# OKC Bermuda to SPF-30 Hybrid Bluegrass Renovation



## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Hello,
Well on a whim I've decided to do a renovation in my backyard. I live in Oklahoma City and I have always loved Kentucky Bluegrass. Well, after reading one of the threads in the Warm Season section on someone growing SPF-30 Hybrid in Texas I thought I would give it a shot. 
I have common bermuda in my 2000sqft back yard. The back yard is the only yard I will be focusing on before I move to the front. It's mainly common bermuda and it looks pretty decent. My neighbors have some trees so there are a couple areas that struggle with sunlight hence why I'm gonna try this SPF-30 out.
I'm trying to devise a plan on the fly as right now is a great time to start this renovation.
I have ordered some 41% glyphosate and a 2 gallon hand canon.
I need to order the seed, but does anyone have a recommendation where to buy?
I need to order some Tenacity too so weeds don't get out of control

Here are my steps so far.
1. Apply a round of glyphosate along with 1lb of Urea, then wait a week
2. Apply another round of glyphosate to hit any stragglers that were stimulated by the urea.
3. Scalp as low as I can go to remove dead grass.
(From here on is where I'm a bit unsure.)
4. Power rake with my Sun Joe Dethatcher (I've been told not to till up the ground bc it could cause a weed explosion)
5. Buy some good top soil and compost from Lowes and spread it around the yard.
6. Throw seed down. (how many lbs for 2000sqft?)
7. Throw peat moss on top (how much?)
8. Apply a blanket application of Tenacity.
9. Water, water, water,

That's it 
Please feel free to correct anything in my list of things to do and also give me all the tips you can give. I am totally new at renovating so I am very flexible in what needs to be done, I just want it done right.

Here's pics of my yard taken recently


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

I have 41% Glyphosate and a Chapin 2 Gallon sprayer ordered and should be here in the next 2-3 days. I have a little chihuahua so when I spray my back yard I will spray half of it at a time. That way little man can do his business 
So half the yard one day, wait 24 hours and spray the other half.
Is 24 hours after application long enough to be safe for my dog to walk on it?


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Just finished applying the first round of glyphosate to half of my back yard. I'll do the other half tomorrow. Dang that's not as easy as it looks lol


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Starting to brown 
This is my first time using glyphosate. I thought it would work a bit quicker similar to my Spectracide weed killer. 
Oh well, on to the other half of the yard later today.
It's kinda sad to see the yard I worked so hard on be killed off. Hopefully the new grass will be well worth it


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

The last half of the yard 54 hours after the first glyphosate/urea application. For anyone who hasn't used glyphosate, it works nowhere close to as fast as weed killer. Got to be patient


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

One week after first glyphosate/urea application. Looking good. Going to do atleast 2 more glyphosate only applications. I want to kill it dead! I may up the concentration a bit on my mixture.
We've had a bunch of rain lately, so the moment I get a good stretch of 2-3 days of good weather I will begin.


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## Lawn Burgundy (Apr 27, 2020)

Subscribed this will be fun!


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

2nd glyphosate application applied yesterday/today for both halfs of the yard. This go around I used this Round-up concentrate. Coming along nicely! I may end up doing a 3rd app, we'll see...


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

This weekend I think I'm going to apply some liquid aeration formula while I wait on the gly. I'm not going to be able to use an actual aerator, so this is all I've got. Hope for the best!


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Wow, the Roundup worked way faster than the other stuff I tried. My lawn is pretty much toast!
This is one and two days after 2nd round of gly


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Applied the 3rd round of gly last Mon and Tues. Yard is toast. After the weather dries up around here I will begin scalping and dethatching with my Sun Joe.


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## thompwa (Aug 26, 2019)

Following. I recently put SPF-30 in my back yard. Waiting for it to pop up now. With everything I've read about this grass I'm so pumped about seeing how it does. I've got the perfect back yard area for it.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

thompwa said:


> Following. I recently put SPF-30 in my back yard. Waiting for it to pop up now. With everything I've read about this grass I'm so pumped about seeing how it does. I've got the perfect back yard area for it.


