Bermuda lawn care calendar

Bermuda is the opposite of zoysia: once it is awake it wants to be fed and mowed hard. The mistakes in spring are feeding before it has fully greened up, and missing the pre-emergent window.

Pre-emergent (a product that stops weed seeds before they sprout, so it only works ahead of germination) goes down mid-February to early March. Refine it with your local soil temperature rather than the date: crabgrass germinates near 60°F and the product has to already be down.

First nitrogen waits until several weeks after the lawn turns fully green, typically between early April and May, at ½ to 1 pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet.

Mowing starts when the lawn first turns green. Set the mower as low as you can without scalping and keep the grass under 2½ inches.

Thatch: power rake (vertical mow) in late May, and only if the thatch layer is over ½ inch.

Spring dead spot shows up as circular dead patches 2 inches to 3 feet across. The recovery strategy is nitrogen monthly from mid-May to mid-August to let the bermuda grow back into the patches.

This is bermuda's season and the feeding schedule is genuinely aggressive compared with every other lawn grass.

Apply 1 pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet every four to six weeks through the summer. Bermuda converts that into growth and recovery; it is the reason a bermuda lawn can heal damage that would take zoysia a full season.

Mowing height: most bermuda lawns sit between 1 and 2½ inches. Lower means more frequent mowing, not less work.

Crabgrass and goosegrass that already escaped need post-emergent treatment, typically two or three applications seven to ten days apart rather than one heavy pass.

White grubs: preventive treatments go out in June, before the damage appears.

The fall job is winding the lawn down without leaving it soft going into cold weather.

Raise the mowing height by ½ inch as fall arrives. NC State stages this by region: early to mid September in the mountains, mid to late September in the piedmont, and late September to mid-October on the coastal plain.

Last nitrogen: no more than ½ pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet in September, or four weeks before your first expected frost, whichever comes first. Feeding later than that pushes tender growth into freezing weather. A potassium-heavy ratio such as 5-10-30 is the better choice here.

Disease: fungicide applications are timed to soil temperatures between 60 and 80°F, which is a number to watch rather than a date to book.

December through February: do not fertilize. Keep leaves and debris cleared, and treat winter annual broadleaf weeds like chickweed and henbit while they are small.

Rates are nitrogen per 1,000 square feet, from the NC State bermudagrass maintenance calendar. "N" is nitrogen, the first number on the bag.

When	What to apply	Rate
Early April to May, after full green-up	Nitrogen	½ to 1 lb N
Summer, every 4 to 6 weeks	Nitrogen	1 lb N per application
Mid-May to mid-August (spring dead spot recovery)	Nitrogen, monthly	per above
September, or 4 weeks before first frost	Potassium-heavy, e.g. 5-10-30	no more than ½ lb N
December to February	Nothing	—

Turn a target N rate and your real square footage into pounds of your specific bag with the fertilizer calculator.

Bermuda needs about 1 inch of water each week. On sandy soil, NC State suggests ½ inch every third day instead, because sand holds less.

Water between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. Early morning watering lets the blades dry as the sun comes up; evening watering leaves them wet overnight, which is how disease gets started.

To find out how long your sprinklers need to run to deliver that, set out straight-sided cans, run a zone 15 minutes, measure what you caught, and use the irrigation runtime calculator.