GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Discuss how to and whether you should renovate your lawn
gardenpants
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GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Post by gardenpants » July 17th, 2018, 10:19 pm

__Goal__
Partial Reno. Renovation of 1,300 sq ft of front lawn (the eastern half of my front lawn) with a mix of 75% Sundancer buffalograss and 25% Hachita blue grama

__History__
Experience with Sundancer:
2016--seeded early September; 100 sq ft, Side lawn, test patch
2017--June; 1,000 sq ft, Backyard full reno
October; 300 sq ft, Side lawn, damage due to city street work
2018--April; 100 sq ft, Backyard patch of spot where I had stored piled topsoil
This will be my first experience with blue grama. It supposedly germinates fast, in a few days, vs. the few weeks of buffalo.

__Current__
This portion of the front lawn is almost entirely weeds (90%). I tried initially to identifying all of them, but gave up. What is not weeds is common bermuda.

__Timeline__
7/5/18 - Sprayed initial pass of glyphosate
7/9/18 - Along with rest of yard, received 7.25 lbs/K Scotts Organic Lawn food (11-2-2) and 6 lbs/K Revive (5-1-1)
7/14/18 - Second pass of glyphosate mostly to kill resistant bermuda

7/21/18 - Light tillage 1 - 2" , (Assuming full kill. Otherwise, third pass with glyphosate, and tillage one week later)
7/22/18 - Seed down. One pass with buffalograss, raked in, topped with Kellogg Garden Organics Topper. Second pass with blue grama mixed 50/50 with sand. Topped with straw mulch.

bpgreen
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Re: GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Post by bpgreen » July 18th, 2018, 12:24 pm

I'm not a warm season grass guy, but I've got some experience with native grasses.

Out of curiosity, where did you get your seeds?

I've never had to deal with Bermuda, but from what I've read, it's pretty hard to kill, so I think I would expect to need a third pass with glysophate. I would also not till, because if you've got any Bermuda still alive, you'll just be spreading it around. It'll be weakened by the earlier glysophate spraying and from the tilling, so the glysophate you apply at the time won't be as effective.

I've never grown buffalo grass, but I read up on it a lot. I also bought a small package of seeds once, but decided not to plant them (more on this later).

I have some blue grama scattered throughout my lawn.

I've got a few comments to make on your plan.

I mentioned earlier that I opted not to plant the buffalo grass seeds that I bought. I had a few reasons for this. One is that seeded buffalo grass will produce seed burrs, and I've read that they're not pleasant to walk in. Another is that male buffalo grass produces a lot of pollen that can affect people with allergies and I have allergies. Since you've already got some of this grass, you've already seen the seeds that it produces and you've been exposed to the pollen. If you're ok with these, then go ahead with the seeds. If not, you may want to consider buying plugs of an all female variety, although since you've already got seeded buffalo grass, the male plants from the other areas will likely still pollinate the new grass, anyway.

There is also a big difference in seed size. Since you've already planted buffalo grass, you know that the seeds are huge, almost like small peas. Blue grama seeds are like dust. If you're planting 75% buffalo grass and 25% blue grama by weight, you're going to be planting almost 7 times as many blue grama seeds as buffalo grass seeds.

I planted some blue grama last summer, and if I remember correctly, it took a week or two for most of it to germinate. I didn't keep any notes, but I'm pretty sure it took more than just a few days.

I just spread the blue grama seeds directly (by hand, because I was seeding small bare spots). I like the idea of mixing it with sand. That would likely help to keep it from blowing away. I may do that the next time I plant any.

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llO0DQLE
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Re: GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Post by llO0DQLE » July 18th, 2018, 1:36 pm

Interesting choice of grasses. Not something you hear of a lot here at ATY. Aside fron bpgreen above, I don't know anybody else here with these grasses. Mind elaborating on how you came to the decision to choose these species?

gardenpants
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Re: GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Post by gardenpants » July 18th, 2018, 1:50 pm

bpgreen, thanks for your comments.

I've purchased my Sundancer buffalograss from three different suppliers, since I've done multiple projects. The first time for the test patch, I purchased it from Great Basin Seed, since they sold it by the pound, and I only needed one pound.

The second time, for my backyard reno, I purchased it from Johnston Seed Company (multiples of 3 lb or 25 lb).

The third time I purchased it from Stock Seed Company. Stock Seed was involved in developing Sundancer, and I thought it'd be interesting to buy straight from the source. I was also wondering if I'd see better germination than with Johnston Seed, since I had significantly slower germination with my backyard reno vs my test plot.
(I now believe it was due to excess heat in June for the backyard project, and NOT due to seed quality from Johnston.)

