# AZ Tiff Renovation - Tifgrand



## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

Now that Ive regretfully waited to the warmest time of the year (110F), it is time to address my summer grass needs and wants.

First and foremost I am going to attempt flattening the lawn as much as possible. With current rolls and humps cutting at 0.5" is unsightly in some areas. To do so I have a Toro Dingo and a soil conditioner on reserve for rental this weekend. I tried to find a soil conditioner attachment for my skid steer but came up empty handed. Had to of called 2 dozen places and most had no idea what they were. My guess is they are not used often here in AZ because prep for grass or sod is fairly uncommon. Once flattened a 5x5 drag mat will go around and around the yard behind my gator.

To convolute the my leveling issues there are several areas of curbing that have been lifted due to old tree root growth and some sprinkler heads in the center of the yard that are a good 12" below grade from settling. More than likely when the irrigation was trench the center of the yard where the 2 heads are were used as junction points, thus more dirt was removed. Over time the back fill dirt sank a lot. Once I did it up again ill run my plate compactor over it. 
There is also a sisso tree that is driving me crazy with its invasive roots. Last year it received a root timing via a chainsaw, and this year the bobcat ripped up any roots that were 2-3" from the soil. Absolutely hate these trees because of their affinity to water and shallow root system. Not exactly a great tree to have next to your lawn.

Also going in the back of my property are 7 Red Push Pistach trees. These trees thrive here during AZ summers with a dark green canopy. It should provide some much needed appeal in the years to come.

Lastly, SOD. I am torn between Tifway 419 and Tifgrand. My yard receives full sun and shaded areas are not an issue. If anyone can chime in and give their experiences with both it would be appreciated. With ~8.5K sqft to cover and seeing as this is a solo mission, I am thinking the SOD deliveries will be split up to 3 separate weekends. Nighttime temps will dry out pallets of grass in a matter of hours.


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

Today was rough. With temps at 104 and standing on a Dingo all day getting blasted by a hot radiator my body is falling apart.

The dingo Power Rake did not work as well as I hoped. I Chopped that up to that my lawn still having all of its winter grass thatch and the ground here is near rock hard. 
After pass and pass and pass maybe the highs are a little lower and the lows filled in slightly. My dreams of making the lawn 100% smooth did not come true. There are still some rolling hills. Once the sod is down maybe I'll just bombard it with sand.

The Dingo did remove all of the thatch though. Subsequently I had to pile it up and now need to find a way to dispose of. Luckily my skid steer as A/C so it was not to bad.

Between a lot of back and forth from equipment and prying up roots I'm for the most part over it for today.

Just before dusk the dingo got a tool change and the soil conditioner was swapped out for a 24" post Auger. This thing works awesome! 5 holes in about 30 minutes!


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## ENC_Lawn (Sep 9, 2018)

I have admired your lawn before the Reno and I know it will be awesome.

I think it a good idea to break up the SOD install...maybe even more than your talking about.

I laid 419 about a week in a half ago in 93 and above temperature and got it all down inside 24 hours and still had it dry out on me with irrigation. Luckily it was only a couple of spots and I have watered them back to life..but I had 3 family members helping me also.

I can't speak to owning anything other than 419 and Princess 77 and Arden 15...but Tifgrand is beautiful cultivar. I also saw TifTuf up close and its beautiful cultivar as well.

The only imput I have is as awesome as all these cultivars are (Tifgrand,TifTuf,Tifeagle...etc)....I keep coming back to how the ol 419 is hard to beat.

Either way I know your lawn will be awesome!


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

Thanks for the kind words. 
Tifway and Tifgreen and are in the running as well, but unsure if I'm splitting hairs. Drought tolerance is the biggest thing out here. The more I read the harder it is for me to make a decision.

I have more ground prep to do prior. One thing I've debated doing is aerating, cleaning up cores, then filling the holes with sand before laying the sod. Thought process behind it is the water has a place to go as do the roots. The hard soil has a tendency to pool water in the thatch and hard topsoil not allowing water penetrate deeply into the soil. 
Anyone have any suggestions?


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

Saturday is only stacking up to be 110 so the day should be fun.

5 yards of masonry sand was delivered today and plan on using it to level some areas and to fill in the holes from tomorrows aerating. If all goes well and I can get the grade near the edges of curbing lowered Sod can be delivered next week. This is to prevent the lawn from being significantly higher than the curbing. Hoping the power rake will loosen the soil and thatch up enough to where a flat shovel will cut under it. My thoughts were to buy a manual sod cutter to make easy work of it, but at a couple hundred dollars it is easy to convince yourself it is a bad idea.

