# Deltahedge - Fulshear, TX - Lawn Journal



## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

*Future Home of the ATLTC (All Texas Lawn Tennis Club)*

My last Lawn Journal included pictures of my lot from unimproved until it was looking like this, at the end of the 2021 growing season. Which is what I'll consider the starting point for the new lawn journal.
October 2021

My last lawn journal can be found HERE. But to catch you up to speed, I have about 3 acres to maintain. I reel mow 17,000 sq ft in front of the house, and the rest of the lot gets mowed with a zero turn.

To begin the 2022 season, I scalped down to 0.25" with my JD 260SL, and bagged about 32 contractor bags full of clippings.




By May 5th, 2022, the lawn was looking pretty good.


As we all know, you gotta crack some eggs to make an omelet. So in mid-May, I decided to do another round of aerating and sand topdressing. Last year, I applied 30 tons of sand to the lawn. I had 21 tons delivered for this go round.
Here's a drone video I made of aerating and leveling. I didn't get a ton of footage because I was busy shoveling or operating equipment all day.




You'll notice in the video that I tested my Ohio Steel tow-behind lawn sweeper to pick up cores, and I was shocked at how good of a job it did.

May 14th

May 25th

May 30th


*And here is the lawn on June 9th, which will be the last picture before some bad news.*


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

It has been a long time coming, but we are building a pool in the backyard. I obviously knew this would disrupt any irrigation or grass plans I have for the backyard while construction is ongoing. Naively, I thought the disruption would be limited to the backyard. My Rainbird irrigation controller is located in the garage, and the wires run out of the back of the house. Some wires go left through the backyard, and the rest of the wires peel off the other way through the backyard. I noticed that a few of my zones in the front yard weren't working, and then realized the problem is 6 zones where the valves are all located together (in the front yard). The valve wires had been severed in a new trench for some natural gas lines in the backyard. For the past month, I have been manually operating the zones at the valve box and setting a timer on my phone. I had an irrigation company come look at patching the wires, but we decided not to path them since they'll just get destroyed again by a different set of contractors on a different step of the pool build. I purchased a Hunter Node that will operate 6 valves, just to get through the pool build, until a permanent solution.

That has been going on for a month; some of the zones in the front yard working off the controller, and manually operating the other zones. Well, last week, some electricians were running wires for the pool and severed ALL of the sprinkler system wires coming of the back of the house. I should feel lucky that I still have internet I suppose.


This was not a good time for the entire irrigation system to go down. The lawn is starting to look thirsty, so I guess I'm going to buy another Hunter Node for the other zones, to wire in temporarily.


The long term solution is we are drilling a well, and installing a new irrigation system for the "lot."

This also brings up a question as to when I start calling my "lot" a "lawn". I already call the front yard a lawn. I guess when I am proud of how it looks?


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## cnet24 (Jul 14, 2017)

You, sir, are a machine. 21 tons of sand? Unreal. In terms of the severed wires, I think that is short term pain for long term gain. The upgrades for gas/pool will easily be worth it.

Also- I like your choice in truck. I'm an AT4 owner myself. Great trucks.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

cnet24 said:


> You, sir, are a machine. 21 tons of sand? Unreal. In terms of the severed wires, I think that is short term pain for long term gain. The upgrades for gas/pool will easily be worth it.
> 
> Also- I like your choice in truck. I'm an AT4 owner myself. Great trucks.


Thanks. Yeah, short term pain for long term gain for sure. I just didn't expect them to kill the entire irrigation system for the lawn.

I've enjoyed the AT4. I've been a GM fanboy my entire life. I went against my better judgement one time and got a Ford. I regretted it a couple years later when the Ford started doing Ford things.


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## DFWdude (Aug 28, 2020)

Wow!! Serious work going on here. That sand leveling video was great! 
Beautiful property

Edit; where did you find the topdresser? Looks like an ecolawn?


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

DFWdude said:


> Wow!! Serious work going on here. That sand leveling video was great!
> Beautiful property
> 
> Edit; where did you find the topdresser? Looks like an ecolawn?


