# jedross86's 2021 Lawn Journal



## jedross86 (Apr 27, 2021)

Figured it's about time I do this here as I'm starting to think more about my fall overseed. I hadn't documented my mows but I have been at 3.5 HOC the whole time. I have been bagging my clippings due to the amount of weeds in my lawn and the fungus that popped up in early June. Have been mowing twice a week since I put down Nitrogen on 5/28; before that was not getting a lot of top growth and was mowing once a week.

3/1/21 - Moved into my house. First time dealing wit a lawn. Lawn is still covered in snow
3/20/21 - Can finally see my lawn and there were leave caked under the snow. Raked up the leaves and exposed a lot of bare patches
4/10/21 - Used scott's patch master to fill in most of the bare spots. 
4/18/21 - Blanket tenacity spray everywhere there was no new seed.
5/1/21 - Applied moss ex on my side lawn that was pretty bare and gets the least amount of sun
5/5/21 - Blanket 3 month Prodiamine application everywhere there was no new seed.
5/18/21 - Liquid aeration application
5/23/21 - Removed sandbox from back yard. Will leave this area bare for now.
5/27/21 - WBG CCO blanket application
5/28/21 - 29-0-4 @ 3lbs/k
6/2/21 - Soil results come back; see results below. Only recommendation was 100lbs of Potash/acre,
6/5/21 - Curative rate of disease ex everywhere in response to what may have been fungus. Had some hot weather the week before this and a lot of rain at night.
6/10/21 - SOP 0-0-50 @ 2lbs/k
6/11/21 - Applied mefenexom in response to cotton like substance occurring in the left side of my back yard
6/12/21 - WBG & WBG CCO blanket application
7/18/21 - SOP 0-0-50 @ 2lbs/k
8/2/21 - Spot sprayed w/ sedgehammer (nutsedge)
8/3/21 - Spot sprayed w/ WBG (broadleaf)
8/4/21 - Spot sprayed w/ tenacity (johnsongrass? and some CG)
8/7/21->8/12/21 - Raked about a cubic yard of gravel/stones out of my soil
8/12/21 - Hand pulled enough Japanese Stiltgrass to fill a 32 gallon garbage pail.
8/13/21 - 6 yards of top soiled delivered
8/13/21 - Lowered from 3" to 1.875 & Detatch
8/14/21 - Used 4.5 yards of the soil and a yard of sand to fill in the big ruts in the backyard. A lot of it went around the property line, and to fill in 3 or 4 really big other holes. Walked around and added more soil anywhere else that felt bumpy.
8/15/21 - Remaining soil was used in the front. Things look a lot more smooth but far from level. I'll have to continue to make progress on this each year.
8/25/21 (front) & 8/26 (rear) - scalped lawn. seed down. rolled into soil. spread peat moss
8/28/21 - tenacity down
8/30/21 - germination! & Azoxy down at 0.5oz/1k.
9/1/21 - put down straw with tack in bare areas
9/1/21 - Ida strikes and washes out all my seed
9/6/21 - Reel mow at 1.75 inches. Went over with rotary at 2.25 to pick up debris/straw/clippings. Put down 20lbs of remaining Hogans seed in bare spots and sparsely across the rest of the lawn. Put another 15 to 20lbs down of Lesco TTTF blend. Peat moss over bare areas. 
9/8/21 - Seeing a lot of new seedlings come up. Could just be some *** that stayed put through Ira, or could be some quick germination on the TTTF I put down 2 days ago. 
9/13/21 - I now have some young grass in almost all of my spots that washed out. Some areas are looking pretty thin so hopefully there's some more on its way up. 
9/19/21 - Mowed today. Also have some PB in my bare areas. Put down high rate of mefenexom and watering in now.
9/23/21 - .25lbN/1K
9/25/21 - Second mow. Noticing the color is looking more uniform after the urea (old lawn had lighter green areas)
9/27/21 - Pregerminated some of the TTTF for 4 days and threw it down in bare spots with some peat moss today. 
10/1/21 - Third mow. Only used the reel in areas where I threw down seed a few days back; rest was rotary. Seeing some excellent germination in spots, and absolutely nothing in others.
10/1/21 - Sprayed .25lbN & 1oz Prop/1K and lightly watering in
10/8/21 - Sprayed .25lbN & 1oz Bifen/1K and watered in. Back yard got half the dose due to sprayer problems. 
10/13/21 - Threw some seed down in the bare areas in the front. Figured why not. 
10/15/21 - Sprayed .25lbN
10/21/21 - Sprayed simple lawn solutions darker green w/ 6% iron at 6oz/k rate. 
10/22/21 - Sprayed .25lbN
10/29/21 - Sprayed .25lbN
11/21/21 - Prodiamine @ 5g/K

*Fall Overseed Plans:*
Target date is 8/25 & 8/26.  I go back to work 3 days a week after labor day and will not be able to be as attentive to watering. Work has been pushed back to November, so should be easier to get water on the new seed.

