Primo Maxx

[bernstem]

A number of us (including me) have used Primo on our cool season lawns this past year. I am curious as to what people's results have been and whether they plan to continue using it next year?

[bernstem]

I was asked to post this for someone who wishes to remain anonymous regarding their results.

The plus side:
1) Makes the lawn a LOT darker. Like Mid-November/early April dark, but in June.
2) Slows down top-growth a lot - I think the key though is you have to use it before the growth flush. I used it after that had started and had been taking off more than a 1/3 regularly because of constant rain. I think if you can get it down before the crazy 3/4"/day spring growth flush you could preserve color and keep the lawn healthier because you won't stress it with mowing so much flush growth.
3) It enabled me to cut 1x every 7-8 days during July/August without too much stress on the lawn when I was away a lot this summer.
4) Great to use if you are overseeding, about the only way to give new KBG a chance.

Downsides:
1) You have to be super precise in applying it - two passes perpendicular are required or you'll get uneven growth.

2) If you have ANY type of disease that your lawn needs to "grow out" of, it will take a lot longer if Primo has been applied.

3) I didn't see any measurable difference in spread.

[turf_toes]

I've not used it. But I've often wondered about it. I'm looking forward to reading the group results!

[ez2luvlawn]

I used Primo Maxx this past season and have mixed feelings about it. I feel that I had so many things going on with my lawn this year that I could not honestly say what the Primo Maxx did as a direct result of its use and what other factors contributed to what I observed. I am going to use it again next season and try to monitor the results more accurately provided nature cooperates and we have more of a normal season with normal rainfall and less heat.

Here are my thoughts: I noticed my lawn darken up considerably after I applied Primo and the top growth slowed way down and allowed me to reduce the number of times I had to mow weekly even before the severe drought and lack of rain hit my area. I also had less clippings after each mow with longer intervals between mowing times. I felt that my grass did thicken up after I applied Primo in the areas of my lawn that I have better soil and better sun. I did like using a PGR to reduce the top growth and it excelled at doing that. I was dropping allot of MO, SBM, Alfalfa Pellets, and CC all this season so before I applied the PGR I was mowing every other day.

I do have many dry trouble spots in my yard where I am working on soil problems. This year with the lack of rainfall and a watering ban in my township the thin turfgrass areas got hit very hard and had a tough time coming back this fall and many are still thin and dirt is showing through. I also had fungal problems show up July which did damage. I am wondering if the Primo slowed the recovery process even though I quit applying it mid August and according to the label it only regulates growth for up to 28 days max? I also wonder if the Primo contributed to or brought on fungal problems? I also could not get good spread in these areas and growth was very slow even with doing weekly light urea drops throughout the fall. I don't know if this was an after effect of the Primo or not but growth and spread was a slow battle all fall with disappointing results until very late October.

I to am interested in following this thread to see what members more experienced with PGR's have to say and what they chime in with. I can see pros and cons and want another year to form an honest opinion.

[simpson]

If you look close I sprayed a 2x2 section in my midnight star Reno. It clearly makes the lawn a few shades darker.



I will have to think more about my experience with it before I want to comment.

[ Post made via Android ]

[GaryCinChicago]

If you look close I sprayed a 2x2 section in my midnight star Reno. It clearly makes the lawn a few shades darker.

Agreed, but after that - was using Primo helpful, aside from the less mowing of a 2X2 section

[simpson]

Gary I'm not sure if it was helpful or not. Things that I did see were the turf was much darker. The section got much thicker like it was weaving together almost growing sideways not straight up. I'm not sure if it actually made the blades of grass thicker but it sure looked like it did. The reduced mowing was amazing. Not really worth it because I like to mow but using primo in the spring might be worth the trouble.

[ Post made via Android ]

[ez2luvlawn]

+1 Simpson.

[bernstem]

I used Primo this past year. It is hard for me to give a lot of definitive opinions as the lawn was new and I have only been in the house for a few years. What I did notice was:

Positives:
- It definitely darkened the grass. The darkening wasn't subtle in the slightest and seemed to last as long as the Primo was active (about 3-4 weeks). For anyone looking for deeper color, I don't know anything that will give you the same effect in such a short time.
- It definitely slowed growth. I would say that growth was about half of the normal rate. That cut my mowing down to 1-2 times per week from 2-3 times per week.

