San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Bermuda, St. Augustine, Zoysia, Centipede, Bahia, Paspalum, etc
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Dchall_San_Antonio
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Re: San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » September 29th, 2017, 10:13 am

If your lawn does not go dormant this winter, then I would probably apply Milorganite or other organic on Washington's Birthday. Then fertilize again on Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. If it goes dormant, then the soil will be building nutrients that don't get used all winter. The nutrition already in the soil should carry it through until May. The problem with fertilizing right when the grass comes out of dormancy is that the extra fertilizer forces the plants to grow extra fast and to use stored nutrition faster leading to a decline in mid to late spring. It does not need the extra boost in the spring (which is when the fertilizer advertising hits TV and radio).

sandiego62
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Re: San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Post by sandiego62 » October 29th, 2017, 3:28 pm

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I have been super busy this past month and have not edged my lawn in three weeks or mowed in two weeks. We had three days of 100 degree weather too! Kids have been sick on amd off past three weeks too. This is what my lawn looks like after not doing anything to it. It looks a little sloppy buy nice and fluffy in person. I'll mow it later today but not to my usual 1" setting. I also notice some weeds. I'll prob just pull them since not many. Now off to the zoo with the kids!

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HoosierLawnGnome
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Re: San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » October 30th, 2017, 1:15 pm

Wow! That looks really good for being bumped down the priority list a bit for the sake of the family! (good call ;) )

Cosmacelf
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Re: San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Post by Cosmacelf » December 3rd, 2017, 11:45 pm

I'm just a bit north of you (sandiego62) and about the same distance from the coast. I would love to see what it looks like now. Has it gone dormant? Do you expect it to?

sandiego62
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Re: San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Post by sandiego62 » January 6th, 2018, 1:22 am

Cosmacelf, I'm sorry for the late reply but I have not had to mow my lawn in over 3+ weeks. I believe I'm dormant because the grass isn't growing and I have yellowish areas and the green areas are light green. I'll take some pictures tomorrow. How is your Seashore Paspalum holding up?


sandiego62
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Re: San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Post by sandiego62 » January 6th, 2018, 9:43 pm

Does this look dormant to you all? Would you have overseeded?

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Cosmacelf
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Re: San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Post by Cosmacelf » January 23rd, 2018, 2:27 pm

Thanks for the pictures. So, yes, I did get the seashore paspalum installed around Christmas. The grower (West Coast Turf) only had rye overseeded in stock, so I have a beautiful rye grass lawn right now. In theory, at some point, the paspalum will take over. I suspected that the paspalum wouldn't go truly dormant and yellow like bermuda does in our specific micro climate. Based on your lawn, I might be correct. I'll have to wait until next winter to see what my lawn does.

sandiego62
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Re: San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Post by sandiego62 » April 21st, 2018, 12:25 pm

Have not done much to the lawn in 2018 but pull some weeds. These guys seem to be popping up every week. They look like grass are light green and they stand out.

For now I just pull them out by hand. Maybe they will go away once grass really starts growing...they are definitely annoying though since we pulled them all out two weeks ago...maybe I didn't get all the roots.


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Cosmacelf
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Re: San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Post by Cosmacelf » April 23rd, 2018, 6:51 pm

What are you using to cut your lawn?

sandiego62
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Re: San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Post by sandiego62 » April 23rd, 2018, 11:23 pm

I use a Scotts 20" manual reel mower. It's a small lawn and very manageable...I may consider an electric reel mower for more consistancy. I have not mowed all of 2018 but am about to!

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Abyss
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Re: San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Post by Abyss » April 25th, 2018, 6:36 pm

sandiego62 wrote:
April 23rd, 2018, 11:23 pm
I use a Scotts 20" manual reel mower. It's a small lawn and very manageable...I may consider an electric reel mower for more consistancy. I have not mowed all of 2018 but am about to!
Go with the 25v gardenia, I haven’t looked this year if anyone came out with anything different, but my gardenia has been one of my best purchases ever. Light enough to carry around, and does an incredible job cutting through my Bermuda

sandiego62
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(Disease?) Re: San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Post by sandiego62 » May 1st, 2018, 12:24 pm

I really need help identifying this issue and possible disease. This started about 10 days ago but looks much worst now. The rest of lawn is starting to green up out of dormancy.


