# JarHarms' Lawn Journal



## JarHarms (Jul 27, 2021)

A place to keep my lawncare path. I will have to figure out adding photos later.

Northwestern Illinois lawn in a typical cookie cutter subdivision built over a farm field. I do know a decent layer of that good field topsoil was spread out prior to front sod and back seeding. I pleaded with builder to omit the "premium" sod and seed the entire lawn but was sadly told it is not an option. So I stuck with what I was given, likely Central Sod Farms KBG. However there's more TTTF in there than their specs suggest.
I have always been a typical minimal lawn effort homeowner. Rotary mulch mowing, string trim, occasional edge, rare manual watering, and let grass go summer dormant type of work. Although I fertilized few times a year, applied grub control, and had a wise father teaching me a higher height of cut (HOC) works wonders. Years into this lawn it was just okay. The rear lawn (seeded) outpaced the front (sod) as expected. Rear needed mowing at almost twice the rate of the front. The hardest thing was the uneven growth heights that this "premium" sod provided. The unevenness looked horrible to me. So one year I splurged for Tru-Green service with soil aerations. It did look better but of course that is because it was getting additional attention. The unevenness remained so I cut the Tru-Green service loose. After that I just resumed my prior average lawn care and life evolved as it always does. Then 2020 emerges and things changed.

typical subdivision neighborhood
neighbor1: no weed/grub control, believes in native grass lawns :? , infrequent mower, length "maybe" below village ordinance
neighbor2: no weed/grub control, more frequent mower, scalps lawn pretty badly

4,864 sqft grass area
clay loam soil - 26%sand, 36%silt, 38%clay - CEC 27.3
20210412 test - 7.7 pH, 5.8% OM
Toro 22" Recycler, lift blade, usually mulch, sometimes bag, HOC 3.5" - 4" depending
Pre-Emergents: split app prodiamine, depending on situation can also dithiopyr and mesotrione
Post-Emergents: SpeedZone with some quinclorac added, depending (sedges) can also halosulfuron, sulfentrazone
Fungicides: propiconazole, azoxystrobin, thiophanate-methyl rotation
Bug stuff: GrubEx in spring, Menards Grub Control in late summer, depending on situation BioAdvanced Complete Insect Killer or 24hr Grub Killer
Fertilizers: Menards 30-0-3 Lawn Food, SOP (K) if needed, AMS for spraying
pH control: elemental sulfur


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## JarHarms (Jul 27, 2021)

*Current 2022 Season*
Okay 2022 is about to start. No signs of snow mold this years so off to a good start. So for this year:
1	Get the simplified routine working since return to office is around the corner
2	Refine grub control plan
3 Take care of that Nutsedge
4 Replacing one Lawn Food application with e-Corganite

Taking advantage of the early rain to apply pre-emergent and Grub control earlier and let the rain drive it into the soil. Slightly colder soil than ideal; but experimenting!

Last season I had some weird spots that struggled coming out of summer dormancy. Dummy me did not check the basics and it ended up being grubs. So after getting those bugs killed off I had to revisit what I was doing for grub control. I certainly had some misunderstandings leading to some holes in my plan. I learned more about each control chemical, what time of season they should be used, and adjusted my plan from there. Will see how this season goes.

Nutsedge is on my to-do list with some timed applications later this spring and followed up some applications later in the year. Once I start into that I should have a better understanding.

I am looking to rotate some 4-3-0 e-Corganite (similar Milorganite) fertilizer into my routine this season. Looks like it needs warmer temps to work so that is likely later this season. Thought I might replace one of my 30-0-3 Lawn Food applications with this stuff. Ehh so much of this stuff to apply to get same N applied though.

Will be waiting to see if any of the weird darker blue-ish grass comes up in the rest of the lawn this season.


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## JarHarms (Jul 27, 2021)

*2020 Season Summary*
_2020 was an unfortunate situation but also a silver lining of time to look deeper into lawncare. Like many lawncare newcomers I found myself in the typical YouTube and whatnot surge of lawncare interest. It took me awhile to work through successes and failures so I could start sorting the information junk from the gems. So for this year:
1	Fix lowspot in front lawn and reseed a few areas
2	Feed entire lawn better and see how it responds
3	Learn to apply liquid products
4	Improve my Pre-emergent game
5	Try soil testing

Debris removal with a SunJoe was done and followed up with extra top soil to level out some low areas. Spread Barenbrug Turf Blue Pro KBG seed then covering with peat moss. Learned the correct use of mesotrione to control weeds during that time. Study of the labels is critical. Extremely critical. I recall seeing much misinformation about mesotrione use online. Yes, spring seeding is not ideal but who new how long the extra pandemic time at home would last. With careful watering I was able to keep the new grass alive through summer and into fall growing season. Added back some fertilization which grass seemed to respond well to.

