Hi everyone. I visit here often but do not post much, as I am a newbie. I've done a lot of research, but can't seem to get things going right for my lawn. Right now it seems to be yellowing off in a bunch of spots, where previously it was very green. It also looks to be very thin too. Maybe I should post pictures to help.

Anyway, here's what I have been doing:

1. I water at least weekly, shooting for 1 inch. I've done the tuna can test and have it pretty well timed out. Temperatures here have been well into the 100s, hitting 110s 2-3 days in a row at times. Maybe I should water longer?

2. I fertilize using soybean meal. I've been putting it down monthly at around 15-20 pounds on each of my lawns. They're both about 700 square feet each. I have also brewed my own compost tea, but since temperatures have gone way up and I do not want to brew inside my house, I don't bother with it anymore.

3. Mowing, since its bermuda I am mowing low...3/4 of an inch. I believe its common bermuda, don't know since I acquired the lawn in the home purchase and was not the one who planted it. Is this possibly way too low for common bermuda, maybe I should move it up to 1 inch?

Believe that is all I have to say. Thanks in advance for all advice given and if pictures will help, let me know and I'll get some posted.

Vicente

Probably should add that I mow twice a week with a reel mower. Thanks again.

Vince-
What's your soil texture and soil depth like? And how old is your turf?

Soil is definitely clay. For how old it is, my guess would be when the home was built, so 14 years.

As far as the soil depth, could not answer that one.

Vince92183 wrote:Soil is definitely clay. For how old it is, my guess would be when the home was built, so 14 years.

As far as the soil depth, could not answer that one.

I was going to guess clay loam. Phoenix is a big area, but much of the area has reasonably deep loam and clay loam soils. For an established lawn like yours, I'd expect the roots on Bermuda to be well past 12" - assuming the grass is healthy, etc. For watering, assuming you have deep roots, 1 inch should be good (could go a little more, depending on your utility budget), but with your weather lately, the grass may be using 0.2+ inches of water per day. Keep watering the same amount, but go to every 4-5 days and see if that helps.

For mowing height, if your Bermuda is good and dense at 3/4", then keep it there. The extra 1/4 inch by increasing to 1 inch won't reduce soil evaporation much, but it means more leaf surface for transpiration losses (of moisture). The Bermuda Bible says that common types should be maintained between 1 and 2-1/2 inches, so there might be other benefits to raising the cutting height.

Since your yellowing patches used to be green, I'd start by looking at the irrigation. If the rest of the yard is happy with monthly doses of SBM, then I'd suspect a water issue first.

Now I'll clear the floor and let the real Bermuda experts correct my fallacies.

Thank you for your help cactus. I'm no expert either, but do not want to lose faith in organics.

One issue I have with watering is my irrigation clock. My entire backyard has low flow nozzles which require a lot of time, probably over 2 hours to fully water. It only goes up to 99 minutes and haven't figured out how to do multiple start times for one station. Its a cheap Orbit that needs to be changed.

Anyway, look forward to hearing from the experts.

Where do you live?

I live in Phoenix, AZ....not sure why though. lol

You live in Phoenix, have grass, and only water once a week?

Yes. Should I be doing more? I bet that sounds like a dumb question. lol But I kept on the idea of watering weekly, trying to eat least.

No it is not a dumb question; I am just a bit surprised. I am not local to Phoenix, but a sod farmer in TX. However I do have a few relatives that live in and around Phoenix, and I visit there once or twice a year. Heck I even stole, I mean bought a home up in Prescott Valley for a song and a smile.

One of my cousins is quite well off and owns 4 houses with two of them being in the Valley (Sun City, Scottsdale), and one in Payson, and the other in Prescott. All four homes are professionally landscaped and maintained, and only one in Prescott has grass. It is Bermuda and about a 10 foot diameter circle. The point I am trying to make here is a lawn in Phoenix is rare, very rare even in the upscale neighborhoods.

Being in the sod farming and landscaping business I make it a habit to talk to pros all over the country. Since purchasing a home in Prescott a couple of months ago I spent a lot of time visiting with landscapers and golf course attendants trying to find out the secrets for that area.

Water is the key and irrigation is a must. Generally once a week is the rule of thumb, but in Phoenix that idea does not hold water or apply. Secondly is the soil PH as it tends to be very alkaline.

Water is a problem for the obvious reason the extreme heat and bone dry air, coupled with coarse sandy soil that does not hold water or nutrients very well. OK from what I have learned water every day for 15 minutes just before sun up.

I am not sure about your soil type, but if it is the coarse sandy stuff I have seen, organic fertilizer is not going to do much good because there is not enough microbes to break it down or moisture to work with.

Lastly is soil PH,. If it is above say 7.5 you need to address that too.

The patches of grass I have are fairly small, no more then 700 square feet each. But the area I live in, it is a farming area and there are some ranch homes with tons of grass and huge trees that get watered with flood irrigation still. I'm not specifically in Phoenix, but the suburb Gilbert.

I wouldn't say the soil is coarse sandy soil. It is clay loam, maybe slightly mixed with sand. It does hold moisture pretty well and like I said, the area was farming land...actually still is. No more then half a mile from me there is a corn field and I know quite a few people that grow there own vegetables/fruits in the area.

With that said, I have figured out how to get more water down on the soil with the clock I have. It just took a little more messing around with it. So I'll see what the added water does and also check the PH level when I can.

I know Gilbert area fairly well west of the city. One thought came to mind, salt. Is by any chance your irrigation water has a high salt content?

Possibly. I know the water here is very hard water, but it always has been.

Au contraire, TW. The concept of watering weekly, at least in my mind, originated in Phoenix. Years ago at GW I participated in a relatively heated argument about organics and watering with a lawn maintenance professional from Phoenix. My argument was that you must use organics to have healthy enough soil/roots to last a full week. His argument was that the kind of fertilizer you used was immaterial to going a full week. The only thing that mattered was watering deeply enough when you did water. He convinced me and ever since then I have been Mr Deep and Infrequent.

My family drove through Phoenix 4x per year from about 1957 through 1969. Back then the standard way to manage the lawn was to keep the soil level at about 1 inch below the surrounding concrete, flood it once a week, and let it go. The lawns looked fairly crappy but that was the way they did it.

I think I found my problem and figured it early this morning. I put out 4 tuna cans to test the watering again, especially putting one in the area where it is yellowing. Three of the cans showed well into the inch of water range, but the 4th can that was directly in the area of the yellow was no where near that. It had less than half an inch of water.

So I believe that is my problem. Tomorrow I'll be adjusting my sprinklers and hopefully get that part of my lawn covered. I watered it by hand after the irrigation shut off today to help out with the lack of water.

Dchall_San_Antonio wrote:Au contraire, TW. The concept of watering weekly, at least in my mind, originated in Phoenix. .

Perhaps if it is a good quality loam soil or clay that can hold water. But mostly what I have seen out there is a mix of piss poor gravel and coarse sand. I do know west of Phoenix is farm land like Gilbert though.

"My family drove through Phoenix 4x per year from about 1957 through 1969. Back then the standard way to manage the lawn was to keep the soil level at about 1 inch below the surrounding concrete, flood it once a week, and let it go. The lawns looked fairly crappy but that was the way they did it."

that's so funny, back in the 50's people moved out to the "desert" to escape all of the pollen, etc. related allergies. first thing they did was start planting trees, shrubs and grass. more allergens out there today than back in NewJersey. got to laugh.