Subject: re: Bermuda grass

From: jack rowe <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 22:28:53 -0500

Bermuda grass and Johnson grass... hmmm... don't you just love those range
scientists? 

For those so lucky as not to be acquainted with Bermuda grass, it is a
stoloniferous grass which spreads via its very-tough stolons on several
levels, from right at the surface to 8 or more inches below the surface. It
is very difficult to remove all the stolons from all the levels, even by
digging and sifting the soil. One stolon internode will happily propagate a
new plant. NEVER till Bermuda grass! Bermuda grass spreads rapidly both
below ground with it's stolons, and by above-ground stems which can grow a
couple feet in a month easily, jumping low barriers (buried sheet metal,
etc.) and quickly rooting along the stem at internodal joints. Incredible
stuff, drought and heat-resistant as can be...

I've had the best luck keeping Bermuda grass out of uninfected beds with
the buried sheet metal trick, but the beds must be watched and above-ground
spreading stems removed regularly. I haven't found any way to deal with
Bermuda grass which doesn't involve ongoing vigilance... Digging sprigs as
soon as they are seen, and digging them all the way down, helps keep total
work down a LOT in the long run.

For preparing new beds in Bermuda grass, the cardboard and compost trick
(scalping grassed areas and covering with overlapped cardboard and compost
or soil) actually works very well in early spring IF the cardboard is
well-lapped, wetted before spreading soil (to keep soil from getting
between the laps), AND if the edges are protected (sheet metal, etc...)
from new invasion. Some grass will usually survive and need digging...
waiting too long to dig surviving grass is a mistake, as it reestablishes
quickly and deeply.

I have found a good winter crop of Ryegrass to be pretty effective at
drowning Bermuda grass in areas where winter freezes kill Bermuda grass
back to the goround if the Ryegrass is left to grow from mid-winter onward.
By the time weather warms and the Bermuda grass wants to start growing, the
Ryegrass will be thick and tall and the Bermuda grass attempting to sprout
will languish, as it likes full sun. This often needs repeating. Forage
Sorghums (Sudangrass, Redtop, etc.) can do some smothering in the summer if
the Ryegrass has knocked the Bermuda grass back somewhat already. 

Ticks (like grasshoppers) are discouraged by mown grass, and dogs get a bit
of relief from ticks and fleas by having good doses of raw garlic and/or
brewer's yeast slowly introduced into their diets (not cheap, but does
actually work pretty well, though of course not perfectly). Probably not
much of any way to actually get rid of them, especially in tall grass or
woods. 

Ticks, fleas, Bermuda grass, nutgrass, IRS, mosquitoes... what fun would
life be without these little reminders that chaos is ever watching over our
shoulders, waiting...eh?

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 1997 10:40:27 -0500 (EST)

In a message dated 3/18/97 10:35:44 PM, [email-masked] (jack rowe)
wrote:

>quickly and deeply.<<

REPLY:  It is unnecessary to "scalp" herbaceous vegetation before sheet
mulching.  In my opinion, leaving the grasses uncut, or other weeds, and just
flattening them and mulching over them weakens the plant much more.  I've no
scientific research to back me up, only 30 years experience in sheet
mulching.

Pigs will eradicate Bermuda grass and covert the solons to pork.  Chickens
eat it and will destroy it eventually if stocked at a rate in excess of 70
birds per acre -- probably more like 100 birds, and left on the area for a
few years.  Deep mulch in the poultry forage helps discourage the grass while
culturing invertebrates that contribute a lot to the nutrition of the birds.
 By developing pie-shaped yards around a poultry house, all weeds can be
eliminated from an area and then it can be planted.  This can be an
agroforestry, of course, birds and trees sort of work together you know, and
you eventually you will have a really productive oasis.  Planting comfrey
about 6 or 8 inches around the perimeter of the exterior fencing will provide
some green forage for the birds and eventually help to form a barrier to
invasion by stolons.  If the bermuda grass gets ahead of the poultry in one
of your pie areas, toss in a few piglets.  It is easy to confine pigs with
poultry netting if you run two lines of electric fence around the inside of
the fence.  The poultry netting slows down the pigs and grouds them rather
nicely while the electric shock provides ample discouragement.  Pigs despise
electric fence and a 10 foot wall of concrete could not be more effective.
 The height of your electric depends, of course on the size of your pigs.
 Use common sense.

One more tip:  geese also like stolons and to a lesser extent, so do ducks.
 If you must plow, and avoid it if you have the discipline, they will go
through and pick out all the stolons, nut grass bulbs, etc.  Chickens can be
added for larger ants and termites, and both ducks and chickens control
grubs.

Basically, if you can afford the poultry netting, or come up with something
similar such as woven fence with living fenceposts and split bamboo, you can
turn the bermuda grass into an excuse for a very productive little area so
that you can graze the rest.  

Now if someone can tell me how to control bermuda grass when it goes aquatic
it will be a fair swap.  In one pond that we have, it holds its own against
water hyacinth(1) and in our canal is as serious a blockage as willow.  I'm
betting on Asian water buffalo, but as they swim underwater they could be
difficult to confine in places.  any ideas?

For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since
1982), Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses,
consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981). Next  correspondence
permaculture training by email starts in Aug., '97. Internships available.
Copyright, 1997, Dan & Cynthia Hemenway, P.O. Box 2052, Ocala FL 34478 USA
 [email-masked]  

We don't have time to rush.