Bermuda grass

[Cross-7]

I have a few spots like this and would like it in places like down around the creek instead of native.
It's nearly impossible to get any large machinery down there.
Any ideas short of a shovel and a wheel barrow ?
I've fed bermuda round bales in places in hopes of getting it started without any successs

 

[M-5]

All you need is sprigs off the tops you could cut a trench with shovel and put them in slot and cover it. Cut tops off with weef eater and rake them up .

 

[Cross-7]

All you need is sprigs off the tops you could cut a trench with shovel and put them in slot and cover it. Cut tops off with weef eater and rake them up .

No digging roots ?
Just tops ?

 

[M-5]

Bermuda will root from each joint if ground is moist ,

 

[M-5]

You could do a fair job with an ATV disk if you needed to

 

[Jogeephus]

The ranker the better

 

[Cross-7]

The ranker the better

More joints I assume

 

[M-5]

The ranker the better

More joints I assume

Big thick stems or runners

 

[Jogeephus]

Rank grass will have more nodes on it and be thicker and harder so it won't dry out as fast as younger grass. If I'm going to use cuttings for a hay field I'll leave a little swath uncut when cutting hay then go back a couple weeks later and cut it with a nonconditioning mower and use these to start new fields. Works surprisingly well.

 

[callmefence]

Rank grass will have more nodes on it and be thicker and harder so it won't dry out as fast as younger grass. If I'm going to use cuttings for a hay field I'll leave a little swath uncut when cutting hay then go back a couple weeks later and cut it with a nonconditioning mower and use these to start new fields. Works surprisingly well.

How many sprigs say per square foot would you use.?

 

[Brute 23]

Depends on how thick you want it. Like Jogee said, long runners with lots of nodes. If you get a good rain, run and cut the runners then stick them it the dirt right then. Put your rubber boots on and tromp thru the mud if need be. The sooner you get the cut runner to wet soil the better the chance of it taking.

You will need to keep the cattle off until it takes root or they will pull it up. Most people recommend no cattle the first year.

My dad cuts Tifton runners in the pasture by hand and hauls them home in a molasses tub. He planted them all around their aerobic septic sprinklers at the house. You would be amazed at how thick the grass is and how far it has grown out in just a couple years. Must be some thing in the water. :lol:

 

[Jogeephus]

Rank grass will have more nodes on it and be thicker and harder so it won't dry out as fast as younger grass. If I'm going to use cuttings for a hay field I'll leave a little swath uncut when cutting hay then go back a couple weeks later and cut it with a nonconditioning mower and use these to start new fields. Works surprisingly well.

How many sprigs say per square foot would you use.?

I throw out as much as I can. How I used to do it is to load a hay wagon and pull it through the field and have two guys on the back just throwing the grass in the air and let it fall where it will. Sortof like spreading straw. However we've gotten modern now after a friend took rear axle out of a truck and built a wagon on it. The "transmission" is vertical and he fashioned a spinner wheel on this and you just toss the hay on this and it slings it over the ground along with the skin from your knuckles if you get careless.

I always try and spread right before a rain and as I'm spreading the field I have a tractor with a harrow with the discs turned as straight as possible and run over the springs and hope the rain gets them settled in. If not, I pack it two or three times.

The hardest part is collecting the grass and getting it moved to the field but we've also baled the fresh cut hay in mini-rolls and used these to get the grass to the field but the bales need to be rolled loose or they will heat on you. I prefer doing it loose even though its more of a PITA.

 

[Texasmark]

My experiences:

Have planted "baled" moist Coastal sprigs (got them from a commercial spriger farmer) with a single bottom mold board plow, early in the spring when the temp is cool, not cold, and the moisture is prevalent.

Open a furrow, take the "flakes" of the bale and one at a time walk down the furrow dropping in the sprigs pretty close together, falling as they may. Follow that with a 3 pt. regular blade scraper and rolling the dirt back over them and coming back a last time with the tractor tire to mash the ground flat over them. On what my clothes and I looked like when finished, dare not go in the house looking like that. Hosed myself and my clothes down real good afterwards and snuck in the house. Made it. Grin. Commercial spriger guy was booked up tight and had no time for me so I improvised.

Used to lease a lot of property. One such place is next door. Lots of round Bermuda plots in what is otherwise weeds where I fed Coastal bales. I don't understand that mechanism as I read and always heard you had to sprig Coastal. Well maybe so, maybe not. It took without sprigging in many places.

On my current Coastal/Common patch I have an old disc harrow that I welded the discs such that they are aligned straight so they don't disrupt the soil, just cut it and piled on cured bags of Sacrete to get some good weight and cut the shoots which as others have stated, make a new plant for every node. In the spring I run over the patch with my lightweight tractor pulling it several times.

Bermuda loves to be fed, especially N. It rewards you nicely for your effort....course mother nature has to help out with adequate moisture and sunshine.

I think you got some good ideas from others for your requirements.

 

[Brute 23]

Once you get a pasture established it is real easy to get it going all over your property. Get your established field ready to cut and take take off with a sickle mower at daylight. Have another tractor going where you want to plant it at the same time. By the time you get the tops cut the guy disking will be a little ahead of you. Shake the tops out on the disked ground by hand. When the tractor disking finishes have them straighten the gains out and hook up a roller. Start covering it right then and there behind the guys shaking.

When we use to sprig a lot we knew exactly how many acres we could do a day. The guys disking would get to a certain point and stop so he could go back and start covering.

The least amount of time the ground stayed open and the more fresh the sprig the better.

 

[True Grit Farms]

I have a few spots like this and would like it in places like down around the creek instead of native.
It's nearly impossible to get any large machinery down there.
Any ideas short of a shovel and a wheel barrow ?
I've fed bermuda round bales in places in hopes of getting it started without any successs

My take is if you fed round bales of Bermuda grass and it didn't take your wasting your time sprigging Bermuda grass. There's some places where Bermuda just won't grow very good or not at all.

 

[Cross-7]

I just found this
I scattered bermuda bales all over.
No feeder or anything. Pulled off the net wrap and let them wasted it
Maybe it's working

 

[Cross-7]

Nearly every spot has a little trying to come up
It was been hot for several days, yesterday was 103
I guess it just needed the heat

 

[callmefence]

So will a hybrid Bermuda like coastal or Tifton Take from hay?? That doesn't make sense to me. Seems the dry hay would not sprig.
I 've always assumed that any volunteered Bermuda was probably common or giant that was in the coastal hay.

 

[Cross-7]

So will a hybrid Bermuda like coastal or Tifton Take from hay?? That doesn't make sense to me. Seems the dry hay would not sprig.
I 've always assumed that any volunteered Bermuda was probably common or giant that was in the coastal hay.

I'm from the desert so it's all new to me.
My understanding is most of the seed is sterile and has to be started from the plant, rhizomes, joint, root or whatever
But I have zero experience

 

[Kingfisher]

So will a hybrid Bermuda like coastal or Tifton Take from hay?? That doesn't make sense to me. Seems the dry hay would not sprig.
I 've always assumed that any volunteered Bermuda was probably common or giant that was in the coastal hay.

There is a fellow over in Elgin that has a sprigging machine. If you catch him right in the spring he sells sprigs for something silly like $4 a bushel. Get em in the ground however you can and if it rains bingo!