Nice! Yeah it looks like some beautiful grass. I've always wanted KBG ever since I developed an interest for lawns mainly from watching all the youtubers with northern type grasses. Their yards are sooo nice and lush. Hopefully, I can have a nice lush KBG backyard and then a nice reel low Tahoma 31 bermuda front lawn (When I get around to renovating the front  )


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

After the 4 straight days of rain there was finally a nice stretch where I could scalp down the back yard. The southwest half looks good, but hiding under the dead grass on the southeast side there was a bunch of little green blades of grass trying to grow :x Looks like that half will get another round of glyphosate. While that's marinating I am going to take my string trimmer and beat down the other half of the lawn to try to get it down to soil. We'll see how that goes :?  Oh, also I just bought 5 3-cubic yard bags of peat moss, Scott's Starter Fert, and some liquid aeration ordered on Amazon from Simple Lawn Solutions called Liquid Soil Loosener.

The area in red is where I'm getting green growth.



Looking good on this side


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

I posted this in the "Warm Season" section to try to get some help

"I'm trying to reno my back yard from common bermuda to SPF-30 Hybrid Bluegrass, but this dang bermuda won't give up. I've hit it now with 4 applications of glyphosate!! After the third round I scalped as far as my mower would go then used a string trimmer to go further and sure enough there are lots of green stolon's imbedded in the top portion of the soil. That's when I hit with the 4th app.

How in the world can I get this bermuda completely killed so I can move on to planting my seed? Am I safe to just move on the the next step and dethatch the crap out of it with my Sun Joe? I'm running out of time 

Here's part of the yard with some of the green still all over the place (You can't tell from this pic, but trust me haha)"


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Spent allllll day dethatching, raking, mowing, dethatching some more, raking some more, mowing some more. I am beat!!
Well, the liquid aeration I bought said NOT to use within 30 days before or after laying down seed. So, I sent that back and bought a yard butler aerator. That should arrive Thursday and hopefully I can get seed down Friday or definitely by Saturday. Bermuda is not 100% dead. In fact, I think I've invigorated it with all the dethatching and raking and mowing haha. Oh well, we push on forward!!

My little buddy wondering what I'm doing to his yard 







Here's the green I found after weed eating the lawn and getting down to the soil. It's all over 



Here's tree root knots sticking up. These are all along the back and west side of my yard :evil: I don't know what to I'm gonna do with them.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)




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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Used the scarifier attachment on my Sun Joe and that really turned up the soil. Sadly, a tree root wrapped around the blade and busted the machine. It won't spin now 
Also, got aeration done on this side.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

FINALLY SEEDED!!!!!

It took longer than expected, but the SPF-30 Hybrid Bluegrass is down!

Whew boy I didn't take into account the effect this would have on my body LOL. In my mind I had this done in just a few days but my body was not having any of that.

I still have to put down peat moss and then Tenacity to button things up. We are expecting rain tomorrow so I need to get everything finished up and let the rain do its thing.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Finally applied the peat moss and the Tenacity late last night before the rains.

Lookin good!! 

I'll apply the starter fert as soon as I can.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

A week after seeding I can see some bermuda popping up in a couple spots. Pretty sure the bluegrass hasn't germinated in a week. Also, I wish I was able to work a day or two more getting the lawn a bit more level. My body was so sore and I was running out of time to get seed down that I wasn't able to. Just have to top dress once the lawn is established.

The waiting game continues...


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

This Saturday morning I decided to rent a lawn roller from Home Depot. I've seen sprouts now for about 2 days but I am gambling the seedlings are too small for the roller to afflict any damage. 
Anyway I rolled the lawn and it is SO MUCH BETTER!! It's nice and firm and flat. I'm so happy bc as stated in a previous post my regret of not tackling much leveling during all of this. Best $17 I've spent lately 
Sprouts are coming along nicely. Wish spring would hurry up and get here!


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

12 days after seeding


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

After weighing my seed bag I noticed I put down just above 4lbs over 2ksqft. That is at the bottom of the recommended range. So I applied another 2lbs of seed. There is nothing I can really do as far as optimizing seed to soil contact at this time so I'm just gonna cross my fingers. The seedlings that are sprouting will hopefully help hold the new seed in place. To top things of my area is forecasted to have beautiful weather for the foreseeable future so that's a plus 

Currently 14 days since initial seeding.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

16 days after seeding.