Negatives:
These are harder for me to determine as I don't have a good baseline to compare to. I did not see any immediate negative effects on the turf such as yellowing. Longer term, this past year was challenging in many ways so it is hard for me to say how much of an effect Primo had on my issues. Two major areas, though, may have been negatively affected.
- Disease susceptibility. I was plagued by rust both before (early spring) and after (fall) starting the Primo so it is hard for me to say what effect the Primo had on disease. If anything, the research suggests better disease resistance in turf treated with Primo, but I certainly had moderate thinning of the lawn due to Rust and possibly some sort of leaf spot in the early fall. The turf was heavily stressed from the summer and had likely lost a large percentage of root mass which I think was the major contributor to the fall disease issues, but I cannot say that Primo didn't contribute to some of the disease issues.
- Recovery from damage I do think was slowed by the Primo due to the slower topgrowth rate. Brown turf stayed visible longer since it took more time for the new growth to grow past the injured turf and damaged blades were slower to grow out. It is notable that when reviewing the garden logs, the turf started to visibly recover from the summer and early fall issues about 4 weeks after the last Primo spray. I don't want to give too much weight to the observation as it is merely a correlation and there are many other environmental factors that changed over that month other than the Primo. It is also worth noting that the turf was heavily stressed going into the fall, so that may have contributed to slow recovery from disease.

Indeterminate:
- Primo has been shown to increase turf density. It is hard for me to say what effect it had on turf density in my lawn. Some areas of my lawn are incredibly dense. Others are noticeably thin. What they would have looked like without Primo is hard to say. If anything, I think that Primo will increase the density of healthy turf, but due to the slower recovery from disease or stress, it may negatively affect the density of stressed or injured turf.

[jglongisland]

It would seem that perhaps Primo could be used most effectively in Spring as it will cut down the frequency of mowing and the stress on the grass from the inevitable scalping that occurs when you take off more than 1/3 after a week of non-stop rain. It may also push more energy into the roots at a time when the plant wants to push out top growth.

Many summer diseases are actually the result of stress during spring, so if you can help out the turf during April/May, maybe it will be in better shape to handle whatever stress summer throws at it.

[bernstem]

Gary I'm not sure if it was helpful or not. Things that I did see were the turf was much darker. The section got much thicker like it was weaving together almost growing sideways not straight up. I'm not sure if it actually made the blades of grass thicker but it sure looked like it did. The reduced mowing was amazing. Not really worth it because I like to mow but using primo in the spring might be worth the trouble.

[ Post made via Android ]

The thicker turf with Primo does not surprise me. There are a few studies that show Primo increases tiller numbers of bluegrass and leads to higher density when measures as blades per unit of area. I don't know of anything that shows a change in grass blade width, though, just increased blade numbers. That doesn't mean it can't or doesn't have an effect on blade width, but I have not seen it described one way or another.

[eriocaulon]

Primo Maxx has been a blessing and a curse for me these past years. I bought it for stress conditioning (ie. heat, drought starting around June) and to that end, it has worked impressively well. I feel it is best used starting late spring and into July.

PROS: definitely a shade darker (2 shades for improved roughstalk bluegrass), very good as a stress conditioner (at least 2 apps before stress), cuts down on mowing and clippings

CONS: not good early spring when ground is saturated, not good AFTER the grass is already surging and you are struggling to mow in a timely manner, not good during or after stress has hit, not good if disease develops under Primo Maxx effect--high probability you will need to use fungicide or suffer losses (even for simple rust), not good alone without fertilizer, heavier is NOT better--phytotoxicity becomes apparent, not good for long cut lengths (ie. 2.75+ inches) as tops of blades will curl out leaving very stemmy grown down below, must account for rebound effect (especially in late fall)

[ez2luvlawn]

I used Primo this past year. It is hard for me to give a lot of definitive opinions as the lawn was new and I have only been in the house for a few years. What I did notice was.

