Extra month of lawncare activity - what do you plan to do?

[Green]

Looks like many of us are getting an extra 4 weeks due to the El Nino. What do you plan to do on your lawn over the next few weeks during the extended pause?

During the extended pause, I'm planning to spray a few weeds I didn't get to, take it down from 3/3.25 to 2.5/2.75 inches height of cut, spray FAS on the front, plant a few pots in the lawn, get a new support for a young tree and install it, and then finally winterize the front when it stops growing.

I also noticed that the one-time Fall Velocity spot spray I did appears to be helping. Some of the Triv is looking a little lighter than it normally does, and it's not spreading like crazy the way it normally does this time of year.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

I grew 1/2" to 1" over the last two weeks but temps are quickly falling. I'd say we are 2 to 3 weeks behind.

my only plan is to keep it cut and winterize when it's time.

[ Post made via Android ]

[bauer time]

I pretty much finished everything I needed to do. Still cutting about every 10 days and waiting for the day to come when the grass has stopped so I can winterize, run the equipment dry, trim, edge and finally tune the mower up for next year.

Took advantage of this nice weather and got Christmas lights up already.

[1977212]

Nothing were expecting 5-9in snow.

[northeastlawn]

I winterized last weekend, it didn't seem like the grass was really growing much. But had a feeling I might have got away with a few more weeks of spoon feeding urea back in October because it was so warm, but I just played it safe and went with the avg. first frost date..

Hopefully the urea I put down last weekend doesn't encourage the top growth.

Will cutting the grass this time of year encourage it to keep growing or does it just stop when the temp's get low enough?

[ken-n-nancy]

Will cutting the grass this time of year encourage it to keep growing or does it just stop when the temp's get low enough?

Mowing the lawn doesn't directly encourage growth as the grass is near the dormancy threshold. It'll grow (or not) whether you mow it or not.

If anything, I think shorter grass goes dormant earlier.

[turf_toes]

Will cutting the grass this time of year encourage it to keep growing or does it just stop when the temp's get low enough?

Mowing the lawn doesn't directly encourage growth as the grass is near the dormancy threshold. It'll grow (or not) whether you mow it or not.

If anything, I think shorter grass goes dormant earlier.

My experience is the opposite. Shorter grass allows more sunlight to warm the soil.

My lawn hasn't gone dormant since I began cutting shorter in the fall (typically 1.75-inches).


Sent from my iOS device using the Yard Help App

[ken-n-nancy]

If anything, I think shorter grass goes dormant earlier.

My experience is the opposite. Shorter grass allows more sunlight to warm the soil.

My lawn hasn't gone dormant since I began cutting shorter in the fall (typically 1.75-inches).

Interesting. I've heard that shorter growth helps increase soil temperatures. (A good thing in early spring / late fall; a bad thing in midsummer.)

I'm definitely curious about how the various factors our lawns experience (amount of fertilization, height of cut, mulching of leaves, amount of watering, amount of sunlight, etc.) affect when the grass becomes dormant.

It's pretty clear that of lawns in our area, ours is one of the last to be entering dormancy. I guess the question is which of the multitude of differences between the care given to our lawn and that given to our neighbors lawns are the ones which have the biggest impact on whether or not the grass becomes dormant?

I don't have any real answers, just observations, impressions, and speculations.

[bauer time]

Mowed again today and removed about 3/4-1 inch from last mow about 10 days ago. I will revisit the lawn this weekend and see where it stands. I'm anxious to throw down Urea so I can finally get all the equipment put away for winter but I don't want to risk it with growth still present.

Odd to be mowing the lawn while my wife put Christmas lights on our deck!

[Green]

Ken,

I've found there's a tradeoff between taking off too much leaf material and cutting shorter to allow soil warming. I've also found that keeping it a bit longer helps the leaves that are mulched in to decompose better. If you almost scalp, it will probably go brown faster, at least that's been my experience. Also, I try not to mow before a really cold night if I can avoid it. It doesn't repair as well.

[bauer time]

I expect growth to continue after the last two days of rain. Looking at the forecast it looks like the highs are going to be in the mid-high 50s and lows ranging from mid 30s-mid 40s through the next 10 days. The wait continues.

[andy10917]

I'm doing exactly what I'd do if it was already snowing -- planning for Spring.

[GaryCinChicago]

My experience is the opposite. Shorter grass allows more sunlight to warm the soil.

My lawn hasn't gone dormant since I began cutting shorter in the fall (typically 1.75-inches).

[Pennstater2005]

I haven't mowed in two or three weeks. And there has been minimal growth. I already did the winter app so I've been doing nothing. Was it too early? Maybe, but I haven't seen any real growth since.

[Pelouse]

same here i haven t seen much grass growing happening , i winterized my back yard last week end and I will wait for the next rain to do the front .

[Green]

Got a 49-degree highest soil temp today during peak sun in the front. Average is 43 for the front right now. Growth is very slow.

[Green]

Last year, Dec 4th was my last mow of the low-input area. I mowed half the yard today, but it's not going to be the last time. I think it will need a trim in 2 more weeks or so if the weather holds.

This will be my 4th year doing a final winterizer. Last year was much colder this time of year, and it went down on November 23rd. The latest I've ever done it was in 2012, on December 9th. Looks like this year is going to beat that record and be even later by at least a few days, if not a whole week.

[ken-n-nancy]

Today was my "last mow" but it wasn't because the grass has grown at all since the prior mow (back on 20 Nov 2015). Rather, today's mowing was to reduce the height by a half-inch more so that there is less dormant grass blade matted up under the snow over the winter to hopefully lessen the tendency and/or impact of any snow mold that develops.

Interestingly enough, today's reduction in cut height by 1/2" resulted in essentially no loss in color - I guess that's not too surprising, as the grass hasn't grown at all since the prior mowing over two weeks ago!

In 2014, our "last mow" was on 13 Nov 2014. That mowing was 7 days after the prior mowing, with no detectable height taken off. (The last mowing that resulted in grass being cut was 6 Nov 2014.) Last year, I applied urea at 0.75#N/K on 13 Nov 2014.

In 2015, the last mowing at which I detected grass being cut was 15 Nov 2015. I "mowed" again on 20 Nov 2015, but did that only to mulch up leaves; there was no detectable height taken off at that time. For that matter, growth from 31 Oct 2015 through 15 Nov 2015 was very slow -- I was mulching up leaves every 3-5 days, but the grass was only barely growing.

I think if I were to have applied a "winterization treatment of urea after top growth stops" I should have put it down at the time of the "first mowing with no grass clippings" back on 20 Nov 2015. I'm seriously considering not applying it at all.

I was unhappy with the snow mold / winterkill damage we had last year and want to err on the side of being too aggressive in preventing it from happening again (no late fall fertilizers and shorter cut lengths this year) to see if that helps. Last year was the first year I've ever had snow mold (and the first year I've ever applied a "winterization treatment of urea after top growth stops"). I think the snow mold was probably due to the deep snow cover persisting until April (and not the late fall urea treatment) but I'm not taking chances.

I feel that the grass will get through the winter and green up in the spring just fine even without one more urea treatment.

[wis99ski]

Still growing, still mowing.

[Green]

Ken,

Interesting plan. I'd like to hear how it goes.

Personally, I'm trying out 0.5 lb/K of N as my final winterizer this time (instead of the 1.0 lb I've done before or the 0.75 lb that you and some others have done).

We both had bad winter damage last year.