When they say KBG is slow to germinate and grow boy they mean it. To the naked eye I felt like I am starting to get a lot of green up, but the pics I took show otherwise. Yesterday I did buy 4 bags of top soil from Lowes to spot fill some dips around the yard. Figure as well as leveling that would also help cover up some of the seed I put down a few days back.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

The grass is finally becoming visible on my security cameras 
One thing I've noticed the grass is doing is it hasn't grown much taller, but the single blades of grass that have sprouted are now 2-3 blades of grass.
Sslloowwllyy but surely it's trying to fill in.

18 days since seeding.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Closeup of one of the thicker spots

18 days after seeding


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

24 days after initial seeding.
10 days after secondary seeding.

Five days ago I applied the remaining 1/2 bag of Scott's Starter Fert. Today I ordered an Earthwise 16" 7 blade push reel mower. Hope to start cutting in the next 5-10 days  One area the blades are 2 inches tall, but lacking coverage like the rest of the lawn. I do see seedlings coming up in the sparse looking areas so just a bit more time is needed.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Gave the grass it's first haircut at 2" with the 7 blade Earthwise!! Granted it was mostly cut in the thicker patches, but still counts in my book 

About 4 days ago I applied some Seaweed/Humic/Fulvic combo spray. The day after I applied about .5lb urea to the whole back yard ~2ksqft

It's coming along. Definitely more patchy than I would like, but luckily I have extra seed and will just reseed these areas as it tries to get going.

Currently 30 days since initial seeding.
16 days after secondary seeding.
23 days after germination

PS - Interesting tidbit of info this reno has hasn't received any measurable rainfall since seed went down.


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## OKCBermuda (Jul 12, 2019)

Encouraged you're also experiencing slow grow in-just north of me in the city!


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Woke up this morning and decided to do a comparison of my grass from a week ago. The two older pics date back to Friday, Oct 16th and todays two current pics are six days later Thurs, Oct 22nd. This past Sunday I applied a full 32oz bottle (accidentally) of Simple Grow Solutions Seaweed Humic/Fulvic blend. Then Sunday I followed it up with .5lbs urea to the whole 2ksqft as well.

The growth I've received is pretty awesome!! Especially compared to how slow things have been going. I feel rejuvenated :thumbup:

Currently 31 days since initial seeding.
17 days after secondary seeding.
24 days after germination

PS - Again reminding this reno has hasn't received any measurable rainfall since seed went down.

Back on Fri, Oct 16th (6 days ago)



And currently today Thurs, Oct 22nd



Back on Fri, Oct 16th (6 days ago)



And currently today Thurs, Oct 22nd


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

ATV said:


> Encouraged you're also experiencing slow grow in-just north of me in the city!


Man it has been brutal! It's one thing when people tell you the growing process is going to be slow, but then to actually go through with it and watch it hour by hour, day by day, that is way tougher and it seems like it's taking forever. I'm a patient person, but this was beginning to test me


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

44 days after germination.

Three weeks since my last update. We encountered a pretty catastrophic ice storm taking down tons of trees along with power lines. I was without power for 64 hours. Longest 64 hours of my life!!!
Anyway, the storm did bring down some trees to my west of my backyard, so that will definitely free up the sunshine to my yard.
Grass is really filling in. Some areas look really thick and that excites me to think how the lawn will eventually look once it matures. I do have areas lacking in germination. I guess that's fine because it will allow the grass to spread out naturally and fill in.
Yesterday, I applied about 1lb urea nitrogen to my whole 2ksqft back yard. Today I just applied 20oz of humic/fulvic/seaweed. I really love this stuff and it appears my grass loves it even more 
I've been cutting at 2" even though I was planning on letting it grow to 3" (I'm just a short grass height type at heart haha)

You can clearly notice some areas lacking in coverage even though I paid particular attention to these areas to try to get the grass to grow. It's trying its best to grow



Here along the western fence line you can notice the area is pretty sparse. This area once had a pine type of tree in the neighbors yard that would drop a tremendous amount of pine needles in the yard. One tree was completely destroyed by the ice storm and the other one along the fence lost several very large limbs. Perhaps the soil under the drip line of these trees needs some acute attention to remedy the soil?


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Just ordered 5lbs of Midnight Kentucky Bluegrass and I will be "overseeding" the SPF30. Besides a freak monster ice storm, the weather has been very mild and perfect (I hope) for growing some new grass 

Let's see how it goes!


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Yesterday was day 48 after germination.

I decided to cut the SPF30 down from 2" to 1" with the Earthwise. It looks really good at 1"!

