Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment

Discuss how to and whether you should renovate your lawn
Green
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Re: Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment

Post by Green » April 10th, 2019, 12:53 pm

That sounds reasonable.

kbgfarmer
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Re: Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment

Post by kbgfarmer » April 21st, 2019, 12:31 am

Since I’m reseeding and overseeding areas I hit my lawn with 21-22-4 with mesotrione fertilizer at the 1 LB p/k rate a few days ago as opposed to the usual dimension app. I figure I’ll get 6 weeks of crabgrass control out of it. I’m really surprised as to how much better the turf looks this year. Areas that were thin are thickening up. Also, I’ve noticed a clear difference in growth in my native top soil vs the top soil that was brought in. The native top soil grass looks amazing. Also, I have an area on the side of my house where the septic tanks were placed that has no real topsoil that have been struggling. As an experiment I put down some compost over a bare spot in this area and seeded a couple of weeks ago and even without regular irrigation the compost are is full of sprouts! Compost isn’t all hype after all! The first pic is young bewitched kbg growing on rich native top soil. The second pic is sprouts that have popped up in a bare subsoil area that I spread compost over.


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kbgfarmer
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Re: Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment

Post by kbgfarmer » April 23rd, 2019, 7:31 pm

Grass seeded last fall is coming in great! Even bare areas that I didn’t think had a chance are greening up after the starter fert with mesotrione was applied. Weeds are bleaching which is cool without any bleaching of the bluegrass. I expanded my turf area today in newly cleared area and seeded with bewitched mono stand in those areas understanding that spring seeding is unlikely to be successful.


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kbgfarmer
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Re: Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment

Post by kbgfarmer » April 27th, 2019, 7:48 am

Weather is going to be playing a cruel joke on me as we are expecting 3-5 inches of snow although some forecasts say 4-8! :banghead: so much for the widespread seedlings that have sprouted everywhere in reseeded areas. Bye bye. It’s April 27 for Pete’s sake! Where’s global warming when you need it. It was 80 degrees last week!

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andy10917
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Re: Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment

Post by andy10917 » April 27th, 2019, 8:01 am

You may be very surprised - I bet that a good portion of the grass makes it through.


kbgfarmer
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Re: Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment

Post by kbgfarmer » April 27th, 2019, 12:01 pm

andy10917 wrote:
April 27th, 2019, 8:01 am
You may be very surprised - I bet that a good portion of the grass makes it through.
I hope so. Hoping the soil is warm enough or that we get snow cover that insulated the seedlings from the sub freezing weather expected tonight after the snow ceases.

Iowa Jim
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Re: Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment

Post by Iowa Jim » April 27th, 2019, 1:57 pm

Its snowing here in Iowa right now and i put carbon -x down yesterday, so instead of watering it in I'm snowing it in.

KBGkicksazz
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Re: Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment

Post by KBGkicksazz » April 28th, 2019, 2:07 pm

In NH it’s not safe to plant or put out annuals until maybe a week before Memorial Day. Not uncommon for us to get a frost or two in May.

If the snow melts quickly it might help you the task of keeping it moist.
kbgfarmer wrote:
April 27th, 2019, 7:48 am
Weather is going to be playing a cruel joke on me as we are expecting 3-5 inches of snow although some forecasts say 4-8! :banghead: so much for the widespread seedlings that have sprouted everywhere in reseeded areas. Bye bye. It’s April 27 for Pete’s sake! Where’s global warming when you need it. It was 80 degrees last week!

kbgfarmer
Posts: 485
Joined: July 21st, 2016, 10:35 am
Location: Verona, WI
Grass Type: Bewitched Kentucky bluegrass
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Re: Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment

Post by kbgfarmer » May 4th, 2019, 11:39 pm

So far the lawn is looking reasonable. The areas I seeded and placed compost over before the snowfall are doing fine despite the hard freeze. The areas where too much seed was placed are still spindly and not growing. I have a ton of annual ryegrass that I just mowed down to prevent seedheads. I’ve found a bunch of dreaded quackgrass coming up all over just like at my old house. I just can’t seem to get away from this garbage! The empty lot for sale across the street of mine has a bunch of it and is the likely origin. I’m so tempted to hit the for sale lot with roundup! I will wick mine with roundup or hit with certainty in the fall once the annual ryegrass is dead. The crazy thing is that areas of lawn that have been least managed in terms of fertilizer and reseeding are looking amazing like thick sod. Here is a pick of the bewitched growing great.


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HoosierLawnGnome
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Re: Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » May 5th, 2019, 6:20 am

Oh man, sorry about the snow. Things might be ok if the soil stayed warm enough
Snow might have insulated from air temps.... see how they do.

Once quack is controlled you just have to maintain. It's not explosive like poa trivialis. Just get in the habit of killing it when you see it.

krusej23
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Re: Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment

Post by krusej23 » May 5th, 2019, 8:24 am

Have you used certainty before on the quackgrass? I see it's labeled for warm season grasses so does it kill off your kbg? Or is your thinking that it won't kill off as much as glypho hopefully? I have quackgrass in my kbg/prg randomly throughout the yard too because I had an empty lot next to me go unmaintained for quite awhile too.

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andy10917
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Re: Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment

Post by andy10917 » May 5th, 2019, 8:47 am

Certainty originally was labelled for Cool-Season grasses too, but the ugliness of "Certainly Certainty" symptoms caused Monsanto to change the labeling. Without other options, though, some of us have stayed with the directions of the old labeling -- it works if you are careful and know what you're in for when using it for Triv. I don't have Quakgrass, so can't speak to its effectiveness there. If used, expect up to 60 days of muddy, stunted grass where it is applied.

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HoosierLawnGnome
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Re: Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » May 5th, 2019, 3:47 pm

I've never used certainty.

I kill quackgrass with glyphosate. Literally whenever I see it I hit it with glyphosate, mostly with a weed wand painting it on. The brown spot is maybe the size of a baseball on single plants, so I dont even bother repairing it will fill in after a few weeks, if I even ever see it because it takes at least a week to turn brown.

kbgfarmer
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Re: Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment

Post by kbgfarmer » May 5th, 2019, 4:40 pm

krusej23 wrote:
May 5th, 2019, 8:24 am
Have you used certainty before on the quackgrass? I see it's labeled for warm season grasses so does it kill off your kbg? Or is your thinking that it won't kill off as much as glypho hopefully? I have quackgrass in my kbg/prg randomly throughout the yard too because I had an empty lot next to me go unmaintained for quite awhile too.
I used certainty on quackgrass areas on my old northern mix lawn as spot spray. This was before I really knew a whole lot about calibrating. It stunted the treated areas for a long time but did kill some but not all of the quack. Like others have said it’s a touchy beast. Application needs to be spot on or you can be in for a serious surprise. I think at this point glypho is a better option. Will see how much is left after all the annual ryegrass is dead (hopefully dead)! And then will weigh certainty vs glypho.

KBGkicksazz
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Re: Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment

Post by KBGkicksazz » May 5th, 2019, 5:28 pm

Got picks of the quack grass?

I’m mostly weed free but have hand pulled a couple stray undesirables.

kbgfarmer wrote:
May 5th, 2019, 4:40 pm
krusej23 wrote:
May 5th, 2019, 8:24 am
Have you used certainty before on the quackgrass? I see it's labeled for warm season grasses so does it kill off your kbg? Or is your thinking that it won't kill off as much as glypho hopefully? I have quackgrass in my kbg/prg randomly throughout the yard too because I had an empty lot next to me go unmaintained for quite awhile too.
I used certainty on quackgrass areas on my old northern mix lawn as spot spray. This was before I really knew a whole lot about calibrating. It stunted the treated areas for a long time but did kill some but not all of the quack. Like others have said it’s a touchy beast. Application needs to be spot on or you can be in for a serious surprise. I think at this point glypho is a better option. Will see how much is left after all the annual ryegrass is dead (hopefully dead)! And then will weigh certainty vs glypho.

