Fall Starts Today: What's Your Goal?

[andy10917]

Fall starts today at 9:54pm EDT.

What is your goal to finish the 2018 season, and what are you planning to do to get there?

Do you think you're in a good situation to go run for the finish line?

[kentster]

I was doing my soil remediation plan through August and, finally, I put down Milo with no micros at the bag rate on August 25th. I also bought 50 pounds of Urea to get ready for Fall Nitrogen (non-agressive...1 application). I'm waiting for "the pause" to drop it.

The local weather has been warm and very wet with heavy rain Monday & Tuesday (Florence) and more last night, so the grass seems to be staying in growth mode so far. This has been good for my spot seeding, but I'm getting a little confused about how it impacts my plan. Keeping it simple, I guess, it best.

In the meantime, I lowered my cut height to 3", started mulching leaves and I'm planning to kill some weeds into the fall. I'm not exactly sure the best time to do this, so I think I just watch for new growth and spot spray it. I went a little light on Prodiamine on Aug 25th (0.195oz/k), but I worry about overapplication, so I'm hoping for the best and will just re-apply in the Spring.

That's my update Mr Wizard

[Oldschool]

All that’s left is dropping the deck to 2 inches and dropping the winterize Urea. Fall regimen is already complete. First frost should arrive Tuesday, two weeks past average first frost which allowed me to put an extra regimen Urea down.

[PW405]

My front lawn "overrenoseed": adding KBG/Fescue mix to a 1 year old fescue lawn was on a pretty good track. Goal is to get KBG out of sprout-and-pout and hopefully have enough time left to also hit the aggressive Fall N Regime. Instead of planting annual rye on my bermuda area for the winter, I Just figured "ehh, let's go ahead and drop the fescue KBG blend there too". I want to see what happens next summer and willing to risk it all.

(Planning to make a thread to track progress, as I don't think anybody has a blend of multiple cool season AND warm season species, in the transition zone, in one spot.)

Weather starting out was PERFECT... low wind, daytime highs right around 90, sprinkler's aimed well, prepwork for laying seed was on-point. Irrigation schedule optimized. Took off work and spent 2 days prepping for seed. Things were going pretty well... Until yesterday, 9 days after seed drop. Got 4" of rain over 3 hours and my front yard is on a slight slope, so there's good chance I lost a little KBG seed in a few areas. . Not planning to drop seed again. I'll ride out winter with what I've got.

Overall though, I feel that timelines are going to OK. Long-term forecasts indicate cooler than average temps over the next 14 days. I'm a little behind in the backyard, plan to drop fescue seed this and also hit the Fall N Regimen.

Snapped this picture after the storm yesterday. You can see the little seedlings hanging on under .5" of water. Interesting that some of the seeds have yet to sprout, but they're still stuck to the ground holding on!

[PW405]

Should also mention, other goal is to finish out my soil remediation plan from last fall. I have 1-2 more SOP application, and one more micronutrient application. Will likely take soil samples early next spring to see how the first round of treatments went. Going to let the seed get to day ~30 before adding SOP and mowing.

Only thing I'm struggling with is how to tell if the KBG is out of sprout-n-pout. Since it is mixed in with established fescue, and new fescue, it is hard to visually confirm. Any tips?

[seiyafan]

For my experience KGB is out of sprout and pout when significant top growth resumes again.

[JHazzardB]

Kill grubs. All the grubs. Or bugs like grubs. I hate them all. According to the MSU sheet, September should work for me killing the adults right now...unless that bleeping raccoon hasn't eaten them all yet. Chemicals get here Tuesday.

I put down the other 50% of my overseed today. I had large areas wiped out and I split the overseed apart by about 8 days. I topped it off with another dusting of peat moss. Now just waiting for cooler weather.

Andy, I'm definitely not running for the finish line. I'm tripping and stumbling and just hope to cross it...

[1977212]

Lots of urea and every other day mowing.

[greenrebellion]

Front Yard - I've already made two "Fall" apps of Prodiamine to my Front yard (early August and yesterday). I'm going to keep up on Serenade a bit past October due to having rust issues every year. Also going to experiment running Urea a bit past avg first frost given that the "pause" period seems to be 8 weeks long where I am at, hopefully that helps with rust as well.

Backyard Reno - one or two more apps of Tenacity, frequent mowing to encourage tillering, Urea...and maybe some 3 way spot spraying late in the season if needed to clean up a few things that Tenacity won't kill.

[PSU4ME]

Two goals, making the KBG thicker and also finding out how to get a stronger root system. When I plug they are not great and I have this feeling that it’s one of my main issues so I’ll be reading a lot to see what can be done.

Also taking suggestions - I’ll set up another thread for that

[northeastlawn]

I originally had planned on the fall fertilizer program to thicken the yard.

It kind of all changed to just trying to kill all the POA annua I still have from the spring. The Tenacity just doesn't seem to have the punch I expected. The tenacity induced seed heads popping up seem to support what it is, Im just going to keep on it.

I also noticed the yard gets a lot less sun in the fall. The sun is at a different angle now and I have a tree that now blocks the sun from many parts of the yard. I noticed certain areas of the yard the lawn is thinning out. I used to think it was other things, now I think its just because of the extra shade its getting.

I am continuing with the fall fertilizer program and 2nd fall pre-m app, but slowly learning getting the lawn to thicken up is probably best done in the spring when it gets more sun. But the tenacity treatments are going to be with me for a while and always going to effect the good KBG and how much thickening I get.

