Postby hawkeye » Thu Feb 14, 2008 12:50 am
You can put out Gramoxxone and pendimethalin (Prowl, Pendimax) just before sod or desired grass breaks dormancy, will kill all winter weeds and keep most of them from coming up in early to mid summer. Roundup is fine right now, won't hurt bermuda at all, it is dormant. Once it hits the ground, it has no more activity. Pendimethalin has soil activity, but not many restrictions. It is YELLOW and will stain everything.
If you desire a bermuda lawn, MSMA is pretty good and reasonably priced. The bureau of plant industry told me that it would be 2 more years before MSMA would be finished, then they would have to sell all the reserves in stock. Great product in warmer temps. Basically used for taking crab and dallis grass out of bermuda grass lawns. Don't be scared of it. If used properly, it will ding your yard up to a nice yellow hue. You haven't killed your lawn. Wait a few days and pour the water to it. 14 days after first application, do it again. This will kill all the weeds that you dinged up but did not kill the first time. If you have certain weeds that are troublesome in your yard, there are other things you can add, but this will give you a pretty bermuda/zoysia lawn. Centipede and St. Augustine are a different matter.
There are much more expensive products that do a better job or kill more weeds, but a yard is just not worth that kind of money. Golf courses on the other hand are. But buying a 2.5 gallon jug of something that costs 250 dollars/gal (turfgrass labeled) only to use a few ounces on your yard doesn't add up. You'd have to live to be 250 years old to use it all, and that is if you kept it from going bad over the years. I have heard of Roundup being used the same way MSMA is used, and then pouring the water to it afterwards would work just as good, but never done it myself. I use a hose end sprayer on most of my yard for simplicity. If you have something bigger and use a boom, it has to be CALIBRATED.
Fertilize your yard regularly as well as lime in the fall. 1 pound of nitrogen per 1000 square feet per month is recommended rate. If you are in the hills of MS, most lawns need serious potash and lime. Put plenty of lime and 0-0-60 and your yard will thank you for it...next year. Won't see much from it this year. But the nitrogen will help some. Plain ole ammonium nitrate will do fine for your nitrogen needs, but watering it in will help more.
MSMA has arsenic in it and causes cancer, but that is not the real reason it is going off the market. There are no chemical companies that want to pick it up and carry it through re-registration. Very expensive process. My suggestion, stock up now, keep in cool (but not cold)dry place. Will last a while.