kbgfarmer
Posts: 485
Joined: July 21st, 2016, 10:35 am
Location: Verona, WI
Grass Type: Bewitched Kentucky bluegrass
Lawn Size: 20000-1 acre
Level: Some Experience

Re: Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment

Post by kbgfarmer » May 5th, 2019, 9:01 pm

Just rained heavily. Will take a pic of the quack. God knows I have enough of it. I pulled a huge plant from my septic mound. The rhizomes were thicker than my pinky finger! Scary stuff

kbgfarmer
Posts: 485
Joined: July 21st, 2016, 10:35 am
Location: Verona, WI
Grass Type: Bewitched Kentucky bluegrass
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Re: Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment

Post by kbgfarmer » May 17th, 2019, 9:59 am

Front lawn areas are starting to scare me. The bluegrass remains stunted and isn’t growing much all the while grassy weeds are growing like crazy. I pulled a bunch of poa annua yesterday. Much more remains. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I’m having to irrigate often to try an establish a large reseeded area in the front. The entire front area is on only two irrigation zones so I’m having to water established areas too much. Overwatering leading to poor oxygen delivery to roots compounded with what I think is soil compaction is perfect breeding ground for grassy weeds. Torn about doing mechanical aeration which can decrease compaction thus allowing the kbg to grow better but at the same time
Bringing up much more grassy weed seeds in the process. The back lawn with native top soil is doing so much better! Rare grassy weeds and the kbg is growing like crazy. It’s really odd because the soil tests of front and back weren’t drastically different save for the increased organic matter in the back.

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ken-n-nancy
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Re: Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment

Post by ken-n-nancy » May 17th, 2019, 10:54 am

What type of irrigation heads do you have? For my hunter rotors, I purchased some "no flow" (plug) nozzles for my Hunter PGP rotors, so that I could essentially turn off some rotors within a zone to reduce the amount of established lawn areas being overwatered during a partial re-seeding project. You can also temporarily change the travel of some of the existing rotors to further reduce the watering of established areas.

For more info, see https://www.hunterindustries.com/en-met ... t-watering

kbgfarmer
Posts: 485
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Location: Verona, WI
Grass Type: Bewitched Kentucky bluegrass
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Re: Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment: pic of best area

Post by kbgfarmer » May 20th, 2019, 10:04 pm

Thanks ken n Nancy! I will look into it! Posting a pic of the best section of bewitched in my lawn. Full sun area with native black dirt full of organic matter! My old no mix lawn at its best never looked like this. It’s a thing of beauty! So thick and uniform. Hopefully the rest of my new lawn will look like this someday.


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kbgfarmer
Posts: 485
Joined: July 21st, 2016, 10:35 am
Location: Verona, WI
Grass Type: Bewitched Kentucky bluegrass
Lawn Size: 20000-1 acre
Level: Some Experience

Re: Kbgfarmer's new lawn establishment:annual ryegrass invasion continues

Post by kbgfarmer » June 9th, 2019, 9:09 pm

Here is a pic of my overgrown front lawn full of huge multi-tiller annual ryegrass plants amongst the slower growing bewitched kbg. Some of it appears to be forming lots of stalky seedheads. Am I to believe that this will all be dead soon since it’s expending energy forming seedheads thereby concluding its annual lifecycle (biennial in my case since it survived over winter). I think I have found somebody with an old bottle of Corsair which is supposed to take out annual rye. Pull the trigger and use it or wait to see if it dies? This is killing me. Looks awful especially since the no mix lawns dominated by PRG in my neighborhood are weed free. They must be driving by saying wtf happened to his lawn?


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