Thanks. I bought the Eco-250 from a guy who used it in his compost spreading business. I'm still holding off on my final verdict. It's great for spreading, while it's working. So far, it has required constant conveyor belt tracking adjustment, nearly every 10 or 15 minutes, while I'm using it. The conveyor belt behaves differently when it's empty than it does loaded, so it's not something I can set ahead of time. In the next month, I'm going to tear it down and rebuild it, so, hopefully, I'll like it more after that.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

I had surgery on my neck last week, so I mowed at 0.400" on June 9th, the day before the surgery, and I haven't been able to mow since as of this post on Jun 18th. I hope to get cleared to mow next week, but it could end up being a full two weeks without a mow. The lawn isn't really growing out of control because of the lack of irrigation, so maybe that's seeing the glass half full. I'm guessing it's around 1" at the moment. I'm already dreading having to scalp when I can get back to it.

This morning, I tried to get 6 zones working with a Hunter Node, and I can't get it to open the solenoids. The node is made for 9-11 volt DC solenoids. I don't have a clue what solenoids are on my valves, but I'm guessing I have 24VAC solenoids.

Here's a picture of the failed attempt at getting some irrigation back to the lawn.


I don't know if it's typical for irrigation installers to put two valves in a small box like this, and then stack three small valve boxes in line (6 valves in this picture), but this doesn't seem like the best way to do it to me. I would have much preferred a single, larger, valve box (And would be awesome if they could put those in the flower beds and out of the grass.)


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## STI_MECE (Aug 4, 2020)

Hope you recover sooner than later. I tell you the heat we got the past few weeks is just cooking the grass. This is probably the only time where I am thankful for trees as the added shade really keeps the bermuda thriving.

How much were you able to get that Eco spreader for? I do everything right now with a front end loader on my tractor then get my zero turn with a drag mat. Just started this process this past weekend.

I really want a surrounds mower with 5 cutting decks <3

Are you on a well out there for public water? I would bet with the looks of the surrounding area you have public water. If you don't mind me asking how much are you paying to water that grass?

I live on a well here in Conroe and have about 85k Ft^2 to irrigate and im almost running for 1.5 days solid to cycle through my 40 zones.

I am hoping maybe one day I have public water and can condense my zones, but on a well, you can only put out so much unless you run a booster and a big tank.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

STI_MECE said:


> How much were you able to get that Eco spreader for? I do everything right now with a front end loader on my tractor then get my zero turn with a drag mat. Just started this process this past weekend.
> 
> I really want a surrounds mower with 5 cutting decks <3
> 
> Are you on a well out there for public water? I would bet with the looks of the surrounding area you have public water. If you don't mind me asking how much are you paying to water that grass?


I got the Eco-250 used for about $1,500. I think that was a pretty fair price. It was in working condition (when I got it), but it isn't in the best shape in the world. I wouldn't even be surprised if the composting company I bought it from was the 2nd owner.

I would love to get a triplex mower, but that's not in the budget for price, and I don't have enough time in the day to make maintaining 3 cutting units a high enough priority to take care of it.

I am on public water, and it costs me $350-$400/month to irrigate the lawn from May through September. I will be drilling a well this year to bring the cost of irrigating down. I am also installing irrigation on the entire 3 acre lot. What controller do you use to control 40 zones? I will need something similar for my lot.

EDIT: I read your Journal and saw you're using the Hunter HCC. You have a great journal and I enjoyed reading it last year. How do you like the Irrigation controller?


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## STI_MECE (Aug 4, 2020)

Thank you! the first page is not even about my lawn but more or less my personal problems lol I am hoping next year ill really be able to burn some rubber. I want to run my lawn much like yours. reel mow the front and rotary the back.

Man 1500 bucks for that! I would have been all over that. I do not think I could convince my wife to let me buy one after purchasing the tractor.

So one thing to keep in mind, the less zones you have the better off you will be trying to manage the watering times. You want to maximize sqft coverage and minimize zones. The next stage for us is to get a 500 gallon tank, float switch, and just run a booster pump for the irrigation. Whenever we hit that stage, we will be able halve the number of zones we have (39 currently).