Negatives:
These are harder for me to determine as I don't have a good baseline to compare to. I did not see any immediate negative effects on the turf such as yellowing. Longer term, this past year was challenging in many ways so it is hard for me to say how much of an effect Primo had on my issues. Two major areas, though, may have been negatively affected.
- Disease susceptibility. I was plagued by rust both before (early spring) and after (fall) starting the Primo so it is hard for me to say what effect the Primo had on disease. If anything, the research suggests better disease resistance in turf treated with Primo, but I certainly had moderate thinning of the lawn due to Rust and possibly some sort of leaf spot in the early fall. The turf was heavily stressed from the summer and had likely lost a large percentage of root mass which I think was the major contributor to the fall disease issues, but I cannot say that Primo didn't contribute to some of the disease issues.
- Recovery from damage I do think was slowed by the Primo due to the slower topgrowth rate. Brown turf stayed visible longer since it took more time for the new growth to grow past the injured turf and damaged blades were slower to grow out. It is notable that when reviewing the garden logs, the turf started to visibly recover from the summer and early fall issues about 4 weeks after the last Primo spray. I don't want to give too much weight to the observation as it is merely a correlation and there are many other environmental factors that changed over that month other than the Primo. It is also worth noting that the turf was heavily stressed going into the fall, so that may have contributed to slow recovery from disease.

Indeterminate:
- Primo has been shown to increase turf density. It is hard for me to say what effect it had on turf density in my lawn. Some areas of my lawn are incredibly dense. Others are noticeably thin. What they would have looked like without Primo is hard to say. If anything, I think that Primo will increase the density of healthy turf, but due to the slower recovery from disease or stress, it may negatively affect the density of stressed or injured turf.

It sounds like you had some of the same issues I had after the Primo applications and I cannot blame the Primo either but it sure makes me wonder about it. I had no disease in my turf until after I applied the Primo. I then was plagued with rust issues very badly and what I believe was a light case of summer patch.

The problem areas in my lawn thinned drastically and it was very hard to get recovery this fall in these areas. The grass stayed brown longer and would not grow or spread at all until approx 10 weeks after I quit spraying the Primo. It was late in my season when the turf finally showed some signs of recovery but I have much work left to do this spring.

From what I read the Primo was supposed to help reduce disease but in my case I feel it may have brought on disease and stressed my turf because I had absolutely no issues before I applied the Primo and my turf was healthy, thick and was growing very quickly. This situation makes me wonder if further applications are worth the risk? I did really love the darker green color and reduced mowing but I do not want to deal with the rust issues and summer patch issues again.

I will probably try and use it again this upcoming season but at a very light level until I can isolate the benefits and negative effects and see if I experience the same issues I had this year. In my opinion if you have any negative effects or problems in your turf the Primo will make the recovery process a lot longer and harder for the lawn to recover from stresses.

[blizzisu]

I'm planning to use a growth regulator this year. Has anyone seen anything stating you should not do so on a new lawn? (I renovated last August)

Also, here is a cheap source of generic Primo Maxx http://www.ebay.com/itm/T-Pac-Turf-Grow ... 4059379%26

[Michael Wise]

Also, here is a cheap source of generic Primo Maxx http://www.ebay.com/itm/T-Pac-Turf-Grow ... 4059379%26

It isn't really cheaper.

A full gallon of Primo Maxx is about $280 at Lesco.

If you do the math on that eBay listing, it makes a gallon run $575. More than double.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[blizzisu]

Good catch Michael. Cheaper wasn't the correct choice of word. What I meant to say was the 8oz size on Ebay is a much smaller investment for those of us with smaller yards or for those who just want to give it a try.

[jglongisland]

According to Syngenta you can use Primo on new seedlings; they claim it helps establish a stronger root system. If your grass has made it through the winter you are well beyond that.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

I'm bumping this thread because I have a few questions as I'm considering a PGR for my renovation area.

Anybody cutting KBG at 3 inches or higher and experiencing leaf wilt or dead ends on their grass?

At what rates are you applying per month?

I like the tillering and darkening capabilities I'm reading about.

[StayOffMyLawn]

Never heard of this before, so I'll be paying attention.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Michael Wise]

Never heard of this before, so I'll be paying attention.

[ Post made via Android ]

http://youtu.be/-kl4hJ4j48s


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