August 15th: Welcome to the "Fall Season"

[andy10917]

While you may be scratching your head at the thought if you look at the calendar, today (August 15th) begins the optimal period to begin waking (gently!) the existing lawn, establish new grass by renovation or overseeding, and to start thinking about fighting the weeds (that period starts in another two weeks or so).

While the calendar says Fall doesn't start for more than a month yet, the easing of summer peak heat in the second half of August for Zones 7 and lower gives us the best, longest window of the year to make things happen without serious weed pressure. Grass established now will have until the cessation of growth in late October to the end of November) to establish and harden-off before Winter.

Members in Zone 6 and lower also need to start thinking about when Pre-M applications should be applied, if they are not renovating or overseeding.

Spending your time, effort and money on "already-lost wars" like crabgrass during this period is a questionable practice - as the days shorten and the nights cool, these annual pests will naturally decline almost as fast as they would with herbicides. As the old saying goes, "if you ignore a cold, it will go away in a week. If you use the best medicines, it will last for seven days.". Consider that your time might be best spent on getting AHEAD of the wars, instead of chasing battles that you already lost.

An application of Milorganite, Bay State, OceanGro, Soybean Meal or equivalent is a great way at this time to gently nudge the lawn into waking up and getting ready for the intense fertilization Fall period that starts around Labor Day.

Best of luck to those doing renovations this year, and may Mother Nature provide great conditions for you!

[Green]

I put down Milorganite today on the front. Even without it, it's growing like gangbusters again. 5 days since the last mow, and it was semi-overgrown. This year seems like an easier recovery than usual due to having sufficient rain and no real drought this Summer. Normally, the brown grass continues here most of the way through September or at least into the month. I don't think even having more 90 degree days will disrupt the grass too much at this point. It will probably look as good as it did in June again soon. I bet non-irrigated lawns will only be 3-4 weeks behind.

[northeastlawn]

Put down my BSF and took a 1/2" off the 3 1/2" I have been cutting at. I either had a ton of PO Annua die off this summer or tried to stretch out the watering out too much and the KBG went dormant or some debase hit it. I have a lot of brown and will need the KBG to spread a lot during the spoon feeding this fall.

We have a another hot week coming, so my transition will be watering more now that the nights get cooler, Ill probably put an extra watering in before or after the 90deg days we are expecting next week since I put the BSF down.

The period of hoping the POA Annua dies off is over, time to hopefully recover.