HoosierLawnGnome fall 2016 renovation - the spring after

[tlinden]

Looking good!

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Thanks for the words of encouragement! It's definitely not what I'd call "great" but the good areas are exactly what I'm going for. This will be a test of patience, but I think it will fill in by Memorial Day - and I have to keep reminding myself that I purposefully went lighter on seeding to try and avoid an overly-thick lawn that is disease-prone. My first blueberry monostand took it on the nose hard it's first summer when I went away for a week with summer patch / brown patch / drought stress.

Major lesson learned on a big renovation - RENT POWER EQUIPMENT FOR REMOVING THE SCALPED MATERIAL and don't worry about disturbing the soil surface. The rain caused the most damage by matting the scalped grass after I seeded and I couldn't rake it all up by hand. Ugh. Made for a very patchy come in.

The best way to do it would have been to rent a bobcat skid-steer type machine with power rake and something to rake things up. I spent HOURS raking up material. I'm young(ish) and in decent shape, so it wasn't' that hard physically - just took too much time. Hard to accomplish in a reasonable time frame.

[tlinden]

Yeah my friend used his ferris lawn mower with the dethatching rake in the front and he raked & bagged it up all for me in 20 minutes. I didn't pay attention to the weather so when the rain storm matted it down I was telling him how I'll have to rake it up and he's like nah I'll come by this week haha I can't imagine how long it took for your sized lawn!

[HoosierLawnGnome]

I tried out a harley rake and power rake on two areas I reseeded. The power rakes was much better at removing the substantial thatch that had built up. However, the REAL killer was raking all that dead material up. I wish I'd had something that would have enabled me to rake it up and remove it too. I did those areas all by hand - they came in beautifully.

ETA: Mowed @ 2" yesterday. The PGR has kicked in as I didn't remove much. I also put out 1 lb / K DAP and MAP. I also had my first fertilizer spill in an area. I spent 20 minutes with a dry vacuum sucking up prill, then watered it heavily. Hope I got enough it doesn't kill off too much in that spot. A light rain came through last night of < 1/10".

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Mowed at 2" again today, applied 14 oz podium with 7 oz proxy and FAS at a very light dosage tonight as I ran out of fe.

The PGR is doing well. I'm cutting more frequently than I need to. A 1 week frequency would be fine right now. I've cut 5 times and my neighbors just cut theirs for the first time. Murdered it cutting off half had to go over it twice so many clumps. Other neighbors haven't cut yet.

[GeorgiaDad]

I also had my first fertilizer spill in an area. I spent 20 minutes with a dry vacuum sucking up prill, then watered it heavily. Hope I got enough it doesn't kill off too much in that spot. A light rain came through last night of < 1/10".

Did you tilt the spreader or refill the hopper on the lawn? After reading the horror stories of spills on this site. I never refill the hopper on the lawn. I wear an old hat. When I reach a point I need to refill, I drop the hat at my feet and move to the concrete and refill. Any spills on the pavement can be swept up. Once refilled I reposition myself with the hat at my feet, pick it up and continue on.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

I also had my first fertilizer spill in an area. I spent 20 minutes with a dry vacuum sucking up prill, then watered it heavily. Hope I got enough it doesn't kill off too much in that spot. A light rain came through last night of < 1/10".

Did you tilt the spreader or refill the hopper on the lawn? After reading the horror stories of spills on this site. I never refill the hopper on the lawn. I wear an old hat. When I reach a point I need to refill, I drop the hat at my feet and move to the concrete and refill. Any spills on the pavement can be swept up. Once refilled I reposition myself with the hat at my feet, pick it up and continue on.

I took a turn too fast. On the lawn. It's nice and crispy now in a 5 ft circle. Ugh.

The sprinklers ran unintentionally early this morning and put a frost on the grass. The good news is that it was quite obvious where a few nozzles had blown off the spray head, so I went out and put some on.

Lawn looks nice from afar. Still plenty to fill in.

