# piotrkol's lawn



## piotrkol (Oct 27, 2018)

Decided to start a new one for 2020 to keep things clean. Last seasons journal is here: https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=6807

Anyway - welcome back to my lawn in 2020 

Winter was very warm this season. Not a single day with proper snow cover (first time in my life), a few moments where it dusted for a bit, and just a handful of frosty days. But it wasn't all fun and games - Late march brought some cooler days and some big temp drops at night (my Magnolia tree lost all it's flowers which were ready to bloom).

Back to the lawn though. It started greening up and I ran my mower a few times to clip the tips a bit*. Gave it a tenacity blanket spray to keep poa away (mesotrion is pretty much the only thing I can get over here when it comes to pre-em)

Today was a big day - fertiliser day. Got some good quality stuff for a change. 25-8-8 + Fe from ICL. Apparently some greenkeepers use that stuff on pro level pitches and golf courses so i'm keen to see how it does. I always used to get cheap stuff in local garden centers but I wasn't very happy with the effects so spent a bit more this time 

Plans for the coming weeks: 
With the lockdown happening pretty much worldwide it's a bit difficult to get supplies. I really wanted to core aerate and level with sand but all that requires going to town, renting equipement and having the sand guy come over. In short - meeting with lots of people which I'm not keen on doing at the moment. So that might have to wait until may, which might be a good thing as the lawn will be growing like crazy by that time. 
Still looking for a proper reel mower! That manual one still doing it's job but it's killing me :lol:

That's all for now. Expect some updates in the upcoming days. Warm temps are coming and that fert should kick in 

Recent photos:







* Let's be honest. I ran my mower to get some stripes going :mrgreen: :mrgreen:


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## piotrkol (Oct 27, 2018)

Game changer time  After searching for what felt like an eternity I finally found a proper reel mower! I got my hands on a 2014 qualcast 35. Apparently qualcast was acquired by Allett a few years ago and they rebranded that model to the Allett Classic 14! Talked to the guys at Allett and I will be able to get the allett cartridges for my mower which is super cool! Best part - the mower is brand new! I just got it today and I got home after sunset so didn't have time to mow much, just checked if everything works (it does).

I'm excited!


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## Biggylawns (Jul 8, 2019)

Love the night time pics with the sprinklers on. Looks super cool!


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Come on. You have lights, you can still mow at night.

Congrats. How low can you go on the reel?


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## piotrkol (Oct 27, 2018)

@Biggylawns - Thanks! The lights make it very nice and moody indeed. Sometimes I run the sprinklers and the lights just to look at them 

@g-man - hehe that's true. But there was also a lot of dew after sunset so I'll wait  It can go as low as 6mm which is 1/4"


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## piotrkol (Oct 27, 2018)

Had some fun with the new mower, it's a beast when you're used to a hand pushed version  I can finally put my TLF sticker on the catcher :mrgreen:

Lawn is looking pretty bad at the moment - day 15 after a blanket spray of tenacity so there are lots of yellow spots with dying Poa A. There are also some white spots where the Ryegrass got bleached and on top of that it's day 14 after the spring fertiliser so there are also spots of dark green grass :lol: Very unhappy with the look but it should start recovering soon.
Hopefully :?


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## piotrkol (Oct 27, 2018)

Crazy day today. Cold one but I got a double mow on the lawn and it's sorta starting to show signs of getting better. A few minutes after that a quick snow storm passed through :| Typical April I guess 

Tried to put the white TLF sticker on but I think it was sitting in my desk for too long and didn't want to stick at all  
I put the smaller green one instead :mrgreen:


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Looking good! :thumbup: Spring mixed with a bit of winter. The bird photo helps keep the warm feeling when you scroll down to the snowy photo.


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## piotrkol (Oct 27, 2018)

Got the good old string out to straighten out the stripes  Bleaching on the PRG is almost gone, still some yellow poa a spots that hurt my eyes though :bd:

Also started working on a mini pond in another part of the garden. Our house originally used to stand near the street but the previous owners moved it to a new spot. The concrete foundations were left behind so instead of getting rid of them we decided to use them to our advantage and built a small rocky garden around them. There is also a 3,5ft wide and 2ft deep concrete square in the corner so we decided to put a small pond in there. Fun little project  Planning on transforming the small lawn in there to a mini golf place/green later on


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Keep the attack on the POA a with more tenacity. Mix in some triclopyr to reduce the bleaching on the prg.