Prior to planting the sod some humic and gypsum will also be applied to better condition the soil.

It will be a day of in and out of the pool. 
The area I want to get done is just shy of 2500 sqft. I am hoping I can lay this sod in 1 day with just me and my Gator.


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## ENC_Lawn (Sep 9, 2018)

Looking forward to following this.

Did you ever decide on which SOD type you are going with?


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

Since I'm about 3 minutes away from a heat stroke now would be a good time to break. Removal of root after root took the majority of the morning. Unfortunately I had to cut out some massive roots, but I like the grass more than the tree. These roots have already claimed a few sprinkler heads and the main line a few years back. I love the maturity of it, but if I can force the roots to grow in the opposite direction by flooding on the back side I've decided it is going to come up and be replaced. 
The curbing is ****ered with cracks and breaks all over the section but managed to piece it back to the best of my ability. It for the most part is back to following the terrain as well. You can see how much the tree has swelled the area around the base. An easy 14" from the lawn. 





I'm now cutting the thatch out around the border with a trench shovel. This allows one side of my dethatcher to ride low and I further loosen and remove material close to the curbing. Any material I added back in was compacted with a plate Compactor to prevent it from sinking again quickly in the future.



Leveling the middle sprinklers will be next.


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

Area was backfilled and compacted, Edges lowered and leveled (hardest part), and aerated. Was worried If old red would start but the Honda GX never lets me down! Unless the jet is clogged. . . Being outside is extremely difficult dealing with the heat.

Next up is Rake the cores, fill holes with sand, then apply a app of Glyphosate. With just a little bit of water I had some bermuda pop back up. Shouldn't hurt the sod in 6 days.

Tomorrow I'll apply gypsum, humic, and begin to level with more sand. Way more work than I had anticipated and to think is only 25% of the yard.


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## jayhawk (Apr 18, 2017)

I think this going to be epic. Following


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

A 14 hour day yielded some sand down and sun burnt legs. I have not screeded the low areas yet figuring it will be soft to walk in so the gypsum and humic needs to be put down first. I'm not entirely sure how a perfectly flat substrate will aid the lawn in being level after the sod is laid, but I'll add some more sand come March.


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

ENC_Lawn said:


> Did you ever decide on which SOD type you are going with?


TifGrand. 2500sqft show up on Friday night. It is all I am ready for.


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## jayhawk (Apr 18, 2017)

+tifgrand. Water needs between them, as you say, I'd agree its splitting hairs.

I like the color and semi dwarf look. Pictures fail to really show the true look.


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## ENC_Lawn (Sep 9, 2018)

@AZChemist Awesome choice on the Tifgrand.

I noticed your concrete borders are removable?

Were did purchase those from if you don't mind me asking?


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

The curbing is actually poured in place and at one time was a solid concrete edge. The tree roots lifted the surrounding area and cause them to crack. I removed the broken areas to regrade the area then fanagled them back into place.

I'm not too big on the live edge (twists and turns) curbing. My mower and I would be much much happier with just a square lawn but moving all the heads now and doing curbing is just not in the books.


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

I believe to of been bamboozeled by the stone and rock yard. I had ordered masonry sand just as everyone recommended. Well what showed up was a lot courser than I had anticipated. This sand is more for cement and scratch of stucco which is what I can see being considered as "masonry" in Arizona. Not a whole lot of brick homes. 99% stucco.

Since this is just for leveling Beneath the grass and filling in aeration I don't see it being a problem. Going forward for the other 6k sqft I have to do I will be actually going to the yard and looking at the sand prior to it showing up in my driveway. 
If it was for top leveling this mound would be in the trash. Lesson learned. Inspect before you buy!


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

Threw down a bunch more sand, 2 buckets worth, and replaced the center sprinkler with an impact head to throw more water. There is roughly 3-4 tons of sand just to semi level this 2,300sqft area.

The center has close to 1-1.5" of sand to rid the dip that was previously there. Although some stubborn old grass keeps popping up that I am hoping will be smothered by the new grass.


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

100lbs of Gypsum
50lbs of Humic 
And 11.9lbs of fert once sod in down


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

At 7pm As I was throwing down the gypsum my phone rang and was told my turf would be delivered in 15 mins. Originally I was told it would more than likely be in the middle of the night but I'm not complaining.

