Yeah!! Finally the Critical Season. Where's the Urea?

Kentucky bluegrass, Fescue, Rye and Bent, etc
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andy10917
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Yeah!! Finally the Critical Season. Where's the Urea?

Post by andy10917 » September 1st, 2018, 9:28 am

Alright!! Finally the all-important Fall Season is here - it's September 1st. I'm sitting on the front porch - it's in the mid-sixties now and I actually had to throw on a flannel shirt as a jacket earlier this morning.

What you do in this season will impact your lawn all the way until the beginning of June of next year.

Are you all ready with the materials in-stock?

This is when Cool-Season folks do three important things:

(1) Get the Pre-M down. Pre-M now will prevent much Poa Annua and some broadleaf weeds that germinate in the Fall and become visible next Spring. You can win the Poa Annua war for 2019 without even needing to fire a shot in 2019.

(2) Get the Post-Emergents back out. As the lawn wakes back up (mine is raring to go and has the munchies), the weeds wake up too. The higher metabolism means the weeds are now more susceptible to herbicides - this is the best time to finish them off.

(3) Start your Fall fertilization program. Whether you pick one of the Fall Nitrogen Regimens documented on ATY or run your own program, the next 6-10 weeks (depending on location) are when some of the best thickening and carb-storage happens. This will determine when and how your lawn greens-up in Spring, and a well-executed regimen will mean that it may be June before more fertilizer is needed again - that means you deny the Spring weeds the fertilizer and get an upper hand in that war, too.

So, welcome to the Fall lawn season, and why aren't you outside now?

Edit 09/04: this is a Teaching/Heads-Up topic - please do not use it as a "What I Did Today" thread.

Fullheadofturf1234
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Re: Yeah!! Finally the Critical Season. Where's the Urea?

Post by Fullheadofturf1234 » September 1st, 2018, 9:36 am

Just got in... mowed at 2.5. Threw down urea and milo.

How many months protection for prodiamine to win the poa war?

Finally get to take out that clover!!!

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andy10917
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Re: Yeah!! Finally the Critical Season. Where's the Urea?

Post by andy10917 » September 1st, 2018, 9:54 am

3-8 months, depending on application rate - which may be dependent on grass type. See the "Figure 1" in the linked label, which is labelled as for crabgrass applications (Spring) but should be very close to correct for Poa Annua in the Fall. Obviously, pouring the stuff on heavily for up to eight months is unnecessary in the Fall. Split applications are also possible.

Prodiamine Application Rate and Effective Periods

john5246
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Re: Yeah!! Finally the Critical Season. Where's the Urea?

Post by john5246 » September 1st, 2018, 10:35 am

Is there any place to get Urea in the Chicago area? Espoma makes some but it's in such a small bag and not really for us, we need cheap urea (bulk)

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Re: Yeah!! Finally the Critical Season. Where's the Urea?

Post by Green » September 1st, 2018, 12:33 pm

And it's Meterorological Fall now.

For me...

1. Tenacity plus seeding dead spots, especially in low input area.
2. See above
3. Running mostly Milo

Simple, but going to be a lot of work still.


Fullheadofturf1234
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Re: Yeah!! Finally the Critical Season. Where's the Urea?

Post by Fullheadofturf1234 » September 1st, 2018, 2:40 pm

@Andy, so if i put down the 8 month rate now would it makr it through the snow and spring showers ?
I am most likely am going to require some over seeding in spring and want to avoid having a layer down.
What would you reccomend if I plan onspring overseedimg? Gona chuck down some PRG in the front if the bluegrass doesnt spread

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Re: Yeah!! Finally the Critical Season. Where's the Urea?

Post by kwarny » September 1st, 2018, 2:50 pm

My area is expecting rain all week. I cleaned out the feeds the past few days. I put SBM down wed. at 12.5 lbs/k. Lowered HOC to 3" last night. Early this morning, I sprayed split prodiamine app, then finished off alfalfa pellets at 4 lbs/k, milorganite 6.25 lbs/k as a carrier for urea at .5 lb/k to gently push lawn for first week.

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Re: Yeah!! Finally the Critical Season. Where's the Urea?

Post by northeastlawn » September 1st, 2018, 3:28 pm

Thanks for the helpful thread, are there any issues with doing the fall fertilizer program and spraying tenacity at the same time?

