Dormant Bermuda Grass: A Middle Georgia Winter Calendar

What Actually Puts Bermuda to Sleep in Middle Georgia

Soil temperature runs this, not the calendar page. Bermuda goes dormant when soil temperature at the 4-inch depth drops into the 55 to 60F range, which in Macon and Warner Robins means roughly November through February. A hard frost can burn the blades to straw quickly. Underneath, the crown, stolons, and rhizomes stay alive, holding stored energy while the plant stops making chlorophyll and slows down.

That is the part homeowners miss when they look at a tan yard in December. Dormant Bermuda is doing what a warm-season grass is built to do. UGA Extension groups Bermuda with the other warm-season turf Georgia homeowners actually own in UGA Extension: Lawns in Georgia: Selection and Species, and all of them go off color once soil cools. Zoysia and centipede do the same thing on their own schedule.

Our job from September through March is not keeping the lawn green. It is sending the lawn into winter with deep roots and a clean seedbed, so spring green-up comes in even instead of patchy. Below is the Bermuda grass calendar we run on lawns across all 7 cities we serve, and the long version lives on our Bermuda grass care page.

September: Last Nitrogen and the Fall Pre-Emergent Window

Two things happen this month and both have hard edges. The last nitrogen of the year goes down by mid-September. The fall pre-emergent goes down between mid-September and mid-October. After mid-September we stop feeding Bermuda, because late nitrogen pushes tender growth that the first frost takes right back out.

The fall barrier is the application homeowners skip, and it is the reason one lawn looks clean in February while the lawn next door is a carpet of green weeds on tan grass. Poa annua, henbit, chickweed, and lawn burweed germinate in fall. Dormant turf has no canopy to hide them, so every winter annual stands out. Pre-emergent laid down in the right window stops them before they show. Tyler Warnock holds a Georgia commercial pesticide applicator license (Category 24, Ornamental and Turf Pest Control, license #22324) from the Georgia Department of Agriculture, and every application follows the product label.

Timing beats effort here. In late June our crews watched crabgrass break through Bermuda lawns across Macon and Warner Robins, except on the lawns where we had reapplied pre-emergent, and the second application is what held. Fall works the same way in reverse. A barrier that goes down on time in September does more than three rescue sprays in February.

October: The Last Mows Before Frost Arrives

Keep mowing at 1 to 1.5 inches as long as the Bermuda is growing. Do not raise the height going into winter. A taller canopy shades the crown, traps moisture, and gives winter weeds a place to settle. Mow on your normal schedule until growth stops at the first frost, then put the mower away.

Leaves matter more than people expect in October. A wet mat of oak and pecan leaves sitting on dormant Bermuda blocks light and holds moisture against the crown all winter. Blow or mulch them off. Cut irrigation back sharply once temperatures drop, since Bermuda is no longer transpiring the way it did in August.

November Through February: Dormant, Not Dying

Dormant Bermuda needs little from you. Soil at the 4-inch depth sits below the 55 to 60F range, the grass is tan top to bottom, and there is no growth to feed or cut. Winter work is weed control, traffic control, and not panicking at the color. Most of what we do on a lawn in this stretch is spot-treating the winter annuals that got past the fall barrier.

Water dormant Bermuda sparingly. Roughly 1 inch every two to four weeks is enough, and only during an extended dry spell, since a long dry warm stretch can dry out crowns and rhizomes. Beyond that, leave it alone. In red clay, soggy dormant turf carries real risk, so err on the dry side.

Keep traffic off the lawn when it is frosted or frozen. Walking across frosted Bermuda crushes the crowns, and the footprints show up as dead tracks in April when everything around them greens up. We see it every spring on the path between the driveway and the mailbox.

Mowing is optional and rare. If the lawn went down tall, one clean cut at normal height tidies it. Otherwise there is nothing to cut.

How to Tell Dormant Bermuda From Dead Bermuda

Pull test, then scratch test. Grab a handful of tan blades and tug. Dormant Bermuda holds because the crown and roots are alive, while dead turf lifts out in a mat. Then scratch a stolon with a thumbnail. White or cream inside means the runner is alive. Brown, brittle, and hollow means it is gone.

Pattern tells you nearly as much as the scratch test. Uniform tan across the whole yard in December is dormancy. Irregular brown patches inside a green lawn in July are a problem. In July and August we worked chinch bug cases in St. Augustine lawns in Barrington Hall, the Ingleside area, and Wesleyan Woods, and the damage showed up as spreading yellow-to-straw patches on the sunny, hot edges of the lawn. Nothing about that looks like winter dormancy.

Take a photo from the same spot every month, standing in the same place. Pictures from October, January, and April tell you more about your lawn than any article can, because you can see whether the tan is even and whether green returns where it left.

Late February to Early March: Scalp Before Green-Up

Scalping happens late February to early March, before Bermuda breaks dormancy. Drop the mower a notch or two below your normal 1 to 1.5 inches, bag the clippings, and haul off the tan canopy and loose thatch. Bare soil warms faster than a blanket of dead blades, so a scalped lawn greens up earlier and more evenly. Never scalp in April, when you would be cutting living tissue.

Spring pre-emergent goes down in the same general window, late February to mid-March, before soil reaches 55F at the 4-inch depth. That number matters because crabgrass germinates in the 53 to 58F range, and soil temperature is read at the 4-inch depth, not at the surface. The month-by-month windows in UGA Extension: Lawn Calendars for Georgia turfgrasses line up with what we see on the ground across Macon lawns.

Mid-March Through May: Green-Up and the First Feeding

Green-up starts when soil reaches 65F at the 4-inch depth, usually mid-March to early April in Middle Georgia. Bermuda comes back uneven. Sunny strips green first, while shaded areas and the north side of the house lag behind. Hold the fertilizer until the lawn is at least 50 percent green, which puts the first feeding mid-April to early May.

Feeding too early is a common spring mistake. Nitrogen on half-dormant Bermuda feeds weeds before the turf can use it. Wait for the color, then feed on schedule, about every 6 to 8 weeks through the season.

Thin spring turf is an open door. In July we watched spurge take over Macon lawns wherever the pre-emergent barrier was weak or missing, and it moved in fast on thin, sun-baked turf. The way to make Bermuda thicker is not seed. It is mowing low and often, feeding on time, and watering 1 inch a week deep and infrequent, 2 to 3 times a week rather than daily. Bermuda spreads by stolons and rhizomes, so give it light and it fills itself in. If you are weighing it against another grass for a shadier yard, our Bermuda versus Zoysia comparison lays out how the two behave.