BERMUDAGRASS
The grass is green, the sun is shining, and the neighbor’s mowing his lawn at 7:00 am on a Saturday morning: lawn care season is upon us! Everyone would love for their lawn to be the envy of the whole neighborhood, but anyone who’s ever tried to beautify their yard knows it’s more difficult than it seems. To make a lawn education a bit easier for the first timers, we’ve prepared a primer on the three types of grass most common in Northwest Arkansas. Based on our years of experience treating thousands of lawns, we’ve evaluated how turf types perform in multiple ways: weather, water, wear, weeds, soil, and disease. This week we’re starting with the most common grass in our service area– Bermudagrass.
We’d estimate that more than 80% of the lawns we treat are bermudagrass. It’s overwhelmingly popular, and for good reason. Bermudagrass makes for a lawn that is both beautiful and hardy.
Weather: 9/10
Bermudagrass grows best in soil temperatures between 65-90 degrees Fahrenheit. That means Arkansas temps are no sweat. The grass can thrive during the entire season if adequately watered and cared for, and it prefers full sun. Bermuda has trouble when it isn’t receiving multiple hours of direct sunlight per day. Even if you seed well, bermudagrass usually fails to germinate in the shade.
Bermudagrass does have a dormancy period that it enters each fall. The timing varies, but usually the grass will turn brown once the temperature consistently stays under 50 degrees.
Water: 8/10
One thing to love about this grass is that it’s extremely drought resistant, which means it’s hardy enough to survive Arkansas’s hottest days. During the peak of summer, a bermuda lawn might require 1.5 inches of watering per week, which is far less than other grasses. It’s better to water deeply rather than frequently, as this encourages the grass to grow deeper root structures. For Bermudagrass, water only once or twice a week rather than every day. Keep in mind, though, that Bermuda does best in areas with good soil drainage, and too much standing water can cause problems with fungal disease. A well-watered bermuda lawn becomes even more drought resistant once well established, and a good root structure helps ensure the grass makes the most of each watering. So get out the oscillating sprinkler, set it and forget it (at least for a little while, don’t forget your water bill!).
Wear: 10/10
Hardly any grass can boast the toughness of bermuda. Not only does it create deep root structures that anchor it to the soil, but bermuda has wide blades and grows densely in ideal environments. Because of that thickness, damage to the lawn is less visible than it would be on other types of grasses. In addition to its cosmetic strengths, bermuda reproduces via stolons, or “grass runners” as they’re more commonly called. These creeping roots move both above and below the soil, so even badly gouged bermuda lawns recover quickly. When kept at between 0.5” and 1.5” in length, bermudagrass creates a lush, thick carpet that’s difficult to damage.
Weeds: 6/10
Bermuda is fairly weed resistant, and much better than most cool season grasses. Due to that dense root structure mentioned earlier, it’s able to compete effectively with most weeds for water and other resources it needs to survive. When fertilized regularly, bermudagrass can grow thick enough to stifle some weeds before they can erupt through the soil. Combining fertilization with weed control herbicides (like our 4-3 Weed n’ Feed program) can result in bermuda lawns that are almost entirely free of weeds.
Soil: 7/10
Bermuda grows well in most soil present in Arkansas. Though it favors soils with a pH of 6-7, it can tolerate slightly more acidic soil. Northwest Arkansas has pockets of soil that are slightly acidic due to the presence of residuum in much of the area. Residuum (also known as residual soil) is a kind of soil formed when bedrock is weathered by erosion but not transported away by wind or water. Because of the high mineral content of residuum, the pH in residuum topsoil is generally lower. If you test your soil and find it’s especially acidic, the lawn can be treated with lime annually until the preferred pH is achieved.
Disease: 7/10
Bermuda grass is very disease-resistant, but not perfectly so. It’s still susceptible to some of the most common fungal diseases like Dollar Spot and Spring Dead Spot. Though these issues have easy fixes, they aren’t quick fixes. Most people notice the problem when their lawns green up in the springtime, when there aren’t many solutions that will work within the season. It takes work each year to ensure the lawn looks better next year. Our team usually recommends filling dead areas with loose sand– the increased heat on that area of the lawn will “burn up” the fungus and prevent it from spreading.
Quirks of Bermuda Lawns:
- One problem created by the aggressive growth of bermudagrass is that it risks developing a thatch problem. Thatch is a mix of both living and dead plant material that accumulates around the base of the grass blades. A thatch of less than 0.5 inches in thickness is beneficial for most lawns by blanketing the grass and stabilizing temperature. However, 1” or thicker thatch can be a problem. A thick thatch acts like a sponge, soaking up water and minerals before they can get to the grass.
- For Bermuda lawns, a Core Aeration service gets best results when performed in the late spring/early summer. Under ideal circumstances, the soil has been softened by springtime rains and the grass has already greened up and begun actively growing. Though the ideal period to aerate your lawn varies year to year due to weather conditions, in Northwest Arkansas the perfect time is usually late May to early June. Aerations are especially beneficial in areas with heavy soils like Arkansas’s red clay. Extremely compacted soil can make it difficult for your grass to thrive. To ensure your bermudagrass is getting the water and nutrients it needs to grow, book an Aeration service with us here.
- An interesting feature of Bermuda grass is its tendency to “zebra stripe”, a phenomenon that affects some lawns in the fall and winter. Though sometimes caused by frost damage, it’s usually caused by inconsistencies in the beginning of dormancy, which just means the grass is entering into its hibernation period at different times. Either way, a zebra striped lawn is more of a curiosity than a concern. Most lawns that exhibit zebra striping are perfectly fine come springtime.
Our Final Thoughts:
It’s no surprise that bermudagrass is the most popular grass in Northwest Arkansas’s lawns. Tough, relatively low-maintenance, and perfectly suited to our climate, there’s not much more you could ask for from your lawn. For help getting your bermudagrass lawn to be as beautiful and lush as possible, contact Natural State to obtain a free lawn care estimate for your home.