The Midnight KBG should be here shortly


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

My 5lbs of Midnight KBG was delivered yesterday and I immediately put it all down across my 2ksqft back yard.

Today I purchased another bag of Scott's Starter Fertilizer and will apply that here in an hour or two.

Grass is looking good....I hope the Midnight will help fill everything in a bit more.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Well, my dreaded poa annua invastion is back in full force. It usually doesn't attack until Jan or Feb...
I applied another round of Tenacity. I should have applied this 2nd round about 3 weeks ago...

This is a let down. Once I noticed I started to look closer and it appears to be all over.

I guess I'll have to live with it and deal with it properly next fall.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Day 60 after initial SPF-30 germination.
Day 9 after Midnight KBG seeding.

Cut at 1" using the manual 7-blade Earthwise.

The color is absolutely amazing! Way better than the previous bermuda ever looked even on its best days :thumbup:


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

Looking good! I bet the hybrid Bluegrass will do well in Oklahoma, with the proper maintenance schedule. It might struggle certain times of the year near the fence...if it gets shady or damp, or both in the Winter...especially the Midnight. But that'll help keep your trimming frequency down anyway. If you end up using a PGR, just avoid going too heavy along any areas like that.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Thanks @Green !
I'm already in love with Bluegrass. Being in Oklahoma I don't think I've ever seen KBG with my own eyes in real life, the color is unreal!
It's going to be a learning curve, but I will do everything in my power (and budget) to make it work. 
Thanks for the tips and I'm sure I'll be needing more along the way. Feel free to lend more guidance in the future as I'm completely new when it comes to a cool season turf. :thumbup:


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Day 61 after initial SPF30 germination.
Day 10 after Midnight seeding.

Weather is about to change. Starting tomorrow night time temps are going to be several degrees below freezing for the next week. I decided to clean things up and spray the last of my Humic/Fulvic/Seaweed liquid spiked with .5lbs of urea.

Used rotary at 2" to 'vacuum' the yard followed by cutting with the Earthwise at 1".


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

Ok! Have fun reading the cool season section.

And one other thing about PGR. I like to use rates that are low, similar to what you use on warm season turf, rather than the full label rates.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Applied Tenacity 18 days ago to help with the Poa explosion on one side of the yard. Results look good. Bleaching everywhere. Going to apply another app today. Man I hate poa annua!!!!!! It's like I have hardly any grass over here 

For reference...November 28th, 2020



Today, December 9th, 2020 (18 days after Tenacity app)


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Bit of weather today


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

2 weeks after 2nd Tenacity application targeting poa.

Bleaching everywhere. I have never seen so much poa. Gonna keep chugging along and wait for warmer weather so that the grass can fight back. I thought my grass was looking good, but it was all just a lie :bd:

I think it's worth mentioning that this backyard has had a bad poa problem since I moved in, so in no way should it be perceived that the seed I bought caused all of this. The grass that is there is lovely and I can't wait to get a full yard of it :thumbup:


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Put down my first prodiamine pre-m application 2 days ago.
It's finally starting to resemble a yard!!!! (minus all the poa of course  )


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Finally completed my first ever soil test via Waypoint Analytical. Easy peasy don't know why it took me this long to ever get one done...Results look really good. I am surprised it looked this good



Also, gave it a fresh cut since the rain finally let up. Man, I really love this cool season grass. Color is amazing!!


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

I'm finally in the striping game!!

Received my Big League Lawn Striping kit for my new Toro Super Recycler the other day. This SPF 30/Midnight is striping pretty well at 1.25". Can't wait to see how it looks when I bump the HOC to 2.5-3". Be GLOWING haha


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Bumped the cutting height up to 2.25"
Man this grass looks sooo good I'm going to have to do the front yard this fall


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Yesterday I applied Simple Grow Solutions Humic Fulvic Seaweed Soil Hume as well as their Soil Softener in hopes of breaking up some hardpan where the grass is having trouble growing.

Jump to today and I cut at 2.25" ahead of some storms.

Lawn is looking amazing. Can't say enough how happy I am!


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Super lush after the nice thunderstorms recently. Had to post it :mrgreen:


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## Sbcgenii (May 13, 2018)

Looks great. I might over seed with SPF this fall. I don't want to look at dormant Bermuda anymore.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Sbcgenii said:


> Looks great. I might over seed with SPF this fall. I don't want to look at dormant Bermuda anymore.