Functionality wise, I have quiet alot of grievances with Hydrawise and its only because I used to own a Rachio. The scheduling in Hydrawise is super weird and it has taken time to learn it (and I still am). In my opinion, setting up the Hydrawise, everything is pretty much manual input. So instead of just copying the same settings to say 30 zones, you have to go in and manually change the settings individually instead of just selecting them all and saying apply this setting. The Hydrawise is better than the Rainbird in the sense I can mange my irrigation from my desktop as well. Rainbird is app only.

You can demo a virtual station on the hydrawise website if you wanted to play with the settings. One thing to note, is that some of their controllers only support standard mode, while the higher end ones support standard and advance modes.

I will give you an update by end of summer to let you know if my grass likes Hydrawise. lol Just condense my run times as much as possible I did an audit over the entire irrigation system and applied shade settings to each zone accordingly. I also used Hunter Runtime calculator to help establish my peak run times. The runtime calculator is sorta like Rachios advance settings using the ET factors etc, but for some reason its none of that is contained inside the Hydrawise app.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

STI_MECE said:


> So one thing to keep in mind, the less zones you have the better off you will be trying to manage the watering times. You want to maximize sqft coverage and minimize zones. The next stage for us is to get a 500 gallon tank, float switch, and just run a booster pump for the irrigation. Whenever we hit that stage, we will be able halve the number of zones we have (39 currently).
> 
> Functionality wise, I have quiet alot of grievances with Hydrawise and its only because I used to own a Rachio. The scheduling in Hydrawise is super weird and it has taken time to learn it (and I still am). In my opinion, setting up the Hydrawise, everything is pretty much manual input. So instead of just copying the same settings to say 30 zones, you have to go in and manually change the settings individually instead of just selecting them all and saying apply this setting. The Hydrawise is better than the Rainbird in the sense I can mange my irrigation from my desktop as well. Rainbird is app only.
> 
> ...


I have thought about doing an underground installation of 10k gallon rainwater collection tank,. The tank would also be connected to my well. It would be awesome to have a float switch and programming inside the rainwater harvest tank that says, "The irrigation system is going to start in 4 hours! IF there is less than 7k of water in the storage tank, AND IF there is less than a 50% chance of rain in the next 4 hours, start the well, so that the tank can be full by the time the irrigation system starts."

I created an account on Hunter and played around a little bit with the online programming. I currently have a Rainbird 22 station controller, and it kind of stinks standing out in the 100 degree garage while I manually program it. Having a desktop control and programming option would be really awesome, even if I have to manually enter all the details repetitively.


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## JRS 9572 (May 28, 2018)

If you put that tank in, then make sure your AC condensate drains are connected to the tank. You'd be surprised how much water comes out of that in a day.

Also I'm in the water treatment business. Best pricing I've found on storage tanks is from tank-depot.com 
Might be worth a look when you go and purchase.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

JRS 9572 said:


> If you put that tank in, then make sure your AC condensate drains are connected to the tank. You'd be surprised how much water comes out of that in a day.
> 
> Also I'm in the water treatment business. Best pricing I've found on storage tanks is from tank-depot.com
> Might be worth a look when you go and purchase.


AC drain lines is a great idea.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

*The Irrigation system is back up and running!*

I ended up ordering some 9v DC Latching solenoids from Hunter, but I never ended up using them with the Hunter Node. My pool builder's irrigation installation company came by the house to help out. They got the valves on the far side of the house working by just laying signal cable on top of the ground. This is obviously a temporary fix while the pool construction is going on, but, the line being run above the ground means that all the crews should be able to see it and not dig through it again. They also spliced and connected all of the wires where they were cut right at the back of the house, which restored service to the most of the rest of the system.

My neck has finally healed to the point where I feel like getting back into the yard to mow. The last mow was on June 9th, and I was able to get out and start mowing last night, and I'll consider myself halfway done as of typing this update. Last night I made one pass at 0.75". Today I tried to make the next pass at 0.600", but it was too much and the mower wouldn't go through it while taking that much off. So, I took it down to 0.67" and I'll try 0.600" this evening. It's my goal to get a tennis court sized patch of the yard down to about 0.250" by Sunday, July 10th, for breakfast at Wimbledon. It's Tifway 419, so it won't look its best at that height, but we'll see.