Up to this point I was using 1 and 2 gallon hand pump sprayers and decided a battery powered backpack sprayer was worth the investment. Supply chain issues were in effect around then so selection was somewhat limited. The FlowZone sprayer I got was a higher pressure model than I was wanting. Spent some time figuring out sprayer tips to compensate for the higher pressure to still work for my applications. This cut down my product application times considerably. Although at the expense of odd looks from neighbors. Once I had sprayer applications figured out I looked into better products. I finally had a good pre-emergent plan using liquid applied prodiamine in spring and fall.

I was ready to try a soil test. In hindsight I should have waited to the next season. First test was through MySoil. Spendy but I was not really impressed. Heck what do I know I just tried something. Results came back high on P, low on K, and high soil pH. Through the rest of 2020 season I applied split apps of 10-0-20 fertz and elemental sulfur. The soil around here is pretty alkaline so I was not surprised. Altering that is going to take awhile.

Ended 2020 with serious rust fungus in the front lawn. It was likely always lurking but my increased fertilization and later season K corrections had to be contributors. Also I employ no fungus control plan whatsoever. I probably took on too many tasks for one season. 2021 season I plan to limit the number of new tasks._


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## JarHarms (Jul 27, 2021)

*2021 Season Summary*
_Headed strong into 2021 this year! Had a pretty significant run in with snow mold. Even my past self should have noticed that and would have tried to figure out what it was. Fluffy not-so-good cotton candy stuff going on there. Again I suspect my increased fertilization and later season potassium corrections to be contributors. Rake, fluff, dry out, and wait for grass to start growing. So for this year:
1	Figure out proper use of fungicides
2	Time to start controlling nutsedge
3	Help my father control some creeping bentgrass in his KBG lawn
4	Start balancing out a simplified lawncare plan, I cannot sustain a complicated routine

Getting fungal issues understood and under control were a 2021 focus. End of 2020 season and start of 2021 season were fungi-tough so I expected this summer will be rough also. Planned a rotation of three different FRAC fungicides to get things under control. So far I made it through to October without any large scale fungi outbreaks so I must have been doing something right. Will plan to relax into a easier preventative routines for a few following seasons.

Nutsedge, yea I always knew I have some of it and that it takes a 2-3 season plan to control it. Getting started now using a rotation of products for what I expect is yellow nutsedge. Honestly I started this too late in the season (mid-summer) but will continue onwards I guess. Fingers crossed.

Had noticed my parent's house had a weird texture grass that was stolon spreading and oddly puffed up from the soil surface. Identified it as creeping bentgrass and offered to help him get rid of it. Split apps of mesotrione successfully killed it off and we worked at reseeding it with some KBG. Was fun working on something besides my lawn and helping the parents out. They are going to need reoccurring mesotrione applications to keep that from coming back in from the neighbors yard. I guess next season I will revisit it. Their soil is pH acidic and sandy loam so I am getting a completely different experience. Cool.

Sadly 2021 played out with finding small-ish patches of a darker blue grass. I know it is not from the Turf Blue Pro KBG seeding last season. It pulls out too easy and there are no bugs involved. So I think this is stolon spreading which I was guessing Poa Trivialis but not convinced. I am not good at plant identification but these are not a lighter green I see in Poa Triv. This one still has me stumped and super frustrated. Pretty sure this grass is perennial ryegrass, since much of it had issues when this summer's heat finally kicked in and the coloring looks about right. I am trying out MSM on the smaller side of my lawn to see if I can wipe out most of these grass patches throughout my lawn. Also took the opportunity to glyphosate some TTTF clumps in the yard. Once those spots completely died off I scalped the area with the string trimmer and reseed with KBG that fall. If these smaller experiments work out well then I will apply to the remaining yard next year.

I made it through without any mobs of armyworms that everyone was talking about this year. Whew. My in-lawns lawn had huge patches of brown dye-off around the same time which everyone said was armyworms. So I went there for a look. Not armyworms, the lawncare company they use sprayed their fall treatment a bit too early. Later that day the temps shot up and the product nuked their lawn....as well as their other customers in the neighborhood.

Otherwise I am working through using up all the leftover "ehh" lawncare products purchased in 2020. I learned a lot so far and have been able to identify what works for me and what were complete wastes of time/money. Learning much so far._


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