Prepping for significant Fall overseeding - TTTF

[redcoat]

Pretty sure it was fungus. Watered plenty, tried not to water too much, but hot dry spell.

As I said above, certain area sprung up faster than others. Then it all started getting brown spots and died.

Now I'm stuck. Can't overseed again. From what I hear, dormant/spring doesn't work well, so I'm stuck managing this fescue with lots of bare patches for another year

It's 4 weeks since I put down starter + mesotrione, so I guess I need to figure out a pre-emergent before even more weeds spring up.

[probasesteal]

I seeded in W-S 8/13/17 hybrid bluegrass and fescue came in great. I overseeded a few bare spots about 3-4 weeks ago, all of those spots turned brown and died or substantially thinned. I did use Serenade, I think it was a fungal issue related to the humidity we've had recently. The established grass is doing well however.

I would either drop meso again and overseed (again) or drop Pre-Em and plant pots (to plug bare areas).

Explain to your wife it might be time for bermuda or zoysia...

[STL]

Sorry to hear that. Why can't you seed the bare spots again? On my Reno last year in November I noticed very late germinated sprouts, and it seemed to come in fine. I think reseeding the bare spots now in your area could work and is better than nothing.

[redcoat]

I figured it was too late in the year already? It was 43 last night?

I've never tried fungal treatment. Maybe that's my problem . But if I do attempt a reseed, what would be the recommended steps to try and prevent this happening again?

[STL]

Not ideal, no doubt, but worth a shot given the circumstances.

I personally don't think you'll have the same issue with fungus as you did before. It seems that heat wave wreaked havoc with several members but that should be past now. To prevent you have to be... preventative. Learn to identify the conditions that favor disease and and what's effective to prevent and also to cure.

Serenade is good but you have to be diligent and, just my opinion, may not be enough in hotter areas like ours during the summer. Chemical fungicides are an option too. Read up on them. There's a few biofungicide threads and the university of Kentucky has a very good summary pdf that you can find online. I'd start there.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Check you didn't apply too much seed in areas too. I accidentally spilled seed in some spots and it came in nice and thick, when it wanted tot make off, it died out quickly. Looks a bit like end stage of melting out.

I have some 1 week old seedlings I hope survive the winter

The traditional seed down dates are for having a full stand in before winter up north. That is a bit different than the transition so where you may not even winterize like your northern pals.

The chances of new seedlings surviving winter are much better for you than the Minnesotans

[redcoat]

Ok, more seed laid down, with starter and mesotrione.

Hopefully it's not too late in the year...

[redcoat]

The 2nd seed did ok...until we had a big ol' storm which caused quite a bit of it to wash into clumps.

As a safeguard, I actually started a good amount of extra seed in tubs in the garage, and laid it out by hand right as it was starting to germinate. Worked great!

That latest seed was put down on Nov 1st, so 2 weeks ago today.

The rest of the grass has grown quite a bit with the starter fertilizer with mesotrione.

When is the earliest I can mow, to give the new seedlings some extra light?

Weather is 50/60's during day, mid 30's at night.