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## piotrkol (Oct 27, 2018)

Thanks for the tip @g-man! I'll look around for triclopyr.
Do you reckon I should stay at the 4oz per acre rate or go down to 2oz? I did 4oz first time around

edit. Actually I'm not sure what rate I did. I just started doing my maths again and it's all coming out differently :mrgreen: The problems I have is that Tenacity has 40% mesotrione, and the stuff I use is 10% + I need to convert to metric as well which makes it crazy :lol: Gonna triple check my calculations, I had it dialed nicely last season but I lost my notes heh

edit2. Yep, I did a 2oz per acre rate


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## piotrkol (Oct 27, 2018)

Update. 
Did another app of Tenacity, and I also managed to find a product containing pendimethalin! I should have it next week. Poa is dying off nicely but I feel like there is more coming up so I'm gonna go all out on it because the lawn is painful to watch without the sunlight shining on it. It looks good with the sun at least 

I've mowing very frequently (12 mows in the past 14 days I believe) so the lawn is very thick 

And finished the small pond, which is surprisinlgy fun to watch


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## Biggylawns (Jul 8, 2019)

looks Very nice! the stripes are great


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## RCUK (Jul 16, 2018)

Very nice &#128076;
Love the cut quality


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## social port (Jun 19, 2017)

These mowing patterns look great. I can't wait to see how things look in 6 weeks.


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## piotrkol (Oct 27, 2018)

Thanks everyone!

This time a rather bad looking update from me. Looks like it's the final showdown of my fight against poa (hopefully). I did a second application of tenacity 6 days ago and I also sprayed some pendimethalin as a very late pre-emergent. I wish I found that product sooner but oh well.

Anyway, the amount of Poa a is absolutely mindblowing. With 2 apps of tenacity it's also very yellow and under stress so it's shooting seed heads like crazy. Long story short - my lawn looks like some sort of a meadow.

I left the lawn to grow a bit longer (25mm), and went over with a scaryfing rake to pick the poa a plants up. Today, I replaced the front roller of my reel mower with wheels so it wouldn't lay the grass down before cutting. The results were pretty cool, I collected 5 bags full of clippings and most of them looked like poa a clippings and seeds hehe.

Lawn is looking very spotty, but also very "clean", the cut on a that reel mower is amazing. 
I hope the tables start turning soon and I can start getting the results I want.

Poa a is no joke my friends 



Made some wheels from a really old pair of roller skates :mrgreen: Perfect fit!









And the good old pendimethalin + dye: :lol:


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## piotrkol (Oct 27, 2018)

Mid may update. Looking good so far! Almost daily mowing made the lawn super thick and it literally feels like a carpet. Still plenty of poa left but I got rid of most I think. Last few days were very fun - got to lay down some great stripes  I love this time of year :mrgreen:

Cutting at 17mm (about 5/8")


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

:thumbsup: 
Are you getting some time to kick the ball around?


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## piotrkol (Oct 27, 2018)

@Chris LI - waaay less than the time I spend on mowing 

Rented a self-propelled dethatcher (scarifier). It did a really nice job of removing dead poa a from the lawn. Lost some thickness but it should recover in no time. Collected 10 boxes of thatch/Poa a (I usually collect 1/2 box of clippings when doing a regular mow). The pile was huge :shock: Lawn looking a lot more uniform in color now!









Recovering the stripes after 2 days


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## jrubb42 (Jun 20, 2019)

@piotrkol I would love to see a video of what your process is for striping. Ya know, if you have time. Haha. They truly are incredible.


