10 month old pond and having trouble with erosion when it does rain having trouble getting anything to grow mainly cause its dry any ideas?

Unless your pond builder was careful to put a layer of good topsoil over the top of all the soil they used in construction, it is likely subsoil with low "nutritional value" for plant growth. If you can get topsoil spread over the area now, all the better. An aggressive program of fertilizing may help otherwise. To get new grass to grow, it needs regular moisture. Not just when a big rain comes and washes seeds away. Have you put some barrier over the seeds when sown? Straw or some covering will hold in moisture and help hold things in place.

Dnickolaus
The dam was so long and high that he put the topsoil on the back side the dam so the waterside didn't get any.have fertilized but lack of rain is biggest prob. Like everything else it is slooow. Will try the hay.

Use a pump from the water side to water it regularly. .

Plus a sprinkler head. We used an irrigation sprinkler head for ours.

Thanks guys that's good ideas. I can rig something up that will hook up to 12 volt battery

Talk to Highflyer. He's had a solar sprinkler set up before, and he's working on another one.

Thanks Esshup
Now that's prob the way to to get it done

Pat

Pat, at this time of the year, getting grass seed to germinate and grow is a character builder. I've recently tossed rocks in the rutted areas to slow down the water.

Pat, I completely agree with DD1. Summer finally got here with a vengeance, and 100+ day's are gonna make it tough to germinate seeds for a while. Correct watering is gonna be the key.

I might look at Bermuda sod checkerboarded to cover more area. If you fertilize, I wouldn't go with the typical TX fertilizer blend of 30/0/10, 40/0/10, etc. I would go with a more even blend of 10/10/10, 13/13/13. Good root structure is what you're after right now, not a lush green lawn.

Here's what we did on the backside of our dam several years ago, and this grass took pretty well. Another plus was that the sod broke up the water flow, and stopped most of the erosion while the sod was settling in.

Al and DD1,
Got a little Bermuda started from seed bu not much. Gonna try nursing it along and fert. This fall and also toss out more rye to try to hold it together till the Bermuda fills in. Where did you find Bermuda sod? One could sprig that stuff and it would take off. The back slope of the dam is not eroding like the front due to slope I think. Thanks for the input and if y'all have any more ideas I'm all ears


Pat

Pat, a better idea might be to buy the Bermuda squares and cut them up into pieces. Doing a whole dam could be costly.

Dave I have not seen Bermuda turf where I live only st Augustine grass and it would be dead in a week cause of the dry but I live south of Houston

Lowes and Home Depot both have it here. However, this late, I doubt if they do. The best(cheapest) place to get it is from the guys that actually sell sod.

David
They don't carry it down here but I will check at palastine next Tim I go up. Thanks
That will be easier to do than seeds. May have to wait till spring


Pat

For a place where grass will wash away plant some oats with your grass seed. Oats will come up first and hold the grass seed in. Also oats will hold moisture in. I did this on a hill by my garage many moons ago.

Due to the cost difference, I've generally planted wheat in the Fall on new ponds. Also, it can be a good place to hunt deer.

I seeded my new construction dam with Bahia grass and then covered it with "seed hay". This was in the Florida Panhandle in November. The seed didn't come up until the following spring but by mid summer the dam looked almost as good as the surrounding Bahia pasture. Now it's been almost 2 years and the old and new are blended together. It is drought tolerant once established and reseeds itself too.

When I have had to do any digging in the pasture or around the pond the Bahia grass root system has been.....impressive. Cheap to buy, good availability in my area, and its drought tolerance made it a good choice for me.

My horses seem to like it too!

Good luck!

Thanks guys
I think I will try a little of all your ideas and something will come up and work

All of the above are great ideas

Adding to the mix, I too have a brand new pond threw down millet seed mixed in with the Bermuda. Millet will germinate almost over night when it receives any rain. Now my entire bank is completely full of the two grass. The millet instantly popped up creating the root system for the Bermuda to follow behind.

Pat, next time im out there I'll take a picture you won't believe the results.

Caviler03
As dry as it is it's prob to late this season but will do so next spring, love to see pix when ya can. Hope we have a wet fall ,got a lot to plant-dam is 450' long

Cav, thanks for the millet comment. I didn't know that.

It's looks like it's around $30 for 50lbs. I may have to try the millet myself.

Millet would make great dove hunting too...

I was just thinking that- not sure how legal - it should hold the dirt til the grass takes over



Pat

Yes I count about 60 dove every time I go out there. I also put up a deer feeder so that attracts a lot

Dove season just around the corner- can't wait- dove breast over a half jalapeño stuffed w/ cream cheese w/ bacon wrapped around it and put on grill over hickory and post oak
OMG!!! yum

Caviler's advice about millet interested me, so I gave it a shot.

Here's my situation, and here's what I did. The lower half of my dam is covered in weeds, and the top half is maintained Bermuda. IMO, turf is better than weeds, but weeds are better than dirt. Both help with erosion, but turf is more maintainable. Because of this, I waited to kill all the weeds until I was ready to over seed with Bermuda.

So, the weeds were sprayed with Roundup and I waited 2 weeks to burn this area off. An application of 13/13/13 fertilizer was put out at half the recommended rate. It was approximately 9' from waterline to existing Bermuda.


The burnt area of the dam was drug with a chainlink fence and the surface tension of the soil broken up. 4 areas were set up using driveway markers to test different methods.

One area was left bare (for a control area), one was Bermuda only, one was Bermuda and Millet, and one was clumps of Bermuda planted 6" above the waterline. All the seed was mixed with a course ground corn meal to make it easier to tell if the areas got uniform coverage.The whole area was watered twice a day for 3 days, then only once a day at dusk for 45 minutes since.

These are pics after 2 weeks.
Bermuda only

Millet and Bermuda in the background, Bermuda only in the foreground.


At least for me, here is what I found.
1) The areas that weren't drug with the chain link fence had reduced sprouting of both Millet and Bermuda.
2) The areas that were burnt, and rich in Potash, had the best results.
3) Caviler wasn't kidding. The Millet was up in less than 3 days. That turned out to be almost a week before the Bermuda sprouted.
4) The later in the day you water, the longer the ground stays wet. The dam was still wet each morning, so I'm assuming the seeds stayed wet for the same length of time.
5) In the area that had the quick sprouting cover crop, the Bermuda coverage seemed to be more uniform. The Bermuda in the non-Millet areas came up just as quick, but was more in clumps.
6) The existing Bermuda that was transplanted to the waterline is still growing, and has required no watering. The water absorbed by the dam has kept it growing.

Right now, the only variable is the Millet. I'm not sure what it'll look like in a month, but I know it will need to be mowed to keep the Bermuda growing.

Also, I choose the reduced watering schedule to see if it was possible to grow Bermuda in TX heat, and not have to babysit the seeds for an extended period. I have no doubt that a more regular watering schedule would benefit the sprouting, but I wasn't inclined to water that often.

Here at least, the middle of September is usually the latest Bermuda seed can safely be put out and still survive the winter. So, I'll sow rye grass soon, and let that be the cover crop for the winter until I can sow more Bermuda next spring.

However this turns out, at least the weeds are gone, and the Bermuda's growing.