12/6/22: One final mow to clean everything up. The rain is ridiculous lately. Abnormally dry should be over any day.

11/26/22: Did my final planned mow at roughly 3 in (but will consider mowing once more if a window of opportunity occurs). And put down the rest of my Winterizer fertilizer application.

11/27/22: Got 0.4 inch of rain

11/28: Gutters cleaned out

Some Oak trees hold onto lower leaves until April!

It was a 3.5 week pause for me this year on the first areas that were winterized (yesterday). Shortest ever for me. As a result, they did not start looking Nitrogen deficient this year. Looks like it will be a 4.5 to 5 week pause on some of the other areas that haven't been Winterized yet.

Yesterday, 11/15/22: Final major leaf cleanup in front. (This is the only batch that wasn't mulched in this Fall, and >95% of leaves are now down.) Put down final Winterizing fertilizer application on the coldest lawn areas, which is now getting watered in by rain. Had a few minutes of snow earlier ...

95% or so of our leaves are now down. And a lot of them were brown or dry this year.

Yes, but how much of that is urea?

If it was urea, you'll probably lose a little bit to volatilization over those 3-4 days until the rain. But overall, you shouldn't have losses that are too significant, even with temps over 70F yesterday. The worst situation would be we got a sprinkle of rain between now and then; ideally you want t...

Anyone else in adjacent or nearby states see about 75% of their leaves come down over the past week (or within a short period of time whenever that was in your area)? I think we are going to be at 90% very soon. Also, it's not even the end of the first week of November. Usually, leaves drop mostly d...

My pause has been starting about 10-15 days after my average first frost date since I've been doing lawn care...10 years now. It has been pretty darn onsistent for that period of time. The only change has been me extending Fall Nitrogen applications by a week or two after learning that I didn't need...

Sounds like you're on the right track. Next year you can prioritize which diseases may be the biggest issues and save the synthetic fungicides for use on those if needed. In my case, rust is actually the biggest disease challenge I deal with, and the only thing that I end up having to treat each yea...

One thing you can do to tell if it stopped growing is pick an area to use as a test that requires a couple of mower passes, and mow it at the same HOC setting in the same direction each time to test for growth, with the bag on the mower (a push mower works best for this). If you have more than a few...

The clumped stolons and/or roots/lower stems (bursting appearance) as in your photo is a known characteristic of some biotypes of Triv. So chances are good. This is likely a drought tolerant type of Triv, and has been seen in Virginia and verified by lab analysis there. I'm guessing you don't necess...

Growth started to slow here (in all except the habitually most lagging lawn area of my yard) over the past week or so. Like clockwork, this was, once again, about 2 weeks after my average first frost date (which itself is Oct. 15-18). This means my yard is entering the pause period right about as pr...

I bought liquid SLS from the above listed company. I haven't even made a soil conditioner yet. I just use the SOS alone currently...about 1/3 oz per thousand square feet as a wetting agent. I know I'm paying for water, but I'd rather not deal with the powder.

Flyin-low: Definitely makes sense. The urea conversion slows in those temps around 50F, so it acts as more of a slower release N at that point. That's why you're able to use your higher rate (1 lb of N) without consequences as long as the weather cooperates and you apply very evenly. The downside of...

I've been thinking. A potential (or likely) reason why slow release Nitrogen (e.g. methylene urea or urea triazone) does not work as well as expected as a stand-in for an aggressive Fall N regimen is due to soil temps. Once we get into October, the micro herd is already slowing down. Urea is of cour...

Keep the dead grass unless it's causing issues. It protects the soil. It won't stop regrowth from rhizomes.

Andy explained the weekly schedule in a recent "alternatives" thread. The takeaway was that the weekly frequency was the maximum that did not overdo it, and that it helped mask uneven coloration from any skips versus lower frequencies, or areas that accidently got fertilized heavier, and was unlikel...

Yeah. I have to agree with Turf Toes. Everyone says KBG spreads best at 2 inches, but that hasn't been my experience, either. It seems to work better (for me) at 3.5-4 in, but more frequent mowing seems to help a bit. But don't increase your mowing height if it's lower just because of that. If you'r...