How to kill bermudagrass

Im looking at doing some spring plot up in Oklahoma next year but its hard enough keeping out bermuda now. Any ideas? Im thinking maybe plowing two to three times each time letting it freeze. Bermuda is very hardy and its seeds are like killing ben ladin. Im thinking ice might do the trick. Any help?

cows

Wowa, what just happened.. o.O

EDIT: Mods are doing some serious cleaning I guess.

lol, kinda what i was thinking! i think the mods got rid of the troll, and got rid of most of the thread lol!

Roundup

You guy's are trying to kill it and I've invested thousands just trying to grow it, that's not right.

ya i put scotts turf builder winter blend on mine last year and burt it up.Was for St.Augustine

let the hogs eat it...root it up.

X2 roundup

roundup does work....its a glyphosate based chemical, which means it is non-selective so it will kill anything else you put it on with the bermuda.

Also you want to spray while the bermuda grass is actively growing so mid to late summer would be a good time to apply the herbicide wait a minimum of 7-10 days to then cultivate the area to bring up the rhizomes and stolons from underground to the surface so they can dry out and die.

It may take 2-3 yrs to completely eliminate the bermuda grass, but if done correctly the first time you can probably get rid of 75-85% of it with this method.

Also your level of success may depend on your soil type. I think sandy soils have a higher kill level than more clay type soils for some reason.

X2 on herbicides. There are some that target grasses specifically and don't harm broadleafs.

burn it, plow it, then round-up it.

But if you round up it its going to be a year before you can get any thing else to grow.

Some grasses you don't get rid of, you just cut them back.

I would be happy to send over the summer fungus that got a hold of my prized yard of the month bermuda

thanks tinker bell so frost dosnt work? So the best way is years of reputition?

Round up losses its punch after 2 weeks then you can plant jgiles. Atleast it has for me

If you plow it and get a hard freeze it may kill the roots, but you may have to turn the soil 2 or 3 times to get that to happen.
With that amount of time and diesel fuel it may be better to just spray. Also the rhizomes and stolons can be as deep as 6 inches or more which would be some serious soil turning to expose all parts that could resprout.

Same here HWY_MAN,you can spend a lot of money to get it to grow in your yard but then again you can spend a lot of money trying to kill it where you dont want it.It's a no win situation.

I was going to suggest he get a contract with a baler, a hauler, and a cattle company. Surest way to kill bermunda that I know of...

I was looking at my friends 115 ac of bermuda. he has 25000 invested in growing the stuff, just sprigged in 40 ac. has it all irrigated off the colorado.

Heck turn it over and throw some winter rye. Deer like bermuda too.

Spray fusilade and round up together wouldn't hurt to add in a little fertilzer to help with the up take. Not sure fusilade has an ag label but it does kill bermuda grass.

If you plant your foodplot thick enough it will choke out the grass

Bermuda is one tough critter to eliminate, short of the Roundup/non-selective herbicides. And I have never heard of one working on dormant or plowed grasses; the more active in growth, the better the uptake of the herbicide.
And as mentioned, no residual activity, so whether you seed or sprig, you are good to go.

Re the "thick" food plot..I doubt any food plot will choke out Bermuda...maybe slow down the spring growth, but once the spring food plot stuff dies....lush Bermuda!

Why kill it, the deer love it.

diesel

I would pay that to get rid of my patch

Where are you guys hunting that deer eat grass? It's always been my opinion that deer do not eat grass unless nothing else is available. They eat woody browse and certain weeds. And Roundup has no residual effect. It systemic, which means it only works in direct contact.

It may be a little cold for rd up, i think it works better in warmer weather, but give it a shot

You must not watch deer as much as you think, if you don't think deer eat burmuda.

I kill Bermuda grass with a Bermuda Gun.......

Deer prefer Rye grass.

Have done it...respectfully disagree

Well I live on a ranch and see deer daily, also studied wildlife management in college.

They are not eating the burmuda, they are eatin the small forbes, clover that are growing close to the ground in the bermuda. People just assume they are eating the bermuda, but they are not.

You can put a deer in a pen with the thickest, most lush stand of bermuda in the world, but if there is nothing else to eat in there the deer will eventually starve to death. Not near enough protein.

Bill

I also live on a ranch and I know what I have seen. Where they eat the bermuda there are no little forbes in it. I guess they will also starve to death eating oats and rye grass?

Oats/rye/wheat and bermuda are two very different grasses.

I wasn't saying deer will NEVER eat bermuda, but it is a last choice for them. And if they are eating bermuda they are eating the young shoots at the very bottom of the plant.

Have you ever noticed how deer actually prefer oats/wheat when it is just sprouting and is fresh sprouts rather than when its taller and ranker.

They will eat it either time, but I've had fields that for weather reasons were planted several weeks apart. When the younger field bagan sprouting and coming up the you would suddenly see almost no deer in the mature field but the new field would be covereed up.

Bill

That grass is worth money. Perhaps a sod company would be interested come spring.

deer will eat some bermuda for digestive purpose's but very little

ask your wife to water it when you go out of town for a week. hard to keep your grass alive in odessa, to dang dry.

This reply is right on the money. Bermuda is tough to kill and its going to take time, typical of a none native species (think feral hogs). I've been recovering improved pastures back to native and it is a long slow process. I can accelerate food plots because of the size but it still takes two to three years to eliminate it.

Improved pastures are one of the key ingredients of the land fragmentation mix that is cutting up our deer hunting country in this State. Land gets busted up, people want to maintain the Ag exemption but don't have enough country to run livestock on native country. They plant and destroy the habitat. On any whitetail deer food list, bermuda is next to dirt. It offers deer nothing of value. It cannot be compared to oats or ryegrass as they are completely different species, not the same genus. Kind of like saying a whitetail is the same critter as a moose.

There are 10 to 15 species of grasses depending on which list you look at but bermuda, oats, and ryegrass all fall into three different specific species Cynodon, Lolium, and Avena respectfully. No comparison between each other than they are Poaceaes (grasses).

On my food plots, I've become very pleased with the results of one method of eliminating grass because it also helps retain any moisture from rain.

In the spring, I let the grass grow to it's maximum height and then shred it extremely close to the ground. This stresses the grass. I then spray it with any Glyphosate, I prefer High Yield KillzAll or Eraser over Roundup because of the cost in my area. I let the field sit until I see the grass die and then moldboard it. I do not condition the field (disc or any other manipulation) but I do spray it with the glyphosate whenever grass growth reaches about 4" to 6". The plowed field absorbs every drop of rain throughout the year.

I think moldboarding is more effective over discing in that it digs down 6" to 8" and flips that soil to the surface exposing the soils content to the elements. Discing simply reorganizes the the depth, it doesn't invert it. Depending on disc angle, it can simply cut and stimulate the grass roots.

The next spring, I start the process over with moldboarding. When grass doesn't grow, the field is usable for food plots.

ill send my cows to eat it

Plowing bermuda will make it spread and have better roots... that's what we do to get it to spread in pastures or baseball fields (different strands).

Two doses of roundup during the heat about two weeks apart will kill it, but mix it as it says... most people over do it and it doesn't kill as well as it should. Roundup is designed to kill over time, not instantly, but will get a better kill...