Rose beds are the priority this weekend.

[GeorgiaDad]

[/quote]I took a turn too fast. On the lawn. It's nice and crispy now in a 5 ft circle. Ugh.[/quote]
Just remember. It's not how fast you spread, It's how well you spread fast.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Yeah it was a turn on a slight incline. Ugh.

Hey some pics. It's "ok" - not great, some areas are good. It looks pockmarked because I don't have 100% coverage. I think most areas will close in. Color is GREAT.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

[Cogeng182]

Looking good

[rtomek]

What a difference a week makes on that color. I'm still waiting on mine to finish waking up, but you've got me excited. Looks great!

Was your total synthetic N 1 lb/k from the MAP + DAP?

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Was your total synthetic N 1 lb/k from the MAP + DAP?

Yeah, .18 lbs / K N from the DAP. A week later and I can still see some white prill on empty spots, even with rain - so it is fairly slow release.

I have some urea for when it really needs a zing.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Dropped oh - 1-2 lbs / K milorganite and mowed @ 2" today. Getting really dry. Only .8" of rain so far this month - I did a full inch watering this past weekend. I'll probably water tomorrow morning - the soil is cracking.

[g-man]

^2 bags of milo for 1.5 acres?

[HoosierLawnGnome]

^2 bags of milo for 1.5 acres?

It's all my spreader will hold.

ALSO, I did my calculations - and using a combination of PGR+FAS and urea instead of milorganite for Nitrogen / Iron supplementation on my alkaline soil takes less time and is less expensive.

I still need the milorganite to spread micronutrients and feed newly seeded areas. Plus, I just can't give up that smell.

[g-man]

The engineer in me had to run the numbers. It will take 26 bags(936lb) to do 1.5 acres at bag rate. With the current price of $13 it will take $338. And then there is the problem of spreading it.

A couple of weeks ago I was looking to see if there was a biosolid treatment plant in indiana (like the Milorganite one). There is actually one based in Kokomo and they seem to own a few in other states. They offer free biosoids delivered thru their website. My 6ksqft is not worth the effort, but it might be worth it for you. http://merrellbros.com/pages/free+biosolids/11

PS - I could image the conversation with the wife: "Honey I'm have 1/2 ton of processed sewer dumped in the driveway. I might need some help to spreading it." :-D

[andy10917]

Put down the Google and back up a few steps.

The "biosolids" you're discussing and materials like Milorganite are so far apart in quality, safety and usability that it isn't even marginally the same thing.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Yeah, I'm not sure I'm up for testing a new biosolid on my new lawn

A big lawn is so different than a small lawn, yet some things don't change much. I have uber respect for the professionals that manage very large golf courses - and completely start to see the compromises and things you do to save time more clearly now. The small operator has a big advantage!

Anyways - might rain tonight - I put out 25 lbs of urea (<1/4 lb per K) tonight by hand (my tow spreader broke!) and am running my water in fertilizer program, because I don't trust that it will actually rain and it's upper 70s anyways! I actually enjoyed the hand spreader! It only took 6 loads to spread, and I didn't have to get my tractor / spreader hooked up, use any gas, clean it off - and the application was far more accurate - no need to use the leaf blower to clean off the sidewalks. Much more control - I think I'll keep at that. It only took 20 minutes.

Seed heads / stalks on KBG are starting to show. I'm seeing a tab bit more poa annua.

Soil temps are low 60s. Time for Heritage soon - maybe next week.

[lVlrBoJang1es]

Since this will be a comprehensive log of my progress, if I find answers on my own I'll post the info I found:

Put down the Google and back up a few steps.

The "biosolids" you're discussing and materials like Milorganite are so far apart in quality, safety and usability that it isn't even marginally the same thing.

I'm guessing this applies to my question about Detroit's biosolid plant - I assumed they'd act similar to milorganite, but was hoping more mass to the substance. I'll continue searching for compost or other forms of OM mentioned on these forums.