This time, I have purchased from Johnston Seed again. These sources were specifically for the Sundancer variety, and the ones I have used. There are other sellers out there, some selling Sundancer and some selling other varieties.

For the Hachita blue grama, I purchased it from Bamert Seed.

I have not noticed any discomfort from the buffalo seed burs. In Sundancer, at least, I have found that the burs are almost at soil level, hidden from sight and away from any prickly sensation on the feet. I do keep the grass long, 3.5" or in some places, unmown.

I didn't know about buffalograss being a heavy pollen producer. It makes some sense though, because I did notice that the bees were quite attracted to the male heads. However, I'd have a hard time believing that they're worse than common bermuda. For me, the buffalograss had a spike here and there. For bermuda, when it's in full bloom, it looks like a mist covers the entire lawn.

Thanks for sharing your experience with blue grama. It's hard to find good information about it online. Buffalo, for me, germinates from 2-4 weeks. As you mentioned, there's a big difference in seed size between the two species. I've also found that buffalo likes to be covered by soil. That's why I'm seeding them separately, in two passes.

bpgreen
Posts: 3871
Joined: January 3rd, 2009, 2:28 am
Location: Utah (Wasatch Front)
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Lawn Size: 3000-5000
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Re: GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Post by bpgreen » July 18th, 2018, 2:24 pm

Good luck with your reno and keep us posted on how it goes.

It's good to hear that the burrs and pollen don't bother you.

I've read that many people leave buffalo grass and/or blue grama lawns unmowed. I don't mind fairly tall grass, but I think it would take a little to get used to grass as tall as blue grama gets (especially when it starts going to seed).

Also, occasional mowing can encourage the blue grama to tiller. Buffalo grass can spread via stolons, but blue grama doesn't have stolons or rhizomes, so it will only spread very slowly via tillers basically right next to the existing plant.


gardenpants
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Re: GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Post by gardenpants » July 18th, 2018, 5:46 pm

Since my plan deviates from the standard procedures followed by most of the renovators on this board, I thought I'd take some time to explain my reasoning.

Why buffalograss/blue grama?
The goals for my lawn are for one that requires minimal inputs of both time and resources. Texas is hot, and I find being outside mowing, fertilizing, etc. is not to my liking. We do not have an in-ground irrigation system, and we are under drought restrictions fairly regularly, so watering is also an issue. Buffalograss and blue grama are both native to Texas, and so are adapted to these conditions.

Buffalograss is promoted in these parts as being eco-friendly. The city has planted buffalograss on some of the street medians. There is also a named blend of three grasses--buffalograss, blue grama, and curly mesquite--that has been developed the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center and is marketed by them under the name Harbiturf (https://www.wildflower.org/project/habiturf). Habiturf grass is grown in the lawn areas at the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas (8 acres). It's supposed to be more drought tolerant than pure buffalograss. According to Douglass King Seeds, Habiturf is 62% buffalograss, 30% blue grama, and 8% curly mesquite (https://www.dkseeds.com/shop/buy-habiturf). My blend tries to emulate the buffalograss/blue grama ratios of Habiturf.

My lawn will not be a golf course quality lawn, or the best lawn on the block. It will look rangy, and I'm OK with that.

Why tilling?
Tilling does bring up weed seeds, and for weeds like bermuda, it can spread the stolons. However, I have found that buffalograss seed likes to be fully covered 1/4" - 1/2", not just a light dusting of compost/peat moss. As has been mentioned, buffalograss seeds are large, about the size of small peas. In my experience, in the small patches, I was able to aggressively hand rake the seeds into the soil covering most of the seeds and those areas had much better germination rates than in my backyard reno, where the seeds were mostly on the surface. My soil is heavy clay, and it is difficult to hand rake the soil. Therefore, I will be renting a tiller to do the soil loosening. I will be tilling shallowly, ideally only about 1" to minimize exposing weed seeds.

I would prefer not to till. If I were planting grasses with smaller seeds (cool season grasses or just blue grama), I would not till. It's a major pain to rent a tiller and lug it home in my small sedan. My fear is that if I do not till, blue grama will have the advantage--it already has a faster germination time, it's supposed to be more drought tolerant than buffalo, and it's fine if surface sown--and I'll end up with a blue grama lawn, rather than a majority buffalograss lawn, as is my desire.

