Hammbone81 Soil Test 20180619

[Hammbone81]

Ok. That makes since. Milo will stay in the arsenal. I've found large quantities of compost at $20/ton and a compost spreader.

Regarding 10-10-10 @ 10lbs/K; what are rules going into July with hot weather. It looks like low to mid 90s for the next 10 days. I don't have an irrigation system (yet) and it takes me 4 days moving sprinklers to get 1/2" of water.

[andy10917]

It's your call - you're balancing sprinklers against the number of years it will take to fix the soil with fewer applications. Only you are there to make the call.

[Hammbone81]

Since the last post, quite a bit has happened with the lawn. The 2nd week of July was hot and brutal and we were gone on vacation. I came back to a brown lawn. The following weeks for forecasted to be reasonable weather. So I committed to turning this thing around.

1) I put down 19-19-19 at 5lb per/K
2) I started watering at about 3x per week at 0.6" of water per application

During this revitalization period, grabgrass and yellow foxtail really started putting serious pressure on the lawn. I didn't want to spray herbicides while the bluegrass was so stressed. I just stuck with watering.
After 3-4 weeks most of the yard was looking much better. There was a big section in the back where the sod died. So I came up with a plan and stuck with it:

1) Spray tenacity 3wks before Labor Day as a postM for grassy weeds
2) Put down 19-19-19 week before Labor Day (about 6wks after first app).
3) Slit seed new seed into dead sod a couple days after Labor Day (purchased from same source sod farm bought theirs) - I know, not advised to disrupt soil, but I got MAJOR problems here.
4) Spray tenacity again on day of seeding - acted as 2nd postM app and a pre-M app for new seed.
5) Spray Kelp Help on day of seeding
6) 7 straight days of rain starting day after seeding
7) Grass sprouts popped up 10 days after seeding! (Seems unheard of for KBG)
8) Been watering sprouts 2x daily since sprouting. I'm thinking of backing off to just 1x daily now.

Here's the question:
Regarding the fall nitrogen regime;
A) How long should I wait before I put more fert on the sprouts? Will urea or ammonium nitrate harm the sprouts?
B) I feel like I need to be hitting the "good" part of the lawn with more now. Should I stick with 19-19-19, or go with something that's mostly nitrogen right now? I've got about 5wks left before any nitrogen now needs to be done doing it's thing - so probably no slow release.

[andy10917]

Read about Sprout-and-Pout before applying anything fertilizer-like onto new seedlings. You can do more harm than good.

[Hammbone81]

Thanks Andy.

[Hammbone81]

Its been over a year since this threas has been active, but they dug out the foundation in the lot behind us today. I thought I'd share a pic of what our soil looks like. (Reminder - I have zero black dirt between this crap and my sod). #interestedinHumicDG

[andy10917]

Where's the picture?

[Hammbone81]

Sorry, let's try that again (didn't work with my phone).

[ken-n-nancy]

Sorry, let's try that again (didn't work with my phone).

Hmm. Not seeing a whole lot of topsoil there. Did they just put your sod directly on top of that "soil" as is?

[Hammbone81]

Hmm. Not seeing a whole lot of topsoil there. Did they just put your sod directly on top of that "soil" as is?

BINGO! All the top soil was scraped off and put in a giant pile far left of the image. Last summer they hauled it all away with many many truckloads. I have sod on this.

[andy10917]

A soon as I saw the pile, I thought "that is gonna go bye-bye".