[lukinrats]

I bought some land about 2 years ago. This land was mostly pasture and was used by a farmer for growing hay (bahia). The land is beautiful with some nice big live oaks on it. I have since built a house on this property and have tamed the bahia grass quite a bit. I have a 60" lazer Z mower that does very well as far as cutting this grass. It is 8 acres and I cut about 2 acres around the house frequently....therefore the yard looks pretty good. I cut the rest about once a month at the 4" cut on my Lazer Z. I want to eliminate the bahia that is part of the 2 acres I cut around the house. I know that bahia is not the native grass in my part of the country (Mississippi). With all of this said....is there any way to just kill the bahia and let whatever the native grass is to take over. Most people tell me that I will have to use a tractor to disc the soil and then plant whatever I want in the yard, but this will be very expensive due to seed and watering. I think that inhibiting the bahia growth and allowing something else to take over will be a much better way to go. Does anyone have any advice on this subject.

Thanks,

Nathan Smith

 

[MTR]

For about almost 2 acres? I have not done that large eliminating bahia. There are many ways to do, one is like someone recommended a tractor disc the soil (turf), uprooting all of it which is might be expensive. The other way that I did when replacing bahia yard with St. Augustine is to use Round-up pro, you might want to hitch spreader with your Z, I only use 3 -gallon tank(many times till covered) with soluble Round-up and here I go spraying the entire lawn like twice a couple days a part. It works great, killing them in one week and then you just try to level and digging out dead roots as much as you can, until the lot is level, then dump new top soil on them and flatten as nice as you can so you be ready for St. Augustine Sod. You need to have a least 3 weeks since application before laying new sods. Two people can do it easily, the hard part is clearing the lot which might be easier having a Bobcat doing clearing those dead root, believe me they come out very easy, but you must be very careful on sprinkler system, what a pain.

 

[Precision]

Depends on the time frame you are looking at to get the other grass to take over. I live in florida and changed a bahai lawn over to St augustine with very little work. Down side is it took 3 years.

Just get a plug cutter and cut out areas to add in st augustine plugs. Plug the yard at your convience, then water it to keep the st augustine active. I put in 1 plug per 3 sq ft. Did it 30 or so plugs a night after work. Then just sat back and watched the yard change over.

The runners will gradually take over the yard. More plugs equals quicker conversion.

Same idea but buy st augustine sod and sod cut out some strips and replace with st augustine. Same thing will happen. just have to be carefull not to create a rise in the lawn where the strip is.

Or cut out sod sized wholes and drop in St augustine sod squares.

Properly watered and fertilized st augustine will fill in at least a foot per growing season and upto 3 feet

If you aren't using st augustine or another creeping turf, life is a lot more difficult.

 

[gpenny]

Manor herbicide will eliminate Bahia w/o hurting centipede or bermuda. Have used it for two years with fantastic results!

 

[lukinrats]

I really do not know that I have any kind of other grass growing in the yard....but I figured since bahia is not the native grass in mississippi that using manor to kill the bahia would allow the native grass to start growing. what do you think?

 

[gpenny]

If you are in Mississippi I can almost guarantee there is some Bermuda. You could also overseed with Bermuda after eliminating the Bahia. I've done this with good results. However, this late in the season I would not treat as dormancy is right around the corner. I would treat in early to mid-May of 2005.

 

[Sneaky]

Vantage and Cimarron kill only the bahia and nothing else.

 

[gpenny]

Sneaky,
The label for Vantage warns to not use on Bermuda. I have actually used Vantage to kill Bermuda in Centipede lawns.