I'm not that worried about bermuda spreading with tilling. The first patch of buffalograss was part of my first ever reno where I also plugged 400 sq ft of zoysia (Zeon). Then, out of ignorance, I prepared the ground the same way I am proposing now, with multiple passes of glyphosate, then tilling, fairly deeply (4-6"). The zoysia took a full calendar year to fill in. The bermuda could have overrun it in the bare patches at any time, yet today, my stands of zoysia and buffalo are intact. The key, I think, is to wait until everything you see is dead and brown, scalp it, water it, perhaps fertilize it, wait, and spray again, if necessary.

Why no starter fertilizer?
In the past, my soil has tested high for phosphorus. I may still apply some Milorganite before seeding...

Why no pre-emergent?
With how weedy the old lawn is, and with the tilling, pre-emergents would seem to be a wise choice. Buffalograss is fairly well researched, and there are several pre-emergents that are safe to apply at seeding, including Tenacity (mesotrione)(https://turf.unl.edu/research/2013resea ... icides.pdf). Other (pre and post emergent) herbicides safe to apply at seeding include sulfentrazone, quinclorac, carfentrazone, simazine, amicarbazone, sulfentrazone + quinclorac, carfentrazone + quinclorac, or sulfentrazone + prodiamine (https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/view ... onhortdiss). However, I was unable to find any research about pre-emergents and blue grama. For me, this means either leaving out the pre-emergent, or leaving out the blue-grama for now, perhaps seeding it next spring.

Why different passes for spreading buffalograss and blue grama?
The two seeds have very different sizes. Buffalograss is big, blue grama, quite small. Buffalograss likes to be shallowly buried. I'm guessing with how small blue grama is, it does better surface sown. Applying them separately should allow for more even coverage.

Why straw instead of peat moss?
We have had temperatures above 100F every day this week, with similarly high temperatures predicted into the near future. There is no way I'm going to be able to keep the ground evenly moist, especially not with current restrictions of watering only in the early mornings or late evenings. I'm afraid that once the peat moss dries out, it will take excessive water to wet it back again. And since I may be watering multiple times daily for up to a month (it can take buffalo 4 weeks to germinate), that extra water will add up. I have used straw in all my previous buffalograss growing efforts.

bpgreen
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Re: GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Post by bpgreen » July 18th, 2018, 11:43 pm

It sounds like you've got a good plan. Your goals sound similar to mine. I want a lawn that requires minimal input and uses as little water as possible, and native/naturalized grasses are the way to do that. Right now, in the driest parts of my lawn, the only green grass is blue grama or western wheatgrass. Even the other natives are dormant.

You'll probably find that none of the weed killers list blue grama (either as something they kill or as something they're safe to use on). I've also got clover in my lawn, so I don't really use weed killers, anyway (except for roundup on the trumpet vine that I've been trying to kill for almost a decade; I just put up with the occasional bare spot until it fills in).

One thing you probably already know about buffalo grass and blue grama is that you don't need to fertilize them at all. They may benefit from light fertilization, but I wouldn't use more than 1 lb N/1k sq ft per year, and I wouldn't do more than half that rate in a single application. Years ago, the thinking was that it was best to use no fertilizer at all, but I think they've found that they fill in better with light fertilization. But they don't need anywhere near as much fertilizer as Bermuda does, and they'll do fine without any at all (that might be one way to help them outcompete any remaining Bermuda).

I think buffalo grass needs as much sunlight as Bermuda does, so it won't thrive in shady areas. Blue grama likes sunlight, also, but it doesn't need as much, so it will do ok in shadier areas. Unfortunately, it won't spread into those areas, since it's mostly a bunch grass, but if there's some in there, it can spread slowly through tillering.

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llO0DQLE
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Re: GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Post by llO0DQLE » July 18th, 2018, 11:49 pm

Thanks for expounding on your choices and rationales behind them. Please post pictures. I'm curious as to how this will look. I live in an arid climate with very minimal rainfall. I sometimes wonder if I would ever switch to more drought tolerant species down the road.

bpgreen
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Re: GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Post by bpgreen » July 19th, 2018, 1:29 pm

llO0DQLE wrote:
July 18th, 2018, 11:49 pm
Thanks for expounding on your choices and rationales behind them. Please post pictures. I'm curious as to how this will look. I live in an arid climate with very minimal rainfall. I sometimes wonder if I would ever switch to more drought tolerant species down the road.
You could easily switch to more drought tolerant grasses, but you might not want to use buffalo grass and blue grama. I believe both of those grasses are native prairie grasses in AB, but they're warm season grasses, so they'd have a short season.

