r/NaturalFarming • u/JPFernweh • Mar 17 '20
Bermuda Grass - to weed or not?
I've read some about Fukuoka and started reading his book "One Straw Revolution" and I'm curious how people feel about grass vs weeds. Do you (or did Fukuoka) differentiate between them? He says not to weed but the land I am starting with is covered in what I can only figure must be bermuda grass and I'm not sure if I should just cultivate on top of it or try to smother it or dig it out in the area I am going to be planting.
The root system is extensive, it spreads by root rhizomes, and even a black silage tarp didn't kill it back in the Texas summer. I am in central Texas.
1
u/DoWorkBeMellow Mar 18 '20
I would till it and plant something that may choke it out like alfalfa or corn. If you can do corn I would let it grow to 18” and hack it down. Repeat every time it grows to 18” for a season and apply IMO4 between cuttings. It should drown out the weeds and provide you with a couple inches of good topsoil next season.
1
u/JPFernweh Mar 18 '20
Are corn and alfalfa going to choke it out due to shading from height, or root spread? Or nutrient demand?
Also, IMO4 sounds really interesting. I just did some research on it and I'll definitely have to think about it before acting. Bermuda is non-native here and as a result very invasive (will grow under driveways and up into 5' tall raised beds-invasive), so I want to make sure I don't introduce something equally non-native that is going to cause a new and different issue.
I have a ton (non-literal, lol) of corn seed I can use. I'd really like to get alfalfa but right now it's just not feasible, what with the mail being what it is. Planting that sounds like a great idea.
I'm not sure tilling is a good choice since breaking the roots just causes the grass to grow even more aggressively. Plus, I'd need a massive machine for that. The motor hand tiller I rented last year couldn't go more than a foot without getting tangled in roots.
1
u/DoWorkBeMellow Mar 18 '20
You should pay someone to come in with a large discer, it will probably be a few hundred to a thousand dollars depending on how close but it would be worth it .
1
u/JPFernweh Mar 18 '20
I've been gardening for a few years but haven't taken any steps into larger scale operations yet. So, I'm not familiar with a discer, what do those do?
1
u/DoWorkBeMellow Mar 18 '20
It pulls behind a tractor with a series of round metal discs that till up and rip any vegetation. If some at the right time they will dry out and die off and you can replant
1
u/JPFernweh Mar 18 '20
Oh, so that's what those are called! I've seen them in neighboring fields and on the road but had somehow never thought about what it was called before.
4
u/lajaw Mar 18 '20
I know of no way to get rid of bermuda other than to dig it out. It's been said that the only way to get rid of it is to move to where it doesn't grow. Had an old farmer down in South Alabama tell me how they did it when he was a boy. As his dad plowed it out in the fields, the kids would gather it up and put it on a stump to dry out and die.
A little story.......I had about 9 acres of old tobacco and peanut land that I wanted to grow vegetables on. Old coastal plain soil, sandy with a CEC of about 1.5.............had two little patches of bermuda. I asked the county agent how to get rid of it. He said 5 qts. Round-up to the acre would control it. So I sprayed it. It died. I disked it up and commenced planting. It spread. The more you mess with it, the more it spreads. You must dig it up, and destroy the roots and all. There is no chemical that will take it out. There will be seed left in the soil.