Gryd’s 2021 Mini Renovations

Discuss how to and whether you should renovate your lawn
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gryd
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Gryd’s 2021 Mini Renovations

Post by gryd » June 27th, 2021, 10:17 am

Hi Folks,

So this year I’m renovating some small sections probably totaling 1,500 square feet. I’m also over-seeding a strip of grass on the shady side of house with TTTF and Bewitched KBG.

I was decimated with Poa Annua last year. My mistake. This was an area that had lots of Poa problems in the past and I should have fallowed. This year I won’t make the same mistakes. That said, I’m going to get an early start. I plan on killing the existing grass this week. Fallow in July. Get seed down by first week of August, which is fine for my area. it’s also better for an aging, slower moving, renovation warrior like myself. Working in smaller sections is easier for me.

Greg

Ps. United Seeds has sod qualified Bewitched at decent prices.
https://unitedseeds.com/shop/

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Re: Gryd’s 2021 Mini Renovations

Post by northeastlawn » June 27th, 2021, 12:27 pm

Just to give you a heads up....

A lot of my poa-a already got fried from last months first mini heat wave. With temps way up, you might have poa-a and triv thats already dormant and won't be effected by fallowing in July. You will have triv and poa-a thats just waiting to come back when you start watering the new seed.

The tenacity at seed down is going to hold off SOME of the poa-a that germinates for 20 days, but your best bet is to really get a handle on what young and recovering poa-a looks like. Just yank it out as soon as you see it.

I wish i had pulled up half my lawn when I did my reno, I had so much poa-a coming up right before my eyes, I just wasn't able to tell the difference between the poa-a coming back and the new new KBG I seeded. If I could have just pulled it when it was small I could have saved myself so much grief later on.

The fallow is important, but doesn't do much if the bad stuff is dormant for the summer.

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gryd
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Re: Gryd’s 2021 Mini Renovations

Post by gryd » June 28th, 2021, 6:03 pm

northeastlawn wrote:
June 27th, 2021, 12:27 pm
Just to give you a heads up....

A lot of my poa-a already got fried from last months first mini heat wave. With temps way up, you might have poa-a and triv thats already dormant and won't be effected by fallowing in July. You will have triv and poa-a thats just waiting to come back when you start watering the new seed.

The tenacity at seed down is going to hold off SOME of the poa-a that germinates for 20 days, but your best bet is to really get a handle on what young and recovering poa-a looks like. Just yank it out as soon as you see it.

I wish i had pulled up half my lawn when I did my reno, I had so much poa-a coming up right before my eyes, I just wasn't able to tell the difference between the poa-a coming back and the new new KBG I seeded. If I could have just pulled it when it was small I could have saved myself so much grief later on.

The fallow is important, but doesn't do much if the bad stuff is dormant for the summer.
Maybe I’ll get lucky and the heat plus tenacity will knock out the Poa Annua.

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Re: Gryd’s 2021 Mini Renovations

Post by gryd » June 28th, 2021, 6:33 pm

Pulled the RU trigger on a section today. Taking my time but still plan to seed first week of August.

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Re: Gryd’s 2021 Mini Renovations

Post by gryd » July 4th, 2021, 6:37 pm

Does anyone know the seeding rate for an 80%/20% KBG mix? If you have Scott’s drop spreader settings that would be even more helpful.
Thanks!


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Re: Gryd’s 2021 Mini Renovations

Post by andy10917 » July 4th, 2021, 9:40 pm

You need to supply what the other grass type is in the 80%/20% mix, so that we know what the number of seeds/lb are. Also, which is the 80% and which is the 20%?