For me, buffalo grass would probably stay dormant into late May. Blue grama starts to green up a few weeks earlier. This year was unusual and I think my blue grama was actually starting to turn green in April. You're almost due north of me by about 1000 miles (1600 km). So they'd start greening up even later for you.

You'd probably be better off with sheep fescue, streambank wheatgrass, and/or crested wheatgrass. Sheep fescue is a bunch grass (it will spread very slowly via tillering, but that means that it spreads with a new plant right next to the existing plant). Older varieties of crested wheatgrass are also bunch grasses, but there are improved varieties that are sold as turf grasses that are rhizomatous. Streambank wheatgrass is also rhizomatous. Neither of these will spread like KBG, but they will spread to some extent. Streambank wheatgrass and sheep fescue are native to North America, but crested wheatgrass is not (it comes from Siberia, but is well adapted and is considered "naturalized").

There's a company in Utah (http://www.utahseed.com) that sells a seed cabin mix that includes sheep fescue, streambank wheatgrass and Roadcrest crested wheatgrass (a rhizomatous variety). I've seen a similar mix for sale on Amazon. I'm not sure if it's the same one or not (it includes the same varieties and is called cabin mix, but it says it's from a different company). I didn't see it on amazon.ca, and I'm not sure if the US vendors can ship the seeds to Canada. If not, you could Google something like native grass seed suppliers in Canada. That might produce some false positives for US companies selling Canada Rye, but you should also be able to find some Canadian sources, as well. A lot of companies that sell native (and naturalized) grass seeds primarily for meadow and reclamation projects, so their stock mixes may include grasses that wouldn't be good choices for lawns, so you probably want to call before ordering.

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Re: GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Post by llO0DQLE » July 19th, 2018, 8:31 pm

Thanks for all the advice bpgreen. So as not to derail GardenPants' reno thread, I will open a new thread under the Cool Season forum entitled "Drought Tolerant Native Prairie Grasses" as I do have some questions for you. Thanks again!

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Re: GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Post by gardenpants » July 23rd, 2018, 10:12 pm

Due to the daily high temperatures of 105 F or so, I'm having lower than expected kill rates with the glyphosate. There was still quite a bit of green this weekend, so I made a third pass with gly. I am predicting that I will need a fourth pass next week. This means I won't be seeding until early August.

I recently read in a Roundup Q&A that in hot, dry weather, they recommend mixing 17 lbs of ammonium sulfate (AMS) per 100 gal tank. That comes out to 2.7 oz-wt of AMS per gallon. On my previous passes, I'd been putting only about a spoonful of AMS into my tank. I'll be using the higher AS rate in my next, and hopefully last, pass. I will continue to water the reno zone 2x a week.

Here's an overview of the reno zone:
[url=https://postimg.cc/image/5bhlumi4n/][img]https://s15.postimg.cc/5bhlumi4n/IMG_0603.jpg[/img][/url]

Closeup of the green areas:
[url=https://postimg.cc/image/lb09dolqv/][img]https://s15.postimg.cc/lb09dolqv/IMG_0605.jpg[/img][/url]

Since there is a delay ins seeding, I'll be getting my soil tested. Testing had not been a high priority, since neither buffalo nor blue grama need high fertility.

gardenpants
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Re: GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Post by gardenpants » August 7th, 2018, 6:07 pm

This weekend was one for soil prep and seeding!

__FRIDAY__
Ran the sprinkler on Friday evening to make sure the soil would be soft enough to till the next day. Scalped and bagged the dead grass.

__SATURDAY__
We rented a Mantis XP tiller from Home Depot early Saturday morning.
[url=https://postimg.cc/image/ubfkgf72f/][img]https://s15.postimg.cc/ubfkgf72f/IMG_0618.jpg[/img][/url]

Tilling was no deeper than 1". In spots where the sprinkler missed, tilling depth was maybe 1/4"--the tiller just couldn't break into the hard soil.

After that was the raking out the grass clumps and long bermuda stolons and the smoothing out of the soil. There were some low spots where we added a bit of topsoil.
[url=https://postimg.cc/image/b7sor4ugt/][img]https://s6.postimg.cc/b7sor4ugt/IMG_0620.jpg[/img][/url]

Finally, I hand spread the seeds. It was getting late in the day, and I knew I was only going to be able to spread on one half of the lawn before it got too dark to work.

