How to plant bermuda seed over rye grass

I bull dozed down a clay hill on my pond and covered it with topsoil. I then planted a heavy coat of winter rye to stop erosion. In the spring I want to plant bermuda grass seed. My question is...do I have to till up my winter rye to plant bermuda seed? I only have about 3 inches of topsoil. I hate to LOSE the erosion controll I have already established! I realize at a minimum I need to cut it to the ground but would that be good enough to get the bermuda seed to grow? After 6 years of struggling to get grass to grow in clay I am desperate to make it happen this year! That is why I had many loads of topsoil hauled in.

In some states your conservation dept, and or your nrcs office will loan out equipment, in your case you would need a little no-till drill to plant the bermuda grass seed in the spring and leave your rye intact which will provide a cover crop for the young bermuda for several months then die out and allow the bermuda to take off, but the dead stems will still provide cover and shade to keep the sun from burning up the bermuda thru the first year. I did that with clover, worked great.

I had an uncle that told me to plant a row or 2 of beans. He said you couldn't keep bermuda grass from growing in the beans

His beans probably were not planted in east Texas red clay! Hah!

Problem with rye and Bermuda grass is that the rye will rob a lot of nutrients that the Bermuda needs to grow. I have found that Bermuda doesn’t really take off runnnering. Till the next yeat

On the plus side is that the rye will hold the Bermuda seeds in place. I think the rye will be beneficial for the grass.

So Dave, are you saying do not till up the rye grass? Just cut it real short and spread the Bermuda grass seed? I tend to agree that just like me spreading the hay over the rye seed held it in place that very short dead rye grass would hold bermuda seed in place. Is that what your thinking?

Up here what has worked well has been just the opposite. Spread the seeds out THEN cut the grass. The seeds need to come in contact with the dirt, and the clippings act as mulch on top of the seeds to keep them from drying out.

I've never tilled the rye up. It dies when the weather warms up and keeps the bermuda seeds from washing away.