Double Doubles at 0.670"


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## Chadwicktr (May 26, 2020)

Nice work. Enjoyed scanning the journals! Hope you continue to recover well.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

I mowed twice yesterday in a continued effort of getting down to 0.25". It was dark when I finished at 0.58"


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

I made it all the way down to about 0.28" a week ago, and then went on a vacation. I don't think the grass really approved of the aggressive mowing it has been getting lately, and then a 1 - 2 punch of Propy and Prodiamine followed by T-Nex.

I think the lawn probably needs more water. I'm going to take my seasonal adjustment up to 120% in my irrigation controller and see if the grass responds. I have also been running a short blast of water in each zone around 2PM each day. I actually think I'm going to do away with that after noon drink, as I can't tell that it is helping anything, and it's probably a waste of money.

I pulled cores to see how much moisture was left in the soil at 8PM. The green areas still had some moisture about 4" underground, and I was unable to even stick the core tool into the ground in the brown spots, so I"ll be watching the sprinklers in those areas to see what is going on.

Looking pretty sad


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## Boy_meets_lawn (Sep 27, 2020)

That should bounce back in within 2 weeks if you can keep up the water. Prodiamine isn't as aggressive as say Specticle on root pruning. This drought has been a challenge but I've cut my fungicide budget considerably so far this year.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Hope y'all were able to get some of this rain.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

Dono1183 said:


> Hope y'all were able to get some of this rain.


None yet. The suburb about 10 miles away from me got some rain last night, but none for me. I have a chance of rain all day today, so fingers crossed!!!

I've kind of got my irrigation figured out and really dialed in now, so the front yard is starting to look better. But the areas on the lot without irrigation really need it.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Deltahedge said:


> Dono1183 said:
> 
> 
> > Hope y'all were able to get some of this rain.
> ...


I'll be pullin' for y'all. Glad to hear the irrigation is coming along too!


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

Dono1183 said:


> Deltahedge said:
> 
> 
> > Dono1183 said:
> ...


Well, we finally got some rain on Friday evening. 0.11". I don't imagine it did anything for the lawn, but it did drop our temperature for a little while. So I got out and did some yard work when the temps dropped into the low 90s.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

There are going to be some exciting things happening on the sprigged zoysia section of grass. I'll post some updates with pictures, but here's the plan as of now. I

I sprayed the area with round-up today. 
I will rent a sod-cutter this weekend.
Monday I am driving to Poteet, TX to pick up a pallet of Lazer Zoysia from Bladerunner Farms.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

Full steam ahead on the Lazer Zoysia sod project.

I borrowed a sod cutter from my irrigation guy and in about 10 minutes I had the entire area sliced.

Some of the area had no established turf, and I'll just scoop up and haul the sand off of those spots.

This was my first time using a sod cutter and I can not believe how easy it made the work of removing the top layer. I am constantly reminded that having the right tools for the job is the difference between grueling work with the wrong tools, or an easy day. I don't generally enjoy the process of renting tools. I have to drive somewhere, usually nearly an hour away from my house, rent the tool, rent a trailer, stand in a checkout line for another 20 minutes, drive home, use the tool, drive it back to the rental shop, wait for my receipt, and then drive back home. With how easy the sod cutter made the job, next time I need one, I would absolutely be willing to put up with that process to get the right tool. My irrigation guy lives 5 minutes down the road from me, so it was a piece of cake borrowing the tool from him.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

And, the light hit the yard perfectly the other morning when I was playing fetch with Raider, so I had to snap a photo.


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## Pannellde (7 mo ago)

Beautiful property. It gives me motivation to start sand leveling my front 10k.


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## Boy_meets_lawn (Sep 27, 2020)

Looking forward to seeing the zoysia potential, you got a fungicide plan?


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

Boy_meets_lawn said:


> Looking forward to seeing the zoysia potential, you got a fungicide plan?


What would you reccomend? I'm all ears, because I have historically only battled fungus after it has already shown up, but I'm not really happy with that is a plan.

