on my part.

I wish you luck if you go this route...you will need it.

Appreciate this information. Based on with the person above you said, and doing a little bit of digging, I’m fine with going with Saint Augustine… I really am fine with any other type of grass it doesn’t have this long weed looking stems 2 to 3 days after I mow the lawn.

I’ll start looking into Saint Augustine options for what it would take to see the yard. I guess that’s where I am to new looking for advice is how to seed the yard. Things up red said that you had to aerate the yard completely after you have killed off all the previous grass and then throw seed out. Where is song said that you can literally throw seed out and it will overtake your grass and spread and you don’t have to do anything extra other than keep it watered and maintained

 

[Meadowlark]

If you go with St. Augustine, either sodding or plugging rather than seeding would be very good choices. It is a dominate form of grass and if you fertilize it, water it, and mow it will take over just about everything else.

 

[Swedevil]

If you go with St. Augustine, either sodding or plugging rather than seeding would be very good choices. It is a dominate form of grass and if you fertilize it, water it, and mow it will take over just about everything else.

Thank you again. I will look in to the plugging option.