HoosierLawnGnome fall 2016 renovation - the spring after

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Well, the damage is 90% gone - I can barely see the bands now. Still cutting @ 2". Put out a few more bags of milorganite a few days ago. The regular, light fertilizer have really filled areas in - I'd say I'm 96% filled in at this point. I need to treat yellow nutsedge still.

[edenl01]

Concerning the light frequent apps of fertilizer, what is your interval? Bout every 2 weeks or so? And are you alternating between milo and synthetic?
Just trying to find a safe but meaningful rate and interval.

Thanks

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Concerning the light frequent apps of fertilizer, what is your interval? Bout every 2 weeks or so? And are you alternating between milo and synthetic?

1-2 weeks, and yes. You can search through my posts for more specifics. The amount of milo I'm spreading comes to <2 lbs / K normally, but I can see prill on any golf ball sized piece of ground, so it's good coverage. I don't even hardly count it as a fertilizer addition.

I try to drop fertilizer (particularly synthetic) before natural rainfalls as it kicks things in high motion.

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I picked up 3/4 ton of fertilizer last night - urea, potash (MOP 0-0-60), and DAP (18-46-0) in equal amounts. The farmers don't fertilize when it's wet, so it's best to show up then so you get more service and don't trouble them. The co-op had urea, but the guy said they didn't have much left and it was clumpy - so he wasn't comfortable selling it to me as a spreadable fertilizer. He called up the hardware store they work with and had them sell me bagged urea at the same price per lb. Win! I also bought a cheap, temporary tow spreader off of them. I'll use it until I can figure out what I want to do long term.

Since rain was forecasted, I drove home, assembled the spreader, spread 140 lbs MOP and130 lbs DAP, then raised the HOC to 2 1/2".

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Still cutting @ 2 1/2".

I have some rust around one of my rose beds where the overspray from my almost daily new rose bush waterings keeps it to damp and the roof drains, so I sprayed that area with fungicide today. I need to do my second blanket spray of fungicide on the whole yard as soon as I can.

Did the second spot spray of Triclopyr with 4 gallons 1 oz of my product over ~1,000 s.f. Lots of clover coming in, sedge is all yellowing.

I'm picking poa annua in two border areas where there is a lot of pressure and wind drift from adjacent properties. This is going to be my life for as long as I own this property I think! I have 100 s.f. that's pretty bad, and a couple other areas I've picked but it is interspersed and harder to pull without making holes for a single stalk of annua. Ugh.

The neighbor to my south decided to start treating their 1 acre of lawn next to me instead of just around their house. Fine by me, but I didn't really care if they kept it however they wanted. The company doing the work has already knocked down 1/3 of the weeds out there. I thought about offering to treat it some, but she seemed very anti-24D. I mentioned that it's highly likely that whatever the company she hired was applying likely contained 24D. Not too long thereafter the treatments started.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Fungus

Rust has set in. Amazing how fast it comes in! I first noticed it 3 days ago. I immediately put down a fungicide on the problem spots I saw.

The next day, I cut the grass @ 2.5", then applied propicanizole on those areas + 5 feet since it looked more orange, and I saw more spots elsewhere when I mowed. Tossed some urea on them too.

Yesterday it looked worse yet, so I applied 3 bags of milo on the lawn (with zinc sulfate), gave the lawn a quick 2 minutes of irrigation, then applied 1/2 lb of Azoxy WDG (Heritage) in three different directions with FAS - used 90 gallons of water to apply it. Heavier in the problem areas.

It's supposed to rain today, and the turf is still damp - so hopefully that will all get washed into the soil well enough to also help stave off summer patch.

Hopefully I nipped it in the bud! I had a bad rust infestation last fall. When they harvested the corn and soybean fields it was an allergen nightmare - like you could see all the spores of stuff freed to fly through the air!!!!

[fusebox7]

I, too, have gotten rust badly over the last week on my No. Mix. It's in the area of my yard that gets morning sun/afternoon partial shade. Only this part of my yard gets the rust. It's pretty terrible looking isn't it? I suspect my issue is no fertilization (no winterizer, no spring app).

