Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Kentucky bluegrass, Fescue, Rye and Bent, etc
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s1mpl3k1d
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Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Post by s1mpl3k1d » September 20th, 2020, 11:25 pm

Here's my Sept 20 update. I've been waiting for weeks. 98% of my neighbors' lawn are all green and thick now. However, mine is still dead. Maybe because of grubs. It's because it's the first time this year since 2013 that I saw Japanese Beetles in my yard.

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MorpheusPA
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Re: Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Post by MorpheusPA » September 21st, 2020, 3:16 pm

That's not a good sign. You'd have to dig to check for grubs, though--I get invaded by beetles every year (they like the gardens), but grubs don't happen. I treat for them in my case.

Even so, it would take an infestation at a level I can only call "disgusting" to kill that amount of grass to that extent. Grubs per square foot would approach "countless" at the September size.

We've gotten very late for seeding, so I might do a winter dormant seed just to get something for next year. However, you'll absolutely have to coddle that next summer, no exceptions, and expect losses and massive weeds, and to have to seed next fall anyway.

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Re: Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Post by dan10 » September 21st, 2020, 3:51 pm

Did you do any spraying right before this started to turn so massively brown? Accidently put some Round Up in the tank?

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Re: Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Post by MorpheusPA » September 21st, 2020, 4:10 pm

10% lye? Agent Orange? Gray goo nanotechnology?

Agreed with Dan10. I've never seen summer kill that bad without extenuating circumstances. Severe disease, insect damage that's out of control, and so on, particularly where the surrounding yards come back just fine without significant damage.

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Re: Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Post by andy10917 » September 21st, 2020, 6:02 pm

I agree. I can't speak for the "Midnight", but I have written on this site many, many times about how "Emblem" just loves the blazing heat of July/August. And a couple of them were "no watering, period" years. maybe it didn't exactly laugh at it in the no-irrigation periods, but it barely got the sniffles.


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Re: Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Post by DevilDawg81 » September 21st, 2020, 8:37 pm

The areas I’ve circled below...is that your lawn as well or Is it your neighbors? My first glance at this thread and I thought this was a renovation topic. That is 100% brown from end-to-end, much like a glypho app (RoundUp) was made. Not saying that was your intention, but that’s the appearance. I ask about the circled portions in the photo because it looks like the same brown area extends into your neighbors lot as well, unless that is all of your lot.

Image

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Re: Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Post by Masbustelo » September 21st, 2020, 8:53 pm

s1mpl3k1d I live in Northwestern Illinois as well. If you overseed with perennial rye now, and begin to water it you can probably get it established. I had the same or worse drought than you, I have a perennial rye/kbg lawn that looks beautiful right now, and I never irrigated all summer. Whatever happened to your grass is probably not weather related.

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Re: Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Post by MorpheusPA » September 21st, 2020, 11:01 pm

I can speak for Midnight II and some of its variants and relatives--my lawn is 40% made of those. :-) They survive summer without irrigation just fine, as I never irrigate and you've seen the photos. They bounced back just fine after this year. And do so without irrigation in the worst areas and blazing sun year after year after year.

We've now been 8 hot days and 3 cool days with no precip and in a month with very low precip overall and the lawn is just now wilted again in the easily shocked areas. I'm not irrigating because some rain is expected next week. Midnight variants do just fine in this once established.

As Andy said, sniffles, but they don't do...that. They'll be fine again in October and I'm not worried about them.

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Re: Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Post by s1mpl3k1d » September 22nd, 2020, 1:17 am

dan10 wrote:
September 21st, 2020, 3:51 pm
Did you do any spraying right before this started to turn so massively brown? Accidently put some Round Up in the tank?
It wasn't only me. My neighbor's lawn attached to my affected lawn, my neighbor in across the street and neighbor about 5 houses down.

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Re: Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Post by s1mpl3k1d » September 22nd, 2020, 1:21 am

DevilDawg81 wrote:
September 21st, 2020, 8:37 pm
The areas I’ve circled below...is that your lawn as well or Is it your neighbors? My first glance at this thread and I thought this was a renovation topic. That is 100% brown from end-to-end, much like a glypho app (RoundUp) was made. Not saying that was your intention, but that’s the appearance. I ask about the circled portions in the photo because it looks like the same brown area extends into your neighbors lot as well, unless that is all of your lot.

Image
No, it's my neighbor's. His is also affected. It's the one attached to my lawn. I'll take a closer pic tomorrow. The lawn on the other side of this driveway is looking good as far as I remember. It's not a renovation. And yes, it looks like I sprayed RoundUp. LOL. I walked on it and it's very crunchy.

Look at my neighbor's lawn in front, hers died too. Then another one 5 houses down, also 80% death on his lawn. The green that you see on her lawn(somewhere in center) is spurge weed.
Image

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Re: Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Post by s1mpl3k1d » September 22nd, 2020, 1:26 am

I scalped some parts today. The grass is like a leaf that's been dried for many months. It was so crunchy. The dirt didn't have any green blade coming out. There are parts of my house specifically on the north side where grass is showing well. It's the area where it only gets sun from 7-9am.