*Seed*: Got 75 lbs of TTTF & *** mix from Hogan Seed. Will put down the high end of an overseed rate, and then spot seed in areas where there isn't much good grass. Roller reserved from local tool shop.
*Compost/Peet*: 18 bags of peat in the garage. Procured a compost roller.
*Leveling*: Filling in the sandbox, and other large dips first. Then will fill in around one fence line in the backyard, a dip in the front, and then anything remaining will be used for more precise leveling.
*Pre-M*: Will blanket tenacity at seed down.
*Aeration/dethatching*: I will scalp/dethatch twice. Not too concerned about my existing grass
*Fertilizer*: I got enough Potash down to make up for my deficiency per my soil test. Based on other folks recommendations I'll skip the starter fert when I put seed down and spoon feed urea if I can get my hands on it. 
*Irrigation*: I manually irrigate. Will need to buy a couple times, few more hoses and more sprinklers to make this less painful when seed is down. 
*Fungicide*: No idea what to do here. Should I do anything around the time of seed down?
*Order*: Scalp; Dethatch; Clean up debris; Tenacity; seed; roll; peat; wait until after germination to put down any Urea (how long after?).

I have to say I've learned a ton from all of you already and it is much appreciated. My lawn went from being the worst out of my immediate neighbors to looking better than the surrounding houses. Any and all advice on anything I have done, or am planning to do, is welcomed, and appreciated.


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## jedross86 (Apr 27, 2021)




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## Lust4Lawn (Aug 4, 2020)

Now the fun begins!


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## Duxwig (Jun 6, 2021)

Will be interesting to follow along


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## jedross86 (Apr 27, 2021)

The last few days have been hell. I really should've taken advantage of some of the mild weather in July and gotten the rocks/gravel out of my yard then. But, I finished it up last night and feel good about where I am. I spent a few hours crawling around pulling up the Japanese stiltgrass that has quickly invaded my lawn. I have a bit more of this to do out front today. Today I'll also mow low and detatch (will go a little lower right before seed down unless advised otherwise). Will get the sandbox area filled up and spend the rest of the weekend moving the rest of this dirt around. My objective with this leveling is to not need to install hydraulics on my mower. Hopefully I can accomplish this now and next year make things even more smooth. Leveling rake and 36" landscaping rake are coming today. Next week I'll pull out any stiltgrass I see and glypho any areas where I have other grassy weeds.

Fungicide question:
When should I apply a fungicide? I'm about due now. Should I throw down an application of Cleary's on Sunday (I have not used this yet this season) and then apply Azoxy or Propi (have used both this season) when I throw down the seed?


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## jedross86 (Apr 27, 2021)

Finished what I set out I to do today in the backyard. By no means is it level but all the big dips are gone. I'll see how things settle overnight and maybe top a few things off. Have about a yard and a half left of soil and will do the front tomorrow. Front is in much better shape than the back, just a couple of bad areas. Going to have a lot of dead grass but I'll hit all these areas with extra seed.


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## jedross86 (Apr 27, 2021)

Got all the soil into the yard! That was not fun.


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## jedross86 (Apr 27, 2021)

Got some germination overnight! Front is stronger than the rear, but it did have a 1 day head start.

I am concerned I did not cut my lawn low enough. I went from 5inches to 2 inches (I did 1 .75 in some of the back). My mower blade I am using is also jagged - thought this would also help tear my existing lawn up. But here I am 5 days later and I have 4 inch grass already. The longest grass is actually where I cut the lowest. I'm getting very concerned that my new seed will only survive in bare areas. Any advice on what to do would be helpful. I will get Azoxy down today and go half oz/1k.

I do have a crappy scotts reel mower. My concern, other than ripping up seedlings, would be spreading disease since this mower doesn't have a bag.


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## jedross86 (Apr 27, 2021)

This storm sucked. Ruined my basement and my reno. Also washed out almost some of the soil I spread around. I guess late Spring I will put some sand in these areas and try to gradually bring them back up. Could have been way worse though so am grateful for things not being any worse.

