Greenrebellion's Fall 2017 Renovation

[STL]

I've been watching green. Good luck man!

[greenrebellion]

Lost power to half my house tonight. Turns out one of the legs coming in to my house is down. Electric company guy comes out and says it is a bad wire underground. So now, depending on where the fault is, they'll either have to dig up my front yard, my neighbor's front yard, or both if the faulty area is under a sidewalk or driveway (in which case they rerun the whole line and will dig up both of our yards).

They said they send tru-green out afterwards to reseed the area. Great...I'm sure they are seeding 100% elite KBG.

So now I have a 50/50 shot, either me or my neighbor and I will know sometime tomorrow what my fate is.

Why couldn't this have happened 3 days ago

[Jackpine]

That just plain sucks!

A few years back built a house in a subdivision that had a bad batch of cable installed. What a mess.

[1977212]

PGR has been also used to help suppress poa before seed down. So if you want to study that approach also it could help.

[greenrebellion]

Good news (bad news for my neighbor)...I won the "Whose Property is the Faulty Wiring Section On" lottery...they dug up my neighbor's yard in the middle of the night, mine remains unscathed.

[ken-n-nancy]

Good news (bad news for my neighbor)...I won the "Whose Property is the Faulty Wiring Section On" lottery...they dug up my neighbor's yard in the middle of the night, mine remains unscathed.

Whew! Your message had me remembering our impromptu "mini-reno" after the electrical transformer at the edge of our lawn leaked all over the place last year.

I was going to let you know that you can ask the electric company to not apply seed to your lawn after their digging. They'll be wary about it, as they are required by law to take soil erosion measures (e.g. sowing seed) after digging, but if you can talk to the right person to authorize it and then be sure you talk to whoever is on site doing the digging, too, it can be done...

[greenrebellion]

Ken/Nancy...I remember reading that reno thread of yours! Glad I avoided disaster this time around.

[smast16]

GR any updates?

[greenrebellion]

GR any updates?

Thanks for checking in. I've been dodging bullets so far which is a welcome change from last year's reno when seemingly everything went wrong.

Dodged the buried electric wire bullet as noted in my previous posts. Yesterday I was supposed to get a crazy amount of rain but most of the most intense storms just missed my area and so I ended up with about a 1/2" of rain in total yesterday.

Getting some germination, but at day 6, its probably mostly Poa Annua. As soon as these grass seedlings form a second leaf blade, I can immediately verify whether its good KBG or Poa annua as the ligule is distinctly different between the two even at a very young age, so I will keep an eye on that.

My soil doesn't have a problem germinating grass seeds, the key will be does my grass grow vertically in short order or does it stay in "pout" phase for 10 months like it did in last year's reno.

[Jackpine]

Congrats on dodging the rain bullet. Had a couple real downpours up here. Have had Bewitched pop in 6 days before so hoping for the best for you with this reno.

[greenrebellion]

Thanks Jackpine.

Walking outside and I have WIDESPREAD germination this morning. There are a few areas that are lagging but I see ungerminated seed that can still fill it in. Surprised to see that much germination at day 7. At this rate, I may only have a few more days before germination is largely completed.

As mentioned before, I do not plan on reseeding any thin areas as I don't want to delay my Urea or especially my Tenacity program given my forthcoming Poa annua explosion. I've got pots that I can plant in especially thin areas but I'll be relying somewhat on KBG spreading over the next year to fill everything in nicely.

Next big weather event is Tuesday with extreme thunderstorms expected. Hoping I can get one more dodge so my young grass seedlings don't wash away.

[smast16]

I just dodged one last night as well. Supposed to be wind and hail and flash flooding. Nothing happened, but a minor 10 minute sprinkle if you can even call it that.

Fingers crossed for you on Tuesday.

[greenrebellion]

Weather forecasts have been very consistent for the past five days calling for 90% plus chance of heavy thunderstorms late Monday night into Tuesday. Most are calling for 1-2" of rain. Not good!

Any rain dances, chants, or storm spells folks do around here to help sway the odds in their favor?

[greenrebellion]

I am getting germination everywhere, but I am surprised how many areas are coming in really thin. Haven't had enough rain for washout to be a concern and I broadcasted my seed very evenly. Shrugs...Maybe I'm just being impatient but I only have 36 hours until 2 inches of rain so my grass needs to get MOVING!

[andy10917]

Don't base any judgements about germination success based on what you see at 7 or 8 days. At 21 days you START to think about judging it, but I've had new/additional germination as late as 33 days.

[greenrebellion]

^Thanks for the input Andy.

I survived another massive rain event. Expectations the day before the cold front came through was for an inch or two of rain. The front has now passed as of an hour ago, no further rain expected today, and I dodge the heavy rain pockets only getting 0.27" of rain. After getting 5 inches of rain in the 3 weeks after hydro-seeding in 2016, I am very happy to be getting a bit of luck this time around.

There is some puddling, but hopefully not much washout. The areas that are germinating the slowest are the ones where water pools and the ground has been too saturated. So I'm going to let things dry out a bit for a day or so before running sprinklers again.

Lots of germination at this point, with plenty of thin spots scattered throughout, but we'll see how things play out over the next few days once I can get those areas to dry out a bit.

[Jackpine]

You must have been born under a lucky star, looks like you dodged the bullet on heavy rain again

[greenrebellion]

Looked through my whole reno area and per Andy's point, I am most definitely still getting germination in some areas. That said, even if no more seeds germinated, I think I'd live with what I got and avoid reseeding. I have some thin areas still but they all have at least one KBG plant in every square inch so I figure it will fill in overtime. It may not all be a "sod" by October, but this is a marathon, not a sprint as I've been told! I have some pots too that I can use to fill in the worst areas.

By avoiding reseeding areas, I can make sure not to delay my Urea apps and more importantly my Tenacity & pre-emergent apps that I want to get down asap for Poa annua control.

All in all, I'm pleased with the progress.

[seiyafan]

Did you start any pots for spot repair?

[fusebox7]

That's great news! You'll be pleasantly surprised at what happens with "1 KBG plant per square inch". They will mature faster and be healthier. Glad this is all turning in the right direction for you. Fall is here for us Michiganders