[PW405]

Kill grubs. All the grubs. Or bugs like grubs. I hate them all. According to the MSU sheet, September should work for me killing the adults right now...unless that bleeping raccoon hasn't eaten them all yet. Chemicals get here Tuesday.

I put down the other 50% of my overseed today. I had large areas wiped out and I split the overseed apart by about 8 days. I topped it off with another dusting of peat moss. Now just waiting for cooler weather.

Andy, I'm definitely not running for the finish line. I'm tripping and stumbling and just hope to cross it...

Where the wiped out areas from the rain on Friday?

[JHazzardB]

Nope! Looks like I had very little wash out from the rains (crazy enough). These areas I'm assuming are major grub damage or I hit them too hard with chemicals.

[seiyafan]

1. Catch more chipmunks
2. Need more sun

[DevilDawg81]

Goals remaining: Complete patch renovations and see them thru next year. I’m still on target for my soil remediation plan. I need to get two small bushes in my flower bed transplanted. Fall nitrogen plan is underway and I need to see it thru.

Goals completed: Patch renovations are in and looking strong. I’ve transplanted sod from one area to another and that is looking good. I had a huge infestation of quack (confirmed thru OSU extension), and in May I began torching it with RU. I scored a huge victory in getting the crew who installed my patio to let me use their sod cutter to scrape away the area to bare dirt,then they hauled it all away for free. I continued fallowing for an additional 6 weeks. This was an area ~850 sq feet. On August 20th my dad and I laid the new sod down, and so far everything looks great. This morning I was able to do a lot of work in our flower bed to get it ready for winter. It wasn’t on my list until I started pulling some weeds and then kept cleaning it out.

Last night I received a compliment on how things are looking. It felt really good. Admittedly our lawn looked like crap all year and I know our neighbors were frowning. Someone had even made a snarky remark about our lawn to my wife prior to our big sod install. I told her “don’t worry, by October our lawn will blow everyone away.” If you create a plan and prepare properly...you can hit your goals. The fall nitrogen plan is already darkening up our turf to where there’s a noticeable difference in yards that butt up to ours.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

My bar is so low this year. Mow enough, get some N down, and winterize.

[ken-n-nancy]

There are four distinct areas of our lawn, all in various stages of either renovation/experimentation.

1 - Front Lawn: Undergoing full renovation to a 50/50 Bewitched/Prosperity blend. Just now leaving "sprout and pout." Goal is to continue watering, mowing, and fertilizing so that it is as established as possible before winter. Would like to encourage growth now so that no spring seeding is required in sparse areas. Have some areas that are much sparser than I would like, but adding more seed now would be counterproductive, so I'm looking to maximize what is there. Planning weekly 0.5#N/ksqft fertilizer applications until "The Pause."

2 - Side Lawn: Bewitched monostand of 3500sqft, with about 350sqft of patch repair which is just now leaving "sprout and pout." Same goals as front for patch repair. Established grass suffered some fungus damage this summer; looking to encourage regrowth in those damaged areas without introducing any new problems - fungal or otherwise. Planning weekly 0.5#N/ksqft fertilizer applications until "The Pause" -- however, this pause starts a week earlier in the side lawn than the (sunny) front lawn.

3 - Back Lawn: Fine-Fescue/KBG mix. Heavily shaded in fall. No major changes here. Area near house gets too much shade and has thinned out over last 4 years. Interestingly, the only grass remaining in the deepest shade areas is very thin Prosperity KBG (1 grass plant in about every 4"x4" space -- I should probably actually count plants in a few different 1sqft areas to quantify). The FF has completely disappeared in the deepest shade areas. Planning weekly 0.5#N/ksqft fertilizer applications until "The Pause" -- however, this pause starts a week earlier in the back lawn than the (sunny) front lawn.

4 - Front, Far Side of Driveway: A northern mix (PRG/FF/KBG) in which I experimented with a pair of 8oz/ksqft Tenacity applications at the end of summer/beginning of fall. In recovery from the 2nd Tenacity application. Goal is to have KBG completely recovered from Tenacity bleaching in order to look good, spread a bit into thin areas, and have good food storage for over the winter. Planning weekly 0.5#N/ksqft fertilizer applications until "The Pause."

[KBGkicksazz]

Eradicate the nutsedge in my front lawn. Tired of looking at those little bight glean beacons in my yard.

[Green]

Currently in fix-up mode. There was a good amount of damage from the Summer when you add it all up...
-a few patches in the front
-a lot on the side
-some in the lower back
-extensive damage in the low-input area

Seed in the last major areas finally went down a few days ago (low-input area--roughly 2,000 square feet of damage, and patches on the side and lower back). The rain started this morning, and is heavy at times. Hopefully I'm not losing any seed. We'll see in a few days.

There are a few more small areas that need various things done, like leveling of dips, but it will take a while when added up.

Other than that, keeping up with the fertilizer, mowing, and spraying. No time for aggressive fertilizer this year, which is fine. Grass will get about a pound and a half or so of N from organic and synthetic N sources.

Also modifying some things with the irrigation system in the front and back.

Also Poa annua. I don't see any, but I know it's there. I'm late with prevention (passed the window but planned to use Tenacity as post instead...and am late with that, too due to the flooding back there).