Spent a ton of $$$ on a bag of Lesco TTTF seed. 1/3 Technique, 1/3 Bravo 2, 1/3 Falcon IV. No weed or other crop. Seem to be decent cultivars.

Hopefully I can salvage this and get things in decent shape.


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Any luck whipping it back into shape?


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## jedross86 (Apr 27, 2021)

@Chris LI - getting there. Finally starting to get some solid germination on the seed I put down last Monday. Took quite a bit longer than the first time but maybe the colder night time temps are playing a role (existing grass took much longer to get long this time around too). Can't catch a break with this weather. I think we have had one day with rain since Ida? And then high 80s, with no rain, in the forecast for this week.


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## jedross86 (Apr 27, 2021)

Had a ton more tiny grass blades pop up overnight. Bare areas have filled in nicely. A couple of small spots where I must have had some washout that I'll need to touch up. Need the rest of them to get up and grow qucikly! Will need to get a mow in soon.

Front yard (lawn on far side is not mine)


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## jedross86 (Apr 27, 2021)

Mowed today and things are starting to really look nice. At least in the back.



Did notice some fungus though. Think its PB.

Fortunately its only in maybe 5 or 6 spots this size, all in one area. I put down the high rate of mefenexom on about half of the backyard.


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## M32075 (May 9, 2019)

Nice bounce back from Ida. Seems like you have really good germination and nice coverage good job


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## jedross86 (Apr 27, 2021)

Thanks @M32075! After mowing today was the first time I thought things were really coming along nicely. I hope the fungicide works it magic quickly.


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## M32075 (May 9, 2019)

You're close to feeding it what's your plan


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## jedross86 (Apr 27, 2021)

Plan is urea, .2lbs/N a week for 2 weeks and then bump it up. I have to figure out if I should still feed it with this PB or not. Checked on things this morning and no mycellium. So hopefully the mefenexom and this weather (was 50 last night!) knocked it out. If it won't make my fungus problem worse I'll probably spray it (and some clearys) on Wednesday so mother nature can water it in for me.


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## Lust4Lawn (Aug 4, 2020)

Glad to see you getting the results you were looking for. PB is a rough one.

Did you have the mefenexom on hand? Not a cheap product at ~$5/oz when buying by the quart.


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## jedross86 (Apr 27, 2021)

@Lust4Lawn yeah I did have it on hand. I thought I had some PB this Spring/Summer so I bit the bullet and bought a quart. I forgot how expensive it was until checking my domyown order just now. Yikes.

Strange development though. All the impacted areas were bare and newly seeded, so... pretty thin. Temps have been pretty cool and I was not watering after 4PM, and was getting zero rain outside of the tropical storms. Surprised it wound up in these areas, and not established turf that was twice the height and much thicker.


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## jedross86 (Apr 27, 2021)

Sprayed the rest of the lawn with mefenexom today. Tomorrow will spray urea with clearys ahead of the rain.


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## jedross86 (Apr 27, 2021)

After todays mow


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## jedross86 (Apr 27, 2021)

R.I.P. front lawn.



Not really sure whats going on here. This area gets less sun than my side strip, but that is just fine. Majority of my new grass up here is toast. Maybe tree roots stealing the water?


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Baby it with some granular urea (0.25 lbs N), weekly, and see what comes back. You might be surprised.


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## jedross86 (Apr 27, 2021)

Thanks for the advice @Chris LI. Was planning on going up to .5 per 2 weeks but will continue at .25


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## jedross86 (Apr 27, 2021)

Pics of front and back a day after mowing. Color is not well blended. Have some Iron arriving today.


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## jedross86 (Apr 27, 2021)

@Chris LI - thought you might want to see what a little N (+Bifen) and 10 days difference made!


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

jedross86 said:


> @Chris LI - thought you might want to see what a little N (+Bifen) and 10 days difference made!


 :clapping: Yeah, baby! That's some nice recovery! Keep up the good work!


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## MJR12284 (Jun 21, 2020)

The difference in your front law from Oct 3 to Oct 13 is amazing.  Patience is key! I have noticed my renos changing in color the last 10 days or so and everything becoming more uniform and darker.


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## jedross86 (Apr 27, 2021)

Thanks all!

I think the problem I was having in the front is water. It didn't get any since that pic and looks a little worse for wear today. Rest of the yard is still good, so I'm thinking tree roots are to blame. Will have to baby this for a bit longer I think until it's better established.


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