Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Discuss how to and whether you should renovate your lawn
Marinegrunt
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Re: Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Post by Marinegrunt » September 23rd, 2017, 10:47 pm

seiyafan wrote:
September 23rd, 2017, 10:12 pm
Best lawn on the block by the end of the year.
+1

It might be the best on the block already. It's looking awesome!

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Jackpine
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Re: Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Post by Jackpine » September 24th, 2017, 6:13 am

Aw, come on know who are you trying to fool, That's PRG! :razz:

Just kidding... Awesome job!

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llO0DQLE
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Re: Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Post by llO0DQLE » September 24th, 2017, 8:12 pm

Come on Jackpine - we all know he just FAS'd the poa...

JohnP
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Re: Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Post by JohnP » September 24th, 2017, 8:36 pm

greenrebellion wrote:
September 23rd, 2017, 10:35 pm
Thanks all! I am pretty excited about how this is coming along.

The flags were to help me with accurate Tenacity spraying :).
So you knew which column you hit? I thought it was utility marking.

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probasesteal
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Re: Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Post by probasesteal » September 24th, 2017, 9:05 pm

Quality work man


greenrebellion
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Re: Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Post by greenrebellion » September 24th, 2017, 9:06 pm

JohnP wrote:
September 24th, 2017, 8:36 pm
greenrebellion wrote:
September 23rd, 2017, 10:35 pm
Thanks all! I am pretty excited about how this is coming along.

The flags were to help me with accurate Tenacity spraying :).
So you knew which column you hit? I thought it was utility marking.
Yup, always walk at a flag. Once the grass is established and I'm no longer using a reel mower, then I just use my mower wheel tracks which are exactly 20" apart.

HoosierDaddy
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Re: Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Post by HoosierDaddy » September 25th, 2017, 1:24 pm

Looking great!

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Re: Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Post by greenrebellion » September 26th, 2017, 9:00 am

Grass is growing too fast, even in this heat wave! I have to mow every 2 days to keep from taking more than 1/3rd off. I'm mowing at 2" with a reel mower, will probably increase the height of cut to 2.25" (maybe 2.5") soon and finish off the rest of the season at that height.

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ken-n-nancy
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Re: Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Post by ken-n-nancy » September 26th, 2017, 9:59 am

greenrebellion wrote:
September 26th, 2017, 9:00 am
Grass is growing too fast, even in this heat wave! I have to mow every 2 days to keep from taking more than 1/3rd off. ...
That has got to be a tremendous relief, after having a pair of prior renovations in which the grass never really got growing before winter! (Well, unless you count the poa annua!) ;)

Congrats!

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Re: Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Post by greenrebellion » September 26th, 2017, 10:03 am

Yes it is a relief! I enjoy mowing, so no complaints here.

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Re: Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Post by greenrebellion » September 26th, 2017, 7:19 pm

With this being the last day of the heat wave, I applied Dithiopyr tonight and will water it in early morning. Worried the huge swing in temps might get another round of Poa annua to germinate so wanted to get this down asap.

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probasesteal
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Re: Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Post by probasesteal » September 27th, 2017, 2:12 pm

greenrebellion wrote:
September 26th, 2017, 7:19 pm
With this being the last day of the heat wave, I applied Dithiopyr tonight and will water it in early morning. Worried the huge swing in temps might get another round of Poa annua to germinate so wanted to get this down asap.
Congrats. I know you never thought you would get to the Pre-Emergent!

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Re: Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Post by PW405 » September 27th, 2017, 7:38 pm

Good lord. I just read this entire thread and your thread from last fall. I never really understood what all this concern about annual bluegrass was about until now. Here, annual bluegrass is a 3-6 week issue that is a self-resolving problem. Glad your struggles are finally coming to an end. Keep up the BLSC and KH though. It made a way bigger difference in my soil than I thought it would!

greenrebellion
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Re: Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Post by greenrebellion » September 27th, 2017, 8:14 pm

PW405 wrote:
September 27th, 2017, 7:38 pm
Good lord. I just read this entire thread and your thread from last fall. I never really understood what all this concern about annual bluegrass was about until now. Here, annual bluegrass is a 3-6 week issue that is a self-resolving problem. Glad your struggles are finally coming to an end. Keep up the BLSC and KH though. It made a way bigger difference in my soil than I thought it would!
Ha, hope you enjoy the read. That's a lot of posts to read through. I seem to have found a formula for success so I hope I can now duplicate that next year when I re-do my backyard.