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PW405
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Re: San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Post by PW405 » May 3rd, 2018, 10:32 pm

Hmm, tough to say if that is disease... from my understanding (which is by no means comprehensive), most lawn diseases occur when there is humidity and moisture present on the lawn for an extended time. Seems unlikely given San Diego's mostly arid climate, however I've never spent much time there. Has there been humid/moist conditions on the grass over the past few weeks/months? Does water tend to pool in that area?

If you gently pull on the affected areas, do the roots still seem to be intact?

One thought is that it could be insect damage. Last summer/fall I had some pretty bad damage due to what I've concluded was grub worms eating the roots. The telltale sign was that the grass just came right out of the ground while raking. Also discovered ~20 grubs while expanding my irrigation system.

I wouldn't panic just yet, as your grass type will spread and fill in damaged areas now that we're approaching prime growing season for warm season turf, although you certainly want to keep a close eye on things.

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Dchall_San_Antonio
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Re: San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » May 4th, 2018, 7:21 pm

How have you been watering this year? How often and for how long? You probably see where I'm going with this line of questioning, because I have not watered my lawn yet in 2018. With the 3 inches of rain we got today I don't anticipate watering at least until June. Typically we get a heavy rain event in late May which pushes my irrigation deep into July. We'll see.

sandiego62
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Re: San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Post by sandiego62 » May 5th, 2018, 1:36 am

I've been watering using same sprinkler timer schedule - every Sun, Tues, Thurs & Friday for 7 minutes daily around 6am.

sandiego62
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Re: San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Post by sandiego62 » May 13th, 2018, 1:45 pm

Mowed the lawn today. These are just updates to track that weird patch...

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sandiego62
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Re: San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Post by sandiego62 » May 13th, 2018, 8:09 pm

One more sorry.
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Dchall_San_Antonio
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Re: San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » May 16th, 2018, 5:17 pm

It could be a disease from watering too frequently. You should be watering on Sunday for an hour or two (whatever it takes to get a full inch of water), then skip the next 13 days and water again on the second Sunday. Your temps have not warmed up enough to go to once a week watering. As I mentioned I have not watered yet this year, we have temps in the mid 80s, and my lawn never looked better. So far this year we've gotten almost 2 inches of rain per month, so the grass is very happy. My friend in Phoenix waters his St Augustine once a week this time of year. Phoenix is a LOT hotter than you are, yet the lawn doesn't need 4x per week watering. In fact when his temps get higher than 115 he goes to watering once every 3-4 days.

Cosmacelf
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Re: San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Post by Cosmacelf » May 17th, 2018, 2:49 pm

I'm suspicious of people who say to water a lot once a week. Climates are very different in different parts of the US and coastal San Diego is a very unique climate. Among other things, we don't get rain (well, not enough for it to matter). We get tons of sun, yet overnight temps drop a lot.

Anyways, I'll be figure this out myself once I actually have a mostly paspalum lawn. My new overseeded rye/paspalum lawn still has a lot of healthy rye grass since the temps haven't been very high here this season. I also have other lawns that are still fescue and I'll be replacing those with just paspalum once the growers have non-overseeded sod.

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Dchall_San_Antonio
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Re: San Diego, CA - Just had Platinum TE Paspalum installed

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » May 17th, 2018, 3:15 pm

Cosmacelf, I almost never say to water once a week. Here's what I normally say.
Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall.
That is a long way from a simple once a week. They get tons of Sun at Big Bear Lake, too, but an inch once a week would be over watering up there. Why? Because the temp rarely gets into the 80s. Soil quality is a factor too. Wind, shade, cloudiness, and humidity are factors, too. For someone who lives in the coastal area of San Diego the recommendation would be different from inland east of Grossmont Center. If you get "late night and early morning low clouds and fog," you should take that into consideration when watering. I would think once every 3 weeks would be more appropriate at La Jolla. But when you take everything into consideration, the main factor is outside air temperature. If you start with the suggestions above, you can adjust from there as needed for your lawn. But if you are in the once-a-day camp, I'm never going to agree to that recommendation.

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