# Togo's 2018 Lawn Journal



## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

Well I think this year I'll create a lawn journal. Everyone here has always had such great info and input whether to any of my posts or questions or someone else's (which is often something I'm also dealing with).

Today marked one of the first days I've gotten to do much in the lawn. Last weekend I got the backpack blower out and changed my fuel & air filters as well as my spark plug. I still need to get a carb tool to adjust the mixture because it's running rich at WOT but I'm sure Amazon has a solution for that. Today though I had to tackle a large project that I haven't had the time to address until today. One of our recent snow storms, which was very heavy, wet snow, weighed down two of my treees enough to uproot them. I had this happen two years ago but they were much smaller then so I was able to just squat lift them at the time and tie them up. This time they ripped out the previous metal posts as well.

So to tackle this project I rented a post hole digger from HD and bought some 4x4x10 pressure treated posts to support the trees. I decided I was going to do all the trees and on a couple I used two posts. All together I made 10 holes about 4' deep for 6 trees. I also got some 1/2"x8" eye bolts and some 1/4" 7x19 construction wire rope with some clamps. I borrowed my father-in-laws come along and grabbed a couple straps from my pickup and got to work.

The big tree




This is the big trees ball


The little tree


My HD rental. This thing certainly works well but boy does it tire you out!


I plan to move this sprinkler head because it is completely covered and get poor coverage as a result. I made sure to pre-dig all my holes for the first foot just to make sure I didn't hit a sprinkler line. 


My Union delegates showed up to make sure I was taking my breaks!!!




I ran a wire between the two posts and hooked the come along onto that to help pull the tree up. Then would use strap downs to hold the tree up while I readjusted. 


The trees are up again!




This is the hardware holding them up. One post is strong enough to hold this tree but two will surely be better. 




Overall I'm exhausted but happy that my trees are back up and I think they will stay up this time. Now to get onto the other yard maintenance.


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## social port (Jun 19, 2017)

Wow...I was reading about the tree mishap in the 'what did you do to your lawn today' thread and wondering how in the world you accomplished all of this.
Nice outline of the steps.


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

I spent about a week planning it out. It was a lot more work than I anticipated but in the end worked out pretty well considering I was doing this all solo. I still have 4 more trees to do but I can take my time on those as they are still standing :lol:

Still need to get my pre-M down. I plan to do it in the next few days. I also ordered the new Rachio gen 3 and some new sprinkler nozzles and plan spend a lot of time this year working on my irrigation system.

I guess one thing at a time


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

I'm planning to try and get my Pre-M down today after I get out of work. I'm planning to use Prodiamine 65. I've never used it before but have been reading up on people's results with it, recommendations for application rates etc and think I have it down but just wanted to run my math by the more knowledgeable people here.

As I've read in a couple articles people recommend, for more effective coverage, split apps. Now from reading my labels for my turf type of mostly KBG and PRG I should apply .5-1.5#/acre (.185-.55oz/1000 sq ft)



So if I apply at a rate of .65 lbs per acre from what I'm seeing that should net me a little over 3 months of coverage but not quite 4 months.



So essential I'd have coverage May, June, July and then sometime mid July I'd have to reapply, at the same rate of .65lbs per acre which would carry me through Aug, Sept, and Oct at which point my coverage would fade away. This would also mean my total for the season would be 1.3lbs per acre or .2lbs per acre LESS than max and thus leave me a small window of error in the event of very small overspray/uneven distribution.

Am I understanding this correctly or am I completely missing something here? Would anyone recommend anything different as being more effective?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I use this spreadsheet for my calculations. Yes I total 0.65 in the spring and a total of 0.65 in the fall, based on Purdue recomendations. You could split this anyway you want (0.33 in March, 0.32 in May= 0.65 in spring). Practice with just water to get your coverage correct.

Log + prodiamine calculator + tenacity


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

g-man said:


> I use this spreadsheet for my calculations. Yes I total 0.65 in the spring and a total of 0.65 in the fall, based on Purdue recomendations. You could split this anyway you want (0.33 in March, 0.32 in May= 0.65 in spring). Practice with just water to get your coverage correct.
> 
> Log + prodiamine calculator + tenacity


Thanks @g-man, I saved that spread sheet of yours and edited it to meet my specifications then tried to research why do .65 lbs vs 1.5lbs per acre and came across your post about the split apps and % control over 3 years at given rates. I just wanted to make sure I was understanding everything correctly. Not trying to nuke the lawn, yet....


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

Prodiamine down at .65lbs per acre front and back. I also finally grabbed my soil samples, before the application, so I can send off for analysis. Did 20 samples for front 4,300 sq ft and IIRC 12 for the back 3,000sq ft.

Hopefully this weekend I can get some product down for insects, clean out more beds, spot spray some weeds, trim up some of the low branches off the trees, and finish filling in some post holes.


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

Did some weeding today in the beds but there are a lot of weeds in my lawn that I'm trying to ID.

1) In the middle is some Hairy Bittercress but these clumps look odd. Are they just a clumping Turf Grass or something else?




2) This one scares me because I'm thinking it's gonna be hard to kill. Is this Poa Triv?!








3) Also Triv? 






4) Is this Smooth Crabgrass, or is it Dallis or Quack?


