What do I need to do to an established Bermuda lawn this time of year? -- Gerry

A: For starters, you and other folks with warm-season grasses (zoysia, St. Augustine, centipede and Bermuda) need to stop watering your lawn as though it were still August.

I still see sprinklers running three days a week. That makes no sense. There is a big difference in the water needs of plants when it's 95 degrees and there is 14 hours of sunlight, versus 60 degrees and 10 hours of daylight and they are not growing.

You are wasting water and money, and if you continue to do this during December through February, you will cause your water bill to be higher for an entire year.

The only grass that should be getting water on a regular basis is overseeded ryegrass.

After a warm-season grass goes dormant, you should never have to water it. The only exception would be if it does not rain for about two or three weeks. Even a light rain is enough.

The stored food reserves for next year's growth are in the stolons, and we don't want them to get bone dry. If this rare event happens, we need to only lightly water the grass, wetting the stolons and not the roots.

A light watering of 15 to 20 minutes with rotary heads or 5-10 minutes with spray heads is sufficient.

It is important to keep a healthy lawn over the winter to decrease the likelihood of dead spots (winterkill) next spring. This is especially critical with centipede.

You certainly don't need to fertilize now. That time passed about six weeks ago.

If your grass had disease problems such as take-all patch, you should be finished with your fungicide treatments, which should have been applied in early and mid-October.. You will need to make another application during green-up next spring.

You can continue with the same mowing height or raise it one notch higher with Bermuda, St. Augustine or zoysia. Keep it the same height with centipede, though.

Pre-emergence herbicide should have been applied the last week of September or the first half of October, but it can still be applied. Some winter weeds have already germinated, but you will prevent any more from coming for about the next four months.

It's also past time to use post-emergence weed control on summer weeds. They will soon be killed by frost.

Now through early February is the ideal time to go out on occasion and spot-spray any winter weeds. They are harder to see now than they will be when the grass turns brown.

Depending on the winter weeds in your lawn, it might be easier to dig them up instead of spraying. Hard-to-kill weeds such as wild garlic (onion) take more than one application of either Image or a combination 2,4-D product.

I always urge anyone with a lawn to do a soil test every two to four years. Knowing the pH and nutrient levels of the soil is important in having a nice lawn. This is even more critical with so many disease problems.

Proper nutrient levels will arm your grass with the ability to fight off diseases and make it more winter-hardy. You can have a soil test done at any extension service office.

It is certainly too late to plant any kind of warm-season grass seed. The air and ground temperatures are too low for it to germinate. You have to wait until about May 1. The only seed that can still be planted is cool-season grasses such as ryegrass.

Can you still lay grass sod? I would wait until next year. If you had to, I think you could get away with putting down zoysia or Bermuda sod, but you would definitely be taking a risk (because of winterkill) with St. Augustine or centipede. The grass just does not have an opportunity to develop a root system before it goes completely dormant.

If you have applied a pre-emergence herbicide, then you should not put out ryegrass seed or sod.

Sid Mullis is the director of the University of Georgia Extension Service office for Richmond County. Call him at (706) 821-2349, or send e-mail to smullis@uga.edu.