I have propy and Azoxy on hand, but I probably need to add a third mode of action to the mix.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

Pannellde said:


> Beautiful property. It gives me motivation to start sand leveling my front 10k.


Go for it!!!


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## DFWdude (Aug 28, 2020)

Deltahedge said:


> And, the light hit the yard perfectly the other morning when I was playing fetch with Raider, so I had to snap a photo.


Awesome pic!


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## WillyT (Jun 26, 2019)

Excited to see how sprigged zoysia goes for you, holler if you need anything!


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Deltahedge said:


> And, the light hit the yard perfectly the other morning when I was playing fetch with Raider, so I had to snap a photo.


Raider looks like one happy pup there! He's got a top notch playing surface. 👍🏻👍🏻


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## Boy_meets_lawn (Sep 27, 2020)

@Deltahedge I have no personal experience with zoysia in my yard but make sure you keep your N inputs to a minimum.

I'm sure greendoc would be the best source to put a plan together as he battles fungus year round on zoysia. I'd be doing preventative apps the entire season. Once you run out of Propiconazole I'd look to switch to Tebuconazole it's supposed to have less pgr effects. Just make sure you get some overspray from treating your ornamentals as it isn't labeled for residential turf.

You could incorporate some phosphites and one other frac group and probably be well covered.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

On Monday, around noon, I rented a trailer and drove from Fulshear, TX to Poteet, TX to make a special visit to Blade Runner Farms. It was a little over an 8 hour round trip. But I got to see a turf farm for the first time. I've picked up sod at a turf farm before. The farm I picked up from in the past would have all the sod they were scheduled to sell that day lined up at their customer facing address, already moved from the fields to the main office where the customers show up to pick it up. At Blade Runner, I showed up at the main office to pay, and then the lady behind the desk gave me directions on which specific field to drive to, someone would meet me there, and they'd load me up in the field. I grew up on a farm, so I actually prefer getting to go to the actual fields where it's grown to pick it up.

I selected Lazer Zoysia, which is a dwarf putting green zoysia. The sod was beautiful. I hope that it looks this nice once it's grown in at my house. I selected Lazer because the more research I look at, mainly coming from the University of Tennessee, the better and better it looks for a Tennis court surface.



I was jealous of their triplex.






Before:


After:


You may notice that I ran out of sod before I ran out of ground to cover. I didn't have room to haul 2 pallets. But, as I thought more and more about this, I feel like an idiot for not asking them if I could buy a partial pallet. The turf farm I've worked with locally has a hard rule against partial pallets. But, Blade Runner Farms seemed willing to work with me and humor a lawn nerd, so I bet if I would have asked to buy another 15 pieces of turf they would have sold them to me. Now, here I am, 3.5 hours away from the turf farm and I need about 70 sq ft of turf to finish the job. I'm not in for an 8 hour drive to go pickup a few more pieces of turf, so I'll just have to wait for these to grow in. I will likely pull some plugs from the sodded area next year to speed up the full coverage process.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

The sod quality looks fantastic.


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## Boy_meets_lawn (Sep 27, 2020)

You could even take plugs now to stretch the coverage out but that looks awesome.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

Dono1183 said:


> The sod quality looks fantastic.


Yeah. I wish Blade Runner Farms was closer. I would give them all my business if I didn't have to drive 3.5 hours one-way.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

Boy_meets_lawn said:


> You could even take plugs now to stretch the coverage out but that looks awesome.


Yeah, I thought about that, but since I'm planting in sand, I want my plugs to have deep roots when I plant them instead of just 1" roots that came on the sod, I'm just a little worried a little 2" circle of sod with minimal roots is going to dry out and die.


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## Lawniac (Jul 25, 2020)

Very good looking sod! It's cool that such a high quality farm will deal with homeowners buying in small quantities.

Looking forward to seeing it get established. It's going to look great.


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## STI_MECE (Aug 4, 2020)

holy snikes, that is some nice sod, that makes my celebration bermuda sod look like a pile of crap. My celebration was probably 25% soil, 50% thatch, and 25% grass. Hell of a benchmark right there. If you dont mind me asking how much was a pallet? And do they make deliveries? I might order me a full truck load of that one of these days. I will have to PM you if I ever order some.