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## piotrkol (Oct 27, 2018)

@jrubb42 I did a little timelapse last week actually  Secret is to break some rules and go over the stripes many times to "bake" them in :mrgreen:



http://imgur.com/yA4RL5z


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## jrubb42 (Jun 20, 2019)

piotrkol said:


> @jrubb42 I did a little timelapse last week actually  Secret is to break some rules and go over the stripes many times to "bake" them in :mrgreen:
> 
> 
> 
> http://imgur.com/yA4RL5z


Nice! It's pretty crazy that's all you do. I figured you had some secret formula with how straight and perfect they look. The grass looks great!


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

jrubb42 said:


> piotrkol said:
> 
> 
> > @jrubb42 I did a little timelapse last week actually  Secret is to break some rules and go over the stripes many times to "bake" them in :mrgreen:
> ...


Yup, that definitely does the trick! I did that I think two years ago for 3 or 4 mows on a diagonal pattern (only one pass per mow) with my rotary with striping kit and I still had ghost stripes for a few weeks, after I changed the pattern.

@piotrkol 
That time lapse photography is great! Thanks for sharing.


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## JERSEY (Sep 9, 2018)

NICE JOB on your property. Very well done and very tasteful.



piotrkol said:


> Update.
> Did another app of Tenacity, and I also managed to find a product containing pendimethalin! I should have it next week. Poa is dying off nicely but I feel like there is more coming up so I'm gonna go all out on it because the lawn is painful to watch without the sunlight shining on it. It looks good with the sun at least
> 
> I've mowing very frequently (12 mows in the past 14 days I believe) so the lawn is very thick
> ...


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

@piotrkol how is the lawn this fall?


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## piotrkol (Oct 27, 2018)

Hello again, back after a long break. First, a very brief look at last season (also answering @g-man long overdue question 

----- 2020 -----

Had a rather disappointing fall. Went into the cooler months with a half dead lawn after a very hot and dry summer. As soon as I started working on it I got into another problem - a massive attack from moles. I'd wake up every other morning and find 5-10 mounds in various parts of the lawn. It went on for a good few weeks. Moles are protected here in Poland so I didn't want to mess with the law too much and didn't use poison. I did manage to catch one live while it was digging a mound  Put in in a bucket and drove it about 2 miles to a nearby field/forest area. The attack really messed the lawn up - from an even almost "table" like finish the lawn is now full of dips and holes and bare spots. On top of all that I had yet another return of the Poa A problem.

Unsurprisingly that really took the air out of me and I found myself taking a good break from working in the lawn. All I really did was mow 1-2 times a week and dropped some fall fertiliser. Winter came and this year it was a winter and a half. Can't really remember the last time we had so much snow and cold days. Even now - beginning of April - normally I'd be getting into a regular mowing pattern but today the temps are below 35f and will stay like that for a good few days.

But there is a good thing. A couple months off helped me regain the motivation and I find myself looking forward to getting back to the usual lawn shenanigans 

----- 2021 -----

On Friday I rented a core aerator and done a nice job of making holes  Sand will come in after the weekend, really looking forward to that. I also put down some spring fertiliser and got around to mow a few times.

Spring time:

20210401_122942 by Piotr K, on Flickr

The aerator (really lucky, not many places in Poland have these available, and I managed to find one just 2 miles from my house! Had a tough time to get it - it seems that half of the country is trying to rent it so it was constantly unavailable :lol: 
Paid 20$ for a 4 hour rent.

20210401_190214 by Piotr K, on Flickr

The mess 

20210401_183933 by Piotr K, on Flickr

And the holes close-up

20210402_105924 by Piotr K, on Flickr

Not looking too bad after picking up the cores 

20210402_123900 by Piotr K, on Flickr


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## piotrkol (Oct 27, 2018)

Sand day today. Got 2 tonnes and spent most of the day throwing it down and dragging. My hand is pretty done at the moment, not gonna lie 

Results are already beautiful though, I can see how much more level it is  Loving this!

Will do a few more runs with the drag in the evening. Snowed a lot during the day, crazy weather.

20210407_112606 by Piotr K, on Flickr

20210407_141440 by Piotr K, on Flickr

20210407_160300 by Piotr K, on Flickr

20210407_145427 by Piotr K, on Flickr


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## piotrkol (Oct 27, 2018)

Almost middle of April, I don't remember having to deal with this ever before so late into spring :| Forecasts saying up to 16 inches if everything goes wrong...