I'd say go for it! I have never, ever received so many compliments on my lawn before and I always had a nice looking lawn. There is just something amazing seeing a nice, lush, dark green grass when all of the other grasses are dormant brown. Now, the summer may be a struggle, but I look at it as summer is harsh on all grasses.

One thing about doing this reno is PATIENCE!!! I can't stress that enough. When you have bare dirt and it takes 15-20 days just to see a sprout this seems like an eternity.

I'll be doing my front lawn starting late July to early August. I really underestimated how long it would take to kill off bermuda completely. I thought gly would kill it in hours when in fact it took a week, and then add multiple week long sessions to kill it completely.

Good luck! I tried to document everything I did and exactly when I did it so you can use my journal to help you through the process. The only change I will make this year is starting earlier than I did last year. Oh and I may also use a more potent bermuda killer rather than straight gly.


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## Wiley (Dec 2, 2019)

@Cdub5_ looks great! Followed along last year and it's nice to see how good it's doing. Good luck this season.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

@Wiley Thank you I appreciate it!
I'm not gonna lie there were times when I thought "Oh no, what have I done?" lol. But I kept truckin along and stayed on the path and now I'm happier than ever.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

The yard really likes to glow this time of the evening especially after thunderstorms. Other than that nothing special to comment on 
Oh, did add some flowers in that middle garden this mother's day. Kinda hard to see though.


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## Taylorscottmiles (Jan 14, 2021)

Grass is looking good. Just a question - What made you do this instead of Fescue? And what's your watering plan for the Summer?


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Early Summer Update:

The last 2/3 of May into early June was pretty wet and extremely humid. The Scott's DiseaseEx did a pretty good job using the preventative application rate at keeping any fungus outbreak to a minimum.

Now the SPF30/Midnight are about to experience the hot, dry summer of Oklahoma. If it gets a bit dry that's fine with me. Hell, any grass in the Oklahoma summer can get crispy. I'll just stay on the water game as best I can. One of my zones covering half my backyard isn't working!! I need to get around to fixing that, just been hand watering that area for the time being.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Taylorscottmiles said:


> Grass is looking good. Just a question - What made you do this instead of Fescue? And what's your watering plan for the Summer?


Hey there, sorry I didn't see your comment until just now.

I felt like the SPF-30 hybrid bluegrass was designed to better withstand heat and humidity than other cultivars. But mainly I've always just been a huge KBG lover that's why I decided to add the king ***, Midnight, to the SPF30 to see how it does. I had never seen kbg with my own eyes and this grass is truly amazing compared to my last common bermuda.

There is one particular area under a tree on the back stretch of lawn that I've considered trying some sort of fescue. That area sees about 95% shade and any grass I've grown there has had trouble flourishing.

This whole thing is like an experiment for me, too. I wanted to see how well the SPF30 does in high heat and humidity (so far so good). I've seen some fescue lawns around in the area, and they look good. Maybe I could try mixing in some fescue into the mix.... :mrgreen: Oh no, don't get me started on something new :lol:


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## Taylorscottmiles (Jan 14, 2021)

@Cdub5_ this week has been brutal, I'm in Far East Edmond and it's HOT! I have Black Beauty Fescue and so far so good other than the brown patch in fighting. Good luck this summer, we're both going to need it. 🤣


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Well, I guess as the saying goes I should have "knocked on wood" when I said everything was going just fine 

Immediately the next day, June 15th, I started getting what I think is very bad heat stress. Either that or the poa is finally getting cooked and I just had more poa than I thought.

Anyway here is the progression. All pics taken close to the same time each day.

June 14th



June 15th



June 16th



June 17th



June 18th



June 19th



Today, June 20th



The irrigation zone responsible for that area of the lawn isn't functioning right now, so I have been just hand watering. Not enough apparently. So, I have really been hitting it with the water these past 2 days. I'll see how it turns out. I also have some Heritage azoxystrobin on the way in case it's some sort of fungus/disease.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Heat Stress Update:

In the past 14 days we have been blessed with close to 8 inches of rain!! That seemed to really pull my heat stressed grass out of dormancy. It still has another week or two to go, but it looks way better than it did. Also, I applied Heritage G azoxystrobin to suppress any fungus that may be among us :rofl:

Here is a time lapse gif I made showing the initial progression of the stressed out grass and then the recovery due to the heavy rainfall/azoxy



The other half of the lawn (has working irrigation zone) is doing just fine, especially after all the rain.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

This side of the yard is looking amazing! Going good so far, but the major heat wave hasn't hit this area yet this summer.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Noticed some crabgrass starting to grow, so I sprayed some Tenacity along with a 3 month application of prodiamine. I'd really like to control the Poa A this fall/winter. 
Weather hasn't been extremely hot thus far, but I foresee the high heat in the future...