Instead of waiting for daylight I begun laying it down. Equipped with a single lamp the lighting is very dim but the first pallet of 600sqft made it down. The temps at 10pm were still 100 degrees but at least there is no rays beating at me.

Overall the turf looks decent. Some sod pieces are torn up, but they will work great for the cuts. I'll start again at 4 am for the remaining 1900sqft.

For those curious as well. Tifgrand in AZ is about $0.67 sqft. That seems to be about $0.20 more than the folks farther east. . .


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## Tmank87 (Feb 13, 2019)

Loved following this. Cant wait to see it laid down, and beyond.


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## DIY Lawn Guy (Jun 19, 2019)

@AZChemist "Instead of waiting for daylight I begun laying it down. Equipped with a single lamp the lighting is very dim but the first pallet of 600sqft made it down. The temps at 10pm were still 100 degrees but at least there is no rays beating at me."

In the AZ heat, day or night, kudos to you Chemist for all the DIY of putting in the new lawn, very labor intensive and will be looking fantastic soon. :thumbup:


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## ENC_Lawn (Sep 9, 2018)

@AZChemist Can't wait to see the turf laid down!

Its gonna look awesome!!!


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

Absolutely brutal! It took me somewhere near 12 hours today to lay everything including the boarders. The 2 hours last night was a breeze but once that sun peaked over the trees I was over it. It's all down. Being drenched for an hour and threw some fert down. Right now it just looks like a plan Jane yard that got some grass.

I can't waiting to mow this stuff. The blades are very fine and the canopy is dense. I was told the sod would come with 3/4" of dirt/root zone but I would say it varied from 1/4 to 1/2". This made some pieces prone to ripping and difficult to install.

On the live edge side I laid down the larger scrap pieces to keep alive in case of emergency. If something happens to the good area I want to have some for repairs. These will get removed when it's time to continue.

The soil here is just shy of concrete so the sand bed I put down is going to go a long ways allows the bermuda to stretch out before it tries to jackhammer into the ground.

A roller is a tool I do not own nor did I want to rent one. 
Tomorrow once this sod is good and soggy I'll pull out the toro flex, raise the HOC and run it around with the blades off. 240 lbs has to be better than nothing.


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

For the 3rd time this year a irrigation valve has exploded flooding the yard with over 1000 gallons. The Valves are approximately 19 years old and made of a composite plastic that over time I've found the bottoms of the globe to crack on the inlet side of course. They are the Irrigation Products design but believe it was a different name back then. With a leak this renders my whole irrigation system worthless with the main valve turned off, and with below grade valves there is no easy pop in replacement. Luckily for me it was a zone of grass that currently is dirt.

I'll need to dig up the irrigation box area and redo the whole system with removable manifolds. Was going to do this winter but appears it shot up the to do list.

The good news is I cut the valve out and capped it allowing continuation of water to the sod. It is getting irrigated for 30 minutes every 3 hours. Some areas are looking stressed from the heat. The other good news is today is overcast and humidity is a huge 35%! A rare sighting here. Hope this humid heat helps the grass take root.


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## JRS 9572 (May 28, 2018)

As a kid I helped lay centipede sod on the grounds of the church I attended. The gentleman in charge, and over the church grounds committee, had the local volunteer fire department bring 2 full tanker trucks. He soaked the sod (probably 4,000 square feet) with those two tankers. So much so I thought it would float away. That sod install still looks awesome 30 years later.

My reason for sharing is to say. You can't overwater a new sod install. Drench it. You'll be happy later.


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

I hear ya. I lifted a few pieces and it is soaked all the way through and healthy white roots have already begun to descend.

A few pieces have browned at day one but I am confident they will come back. With the monsoons finally here the humidity should help out a lot! Also, I've increased the watering and hand soak the patches in the evening with the hose. Maybe a little AMS this weekend for the needed areas.

Here she is at the beginning of day 3:


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## JTCJC (May 31, 2019)

Looking good! Can't wait to see it when it all meshes together.

I wouldn't worry about the brown areas, just keep them soaked. Check out my lawn journal, my Tif 419 was way worse than yours and after I increased the water it came back fine. I had some bubbles under mine too. I would check to make sure they are good and planted to the ground but you said you were going to roll it with the Toro. Just a thought.

That upcoming heat is scary! Be careful!


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## ENC_Lawn (Sep 9, 2018)

I had some 419 that was basically dead except for a spot green here and there.

I hand watered with hose twice a day and used sprinklers while I was gone during day and they are doing good now!


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## ENC_Lawn (Sep 9, 2018)

@AZChemist

What do you use in your landscape beds?