After you get the zoysia established would you mind taking a picture of it compared to the bermuda you have? I might have to venture off one of these days to get some to throw in some heavily shaded areas.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

STI_MECE said:


> holy snikes, that is some nice sod, that makes my celebration bermuda sod look like a pile of crap. My celebration was probably 25% soil, 50% thatch, and 25% grass. Hell of a benchmark right there. If you dont mind me asking how much was a pallet? And do they make deliveries? I might order me a full truck load of that one of these days. I will have to PM you if I ever order some.
> 
> After you get the zoysia established would you mind taking a picture of it compared to the bermuda you have? I might have to venture off one of these days to get some to throw in some heavily shaded areas.


OK. so, for the lazer sod, I hope you're sitting down when you read this, because I've never heard of sod so expensive, and I am glad I only had to buy 1 pallet, I can't imagine buying enough to sod an entire yard.

$1/sqft. So, I paid $450 for one pallet. I'm guessing part of that is just the pain in the rear factor of dealing with me only buying one pallet. IDK how much it would cost if you were actually buying 12-15 pallets.

They actually had two options to buy it. Putting green height of cut, or tall cut. The putting green height was $2/sqft, or the long cut, which I chose, was $1/sqft. I expected it to be like 1" tall or so, but it turned out to be around 3/8". I guess the cutting green HOC would have been 0.115". If I need it that low, I'll just work it down to that HOC next year.

Yeah, after it gets established, I'll take some comparison photos.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

It's been a while since I've posted any updates. I've mainly just been mowing a few times a week and applying PGR and 0.5 lbs Urea/M every 200-220 GDDs.

Tifway 419 Front Yard


And here's the Dwarf Zoysia. I know it's too early to tell what I really think about this grass, but the blades are very fine.


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## Boy_meets_lawn (Sep 27, 2020)

You doing any other inputs besides urea? I don't know if your soil pH was as alkaline as mine but if it was you may find yourself deficient in P and K as not much is plant available despite the soil test.

I bet that zoysia will be a top notch performer if you can keep fungus away, your sand base overhaul should definitely help. Lower inputs and less mowing would be sweet.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

Boy_meets_lawn said:


> You doing any other inputs besides urea? I don't know if your soil pH was as alkaline as mine but if it was you may find yourself deficient in P and K as not much is plant available despite the soil test.


I applied some balanced fert at the beginning of the season, but have only been giving N via Urea for the last 3 or 4 months.

My pH is very high. Some sample spots are 8 or higher in the past. At some point in the future, I'll slowly work towards bringing the pH down, but there's a lot of planning going on right now with what will happen to the lawn over the next year, so I haven't started spending money to lower pH yet.

And you are totally right about the P and K deficiency. It even showed in my soil test. But the lawn is looking decent at the moment, and I have about 300 lbs of Urea at the house already bought and paid for. So I just keep going with 0.25 lb of N down about every 10-12 days.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

We had a rain storm come through yesterday afternoon and did some damage. The pecan trees are full of fruit right now, and branches are very heavy. I guess with the extra weight of water, and some wind, this branch couldn't hold on. The picture doesn't do justice to how large this branch is. It's about 3' in diameter, and at least 60' long.


It destroyed 3 sections of fence, and was laying across the road in front of our house.

My kids' recess at school didn't happen because of the storm, so they were full of energy when they got home. After dinner, one of the kids said, "I want to go outside and run and burn some energy". He came back in, really excited and said, "Dad, I ran 50 laps from the driveway to the fence!"

"Which fence?"

"I ran across the front yard to the side fence!!! The short grass felt really good running on it"

He was so proud of himself that I couldn't even be mad. I'm glad he wanted to get out and burn some energy. But now we know why sometimes golf courses have "Cart Path Only" days.


Some of those footprints are 3" deep. It's ok. It's ok. It's ok.