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## nitrobass24 (Mar 6, 2021)

Looking great. Curious if you have any spots that get predominantly shade opposed to sun?


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## traderntexas (Jul 20, 2019)

How is your KBG looking these days with the high heat?


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

nitrobass24 said:


> Looking great. Curious if you have any spots that get predominantly shade opposed to sun?


Hello, sorry I'm just now seeing your post. If you look at my pictures in the top right to the top-middle you will notice quite a bit of shade casted by my neighbors trees that are behind my fence as well as next to me. This area gets pretty much full shade. That corner has always struggled, and kbg was no different. Its growth was spotty, if at all. I think only a tttf will thrive in that area which I will probably seed in the near future.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

traderntexas said:


> How is your KBG looking these days with the high heat?


Hey, sorry I'm just now seeing your comment.

What the first year of having kbg in a hotter climate is that a fungicide program is paramount. I never used fungicide with my old bermuda, so I'm new to having to keep up with this. So, since all I did was one app of Scott's DiseasEx in April I got hit pretty hard in one section of my yard starting about mid June. With proper fungicide and alot, and I mean alot, of water the grass looked top notch. This coming 2nd summer I will be better prepared and anticipate a gorgeous lawn next year, but if there is a massive heat wave then the grass may take a hit and try to go dormant.

My yard May 15th, 2021





My yard Jun 24th, 2021





My yard July 23rd, 2021





My yard August 29th, 2021


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## VALawnNoob (Jun 9, 2020)

I see you did 3 rounds of glyphosate. I'm curious if any of the Bermuda came back? If so, how noticeable or is it very selective spots?


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

VALawnNoob said:


> I see you did 3 rounds of glyphosate. I'm curious if any of the Bermuda came back? If so, how noticeable or is it very selective spots?


Yes, I used 3 rounds of glyphosate - one about every week - because the bermuda is just so hard to kill off completely.

I noticed some bermuda trying to make a comeback in about July. That is when I bought some bermuda suppressant to help keep it from growing any further.

Overall, that yard looks fantastic. With kbg the blades of grass stand straight up, but when the bermuda tries to take over you will notice the "flat" looking areas due to bermuda's lateral growth. The untrained eye wouldn't notice, but I sure did.

This year I plan on staying on top of my bermuda suppression as each year I suspect the pressure will get tougher and tougher. Fingers crossed! :thumbup:


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

So, I'm pretty much 1 year after my reno. The yard exceeded my expectations and it was 1000% worth the effort.

In retrospect, here are some things I learned throughout the process.

1. Bermuda is absolutely unkillable. Yes, you may nuke it with gly, but it WILL come back.

2. Pre-germinating kbg seeds works!! I learned this from doing my front yard reno this year, but pre-germinating kbg seed for ~5 days absolutely works. It dramatically reduced the time between seed down and seeing sprouts all over the lawn. Instead of just dropping seed and then spending lots of money constantly running your irrigation system for weeks, you can pre-germinate your seed for 5 days, then apply it to the lawn, and then see sprouts in about 4-5 days. Amazing!

3. I underestimated how much water kbg needs. I kept up with the watering pretty good, but half my back yard isn't watered by my irrigation system because that zone is down, so I had to hand water. Hand watering was not adequate, like, not even close. Irrigation is almost a must have.

4. Fungicide. With bermuda not once did I ever use a fungicide. However, with kbg it is 100% a necessity. The weather in my area remains hot and muggy for an extended period of time allowing optimal conditions for all types of fungi to thrive. When fungus hits, it hits super fast. So be preemptive and apply fungicides before you have any problems.

5. Bermuda Suppression. Even though I nuked my bermuda with multiple apps of gly over a month time, it still came back. It took until mid summer to really notice spots of bermuda trying to come back. This is when I realized a bermuda suppression regimen is very much needed. This path can get pricey, but I don't want all of my hard work to go down the drain because I didn't want to cough up the cash to buy proper bermuda control chemicals.