Looks like some form of rock or pebbles???


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

ENC_Lawn said:


> @AZChemist
> 
> What do you use in your landscape beds?
> 
> Looks like some form of rock or pebbles???


It is rock commonly called pea gravel or chat. Kinda sucks if your Nike's have tread on them and you track it into the the grass not to mention the house. Some pebbles are small enough to get stuck in your shoes.

The plus side is that it is easy to Rake and apply pre-m on. The yard has some hilly things that the previous owner installed. Those I am removing Friday and hauling to the dump. From there I just need to get pavers delivered for the pool project then finally can button up the grass.

I wanted to get all the heavy equipment work done prior to installing grass. The only way in the yard requires you to drive over a section of grass.


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## ENC_Lawn (Sep 9, 2018)

AZChemist said:


> ENC_Lawn said:
> 
> 
> > @AZChemist
> ...


 :thumbup:


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

Even just over the course of 2 days the lawn appears to be recovering nicely. The brown areas are starting to get growth back. 
If the lawn ends up looking like the strip to the left of center I will be extremely happy. Wish all of the sod delivered looked like that. 
It is super lumpy throughout, but am hoping the groomer on the flex will help cut down on some of those high spots. The seed heads are also killing me at this time! 
Here are some 2 day comparisons


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

Little more leveling today.


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## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

Are you going to have any issue keeping it alive in the summer? I have visited Phoenix/Mesa and was surprised just how few lawns there were. I wasn't sure if that was the area I was visiting, or reflective of the entire area.


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

No it's pretty much reflective of the entire area. Very very few people have grass in Arizona. Even fewer have more than 200sqft. The weird part is, AZ is home to more golf courses per capita that pretty much anywhere in the US. 
The bermuda will thrive if you smoother with water. I think that's the disconnect from homeowners and having a lawn. The associated cost detours people from having a lawn and zero scape easily outweighs the cost of a water bill in the summer months. 
The annual rainfall is less than 10". 
The lawn will be alright as long as my pocket book can keep up.


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

50 tons of fill left the yard today and the grass got a haircut. Still need to remove those rocks in the center but first I need to find a home for them. 
For 99% of my my flexs' life I had the HOC set at 0.6". Well I had forgot the last time I used it the HOC was lowered dramatically to make a putting green in the PRG. 
This was forgotten when the first pass was made so I just ran with it. . Whoops. The grass looks great through! I'll let it grow back in and raise it back up to 0.6".


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

Day 7


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## Thor865 (Mar 26, 2018)

AZChemist said:


> Day 7


Looks ready for a good scalp and sand


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)




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## JTCJC (May 31, 2019)

Wow it really popped in the last 4 days! Looks awesome!


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

Grass at day 13 is stitching in nice. 
2 days ago I applied an app of Propiconazole and bufen to limit the amount of West Nile in my yard and cut her down to 0.6"
My biggest complaint is the amount of foreign plants (mostly old Yukon) growing in the soded area. This evening I'll apply quinclorac followed by tenacity later in the week. 
There are some areas on the skirt where there is no planted grass but have been getting plenty of water that have a ton of ground growth. Even atfter 2 apps of Gly it remains. Going to mix it up with crossbow and see if it yields any different. 
With more monsoon rain the more stuff that randomly begins to pop up. 
I just want to lay more sod and spend less time fighting weeds.







Yesterday after repairing a popped line on the skidsteer I was able to flatten some more hills, backfill the retention pond, grade, and rock an area in the yard. 
Water will now flow from house out to the yard.


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

Just as my luck would have it, I sprayed quinclorac at ~0.5oz/k last night and it rained 2 hours later despite looking at the weather report.

What was once thought to be entirely Yukon popping up now appears to be crabgrass which is great news. The soil conditioner and constant agitation of the drag mat must have spread seeds throughout the sand bed. I say good news because it is a lot easier to kill than Yukon. 
Since it rained last night I mowed today. Now, how long should I wait to re-apply another app of quinclorac?


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## JTCJC (May 31, 2019)

Great News! Hopefully the rain didn't hurt too much 

Can't help on the Quinclorac unfortunately, but is looking great so far! Can't wait to see the rest done!


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## HungrySoutherner (May 29, 2018)

You weren't planning to spray tenacity on the Tifgrand are you....I've become the local village idiot when it comes to trying to remove common bermuda from hybrid. Just be warned....it can go horribly wrong.


