Question
I currently have bahia sod for my new home in SW Florida( installed 6 months). I hate it, it looks terrible and i refuse to have my yard look like this. I have an irragation system and maybe i overwatered, not sure but its full of weeds ,thick in some areas thin in some areas, looks dead in other areas.I've fertilized,weed and fed. I think I giving up on this lawn and want to plant Floratam. What steps do i need to do to get rid of my current lawn and re-sod?  Thanks a bunch

Answer
Hi Michael;
Well  to start, I wouldn't have a sprinkler system. I can only see problems for me with one. i water with soaker hoses, water till the soil is wet at least 6 inches down, and water only once a week. I rewater when the top two inches are dry during our 100_ heat waves in the summer, if I have time to do it, but if i don't have time for a couple of days, there is still moisture down where the roots are, so the grass doesn't suffer or show signs of distress.
Deep watering makes the roots go deep to get water. sSallow watering makes the roots come close to the surface to get water, and exposes the grass to heat, cold and drought damage.
When the roots come to the surface, they die and that is what causes thatch.
With deep roots, you never get a thatch buildup and don't have to do the larorous job of dethatching.
Put sugar on the lawn, at the rate of 1 pound sugar per 250 sq.ft. of lawn. Stop using chemicals, and build a healthy enviornment for lawn critters and beneficial insects and microbes and weeds will not grow and thrive in your lawn.
Even crabgrass and johnson grass will not grow there.
For every harmful insect that you want to get rid of in your lawn, there are hundreds of beneficial insects that feed on the harmful ones. toads, lizards, and grass snakes also feed on these harmful insects. Make a healthy envoiornment for the beneficial critters and you won't be biothered with insects you don't want.
I have st. Augustine grass, and for the last 8 years, I have not put anything on my lawn except sugar. I have thick, dark green grass and no weeds or pesky insects.
June bugs are a problem here in North Texas. We have the grubs in the soil, and when they mature in june, the june bugs swarm.
I see maybe a half dozen grubs in a whole year now, because my critters eat them all, and I see maybe a dozen or so June bugs when they adults come out. I used to be unable to go ourside at night for the jun ebugs.
My neighbors that just will not get on the organics bandwagon have tone of grubs and june bugs.
I do not know what Bahia grass looks like, as I have never seen it, and the pictures I have seen are not that clear or close up enough to really see what it looks like, but if you like the grass and just hate the weeds, use sugar, and stop using the weed killers and in a couple of years, when they soil is rich, you will no longer see weeds.
the first time I put doen the sugar, in a couple of weeks there were about half as many weeds, and in a couple of months, no weeds could be seen. I put sugar again for the fall feeding, and nothing else.
The next spring some weeds came up, but about half as many as the year before.
the next year, there were very few weeds, and very scattered. the next year, and every year since, no weeds have come up where i put sugar.
I threw some in the alley where poison ivy grew each year. no more poison ivy comes up.
After you out down the sugar, you can either leave them alone or pull some weeds. After a couple of mowings, you will se far fewer of them. Weeds like poor soil. Make rich soil and you won't have weeds.
Chemical fertilizers kill the beneficial microbes that work round the clock, year long, enriching your soil. Sugar nourishes them.
the reason I don't like the irrigation sytems is they are too hard to program to water deeply.
Watering an inch or two every couple of days will make the roots come to the surface to get water, and you get the thatch. that little amount of water just teases the grass roots. When you use sprinklers that spray into the air, the water evaporates. when the telp is up in the 90s and above, as much as half the water evaporates and doesn't even reach your soil, but it registers on your water meter.
hope this helps.
If you have more questions, write me anytime.
Charlotte