Dormant Bermuda Grass: What to Do and What to Skip

Your Bermuda Lawn Isn't Dead — It's Dormant

Every fall, we get calls from homeowners in Macon, Warner Robins, and Bonaire who are convinced their Bermuda grass died. The lawn has turned tan. The blades crunch underfoot. Nothing is growing. They want to know if they need new sod.

Almost always, the answer is no. Bermuda grass goes dormant when soil temperatures drop below 50°F — and in Middle Georgia, that typically happens between November and early March. The grass isn't dead. It's in survival mode, protecting its root system underground until warmer temperatures return.

Dormancy is a natural, healthy process. A lawn that goes fully dormant in winter is often a sign of well-established grass with a strong root system. The problem comes when homeowners treat dormant Bermuda like it's broken — and that's where real damage happens.

How to Tell If Bermuda Grass Is Dormant or Actually Dead

The color alone won't tell you much. Both dormant and dead Bermuda grass look tan or straw-colored. The real test is what's happening at the crown — the zone right at soil level where the roots meet the blades.

Pull up a small section of turf. If the crown is white or cream-colored and the roots are intact, the grass is dormant. If the crown is brown, mushy, or the roots fall apart easily, you may have dead grass on your hands.

Another method: look for patterns. Dormancy typically affects the entire lawn uniformly. Dead patches often show up in isolated spots — near a tree, along a driveway edge, or where there's been foot traffic damage. If the whole lawn went tan at once, it's almost certainly dormant.

How Long Will Bermuda Stay Dormant in Middle Georgia

In Middle Georgia, Bermuda grass is typically dormant for three to five months — roughly from late November through mid-March, sometimes stretching to early April in cooler years.

Dormancy length depends on soil temperature, not air temperature. A few warm days in January won't wake your lawn up. Bermuda needs sustained soil temps above 65°F to come out of dormancy and start actively growing again.

You'll know green-up is happening when you see thin green shoots pushing through the tan blades. That's your signal to shift from dormant-season maintenance to active-season care.

What You Should — and Shouldn't — Do to Dormant Bermuda

Dormancy is not the time to experiment with your lawn. A lot of well-meaning homeowners do things during winter that set their Bermuda back by weeks come spring.

The biggest mistake is heavy foot traffic. Dormant grass doesn't recover the way active grass does. Grinding a path across your dormant lawn — even just from repeated dog runs or parking on it — can kill the crowns in those areas and leave dead stripes that show up in May.

Fertilizing dormant Bermuda is another common error. The grass can't use nutrients it can't absorb, and excess nitrogen sitting in the soil over winter can actually feed weeds while doing nothing for your turf.

Herbicide timing, on the other hand, is a different story — and one worth understanding.

Will Roundup Kill Dormant Bermuda Grass

This is one of the most common questions we hear — and the answer matters a lot if you're thinking about spot-treating winter weeds.

Glyphosate (Roundup) can be used on fully dormant Bermuda with lower risk than during the growing season, but it is not zero-risk. Research from universities in the Southeast has shown that glyphosate applications to dormant Bermuda can cause injury, particularly if the grass breaks dormancy earlier than expected after a warm spell.

The safest window is during deep dormancy — typically December through early February in Middle Georgia — when soil temps are consistently below 50°F. If temperatures have been swinging warm and cold, skip the glyphosate. A partially active crown is far more vulnerable.

For most homeowners dealing with winter broadleaf weeds, selective herbicides are a better option than glyphosate. They target the weeds without touching the Bermuda at all.

Mowing Dormant Bermuda — The 1/3 Rule Still Applies

Bermuda grass in dormancy doesn't grow, so there's rarely a reason to mow it. But if you have a ryegrass overseeding or if your lawn has some warm-season growth from a mid-winter warm stretch, mowing rules still apply.

The 1/3 rule is simple: never remove more than one-third of the blade height in a single mowing. If your Bermuda is normally mowed at 1.5 inches, don't drop below 1 inch in one pass. Cutting too much at once stresses the crown and slows recovery.

For a dormant lawn with no overseeding, the one practical mowing task is a late-winter scalp — cutting the lawn short before green-up begins. This removes the dead top growth and lets sunlight reach the soil, which helps warm it faster. Do this in late February or early March, before the grass breaks dormancy, not during active spring growth.

Can Bermuda Die While Dormant — Covering and Other Risks

Yes, dormant Bermuda can die — and covering is one of the ways it happens. If you cover a dormant lawn with tarps, pallets, equipment, or even thick mulch for an extended period, you block light and trap moisture. The crowns can rot or suffocate, and you'll end up with dead patches that don't recover.

Extended periods without light are hard on dormant turf even when it's not actively growing. If you're storing materials on your lawn over winter, move them. A few weeks is usually recoverable. Two or three months is not.

Other dormancy risks include ice damage from repeated freeze-thaw cycles, compaction from heavy equipment or vehicle parking, and erosion on bare areas where dormant turf is thin. None of these are disasters on their own, but stacking them creates real problems come spring.