LeftField11's Lawn Reno - 9,600 sq ft - Quack Battle

[LeftField11]

Looks exactly like what I had last week, and it was also from the lawn being super wet from all the rain. Never got anyone to help diagnose, but it was resolved within 2 days after just dropping the orange scotts fungicide on it.

Thanks mgarnto1. I picked up some Scotts Fungicide tonight, and also a liquid fungicide made by Bayer. Did you spot treat with the Scotts, or spread it over the whole lawn?

[mgarnto1]

Looks exactly like what I had last week, and it was also from the lawn being super wet from all the rain. Never got anyone to help diagnose, but it was resolved within 2 days after just dropping the orange scotts fungicide on it.

Thanks mgarnto1. I picked up some Scotts Fungicide tonight, and also a liquid fungicide made by Bayer. Did you spot treat with the Scotts, or spread it over the whole lawn?

I spread it over the whole lawn. I figured it one spot had it, then more were soon to come.

[LeftField11]

Proxy error - not sure where to put this so it's going in my reno thread. I started to get the "you're behind a proxy" error today. I haven't knowingly changed anything. I get the error on my PC and iPad, not on my iPhone. I looked through my Comcast router settings, didn't see anything blatant. Any ideas?

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[LoneRanger]

^ You should post in "Site Questions" forum.

[LeftField11]

It's fixed. I think it was a site issue, I didn't do anything to fix it on my end.

[LeftField11]

Day 56 - 8 weeks. Nothing too exciting happening, but it's growing and filling in. The one week difference on the hill in the backyard is significant. Even the completely bare hill in the front yard is showing signs of life. I'm mowing every 3-4 days now with the rotary mower. As much for mulching leaves as cutting the grass. Urea app yesterday, thinking about alfalfa this weekend.

[LeftField11]

I put this together today. Man it looked like hell on day 27. I was kind of going out of my mind at that point.

[ken-n-nancy]

Nice to see the collage photo with the way it looked every 4-8 days or so. Really shows the way the grass is slow to get started but can really take off in that 1-2 month period. Well done.

[Paul]

Looking good and filling in nicely. Next May it will look even better.

[LeftField11]

Looking good and filling in nicely. Next May it will look even better.

Thanks Paul, that's what I'm hoping for. I'm very surprised at how much it's filled in these last 2-3 weeks. It seems that the combination of a second Tenacity app, milo and urea apps, mowing, and cooler temps really kicked things into gear.

[ericgautier]

Turning out awesome!

[LeftField11]

Dropped 80 lbs of alfalfa pellets on it this evening. Hoping it helps the spreading.


[ Post made via iPhone ]

[LeftField11]

So, I think I'm dealing with quackgrass now. It's not nutsedge, crabgrass or goosegrass. Tenacity didn't touch it. Is there anything else that is often misdiagnosed as quack? I'm going to assume the worst. I picked some of it but can't confirm 100% that the auricles look right for quack, the plants are still pretty small. It's next to the neighbors weed patch, so I'm guessing this is going to be an ongoing battle. Rhizomes will be coming over forever.

After scouring these boards last night and this morning I think I'm going to bite the bullet and paint it with glyphosate. I was considering Certainty, but I'm worried that it's too late in the season for the multiple apps required, and the temps might be too low by this point (lows around 40) for the Certainty to be effective.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

That's looking pretty good. Crabgrass and goosegrass are the most similar to my eye. Sometimes K31 or another wide bladed fescue look like it.

I bought a long tube with paintbrush device on the end this year to help me paint it so I don't have to bend over. The sight was bringing down property values in the neighborhood and the fines were staggering.

I spent all spring and summer spraying my patches and some still survived. I have a bunch of sod I'm relocating from expanding beds I'm going to move in after digging up the worst spots. Even then a severed rhizome will send up another shoot.

[ Post made via Android ]

[LeftField11]

I think this pretty well confirms quack.

[edenl01]

Post a close up picture of the roots. They are kind of bulbous and the leaf blades almost make me say tall fescue.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[HoosierLawnGnome]

I've noticed Tenacity highlights quack really well when intermingled with KBG. The 2oz rate does a good job. You see the whitening and get all excited like you killed it, but it fades away and goes back to normal.

I'm wondering if the wide bladed fescue might not whiten as much? I'm not as familiar there, but it might be a way to help identify if the clasping auricle is hard to differentiate.

Either way, the least expensive way to kill it is glyphosate. I like the painting - very precise, very economical, very friendly to the environment - but can be a time hog.

[LeftField11]

Post a close up picture of the roots. They are kind of bulbous and the leaf blades almost make me say tall fescue.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

Most of the time when I pull one, I get no roots, it snaps off at the base. I think what we might be seeing in this pick is KBG roots that I inadvertently grabbed while trying to pull the weed. I'll go see if I can find it, I think I threw in down in the driveway in disgust.

[LeftField11]

I've noticed Tenacity highlights quack really well when intermingled with KBG. The 2oz rate does a good job. You see the whitening and get all excited like you killed it, but it fades away and goes back to normal.

This is exactly what happened. In my newbness, I thought it was yellow nutsedge and the tenacity got it. Now it's back and better than ever. FML. It's due to be mowed today, but I'm wondering if I should let it go another day or 2 to give the quack a chance to grow a little higher and identify itself. Or cut it low so that I hit less KBG while painting.

Just when I thought things were going pretty well, I'm back to realizing I don't know wtf I'm doing.

[LeftField11]

Quack battle.

So the plan of action is mowing half a notch shorter (around 1.75") today, Wed, and painting the quack with glypho on Saturday. Hopefully the quack will have grown a little faster than the KBG by then and make itself more easily identifiable.

Anything we miss with the glypho this fall, we'll spot spray with multiple rounds of Certainty in the spring.