I had originally planned on seeding the buffalograss, raking, and then seeding the blue grama to stay on top of the soil (since the blue grama seeds were so small). However, according to the USDA and the seed supplier, blue grama is supposed to be planted at 1/4" to 1/2", which is the same planting depth as the buffalograss. So, I decided to spread both seeds before raking it in.

For half of my reno area, I would need 2 lbs of buffalograss seed. I did this in two passes. I filled a bucket with one pound of seed, spread it as evenly as I could. Went back, got another 1 lb of buffalo seed, threw that down. I did the same process with the blue grama seed, except mixing it 50/50 with sand first. The blue grama seed was really "chaffy" and fluffy, and didn't mix well with the sand at all. I ended up wetting down the sand to get it to mix.

I started raking the seeds in, but by then it was dark, and I could no longer see the seeds, so I left the remainder of the raking for the next day.

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Re: GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Post by gardenpants » August 7th, 2018, 6:12 pm

__SUNDAY__

I woke up with seeding regret--would my front lawn *really* look OK with blue grama mixed in? I mean, I had seen buffalo/blue grama mix in person, and it wasn't clumpy at all, but I was second guessing myself. I decided for the second half of the reno area, I'd only seed blue grama along the sidewalk. (It makes no sense in the long run. Seeds from blue grama from the first half would eventually seed themselves in the second half, but I decided to humor the "seeding jitters" anyway).

I finished raking in the seeds from the night before. I spread seeds in the second half of the reno area and raked those in. It was all topped with a good layer straw. Under the downspout, near the front door, I used an erosion blanket.

[url=https://postimg.cc/image/k95drhezb/][img]https://s15.postimg.cc/k95drhezb/IMG_0622.jpg[/img][/url]

If the weather predictions are right, it will start raining Wednesday and then every day through next weekend!

In the meantime, I'm running the sprinkler for 10 minutes, three times a day, every day at 5 am, 1pm, and 6pm.

gardenpants
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Re: GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Post by gardenpants » August 7th, 2018, 6:45 pm

As an aside, can anyone tell me how to get pictures to show up in my posts? I'm using the "Add image to post" button, but my pictures aren't showing up!

gardenpants
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Re: GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Post by gardenpants » August 8th, 2018, 11:34 pm

I have germination!

[url=https://postimg.cc/image/5lnh0clt3/][img]https://s15.postimg.cc/5lnh0clt3/BF5_BE ... _FFF79.jpg[/img][/url]

Monday and Tuesday high temps were 100*F and 102*F respectively (78*F at night). I was expecting a slow growth response at those temps, so this was a pleasant surprise. Labeled germination time is 7 - 28 days.

In other news, I’ve adjusted the start times of my sprinkler to 5am, 2pm, and 7pm, and have increased the watering duration to 11 minutes each time. The soil is getting a bit too dry for my liking at the end of the day. But it must be to the seeds liking if they’re sprouting, right ? (^_^). I am using the DIG Digital Hose Thread Watering Timer, model BO9DB, with a Melnor Deluxe Turbo oscillating sprinkler.

The rain the weatherman predicted for today didn’t happen. However, they’re still predicting rain for the rest of the week.

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Re: GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Post by gardenpants » August 11th, 2018, 4:55 pm

The lawn now has a very faint green tint on it overall, and you can see the clumps of sprouts from the street.

We've been having rain--just a light mist on 8/9, but 0.2" on 8/10, and pretty steady rain today (8/11). Yesterday and today have been unseasonably cool, low to mid-80's. Couldn't ask for better germination weather.

I've also seen more crabgrass seedlings appear than I'd like. I spent an hour yesterday crouched down and pinching them. There's rain the forecast for the next three days. When the weather clears, I'm planning on hitting it with sulfentrazone+prodiamine (Bonide Sedge Ender). Echelon, the commercially branded version of those herbicides, claims that it'll kill crabrass up to the 4-leaf stage. Hopefully the crabgrass will still be smaller than that by then. I'll still try to pinch in the meantime.