I'm going to mow very low tomorrow so I can get rid of all the dead grass.

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Re: Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Post by s1mpl3k1d » September 22nd, 2020, 1:29 am

MorpheusPA wrote:
September 21st, 2020, 11:01 pm
I can speak for Midnight II and some of its variants and relatives--my lawn is 40% made of those. :-) They survive summer without irrigation just fine, as I never irrigate and you've seen the photos. They bounced back just fine after this year. And do so without irrigation in the worst areas and blazing sun year after year after year.

We've now been 8 hot days and 3 cool days with no precip and in a month with very low precip overall and the lawn is just now wilted again in the easily shocked areas. I'm not irrigating because some rain is expected next week. Midnight variants do just fine in this once established.

As Andy said, sniffles, but they don't do...that. They'll be fine again in October and I'm not worried about them.
Our summer temps this year were insane. It reached 103f if I remember correctly. Temperature was playing around 95-100f for 2 weeks.

It's been in the 75s tops for the past 3 weeks and around 55-60s in the evening.

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Re: Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Post by s1mpl3k1d » September 22nd, 2020, 1:34 am

Masbustelo wrote:
September 21st, 2020, 8:53 pm
s1mpl3k1d I live in Northwestern Illinois as well. If you overseed with perennial rye now, and begin to water it you can probably get it established. I had the same or worse drought than you, I have a perennial rye/kbg lawn that looks beautiful right now, and I never irrigated all summer. Whatever happened to your grass is probably not weather related.
It wasn't only my lawn, maybe 3-5 of the residents' lawns are affected. Mine was the worst. It didn't rain for 45 days but I'm pretty sure I irrigated my lawn once a week if I remember correctly but I missed some for sure.

Yes, I'm very tempted to put high quality ryegrass. How long had you had the ryegrass? I read it doesn't perform well in summer. I'm also tempted to put down a high quality dark green fescue.

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Re: Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Post by Masbustelo » September 22nd, 2020, 4:07 am

The ryegrass is in a lawn that I never renovated. I have oversown it with Fiesta the last two years. It goes dormant and looks like straw, but comes right back after fall rain. I'm not suggesting it as a permanent solution. If you seed immediately it will establish in several weeks, and your good until next fall, when maybe you'll go in another direction. I have patches of Mazama KBG in this lawn. The Mazama always looked green and seemed hardly phased by the five week heat wave/drought. Of fescues, I have no experience. Other than killing K31.

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Re: Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Post by s1mpl3k1d » September 24th, 2020, 7:18 pm

Can't find my new thread. Maybe because I used the "f" word with an asterisk replacement for the vowel. It's ok.

So it's not drought that killed my lawn. It's grubs. It's 5-6 of them every 1 square foot. Can these grubs still be killed since they're matured?


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Re: Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Post by MorpheusPA » September 24th, 2020, 7:43 pm

F*dge? You're allowed to say f*dge here. Mmmm. F*dge.

Usually 5-6 grubs per square foot isn't a huge issue, but given the date and the drought, I'm going to say it probably helped push things over the edge. I can't ID species from grub.

Control would have to be something hefty, like Sevin, which will certainly take them out. Or at least 90% of them. If you want to--generally, large grubs are not big feeders as they're close to going to sleep for the winter. In spring, they rise and feed one last time before turning to adults, then lay eggs that will hatch in early September when (normally) rains resume.

If you do go with Sevin, you'll need to water it in down to the grub layer. Kill will be quite fast, within 48 hours. Been there, done that.

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Re: Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Post by s1mpl3k1d » September 24th, 2020, 10:05 pm

I was searching for products and I saw 24 hr Grub Killer Bayer. Is this good?

Is this the Sevin product? https://www.lowes.com/pd/Sevin-Granules ... lsrc=aw.ds

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Re: Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Post by MorpheusPA » September 24th, 2020, 10:39 pm

The latter is the Sevin stuff. I can't speak to the Bayer product, but Dylox is supposed to work as well.

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Re: Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Post by s1mpl3k1d » September 24th, 2020, 11:13 pm

MorpheusPA wrote:
September 24th, 2020, 10:39 pm
The latter is the Sevin stuff. I can't speak to the Bayer product, but Dylox is supposed to work as well.
Thanks a lot!

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Re: Sept 20 Update - No signs of Life

Post by s1mpl3k1d » September 28th, 2020, 1:20 am

MorpheusPA, guess what I saw today and at the back. Looks like my KBG lawn didn't die or maybe some parts of it. I still can't tell how much. Blades are coming out, LOL! Though in front, on bare dirt, I did see fine grass blades about half inch coming out too but not a lot. I can't tell how much are dead or alive. I still dropped TTTF today though.

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