And. quite a few people have sent me messages asking for pictures of the Zeon Zoysia testing I have done in the shade. I had a few extra pieces of Zeon after a project in 2020. I laid it right on top of the bermuda in this section and you can see exactly where the zeon sod ends and the Bermuda sod is. The Bermuda sod was about 1 year old at the time. I've run the test for 2 years.


I have completely neglected this area for the last year. Neither grass has received any fertilizer since early in the 2021 season. Would both grasses look a little better if they had fert? sure. But, the Zeon is a clear winner as far as shade tolerance. This gets mowed with a zero-turn at 3".


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## Highlife159 (May 19, 2021)

Not sure if you do any smoking (BBQ) but pecan wood is one of my favorites. That monster branch should likely last for a while if you decided to use it for that.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

Highlife159 said:


> Not sure if you do any smoking (BBQ) but pecan wood is one of my favorites. That monster branch should likely last for a while if you decided to use it for that.


Yeah, one of my buddies said the same thing. I told him, "come and get all the pecan you want, but I need it gone tomorrow!" The next one that falls, (that isn't on a fence), I'm definitely going to save some for BBQ.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

One of our favorite trees on the property, the tree in my profile picture, was struck by lightning Friday night. This is a completely different tree than the one that lost a huge branch last week. It's a rough life being a tree on our lot lately. This picture does not do justice to the amount of bark that exploded off the tree. It shot chunks of bark that were about 12" long 80 feet away from the tree. There is a 100 foot radius of bark debris around the tree.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

Wow! I hate that for your tree. A lightning strike is usually the beginning of the end for trees. It's a slow death.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

I went back and found video of the lightning strike.

https://youtu.be/N6QowagiqFk


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## STI_MECE (Aug 4, 2020)

Well it seems you have had an absolute blast this summer, and going out with a bang. literally. Really sucks we got no rain the entire summer then in a few weeks we got a summers worth of rain! Almost makes me wish we had no rain at all! The best weed killer for me was the drought!


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Wow! That's a wild video.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

Short update on the tree struck by lightning. I was spraying some fungicide tonight and notice the grass is burned in a pattern that looks like where the lightning entered the ground. I really wish this was a reel mowed section of my yard, because it would be cool to see this pattern in some tight, dense grass.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

I bet that's the root pattern. Really cool but still sucks.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

Redtwin said:


> I bet that's the root pattern. Really cool but still sucks.


I hadn't thought of that, but I bet you're right.


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

The yard is looking great!

Hate to see that lightning. We had one close to our house a couple weeks ago and it smoked a bunch of electronics.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

Ware said:


> The yard is looking great!
> 
> Hate to see that lightning. We had one close to our house a couple weeks ago and it smoked a bunch of electronics.


Thanks. I hate to hear about the lightning doing damage at your place. We felt extremely lucky that it didn't strike our house and ruin a bunch of stuff. Of course, if it ends up killing that 100 year old tree, it will have probably destroyed more monetary value than all the electronics in the house combined.

The foam markers that go on the end of the sprayer booms that you posted about over a year ago has been a complete game changer. It's one of my favorite purchases. Once I ran out of the stuff that came with the system, I've just been using dish soap. I should probably switch back to the real stuff though. The foam comes out thicker and lasts quite a bit longer. Once I get to the end of the season, I might do a post update about all my gear, the state it's in, and things I like/dislike about all of it.


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## Murf300 (Aug 31, 2020)

Can someone tell me where to find the post about the foam markers? I could really use that?


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## Boy_meets_lawn (Sep 27, 2020)

Ware said:


> The yard is looking great!
> 
> Hate to see that lightning. We had one close to our house a couple weeks ago and it smoked a bunch of electronics.


Off topic to the journal but did you have a layered surge protection approach for your house?


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

Been a while since I've posted an update. I made a mistake in the Lazer zoysia section that I'm still recovering from.

