| i have tall fescue and it is being taken over by bermuda. how do i get rid of the bermuda grass? |
| It may sound like an odd combination, but since bermuda is a warm season grass and fescue is a cool season grass, bermuda is often overseeded with fescue so the lawn stays green all year around. Getting one grass out of another is not easy. If the area is allowed to go through drought the bermuda will outlast the fescue. Hand digging the spots is an option. Using a systemic herbicide containing glyphosate such as Roundup is another method of removing Bermuda grass from a lawn, but it requires killing out the bermuda in the summer and reseeding the fescue in the fall. August is an excellent time to kill Bermuda grass in fescue lawns. The grass must be actively growing before the herbicide will work. Apply the herbicide while bermuda grass is actively growing for complete kill. It is important to have a complete kill of bermuda before seeding in the fall. It's almost impossible to have a 100 percent kill the first spraying so save enough herbicide for areas missed during the first spray. Bermuda will be back next June if you fail to have a complete kill. Once the bermuda is dead, rake out all the debris and overseed with fescue. A thick, healthy fescue lawn will crowd out bermuda in the future. |
