Been looking at lots of Coastal, Russell, and Tift 85 these past two weeks as producers question timing of their first cutting and purpling / burning witnessed at the tips of their Bermudagrass leaf blades.

With the first cutting usually of lower quality, due to all the weed trash (so much rye grass), many of y’all I know are cutting now to set yourself up to be able to cut every 28-30ish days after. On this schedule, if you haven’t laid your grass down, we should have time to dry and bale the hay (maybe with some tedding) due to another forecasted week without precipitation.

Coastal Bermudagrass with purple & burnt symptoms, Crisp Co, May 2020

Much of the purpling / burning I’ve been called out to see has been cold damage from the low nighttime temps this past month or so. This symptom can look worse if fertilizing, and hence lots of new tender growth occurred, at an un-opportunistic time just before the colder temps. Hey, we can only control so much.

With that, below is a chart from Dr. Lisa Baxter, UGA Forage Agronomist, which describes three green-up issues in Bermudagrass.

Identifying common bermudagrass damage

Lastly, here is GeorgiaForages.com FB page where, if you scroll down to a post from May 7th, you’ll find a video where Dr. Baxter discusses diagnosing these early season green up issues in more depth as well as scouting and management techniques: https://www.facebook.com/GeorgiaForages/

Thanks y’all. Be safe and if you have any question give me a shout at (229)-417-7062.

Best Wishes,

Joshua Grant