planting common bermuda grass

[Douglas]

Have you considered crabgrass. Makes good hay and grazing. Probably can get the 30 acres planted for $6-700 in seed. Allow it to seed drop once the first summer and you can clean up any weeds with 2-4-d in the summer and grasses with round-up in the fall. Need good rainfall and it will out produce about anything and is way better quality than bermuda, just not as drought tolerant. Or mix a little of the expensive bermuda seed like cheyenne II in with the crabgrass and after a few years it will take over.

 

[B&M Farms]

C'mon man! Common bermuda is for golf courses and people's lawns. Hybrid bermuda will make 10 times the volume.

I agree.

 

[dimestorecowboy]

I'm from south east Texas also . Springing isn't very hard to do . I sprigged 10 acres last year in tifton 85 and 10 acres in Alicia Bermuda .during the drought . The key is to wait until it rains . That way the moisture is in the ground . Cut the tops and spread them by hand as thick as possible . Disk them in and roll them . Rolling the field will keep the moisture in for at least 3 weeks . You could also check out cheynne 2 its a seeded hybrid not a mixed seed . Grows well in our area . Bahia doesn't do well in a drought . I've seen it turn brown like it has been burnt and the Bermuda was still green and growing .

 

[Kingfisher]

I'm from south east Texas also . Springing isn't very hard to do . I sprigged 10 acres last year in tifton 85 and 10 acres in Alicia Bermuda .during the drought . The key is to wait until it rains . That way the moisture is in the ground . Cut the tops and spread them by hand as thick as possible . Disk them in and roll them . Rolling the field will keep the moisture in for at least 3 weeks . You could also check out cheynne 2 its a seeded hybrid not a mixed seed . Grows well in our area . Bahia doesn't do well in a drought . I've seen it turn brown like it has been burnt and the Bermuda was still green and growing .

What do you " roll" it with? They sell that Cheyanne mix up near Brownwood. What kind of soil have you got?

 

[dimestorecowboy]

My soil is a sandy loam . Some sugar sand also . I'm along the sabine river . It's a homemade roller made out of 18 inch pipe. Filled with water it hooks onto the tractor tow bar . It weighs around 1200 pounds.

 

[CCRanch]

50 lb. sack of Bermuda: $190

50 lb.sack of Pensacola Bahaia: $ 81

I might have changed my mind....or had my mind changed for me...

 

[novatech]

50 lb. sack of Bermuda: $190

50 lb.sack of Pensacola Bahaia: $ 81

I might have changed my mind....or had my mind changed for me...

If your criteria is what the seed costs and no value is being placed on production or future economics then it is a waste of time and money to do anything at all but spray herbicide. Kill the broadleaf weeds and you will have plenty of bremuda or bahia or some other grass come up on it's own. Natives will do just as well as spending money on seed when not considering what is the best in the long run.

 

[Jim62]

They could be giving the bahia away and including a $10 per sack rebate, and I still wouldn't plant it.

 

[Isomade]

They could be giving the bahia away and including a $10 per sack rebate, and I still wouldn't plant it.

:nod:

 

[Howdyjabo]

Going by cost /lb when planting means NOTHING
figure costs/acre.

 

[dimestorecowboy]

Most Bermuda seed can be planted at 10 to 15 pounds per acre . Bahia needs to be planted at 25 to 30 pounds an acre . So cost per acre is not as far off as it looks by the bag .

 

[mbdear]

You can also plant it by throwing a heaping teaspoonful up in a brisk wind...

 

[B&M Farms]

sprig a hybrid like coastal or jiggs. Anything less is a waste of time and money.

 

[Kingfisher]

Unless you aint got a sprigger and have some time....

 

[novatech]

Unless you aint got a sprigger and have some time....

Don't know many people that do. Some how they get it done. Maybe a custom sprigger that charges by the acre?
You can do it yourself by spreading tops and disking them in.
5 acres of hybrid beat the heck out of 10 acres of common. Plant half this year and half next year. I know people that put in a small nursery, me, and planted a few acres every year. Doesn't have to be all at once or not at all.

 

[Brute 23]

I'm from south east Texas also . Springing isn't very hard to do . I sprigged 10 acres last year in tifton 85 and 10 acres in Alicia Bermuda .during the drought . The key is to wait until it rains . That way the moisture is in the ground . Cut the tops and spread them by hand as thick as possible . Disk them in and roll them . Rolling the field will keep the moisture in for at least 3 weeks . You could also check out cheynne 2 its a seeded hybrid not a mixed seed . Grows well in our area . Bahia doesn't do well in a drought . I've seen it turn brown like it has been burnt and the Bermuda was still green and growing .

What do you " roll" it with? They sell that Cheyanne mix up near Brownwood. What kind of soil have you got?

Roll it just means you run some thing to pack it. Some people use a 16" pipe with cement. Some people have a bunch of tires side by side that roll over the ground to pack the top.

You can buy for jiggs or tifton sq bales. Then do like said above. Shake it out on disked ground by hand. Disk it in and roll it.

We planted alot of grouund like that with Jiggs. An uncle had a sickle cutter so you could pitch fork it into a cattle trailer or we would sq bale it.

 

[Ruark]

What variety of bermuda would you recommend for the hot central Texas area, where it can go for a month or two with no rain and temps over 100? Can you have any results by just broadcasting it, without tilling or rolling? Keep in mind the present dirt is like talcum powder.

 

[1982vett]

What variety of bermuda would you recommend for the hot central Texas area, where it can go for a month or two with no rain and temps over 100? Can you have any results by just broadcasting it, without tilling or rolling? Keep in mind the present dirt is like talcum powder.

To dry to try to plant anything...Must have moisture already in the ground for springs...you may say not for seed...but I will say yes you do because the seed is planted shallow. If deep moisture isn't present the top moisture will dispate quickly leaving the top to dry out and germinated seed will dry out.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I have common Burmuda in some of my small pastures. It came in on its own after a BAD drought and just took over.
It suits my needs (I feed a TMR) and the pasture is just for loafing. It keeps real good grass cover with high traffic(where it gets cut up in the winter it comes right back in the summer) and in the summer its great to keep the weeds down. It chokes out EVERYTHING.

But,I don't see why anyone would purposely plant it if they want grazing. The cattle don't like it, it only has good nutrition values for a short time and its totally unproductive the rest of the year. And I doubt you could have anything else coexist with it to improve grazing.
Not to mention I don't think its very easy to get rid of- kinda like roaches and common burmuda will be the last things on earth to go extinct.

Jabo I agree with you on the bermuda but I wish you could see some of the Bahia grass some of the folks over in the south as well as East Texas deal with. That mess will grow on concrete and has a root system about like concrete wire. Everytime a bale of hay goes down the road somebody gets a new application of seeds. :lol2: If it gets in your yard you start out with a spot abouta foot wide. Triples every year and you don't cut it...a lawnmower just twists the stuff off....by tomorrow it's grown 2 more inches. :help:

Bahia is tuff stuff can give a disc cutter the hic cups in the hayfield. I have some common in a pasture that bahia isn't crazy about stays to wet most years. Coastal is just not cost effective to me. I have tried it doesn't like it here gets a rust that common doesn't. Keeping bahia out of it is impossible. Learned to go with mother nature she likes bahia.

 

[Brute 23]

Jiggs and coastal are easier to establish but when you get a good stand of Tifton it will out perform the other two hands down.