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

HungrySoutherner said:


> You weren't planning to spray tenacity on the Tifgrand are you....I've become the local village idiot when it comes to trying to remove common bermuda from hybrid. Just be warned....it can go horribly wrong.


I was so close to follow until I saw your thread. I stuck with just the quinclorac. Sorry about your lawn.


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## HungrySoutherner (May 29, 2018)

AZChemist said:


> HungrySoutherner said:
> 
> 
> > You weren't planning to spray tenacity on the Tifgrand are you....I've become the local village idiot when it comes to trying to remove common bermuda from hybrid. Just be warned....it can go horribly wrong.
> ...


My lawn is coming along and will rebound, the 419 is coming back. Tenacity + simazine is definitely an option you can use in the future to try and suppress common but I would not attempt it until your sod has established for a season or 2. Keep it low cut, hand pull the common when you see it break through for now. I'm enjoying your thread, I'm planning to transition to Tifgrand next season.


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

My app of quin def yellowed the Yukon / whatever bermuda and the foreign weeds. But it is still growing. Tonight I sprayed dismiss, Sulfentrazone, at a rate of 0.22 oz/k to see if it has any greater ill affect on the Yukon. I let the grass grow out for 5 days help with foliar uptake. 
Purchasing the Sulfentrazone was a little bit of pain since DYO wouldn't sell it to me since it is not labeled for use in AZ but luckily another distributor I found would . . . While there is a formulation listed for AZ, it did lack some of the listed pre-post targets as dismiss.

If this doesn't work I'll be out there with a small cap full of Gly and detail paint brush working my way through the lawn with the pinch and wipe method eliminating the unwanted bermuda 1 by 1.


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)




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## JTCJC (May 31, 2019)

AZChemist said:


>


Gorgeous! 👍


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

Thanks. Don't know if it's because it is not fully rooted. But Tifgrand is a slow grower even throwing N at it weekly. 
I'm happy though. It is a easy mow once a week with PGR. The pics do not do it justice. The color is a dark emerald green.


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

When I graded out the hills previously placed in my yard it was quickly discovered that the previous contractor went up and over the hills for irrigation.

I started off by trenching by hand with a pick but once I hit clay 3 mins in I gave up and gased up the trencher.

6 tons of 1/4" washed at 2" spread incredible far but the yard was still about 3 tons shy. 
This morning I reworked the pitch away from the house and spread the rest of the rock that was delivered yesterday.

Now if it would just rain already . .


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

After spraying dismiss at 7ml (0.2366oz)/k and the lawn was allowed to settle for 2 days then I cut it back down to 0.6". Well this morning the lawn you can tell is a bit stressed with some light green coloring. Tifgrand is handling it just fine, but I was not expecting the stress.

Really hoping it knocks out what ever it is. Not sure how long it takes either. 
This is the only pic I had taken today.


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

Even after an app of quin and dismiss the foreign growth remains. I'll now apply Gly/surfactant with a small brush to the random patches :-( I am now certain it is bermuda. Not the most efficient, but should be effective. 
Seems better than killing a section of the lawn entirely.

Luckily it grows incredibly fast and is easy to spot.


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

Finally getting back into the swing of things and am gearing up for the 2nd leg of laying sod. 
Weeds/Bermuda continue to be an issue popping up in the dirt areas despite spraying weekly with Gly. I added duo-stick to the mix today in hopes it increases the efficacy. 
Despite my better judgement I'm going to slam the dirt with prodiamine prior to the sand base.
The Tifgrand is settling in, spreading out, and growing at a speed slow enough that is easy to maintain. Ever week it has been receiving 0.25lbs/k of AMS and holds a beautiful color. Seeing as it is not showing any signs of stress PGR will be sprayed something this week at a low dose to see how it goes.

Even though over seed for me begins the 1st week Of October I am hoping the new sod and sand will be enough separation for the rye seed to emerge. Fingers crossed.

The monsoon season has been an absolute joke this year. 1 good rain thus far so I know there is plenty more lurking to sprout in the yard once it gets a little drink.

One thing that has been nice is a new addition to replace the skid steer. A toolcat. Plenty of power and it does not shred the lawn up due to the 4 wheel steering.


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

Sprayed the Tifgrand with its first dose of PGR at 0.20oz/k this morning along with Bifen.

Pushing hard to get the additional sod laid next week, but with only 1 rain storm this summer both the weather and soil is less than desirable to work with. Records have been set several consecutive days last week for highs. 113-115F. 
I'll keep hitting it with AMS every weekend. If I skip a day The color noticeably lightens.


