Green Valley Sod - Providing Hybrid Tif Grasses for Arizona Landscapes

Hybrid Bermuda Grasses

SOD MAINTENANCE

1. WATER - WATER - WATER!!! During the hot summer months, water at least 3 to 4 times per day for 10 to 15 minutes each time and in the cooler winter months, water about 3 or 4 times per day. This should be done the first 7 to 10 days. However, if you're creating a lake or river, cut down your watering time.

2. After rooting has occurred (usually after a week or two), reduce watering to once a day for about 10 minutes. The best time to water is in the early morning. Grass should never be watered at night, this only encourages fungus, disease and bugs.

Sod Tips It's important not to water the sod while it's sitting in the pallet, this will only make it very heavy, and hard to manage and stick together. If the sod looks a little dry and a bluish gray color it's going into shock (this is very common in hot summer months), don't be alarmed, this can be quickly remedied by adding water, usually with a garden hose, to dry areas, the grass will green up and recover in usually a week.

Because soil conditions in Arizona are so different, some areas require more water such as sandy areas and some require less water like clay soils. To maintain a beautiful healthy lawn, we recommended deep water soakings about every two weeks, this encourages a deep root structure which in turn produces a healthy lawn.

It's important to fertilize every 6 to 8 weeks (this is really important in summer months). After fertilizing it's important to deep soak your lawn, it could "burn" your grass.

Winter Overseeding Since the hybrid grasses go dormant after the first hard frost and don't green up till spring/summer, the option for a beautiful winter lawn is to overseed. The best time to overseed is in mid-October. The first step is to dehatch, verticut or scalp your lawn, removing all grass clipping. Select a fine-bladed perennial rye grass, following products guidelines. Water for about 5 to 10 minutes, 3 to 4 times per day. After germination, reduce water to once a day, 5 to 10 minutes.

Spring Transition The hybrid grasses will come out of their dormancy and green up when the night time temperatures reach over 65 degrees. As the temperatures increase, the overseeded grass will slowly "die" away and the hybrid grasses will slowly come out of their dormant state. Once the hybrid grasses are pretty mature, it's best to fertilize with ammonium phosphate (16-20-0), and then deep soak area. This procedure really "jump starts" your yard to enjoy throughout the summer!

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