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Re: Gryd’s 2021 Mini Renovations

Post by Green » July 5th, 2021, 1:32 am

Greg,

Assuming you're talking about TTTF as mentioned earlier, an 80/20 mix with KBG is going to be good at around 7 lbs per thousand square feet, give or take. I assume the 20% is the KBG as it makes little sense normally to do a new seeding the other way (with Tall Fescue, anyway). Ryegrass is a whole different ballgame as it's much more aggressive. You'll likely end up with anywhere from 50/50 to about 30/70 in the final lawn. (My convention puts the TTTF as the first number in these ratios, and the KBG as the second number). I think my back lawn was about 80/20 seeding ratio (we were aiming for 75/25 to 80/20 and I had an old pro fertilizer guy from the area seed it as part of the agreement with the landscaping contractor, but he may have just put down what I pre-measured--with advice from this group), and anyway, it's around 50/50 overall now, 7-8 yeats after being seeded, but is more KBG-heavy in some areas.

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Re: Gryd’s 2021 Mini Renovations

Post by northeastlawn » July 5th, 2021, 11:26 am

I remember seeing something once that suggested no more than 10% PR in any KBG mixture, since the PR is so aggressive. When I did my TTTF/KBG mix this year, I weighed out my TTTF and spread that, then weighed out my KBG and spread it out separate. If you have a large area its more work, but it does give you some peace of mind that the two types of grass were spread evenly.

I can't say enough about calculating the size of your area and weighing it out first. Don't count on the numbers on the spreaders, they are only a guide.

Ultimately most of us get nervous about it coming up, and will end up putting more down. But if you calculate your areas and weigh it out you know you put down enough, and any extra you put down is just to make you feel good.

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Re: Gryd’s 2021 Mini Renovations

Post by gryd » July 5th, 2021, 1:16 pm

andy10917 wrote:
July 4th, 2021, 9:40 pm
You need to supply what the other grass type is in the 80%/20% mix, so that we know what the number of seeds/lb are. Also, which is the 80% and which is the 20%?
Sorry. 80% TTTF and 20% Bewitched KBG.

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Re: Gryd’s 2021 Mini Renovations

Post by gryd » July 5th, 2021, 1:18 pm

Green wrote:
July 5th, 2021, 1:32 am
Greg,

Assuming you're talking about TTTF as mentioned earlier, an 80/20 mix with KBG is going to be good at around 7 lbs per thousand square feet, give or take. I assume the 20% is the KBG as it makes little sense normally to do a new seeding the other way (with Tall Fescue, anyway). Ryegrass is a whole different ballgame as it's much more aggressive. You'll likely end up with anywhere from 50/50 to about 30/70 in the final lawn. (My convention puts the TTTF as the first number in these ratios, and the KBG as the second number). I think my back lawn was about 80/20 seeding ratio (we were aiming for 75/25 to 80/20 and I had an old pro fertilizer guy from the area seed it as part of the agreement with the landscaping contractor, but he may have just put down what I pre-measured--with advice from this group), and anyway, it's around 50/50 overall now, 7-8 yeats after being seeded, but is more KBG-heavy in some areas.
Yes. 80% TTTF and 20% KBG. Thanks for your advice.

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Re: Gryd’s 2021 Mini Renovations

Post by Green » July 6th, 2021, 8:43 pm

You're welcome.

I also generally spread them separately. More often than not, the smaller seed tends to filter to the bottom of the spreader to a degree. (I did have the person spreading the seed do it separately for the renovation mentioned above.) I used my 2 TTTF cultivars together first, and then a 3-way KBG blend including Bewitched was spread right after that.

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Re: Gryd’s 2021 Mini Renovations

Post by gryd » October 16th, 2021, 5:12 pm

Seed went down late (mid September) on my renovated areas this year. Good help is hard to come by. At any rate I think it will be fine. The TTTF/KBG section is obviously the most developed. Also, I have 2 dogs who love to eat peat moss and dirt. I tried using clean straw to hide it from them but that worked a day, maybe 2. I ended up using chicken wire to keep them off.

TTTF/Bewitched
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Moonlight SLT (50%) and Bewitched (50%)
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Mazama, Bewitched, Zinfandel and Arcadia (seed from last year)

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