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

I've had a few days off so I've been trying to get some things done with the lawn. On Sunday I got in a mow, which it definitely needed, and then threw down some Bay State at .45lbs per K. The lawn is really starting to green up which I'm pretty excited about and it's definitely started growing. Today I trimmed up a lot of the trees around the property and loaded the branches into the truck to take to the dump tomorrow but I also moved out my bed under my other trees by a little more than a foot. Tomorrow I want to pick up a few yards of topsoil to add under the trees and then I'll eventually get to mulching my beds. Finished the day off with some second round spot spraying of some of my weeds. Tenacity seems to be kicking in on the Poa and the Round Up for Lawns worked very well on the wild onion/garlic and star of bethlehem.


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## social port (Jun 19, 2017)

greening up very nicely :thumbup:


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

I had noticed what I thought to be a leak yesterday in my irrigation which I went exploring for today only to find a very small irrigation head that looks to have been buried in the lawn for a number of years. I imagine it got buried some time before I bought the house. Then I sharpened the mower blades up, put on a striping kit and got to mowing. I was originally thinking about following some DIY videos from YouTube and making a checkmate striping kit but having to order some of the parts online and paying high shipping cost with longer waits deterred me and instead on Monday I just bought the checkmate. It took me only a few minutes to install on the mower and the results were quite noticeable.





You can't really tell from the above angles but I have a lot of tenacity white Poa A growing in the front (also some blue marking dye)...

Still have areas of mismatched grass growing but I'll just live with that for now as it's a mixed lawn anyway.


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## social port (Jun 19, 2017)

yes, I see. That kit worked well.
I'm going to tinker a bit when I have some garage-time, but I may end up going the checkmate route. You can't argue with those results.


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

The results were as good as I could have hoped. I was a little skeptical going into it especially since the mulch kit does not stripe as well as non-mulching, which I attribute to added turbulence inside the deck, but with the stripe kit it did much better than the normal side discharge, to the point that I don't think side discharge would offer any better results.


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

So I just got back my soil test results from Waypoint. Clearly Iron is not a problem but it appears that I'm low on K and my front lawn needs some lime.

*Front Yard*


*Back Yard*


The suggestion for the front says to apply 35# of dolomitic lime/K to raise the ph to 6.2. I've never applied lime before, does that sound about right? Is it something I can apply all at once or should I apply half now and half in the fall?

Should I be concerned about the high levels of iron? Are there any negatives to this?

Lastly, for the low K, what would be an ideal way to adjust this(SOP?)? The recommendation was to use a 10-0-20 Fert but I don't believe I've ever seen anything like that. I usually use Milo/BS/OG for my Fert needs and picked up some urea to use for the fall.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I would use calcitic lime instead of dolomitic, since your Mg is fine. I'm going to quote virginiagal on rates/type of lime:



Virginiagal said:


> The fast acting limes do work faster. However if a buffer test determines that you need, say, 100 lb/k of lime, you really need 100 lb/k of lime, whether it's fast or slow. The fast limes are limited to a small amount that can be applied at a time (read the bag, but it's probably around 10 lb/k). For ordinary lime, you can apply up to 50 lb/k in one application as a topdressing. Some of it will begin working soon but some of it will react over a period of months and years. You may want to consider using an application of fast lime to get a quick pH change but use slow lime in the next application to keep the pH up. If you have low pH, you need the buffer test to find it how much lime you need altogether. For lime decisions, you also should consider whether you want to include or avoid magnesium.


In short, I would use a fast acting now to get the benefit of increase pH and the delta of the 35lb/M in two months. Retest next year.

For potassium, SOP (0-0-50) is the ideal choice at a rate of 2lb of SOP/M monthly until Sept (to avoid snow mold). Finding it is hard sometimes. Milo/BG/OG does not provide any potassium.

I would also try to source Ammonium Sulfate (AS) 21-0-0 while looking for SOP. The main reason is that it will supply some of the sulfur you also need. @thegrassfactor had an excellent youtube video about it that he posted a month ago.


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

I anticipated my K being low being that my Fert doesn't contain any in it so I'll see if I can source any locally.

I have Ammonium Sulfate from making FAS in the past. Would that be something I could just mix up and spray or is it not the same thing?

I watched the video but I'm definitely going to have to watch it again to try and get a better understanding.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

AS for FAS should be the same thing if the prick is large enough. Apply it as a granular at a rate of ~2.5lb/M to get a 0.5lb of N/M.


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

As always @g-man thanks much for the info and help. I'll check the prill size when I get home but I think it may be too small to spread with a broadcast spreader. If that ends up being the case, would 2.5lbs of AS dissolved per 1 gal of water, sprayed at 1g/M be essentially the same as long as it's all fully dissolved in water?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I belief that is the case, but foliar applications are more complex. It need more carrier, 2-3gallons of water/M. You do want to irrigate after a few hours to avoid burns. A 50lb bag of AS is around $20 at my local lawn place.

I know a couple of members started foliar apps last year based on OSUTurfman guidance. This year MQ is going all liquid, but I think he bought the liquid fertilizer (concentrated). 
MQ's Liquid Lawn Fertilizing Plan


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

Ok good to know. I'm gonna call around this weekend and see what I can source locally before I resort to online.


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## social port (Jun 19, 2017)

Hey @Togo How many passes did you make with the striper to get those results?


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

@social port just one pass with the exception of having to go around a bed or obstacle.


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