After two reno threads both getting to 150 + posts (this one is over 250), I'm hoping my 2018 backyard reno will be a boring affair that goes relatively smoothly.

PW405
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Re: Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Post by PW405 » September 27th, 2017, 10:25 pm

So... I'm still not entirely clear.. what do you think was the straw that broke the camel's back here? You used even more Tenacity last year didn't you? Think it was just the frequency of the Tenacity applications?

I'm not joking about the BLSC and KH though... I bumped my applications up to weekly going into seed down. I was shocked at how much the texture of the soil changed. We have pretty thick clay in OK and it really helps!

greenrebellion
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Re: Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Post by greenrebellion » September 28th, 2017, 7:58 am

Yes I used more Tenacity last year. The odd part is that there is a small area in my current reno where Poa annua didn't die and got itself established. Despite continuing with the Tenacity apps, I have been unable to kill it now that it is established. So I don't know what factors contributed to success this year, but I suspect it is due to one or a combination of the following:

1. Hit the Poa annua while it was still relatively small rather than fully established like it was in 2016 (first Tenacity app 21 days post seeding in 2017)
2. Used more frequent smaller doses of Tenacity.
3. Used heavy fertilization from the beginning of the tenacity regiment (study I read showed fert & tenacity synergistic)
4. Switched from a cheap sprayer to an expensive backpack sprayer with Teejet nozzles which allowed me to spray with a fine mist rather than a course one. Another study I read said foliar contact with small droplets increases poa annua kill rate
5. Used distilled water

So for my backyard reno next year, I'll probably do Tenacity apps starting day 21 like I did this year. It significantly bleaches and sets back the KBG, but doesn't seem to kill much of it (the only areas where I killed some KBG were areas where I mistakenly double applied Tenacity)...Given the density of Poa annua germination in my renovations, an early Tenacity start is a must for me.

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Re: Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Post by jimmy » September 28th, 2017, 12:17 pm

I don't think you should discredit the work you did improving your soil to help your KBG establish better.

greenrebellion
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Re: Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Post by greenrebellion » September 28th, 2017, 12:26 pm

jimmy wrote:
September 28th, 2017, 12:17 pm
I don't think you should discredit the work you did improving your soil to help your KBG establish better.
Oh for sure, my response was focused on the weed issue.

I'm on pretty crappy, somewhat compacted new construction soil and an extra year to build micros/macro nutrients plus the BLSC / KH certainly softened up my hard, hydrophobic soil and I'm sure made it easier for the KBG to establish.

So when you look at the night and day difference between the utter failure in 2016 and what appears to be a grand success in 2017, I guess the takeaway is that there wasn't one magic bullet, but instead numerous factors (and a TON of sweat equity) that played in to it.

PW405
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Re: Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Post by PW405 » September 28th, 2017, 7:29 pm

greenrebellion wrote:
September 28th, 2017, 12:26 pm
jimmy wrote:
September 28th, 2017, 12:17 pm
I don't think you should discredit the work you did improving your soil to help your KBG establish better.
Oh for sure, my response was focused on the weed issue.

I'm on pretty crappy, somewhat compacted new construction soil and an extra year to build micros/macro nutrients plus the BLSC / KH certainly softened up my hard, hydrophobic soil and I'm sure made it easier for the KBG to establish.

So when you look at the night and day difference between the utter failure in 2016 and what appears to be a grand success in 2017, I guess the takeaway is that there wasn't one magic bullet, but instead numerous factors (and a TON of sweat equity) that played in to it.
I feel ya on the sweat equity... I didn't even reno, just some aggressive raking and general leveling/preparation on my 2,500' and 1,000' front/back lawns. It'll either remind you that you need to be in the gym more, or make you thankful that you're already going. In my case, it was a bitter reminder.

greenrebellion
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Re: Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

Post by greenrebellion » October 2nd, 2017, 8:44 am

Urea went down Saturday. Average first frost is 10/9 so I'll put one more app down next weekend and probably call it good until the winterizer.

Serenade went down last night.

Spot sprayed non-grassy weeds (all I have is Purslane and Carolina Geranium) with Weed B Gone (2-4,D/mcpp/dicamba). Also painted some grassy weeds with roundup. And finally, I hand picked Poa annua - I find a few plants that survived tenacity here and there and hand pick them whenever I see them.

What an insane last 3 months this Front yard reno has been for me. I feel like I can finally catch my breath, very little left to do except one more Urea app and a winterizer...oh and mowing, I am still at 2", but thinking about going to 2.25" and staying there the rest of the year.

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