[HoosierLawnGnome]

I, too, have gotten rust badly over the last week on my No. Mix. It's in the area of my yard that gets morning sun/afternoon partial shade. Only this part of my yard gets the rust. It's pretty terrible looking isn't it? I suspect my issue is no fertilization (no winterizer, no spring app).

Yeah, I hate the orange hue! Ugh. And it stunts growth when it gets really bad.

I've been fertilizing regularly and lightly for the last month, applied a preventative fungicide app several weeks ago, am cutting fairly short (2.5"), and I still got rust. I even let up on the PGR to use the rebound effect to push out some herbicide damage I had. Still got rust!

The difference is mother nature for me. I haven't been using my irrigation system, but we've had long periods of cool and wet weather followed by warm spurts - and I think that's what causes. Couple that with a lot of rust spores probably surviving over the warm winter from my fall problem, and voila - RUST FOR ME

Hopefully I'll push it out with top growth and then we'll get some dry weather.

[g-man]

You guys talking about rust made me get up and walk around the yard. It all looks good. Now I have to get back to work and finish a report.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Picture time!

Spreading has exceeded my expectations, but I still have plenty of small holes to fill in on the north side of the lawn.

Still cutting @ 2 1/2".

The fungus has largely gone away. I put out 12 lbs of urea and some milorganite the other day before a rainfall.

Pardon the muddy tracks! I will need to fix the low spots in the future for sure so I can mow the day after a rainstorm.

[fusebox7]

Awesome!!! Blueberry IS pretty upright isn't it? That looks fantastic standing "at attention". Beautiful job.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Yeah, it is a very vertical turfgrass - more so than bewitched KBG. I really like the edge it does.

I'm wondering if the more vertical growth habit is why it grows "faster" and needs cut more often?

I'm cutting every other 2-3 days now that the PGR has faded.

[Pete1313]

Looks beautiful HLG!

[andy10917]

Nice!! Holding up your end of the ST6 Blueberry requirement, I see...

[Paul]

Looks very nice and filling in nicely. That's allot of grass to maintain with what looks like very little shade.
What will be your watering habits this summer?

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Looks very nice and filling in nicely. That's allot of grass to maintain with what looks like very little shade.
What will be your watering habits this summer?

It takes 12 hours to water it all 1". I break it up into front and back, Sat and Sun morning. I ran it this past weekend after we hadn't had rain in a week. Then it rained 1/2" last night It needed it! I water fertilizer in and syringe the lawn when it gets 90 degrees. It was 91 in my yard this weekend at one point, so I syringed then.

So, I got a good, solid stress in on my turf to train those roots before the real summer comes.

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It's cooling off a bit, and I have some clover and yellow nutsedge yet, so I ordered more triclopyr to use. I think I'll need a blanket spray before summer hits full force. Th spot sprays haven't kept up with the clover especially. I need to hit the quackgrass again too, but it's much less of a problem than it was. I also have a few patches of nimblewill that I've been pulling by hand. The poa annua only remains on the northern property line, and it should start dying out soon anyways.

[seiyafan]

Is it a good idea to wait till the lawn turns purple for a day or two before watering?

[Paul]

It takes 12 hours to water it all 1". I break it up into front and back, Sat and Sun morning.

Hope you have a well and not city water, otherwise it must cost a small fortune to water your lawn!

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Is it a good idea to wait till the lawn turns purple for a day or two before watering?

I don't think a purple lawn is a good thing! lol

@Paul - I am on a well that puts out a LOT of water!

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Spot sprayed 1.5 oz of my triclopyr herbicide on clover / nutsedge / chickweed last night.

[seiyafan]

I see, I usually wait till the lawn turns purple to water, not sure if it's a good practice or not.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

I see, I usually wait till the lawn turns purple to water, not sure if it's a good practice or not.

My lawn gets this dirty hue to it when it starts getting drought stressed. I was reading an article by a local sports turf manager that talked about his field practices - he mentioned letting it show the first signs of stress once in the spring to train the roots - I decided to try that. Otherwise, I water regularly and try to avoid seeing stress altogether, which is what I'll do the rest of the season now.

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I raised the HOC to 3". We have a solid week with no rain and temperatures in the high 80s to low 90s in the forecast. Here comes the summer stress!







Above you can see my test mow patch for the reel mower. It still leaves some shredded blades that end up dying and turning yellow.