Starting my Reno 2019

Discuss how to and whether you should renovate your lawn
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jrguzmanr
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Joined: July 15th, 2010, 12:20 am
Location: Central NJ
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Starting my Reno 2019

Post by jrguzmanr » August 19th, 2019, 7:16 pm

I know that I'm little late for a Reno from contractor's mix to KBG (Bewitched, Award, Prosperity) but I have to admit....I've been busy enjoying the summer. I plan on seeding Aug 31st.

I want to kill my using glyphosate 50%, but I have a question that I haven't seen answered. How long after rain do I have to wait for applying. My forecast (central NJ) for next few days is for rain in the afternoon, which means that my lawn will be wet by the time I get home. Can apply it when I get home if it has stopped raining, or should I / can I do it in the early morning?

schreibdave
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Re: Starting my Reno 2019

Post by schreibdave » August 19th, 2019, 8:43 pm

I sprayed mine in the morning when the grass was wet with dew and it worked perfectly. But the RU had a chance to dry on the blades before the evening dew came. I would be worried about spraying wet blades and then having them stay wet with dew overnight. Seems like a lot of RU could roll off.

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ken-n-nancy
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Re: Starting my Reno 2019

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 19th, 2019, 9:08 pm

Sounds like an excellent KBG blend (Bewitched, Award, Prosperity) -- it is actually one of the options I had considered for my front lawn renovation, but I ultimately decided on a Bewitched+Prosperity 2-way blend, partly because the places from which I purchased the Bewitched and Prosperity seed didn't also have Award in stock, and partly because I didn't have any personal prior experience with Award (but did with Bewitched and Prosperity).

You don't need to wait for the grass to be completely dry before applying glyphosate, but you don't want to be applying so much liquid that it runs off when combined with what is already on the grass. Safest thing to do is wait for the grass to be mostly dry before applying the glyphosate and then make your application. The grass will be "rainfast" after the grass has dried after that (usually in just a few hours).

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HoosierLawnGnome
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Re: Starting my Reno 2019

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » August 20th, 2019, 9:16 pm

I like spraying in the evening when it's been drying off all day and the wind is still, but I'd pick morning between the two options you laid out. Sometimes it's about better not ideal.

jrguzmanr
Posts: 66
Joined: July 15th, 2010, 12:20 am
Location: Central NJ
Grass Type: Back: KBG Blend Fron: Contractor's Mix
Lawn Size: 5000-10000
Level: Novice

Re: Starting my Reno 2019

Post by jrguzmanr » September 9th, 2019, 1:22 pm

i've made a few mistakes already......Not cutting it shorter before round-up.....letting it turn brown and then trying to scalp, which didn't go well as the grass had matted and the mower wouldn't pick a lot of it up. I had to rent a power rake from a big box store, dig out the dead grass, and rake and bag it. i don't understand why they call it a "power rake" since it doesn't rake anything LOL.

I did read a thread somewhere here to download an app to assist in measure 1k sq ft (i think it's called fied area). The app worked fine and but i didn't calibrate my spreader properly, until i was about a third of the way done. this mistake really makes me feel like an idiot! I don't know what i was thinking not doing this properly!!!!

I should've place a plastic bag as a tarp where I was working with the seeds. I did spill some, about a handful, and instead of picking them up and throwing them to the air and letting them fall where they may, I placed them in the speader along with a couple of dead roots which clogged it. The worse part was that I didn't know when it got clogged so I had to go back and eye-ball the seeds on the ground and do a guess-stimate. Actually, the worse part was that I had read to work with the seeds somewhere where you could pick them up easily in case I made a mess, e.g. tarp or concrete, but I thought...that's not going to happen to me.

I posted the results of a soil sample test and waiting for a response.

I'm watering three times a day: 9am, 12p, 4pm, for 5 minutes a zone.

I read somewhere that I should have tenacity handy, any place I should it by it from?

I have to go back and do more reading, but if anybody has any pointers about what else I should now or in the spring, I'm all ears. just can't promise that i won't make any more mistakes.


schreibdave
Posts: 1123
Joined: April 14th, 2010, 7:01 pm
Location: Syracuse, NY
Grass Type: Bewitched, Award and Rhapsody
Lawn Size: 10000-20000
Level: Experienced

Re: Starting my Reno 2019

Post by schreibdave » September 10th, 2019, 6:57 am

I'm doing my first full renovation and the one thing that surprised me is the challenge of putting down the right amount of water at the right time. I have an "irrigation system" of sorts so I don't mean dragging hoses around. I mean how many minute to run a zone and how often. My two worst germinating areas are due to over-watering. I am constantly out there adding/subtracting minutes to the schedule. I had germination 21 days ago so I am pretty far along. I am letting the morning and evening dew take care of those times of day and I am only watering once a day from around 11am to 2pm or so with the system actually running for about 2.5 hrs a day. I am covering 8-9K sqft.

So my advice on watering is to constantly adjust your irrigation system to keep the soil moist from seed down through complete germination. Once you have a little bit of a root system I think you want to let the soil dry out a little between watering. At least that's what I've been doing.

Sounds like you didnt spray tenacity at seed down time. It would have prevented some weed germination so you may have more weeds in your reno than you otherwise would have. But at this point I would stay away from it. If you feel like you are prone to mistakes in your lawn care regimen, Tenacity is NOT the product to mess with. Once your lawn is established weed b gone will take out most of what you want to kill and it is way more forgiving.

Good luck and post some pictures when you get a chance.

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