Bermuda grass in WNC

Im becoming more and more convinced that Bermuda grass might be the best grass for this area to make hay out of. I'm in the far western part of the Piedmont of NC right at the foothills of the mountains. There isn't any Bermuda grass grown around here for hay.....you have to go south of here in SC or east into the coastal plain of NC to find any Bermuda hay fields. Common Bermuda grows wild here and is used for yards as well so I know it will grow well here.

I actually planted a small patch of seeded Bermuda year before last to see how it would do here before I went to the trouble of getting sprigs of a hybrid variety. I really planted the seeded Bermuda too late to begin with and then we didn't get a rain for over a month and the seed didn't come up until early August. It came up great and grew extremely well until first frost. We had an unusually cold winter and I guess since it was planted so late it didn't develop a develope a deep enough root system to survive the first winter.

What brought this back to mind is I was looking at a field of smooth brome and I noticed some wild common Bermuda had creeped in from the fence and was growing very well. It was very thick and knee deep. This was on the 25th of May and we had had a cooler than average April and May so I was quite surprised the Bermuda was already that large.....especially considering it was common Bermuda which I'm accustomed to seeing only a few inches tall growing in a yard or along the highway. This got me to thinking that if the Bermuda grows that well in this early in the summer here it just might be the best grass for this area.....I had previously thought we might only have enough hot weather for three cuttings of Bermuda but now I'm thinking at least four is possible. I wish I had a whole field like this clump of Bermuda in the pictures.



Bermuda grass in WNC