I turned the sprinkler off when we got a lot of rain a few weeks ago, and I then I got sick the next day. I felt so bad for a few days that I wasn't even thinking about the lawn, and didn't even think about having shut off the sprinklers for the rain. The 1 month old lazer zoysia went 6 days with zero water, no rain and no irrigation. You might think, "So what? 6 days is fine!" But, you have to remember that it is planted in about 4-6" of USGA sand. When I emerged from the house after being sick, the entire section looked completely dead. I guess you could call it dormancy, because I've been watering it for the last three weeks and it is slowly coming back to life. The zoysia is pretty slow to heal, but I think it will come back and I'll have full coverage in the spring. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of it when it was dormant, but it's easy to imagine. Every single blade of grass was straw-colored.
It's still looking a little rough, but it's so much better than when it was the color of a wheat field ready for harvest.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

Over the weekend I scalped the front yard down to 0.250” in preparation for a rye grass overseed. I’ve been maintaining around 0.400”, so I only had about twelve 50 gallon contractor bags of clippings


















I am testing Lesco Midpoint Intermediate Rye grass. It’s what my local supplier could get, and it’s cheaper than PGR. Since it’s not a long term commitment, I decided to give it a whirl this winter. 








I’ve been checking and replacing rotors to make sure the new seed will get even coverage and noticed most of the rotors I haven’t replaced this year needed to be replaced. After about 3 years, I have now replaced about 90% of my Raindbird 5000 heads. 
I put the seed out at 10 lbs/M. And it took quite a bit of testing to figure out what setting to use on my Spyker spreader. I found that somewhere between 6.5 and 6.8 on the spreader would put out 5lbs/M in one pass, with the broadcast reaching the tire tracks of the prior pass.

Here’s the lawn the morning after seed down


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

Seed down Tuesday October 11th, and here we are Monday October 17th. I blew all the leaves off the yard yesterday, only to wake up to this. It's a battle every year against the pecan tree leaves.





I'll probably try to blow the leaves off the lawn a couple times a week during this stage. I don't know if I'm helping anything by doing it, but I don't seem to be hurting anything either. I just dont want a leaf to get heavy with all the irrigation, and stay in one spot until it blocks out the sun from the grass blades.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

I started mowing the Intermediate Rye about 9 days after the seed was planted, and it is looking pretty good. The rate of seed I laid ended up being about 7lbs/M. I have enough seed left to double that rate, which will take the total up to 14 lbs/M. I am planning on round two of seed this Saturday, Oct 29th. I am still learning and I will tweak plans for next year. I have a lot of Pecan trees that have been dumping leaves the last two weeks, and will be dumping even more leaves the next two weeks. One thought for next year is to wait until all the leaves are off the trees, then clean up the leaves, and then plant the rye. This would be mid November, which should be fine for Houston climate.

I can't believe how good the rye stripes. I'm a little jealous of our cool season brethren.

This looks pretty good for 7lbs/M


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Lookin’ good!


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## Lawniac (Jul 25, 2020)

That rye is looking pretty good! 

I went 5lb / 1000sqft with the same seed 2 weeks ago. So far so good. Slow to germinate the first week. But really good this week. I think I didn't have enough water and the soil temps were probably too high (this patch is 100% sun). 

I'm planning on doing another round of seed next weekend.


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## WillyT (Jun 26, 2019)

Looks really good! What’s your hoc for the rye?


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

WillyT said:


> Looks really good! What’s your hoc for the rye?


Thanks. The HOC is currently 0.800", which is close to the max my 260SL can do. I have an 11 blade reel, and I've never cut anything this high before, so I'm curious what it will look like when I add more seed and get a better stand of Rye.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

I didn't get a chance to spread more seed this weekend, but I did have time for a double cut yesterday between some other work around the house. At 7lbs/M on the rye, it looks good from afar, but in this photo you can see how thin it is when you're standing on top of it.


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

The rye is looking good, and I was able to spread an additional 7lbs/M yesterday.


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## DFWdude (Aug 28, 2020)

Wow, the lawn looks great!


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## Deltahedge (Apr 1, 2020)

Mowed yesterday at 0.800" and the intermediate rye is doing fine. We've had wet rainy conditions for over a week and the leaves on the yard just wont dry out. I would typically mulch them up with the zero turn and then reel mow, but I didn't want to get the heavy ZTR on the wet lawn.

But, it's looking pretty good other than the leaves.


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