Need help with growing lawn

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Chris5
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Need help with growing lawn

Post by Chris5 » June 20th, 2017, 2:34 pm

So just bought the house the lawn was really unlevel and filled with grubs. I put down heavy grub killer and then 2 weeks later new loam to level out and then I seeded it with scotts fertilizer. Month later more seed and fertilizer so what now check out the pictures. Also the loam isn't the cleanest and I ordered a ph tester yesterday. Watered everyday 2-3

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Dchall_San_Antonio
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Re: Need help with growing lawn

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » June 20th, 2017, 5:13 pm

Stop doing everything you're doing. It's not getting any better.

Spring and summer are not good times to seed a northern lawn. You have to wait until fall. For your area, fall is probably late August. What you can do now is to learn how to take care of a lawn once you have one. Here's how to get started with the care.
  • Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall.
  • Mowing: Mow at your mower's highest setting.
  • Fertilizer: For now you can apply an organic fertilizer like soybean meal, corn meal, Milorganite, etc., at a rate of 15 pounds per 1,000 square feet. This will improve the health of your soil regardless of any other issues it might have.
  • Herbicide/insecticide/fungicide: Forget about these for now. Let Nature take her course until next year.
In early August you can prep for the renovation. We have a whole forum for renovation here, but since you asked, here's my suggestion.
  1. Water the yard every day, 3x per day, for 5 minutes each time. Do that for a week.
  2. Spray the yard with RoundUp to kill everything.
  3. Continue watering daily for another week to try and sprout all the weed seeds.
  4. Spray the yard with RoundUp a second time.
  5. Rake up all the dead stuff. This will leave the surface of the soil perfect for seed.
  6. Seed with a mix of turf type tall fescue and Kentucky bluegrass.
  7. Roll the seed down with a water fillable roller. You don't need to topdress, add soil, or cover with straw.
  8. Continue watering daily for 2 weeks to sprout the fescue and 3 weeks to sprout the Kentucky bluegrass.
  9. When the grass is 80% germinated, back off on the frequency of watering and increase the time.
  10. Mow when the grass is 5 inches.
You may get other opinions about a renovation plan, but this one will work.

Chris5
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Re: Need help with growing lawn

Post by Chris5 » June 21st, 2017, 3:18 pm

Ok thank you for the great advice il call it quits for right now then

STL
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Re: Need help with growing lawn

Post by STL » June 23rd, 2017, 7:17 am

And... return the ph tester and get a real soil test from Logan labs.

Marinegrunt
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Re: Need help with growing lawn

Post by Marinegrunt » June 24th, 2017, 9:56 am

+1 on both posts above. A soil test will tell you what your lawn needs. The first reply gave you some great info on what you can do to be successful. Look through the lawn reno threads from 2016. Some members kept excellent notes and shares them. It'll give you an idea of how in depth you can get with a reno.

Just knowing your soils ph won't tell you what amendments your lawn needs. A soil test will let you know exactly what you need to do to your soil.


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ezael
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Re: Need help with growing lawn

Post by ezael » June 24th, 2017, 1:13 pm

+1 to all the advice above. One thing op doesn't really specify is what he/she is really looking to get out of this lawn. Are you looking for best lawn on the block or just fill it in with more grass to make it look a little better. If your looking to do a full renovation head over to the renovation forum to read up and prepare for this fall.

But if your just looking for a slightly thicker lawn, lawn care basics 101 is a good place to start.

If you put down seed, fert and didn't get anything to grow its either to hot to grow wherever you are (can't see location on mobile) or your not watering enough. Good germination is highly dependent on your watering schedule of the first 30 days.

Let us know what your goals are and we can help.

Chris5
Posts: 3
Joined: June 20th, 2017, 1:38 pm
Location: Connecticut
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Re: Need help with growing lawn

Post by Chris5 » June 26th, 2017, 12:07 pm

My goal is definatly a think green lawn.

Marinegrunt
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Joined: October 25th, 2016, 10:37 am
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Re: Need help with growing lawn

Post by Marinegrunt » June 26th, 2017, 12:49 pm

You might want to be more specific on how nice you want your lawn to be. How much time, money, and effort are you willing to put in? This forum is full of lawn nuts who spend multiple hours on their lawn on trying to make it a perfect 10. The type where if one weed is seen their heart rate increases and start shaking. They drop to their knees in front of the weed, shake their finger at it, and call it every cuss word in the book.

Are you wanting to get that crazy on it or do you want to do the minimum you can to where you have a decent looking lawn? You can still have a decent lawn without going nuts on it. How much time and money do you want to spend?

Either way get a soil test. It only costs like $20 or $25 but will save you money in the long run. Many people just throw fertilizer on their lawn every month when the lawn might not even need and use whatever they put down. It's a waste. Go to the soil management forum on here to see how to take the sample. Seed down should be around the middle of August so you have time to get things in order. Late May and June was just too late because the roots didn't have time to establish before the heat kicked in and fried it.

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Dchall_San_Antonio
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Joined: December 17th, 2008, 1:53 am
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Lawn Size: 5000-10000
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Re: Need help with growing lawn

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » June 26th, 2017, 1:54 pm

While you're here, look over at the soils forum to see what they do with a soil test. You get about $250 worth of free advice on a $25 investment.

If you just want to keep the mud off your shoes, that is one quality of lawn. We can help you with that. If you want a putting green surface, we can help with that, too.

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