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## piotrkol (Oct 27, 2018)

New update. It's looking pretty good  Still pretty cool but cool season grass likes it. Sand is almost gone, just a few bare patches here and there but I did notice they are starting to fill in slowly.

A few photos:

I discovered a broken sprinkler line but managed to fix it pretty easily. 
20210427_174731 by Piotr K, on Flickr

Ordered a connect piece:

20210429_145443 by Piotr K, on Flickr

Got to have a look at the roots. Some of them over 4" long, not bad 

20210427_174815 by Piotr K, on Flickr

Mowing at 18mm (5/8")

20210428120203_IMG_1448 by Piotr K, on Flickr

Microdosing tenacity (2oz) to treat PoaA. You can kinda see the yellowish patches. They disappear nicely in the sun though. Rocking the checkerboard pattern 

20210428115920_IMG_1443 by Piotr K, on Flickr

Not bad  Been mowing everyday this week :mrgreen:

20210428121752_IMG_1471 by Piotr K, on Flickr

Cheers!


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## SeanBB (Jul 11, 2020)

Loving this. How is your pond doing? Wondering if you ever threw down a rubber liner in that thing. Great work.


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## Guymauve (Jan 4, 2020)

What a beautiful work ? Could you share with us the link you use to purchase tenacity and pre emergent stuff ?

Thanks


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## piotrkol (Oct 27, 2018)

@Guymauve Thanks  It's not tenacity actually, just a product for the farming industry that has mesotrion as the active ingredient (same as tenacity). Here in PL it's called Juzan 100SC  I buy it locally in a farmer's shop 

@SeanBB The pond is doing pretty good actually, thanks  This year I expanded it and made a small waterfall between them. I used transparent "pond foil" as they call it. It's a sort of thick plastic foil. I'll get some better photos tommorow, in the meantime I only have this 

The new part is lower so the water runs down nicely and then it's being pumped back up through a hidden hose and a small pump. I'll be putting some more rocks and plants around, it's a pretty cool spot to relax already though :nod:

20210420_122143 by Piotr K, on Flickr

IMG_1466 by Piotr K, on Flickr


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## piotrkol (Oct 27, 2018)

It's pretty amazing how quick a lawn can change. Last week beautiful stuff, this week - Poa A in full attack mode. Tenacity is doing it's thing so in short - the lawn is full of yellow, white, light green, dark green and many more spots. It looks shocking at the moment, really hoping poa a dies out. I keep coming back at it with low but frequent (7 days) apps of tenacity.

Definitely a tough moment again. It ain't all fun and games :| 

GOPR6556_1620218161261 by Piotr K, on Flickr

And additional pond pics 

20210502_125400 by Piotr K, on Flickr

20210502_125537 by Piotr K, on Flickr


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## piotrkol (Oct 27, 2018)

After 5 micro doses of mesotrion (tenacity) I noticed improvement on the lawn. It actually looked good after mowing in the sunlight for the first time in 3 weeks.

Here is a comparison. Top photo is from yesterday, bottom from a week ago.

InShot_20210520_233628980 by Piotr K, on Flickr

In the meantime we also had a ton of rainfall, which is a new problem in itself, as some sections of the lawn are super soft and swamp-like... The ground water level is so high that any rain that falls down won't drain into the soil anymore. Low spots are pretty bad.



















And most recent photo from today (we actually got sunlight for a change)

20210519_124822 by Piotr K, on Flickr


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## Greasmatta (Jun 3, 2019)

Hello fellow European 

I have read about your fight with Poa. I had the same problem as you until I used ethofumesate (Poa Constrictor).
Did two application last fall. It killed like 95% of it. I didn't even bother to put down the following spring app this year.
This season I can say that I am Poa free (Well maybe you can find some plants if you look hard).

I had tried also with Mes before but it did not help me as much as needed.

The nice thing is that you can get Ethofumesate in Poland. A Polish colleague bought and shipped it to me.

You can find it here > https://www.sklepfarmera.pl/kemiron-koncentrat-500-sc-bayer/


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