I found the POA really out grew the KBG in August, I feel like I have to take care of fertilizing and the POA. Just not sure if the Urea is going to help the POA survive the Tenacity.

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MorpheusPA
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Re: Yeah!! Finally the Critical Season. Where's the Urea?

Post by MorpheusPA » September 1st, 2018, 4:05 pm

I managed to irritate the torn meniscus in my knee, badly enough to need an MRI to assure there wasn't a new tear.

This month, I went with 2.2 pounds of urea per thousand instead of my usual 15 pounds of soy per K to avoid carrying the weight. That went down around noon.

Unfortunately, temps will be in the 80's to 90's for the next week. Fortunately, rain is expected on and off through the whole period.

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Setzer1994
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Re: Yeah!! Finally the Critical Season. Where's the Urea?

Post by Setzer1994 » September 1st, 2018, 5:13 pm

Had a friend help de-thatch today in preparation for overseeding. It's been a while since I did a full complete overseed of my NoMix, so I figured I was due. Obviously skipping the Pre-M as a result, although my weed pressure has been surprisingly minimal this year.

Seed, peat moss and starter are ready!

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__JT__
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Re: Yeah!! Finally the Critical Season. Where's the Urea?

Post by __JT__ » September 1st, 2018, 8:03 pm

Got a mow in, and dropped .22#N/K BSF, mixed in with .5#N/K (10-10-10).

I had to sneak it in when the boss was out. She thinks the honey do list takes priority this week end.

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Re: Yeah!! Finally the Critical Season. Where's the Urea?

Post by kentster » September 1st, 2018, 9:39 pm

I'm ready! Milo went down a week ago Prodiamine applied two weeks ago, Urea is in the garage and I'm ready to kill some weeds.

Kent

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Re: Yeah!! Finally the Critical Season. Where's the Urea?

Post by flyingfish88 » September 2nd, 2018, 5:06 pm

A general question for those with nice, established lawns. I'm assuming you are not over seeding if you are applying pre-m and lots of N in the fall?

yearly overseeding is something that has been drilled in my head by my lawn care companies and elsewhere on internet, but guessing that most of you are at a point where its not needed on a yearly basis and you are better off containing weeds and thickening your existing lawn?

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andy10917
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Re: Yeah!! Finally the Critical Season. Where's the Urea?

Post by andy10917 » September 2nd, 2018, 7:59 pm

What's overseeding?

Actually, I did a little last year - I had to start a transition to another cultivar because my "Emblem" is no longer available. Tried "Bewitched" overseeding, but it failed as the "Emblem" wasn't having any of it.

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Re: Yeah!! Finally the Critical Season. Where's the Urea?

Post by TimmyG » September 2nd, 2018, 9:32 pm

fish, you'll notice that most members here with KBG, Andy included, or even a mix with KBG, as I have, don't overseed and don't need to because KBG spreads and will fill in on its own if well maintained. Tall fescue is a different story. It's a clump grass that doesn't spread, so overseeding is common practice to fill in areas that die out for any number of reasons. If well maintained, you may be able to get away with overseeding only every other or every third year and only in some areas. If maintained at the minimum level of the typical homeowner, you may find yourself needing to overseed every year.

Regardless of the species of grass, well maintained, thick turf is always the best first line of defense against weeds.

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Re: Yeah!! Finally the Critical Season. Where's the Urea?

Post by flyingfish88 » September 3rd, 2018, 8:20 pm

Thanks Andy and Timmy for the explanation!

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Re: Yeah!! Finally the Critical Season. Where's the Urea?

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » September 4th, 2018, 8:51 am

flyingfish88 wrote:
September 2nd, 2018, 5:06 pm
A general question for those with nice, established lawns. I'm assuming you are not over seeding if you are applying pre-m and lots of N in the fall?
I am, but it's because I have some moderate to severe insect damage in a few spots. I'll have to move plugs in or overseed. But normally I wouldn't, even with

Bring on the urea!

Now if I could just keep my lawn tractor running....

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andy10917
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Re: Yeah!! Finally the Critical Season. Where's the Urea?

Post by andy10917 » September 4th, 2018, 9:30 am

Note: this is a teaching/heads-up thread - please do not post "what I did today" posts within it. Commentary about the overall Fall season stuff is OK.

BTW, HLG - this is not aimed at you - your post is fine. A couple of other posts were disapproved as off-topic. All: See the thread "Off-Topic Posts" if you need more detail.

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