Research of sulfentrazone+prodiamine (and other pre-emergents) effects on seeding Sundancer here: https://turf.unl.edu/research/sundancer ... 202015.pdf.

gardenpants
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Re: GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Post by gardenpants » August 13th, 2018, 12:36 pm

Rain: Fri 8/11 = 0.6" Saturday 8/12 = 0.5"
High temps: 81*F on Friday 87*F on Saturday

__Photos at One Week__
The half of the lawn seeded on 8/4/2018, which included Hachita blue grama:
[url=https://postimg.cc/image/i30iqy4ot/][/url]

Compared to the half of the lawn seeded on 8/5/2018,(left side of photo) which was only Sundancer:
[url=https://postimg.cc/image/7sy3rpmj1/][/url]

You can clearly see the blue grama--which was spread more in clumps due to the seeds being mixed in with wet sand--has faster growth than the buffalo.

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Re: GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Post by gardenpants » August 13th, 2018, 1:40 pm

At ground level, the germination of the buffalo grass looks like this after 1 week:

[url=https://postimg.cc/image/hero85yb1/][/url]

On the left side of the frame, you can see some weed seedlings, and to the right of the center of the photo is a bur of Little Barley (Hordeum pusillum) (my yard was heavily infested this spring). I'm also not convinced that the straw mulch is weed free.

I'm not too concerned about cool-season weeds. In my current buffalograss--less than a year-old, and so unable to accept pre-emergents--they are unsightly in the spring, but they burn out quickly in the heat and the buffalo fills it in.

Last year, in fact, I seeded a patch of buffalograss WAY too late--in early October. In spring, I ended up having a beautiful patch of little barley instead, and thought my buffalograss was gone. Imagine my surprise in June, after I scalped all the little barley in May, when I saw little clumps of buffalograss appear. That patch now looks like this:
[url=https://postimg.cc/image/6t7svvx1p/][/url] (apologies for the spurge). If the grass can survive a full season of cool-season weeds when dormant seeded, then it'll do fine against cool-season weeds given a full month head start--cool-season weeds here start germinating in September.

I AM concerned about warm-season weeds. I said in an earlier post that I was planning on spraying with sulfentrazone+prodiamine. I have since been able to find sulfentrazone+quinclorac in homeowner quantities labeled as "Image Kills Crabgrass" herbicide, so I will be applying that instead, as it was my preferred chemical combination based on the research in the PDF linked two posts above.

In the research, they note that what they define as 0 Weeks After Emergence (0 WAE) is actually 3 weeks after the seeding date (pg 2, seeding 22 May 2012 and application "0 WAS" on 13 June 2012). I'm only 1 week after seeding, but I do have emergence, so I'm currently in a bit of a gray area between at seeding (AS) and 0 WAE. So looking at Figure 4 of the paper, I'm thinking, what herbicide works well BOTH when applied AS and at 0 WAE. That would be sulfentrazone + quinclorac.

Once again, I didn't apply a pre-emergent at seeding because I originally was afraid of the effect on the blue grama. Now that I'm seeing quite a bit of blue grama sprouted, and I'm not worried about killing it anyway since I only seeded 1/2 my lawn with it, I'm willing to use a herbicide.

gardenpants
Posts: 140
Joined: September 15th, 2016, 5:16 pm
Location: Dallas, TX
Grass Type: Southern mix
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Re: GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Post by gardenpants » August 15th, 2018, 4:47 pm

More rain on Sunday (0.5"), Monday (0.4"), and Tuesday (0.27"). Temps around 90*F. Today (Wed) was finally a sunny day.

This morning, I sprayed Image Kills Crabgrass (sulfentrazone+quinclorac, AKA Solitaire) on the reno area, using a 2-gallon pump sprayer with a fan tip and marking dye. I applied the label rate. I stopped after every other "stripe" to shake the sprayer bottle. (Quinclorac is oil-based and will fall out of water solution if not mixed regularly.) Crabgrass seedlings were all 3-leaf or smaller.

I did notice a couple of spots where a bermudagrass stem was growing out of the soil. I will have to walk the area again in a couple of days with glyphosate and a cone.

No irrigation this morning or afternoon, but I plan to water in the evening.

gardenpants
Posts: 140
Joined: September 15th, 2016, 5:16 pm
Location: Dallas, TX
Grass Type: Southern mix
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: GardenPants 2018 partial reno buffalograss

Post by gardenpants » August 17th, 2018, 9:51 pm

Temps have gone back into the high 90's. I've returned to watering 3X a day.

Good news is that the sulfentrazone+quinclorac has shown great effect on killing broadleaf weed seedlings, and the crabgrass is showing injury. Buffalograss continues to show good growth.

Bad news is that the blue grama is also showing injury. I hope that the injury remains that, injury only, and that it'll recover. If not, such are the risks of applying herbicides off-label. The process is called trial and ERROR, after all.

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