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## dslab (Oct 18, 2017)

Just curious if you have any updates on the reno project? I have really enjoyed seeing the amazing journey you have been on!


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## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

Wow, this is simply amazing work AZChemist!

I am in North Scottsdale with only 900sqft of grass and the heat kills me in the summer, so kudos to you for all this hard work in the worst of the heat.

Did you go ahead with overseed at all?


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

I'm late but working on it.

I maintained the lawn at 0.5" and it did not look good at all. After every cut it looked brown and blah. Then 2-3 days later it looked great. Even mowing twice a week I could not get past all of the green being cut off. (1/4 or less for clippings)
The lower portion of the turf would not green up. What I think needed to be done is to scalp then let the lawn green up from there at the desired height. 
Obviously the HOC was more than 0.5" from the sod farm. 
I even ran my cutting head with a groomer though it 2 times in attempt to loosen up some of the under growth and no dice. Still a brown gross lawn after mow days. 
Well fast forward to today, ran the verticutter 2 directions and pulled up a ton of the canopy. The grass pulls up in little clusters but it is not to be confused with thatch. It's really odd and hard to describe. 
The dwarf cultivar looks like it's gunna need a little more work to achieve the lawn that I am after. Much different than what I'm accustomed to. 
If it were kept at 0.75" it would be the best looking lawn for miles, but who wants a lawn that close to 1" ? 

The lawn will get scalped down this weekend and I'll throw some seed at it. The plan is to lay the rest of the sod next weekend. And immediately overseed. I can already foresee all the seed germinating in the seams. Really want to get back to all PRG this winter.


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## Thor865 (Mar 26, 2018)

Chop it down to .25 or lower and maintain around .3-.4 and you'll be happy


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

Thor865 said:


> Chop it down to .25 or lower and maintain around .3-.4 and you'll be happy


Is that the ticket? Scalp and go from there? 
Growing season for me is just about over. Night time temps are mid 60's


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## Thor865 (Mar 26, 2018)

AZChemist said:


> Thor865 said:
> 
> 
> > Chop it down to .25 or lower and maintain around .3-.4 and you'll be happy
> ...


My tifgrand was far superior the lower it went. Started the season at .295 and ended at .42. .295 was way better. Remember you got a dwarf Bermuda, and it has been run in trials at .125 at excellent ratings from ntep


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

Noted thanks Thor.

Welp that's a wrap on the summer grass 19'. At the end of the day I landed on 0.30". I wanted to take it down further but after 9 hefty bags and 2 full rolling trash bins I was exhausted. The Cather on the flex is so small and was filling up before the end of every single pass. 
The caveat to having a thick lawn in AZ is the amount of work it takes to remove it for over seeding. 
Excited to see how the tifgrand pops back as it continues to grow through month end.


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

More prep today. I'm not going to make it in time for PRG germination this year so waiting a few more weeks and ordering sod overseeded is going to be the ticket.

Using a tiller to cut down the curb height saved me a day easy instead of doing by hand. Next step is to spray heavy with prodiamine/gly, aerate, collet plug, sand, level and then call it good.

Also had some time to help my parents out with their backyard reno. I removed the top 2" of top soil and replaced with sand. Convinced them to go with 419. My pops is a 3" HOC guy though.


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## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

Your yard size is amazing... Not going to lie, I am pretty jealous of your land and your abundance of equipment!

Once you get back to bermuda, do you typically overseed with PRG for the winter?


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

Thank you. 
Yes PRG is my favorite to grow through the season. I seeded 3 weeks ago on the 2.5K section of bermuda I had. The Remaining area I am waiting on the sod farm to purchase my Tifgrand already overseeded. Night time temps have dropped into the 50s so any over seeding this late in the game would be a gamble.

Here are some single/doubles from yesterday at 0.52".


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## cglarsen (Dec 28, 2018)

@AZChemist This was a Herculean effort, my goodness. I'm wondering if you are coming back out of dormancy yet. How's it looking? Are you going to mow with the 2653a anymore?


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## AZChemist (Nov 7, 2018)

@cglarsen the 2653 is getting used twice a week nowadays. The bermuda is taking its time coming back up, but the annual prg seed the sod farm overseeded with that didn't sprout in November is sprouting like crazy. I hate it.

I laid another section of Tifgrand in the fall and was captured in my winter journal. Since then I've also made a 2020 journal for my bermuda. Temps are getting to the point where I should start to see a transition soon, but it will take some time unless I scalp and verticut. The dense rye really holds back the spring up.


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