6. Kentucky Bluegrass is the most beautiful grass I have ever seen!! Most people in my area only see bermuda and aren't privy to the beauty a cool season grass provides. I've always kept my bermuda lawns looking good, but the amounts of compliments I've received in the short time I've had my kbg lawn outweight all the compliments I received throughout the years with my bermuda lawn. KBG just hits different. It's so dark, and lush. Whenever I began my lawn care hobby I always envisioned my lawn looking like it does now with the kbg. Bermuda just didn't give me what I wanted although it looks fantastic, especially when it is reel cut.

In closing, I hope anybody that comes across this journal will be inspired to take on a challenging reno and in result be rewarded with an absolutely beautiful lawn. The process was so rewarding to sit back and take everything in and think to yourself "I did this!" The only problem now is that I don't have any more lawns to do more reno's on lol


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## Sbcgenii (May 13, 2018)

Looking good. I just did an overseed with some SPF. Super excited to see KBG with my own eyes.


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## Ajoosten (10 mo ago)

Cdub5_ said:


> So, I'm pretty much 1 year after my reno. The yard exceeded my expectations and it was 1000% worth the effort.
> 
> In retrospect, here are some things I learned throughout the process.
> 
> ...


What method did you use to pre-germinate your seed? Then how did you spread it? Did you top dress it?


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Post 2nd summer update:

I was looking at my lawn this morning and a valuable lesson occurred to me.

In the fall of 2020 I endeavored into my first ever lawn renovation, going from common bermuda to SPF30 Hybrid Bluegrass. It was quite the bold move on my part. I'm no lawn expert. I just have the few basic tools and chemicals. But the one thing that separates the great yards from mediocre/poor yards is effort.

When I transitioned from bermuda to this hybrid SPF30 I knew water was king in keeping it healthy, but I greatly underestimated how hard it would be to keep it looking good with no irrigation help. My back yard is split in two zones, and it just so happened 1 of those 2 zones failed on me. (Yes, I have it on my list of things to do, but I should have fixed it a year ago.) I figured I would hand water and that would be sufficient. Nope. I did however buy one of those cheap metal sprinkler that sprays out a 20' circle of water. This did well, but I was unable to keep up with moving it from spot to spot to spot. So, I just said screw it, I'm only going to focus watering and taking proper care of one area, and the rest, well, we will just see what happens.

So, in a way I set up an experiment. This "neglected" area would get mowed once every 1 to 2 weeks, 1 or 2 apps of fert per year, a round of pre-m, and an occasional watering plus what ever nature would be kind enough to provide. This area deteriorated rather quickly.

Looking at the contrast of these two pics makes you realize the difference in effort is the main ingredient between having a great looking lawn and an average/poor yard.

June 2nd, 2021 (Start of the first summer for the knewly reno'd SPF30)



August 19th, 2022 (Results from effort/low effort maintenance)



August 19th 2022 (Other half of yard with proper irrigation)


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## SEKBrian (Jul 20, 2020)

How much water are you putting down a week and how frequent do you water?


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## traderntexas (Jul 20, 2019)

SEKBrian said:


> How much water are you putting down a week and how frequent do you water?


I'm interested in knowing this as well.


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

@SEKBrian @traderntexas I'm sorry I just now noticed your comments.
Well, this was a VERY tough summer as we all know. I was watering every other day 15 minutes per zone, then I let the water soak in for an hour or so, then another 15 minute run.
I could have watered maybe every 3rd day, but I was adhering to our odd/even water restrictions and 4 days would have been stretching it.


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## SEKBrian (Jul 20, 2020)

@Cdub5_ without knowing exactly how much your system puts out per hour, it almost sounds like lighter frequent apps keep this surviving. I know another guy ,who is active in the SPF-30 thread, mentioned he waters his every day, and it looks incredible. And he's down in Texas.

I don't have any pics in my journal recently but I overseeded this stuff into my existing yard. It's only about an inch tall at this point, so not noticeable, but my yard has bounced back incredibly well from all the light frequent apps of water. Temps have still been in the 90's so weather isn't tons different than it's been all summer. I know the sun angle is different now than it was in July also but this all kind of has me rethinking my watering plan next year.


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