# Opinion- Did Your Grass Thrive This Year? What Improvements Do You Want To Make For Next Season



## capples3 (Sep 17, 2018)

Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to start a fun thread here which can get a lot of conversation going. Where do you feel your grass thrived this year? If you didn't think it thrived, what improvements are you looking at making in the lawn next year.

I know for mine personally, I need to get rid of the yarrow/wild carrot problem that has seemed to pop up in my lawn.

Looking forward to everyones feedback.


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## NJ-lawn (Jun 25, 2018)

I wasn't thrilled with the outcome this season. I failed to get ahead of a fungus outbreak that killed and thinned out my one year old lawn. I'm still not 100% sure what the specific fungus was but next year I plan on getting on a good preventive program.

I did the blitz this fall, .25 N/1M per week, it helped some got about 2 lbs./1M total over 8 weeks.

It didn't help that it was a scorcher of a summer. A challenging season for sure. I'm thinking my lawn wasn't mature enough to handle all the stress. Since I reel mow at ~1" I'm sure my roots are not very deep so that's an issue also.


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## WyGuy (May 5, 2019)

I didn't quite get the results I was hoping for but pretty happy with how everything end up, given the conditions. Renovated the back yard, had one big rain early in the process that set me back a bit. Then battled extremely dry conditions after that, and to top it off, had an extremely early snow fall that pretty much brought the season to an abrupt end. Guessing 30% of the yard that is thin/bare, but hoping for a great spring to help that out.

I more or less neglected the front yard because I'm planning on renovating that next year. Still deciding what I want to do there.


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## ABC123 (Jul 14, 2017)

I was quite happy with my outcome this year.

I used domyown fungus plan that would ship me granular fungicide applications about once a month. I also sprayed propiconazole a few times just to make sure disease/fungus was covered. I only had a little dollar spot that came up but it was in a high traffic location. I would like to continue this approach as it had great results.

https://www.domyown.com/subscriptions/lawn-box-program

If theres an area that id like to improve it would be applying pre-emergent at a lower dose more often. I had some areas that it seemed to not last as long as the label rate even though I applied it with a precise application.


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## CowboysRDaBest-2020 (Aug 31, 2020)

I was so happy with my lawn this season. Maybe one of my best seasons but then a few week ago and got smashed with crabgrass. It came in sneaky and took over quickly. But I realized my mistake I decide to mow much shorter then I normally do. It's perennial rye and usually have it at 2 inches. Curiously wonder how it would look at 1 inch and did so I think it's all the sun light the crab grass needed and took over big time ... although it has recovered some

Next season mow high again. And pay better attention to catch the problem as it happens.

Also I've never used pre emergent and maybe it's time to do so


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## macattack (Nov 2, 2020)

I am pleased with my lawn at this time. I really did not pay attention to it since moving in over two years ago. Just fertilizer and mowing. Had the lawn aerated this June, dethatched and overseeded around Labor Day, and have started a plan. Really didn't know all my grass types in the lawn, shocked to see how far from perfect it is. There was crabgrass, clover and nutsedge, along with the zoysia, bermuda, wild bermuda, tall fescue and K31 grasses. Its a potpourri in the backyard, but looks pretty good right now. Been applying the scientific method to it, kind of my thing. I use a spreadsheet to keep track of my applications.

Really need to do that soil test. The backyard needs a complete overhaul. I may just help the zoysia take over. Front is solid, neighbors gives compliments.
I need to decide if I want to up my game and do liquid applications also, or just stay to granular applications. Will try levelling the lawn with topdressing next year, its a little bumpy.


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## jingobah (May 6, 2019)

I was happy with how my lawn looked this summer. All my neighbors want to hire me to do their lawn's. The fungus pressure was ridiculous all season long, even with doing multiple apps early spring & through out the summer of two different fungicides. I went full liquid this year and I really noticed the difference from last year. Only granular I put down was Xgrn & a leftover Milo bag. Had to reseed dead fungus spots in the fall but all summer still had the best lawn on the block.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

Everything started out well in the Spring except for the fact that there was a lot of Poa Trivialis to kill and then reseed. Summer started out with plenty of rain but then got dry as the pattern has been in recent years. I didn't have any major disease outbreaks. But then in late August, the rust started up, and continued at least halfway into November (but seems to have tapered off after a hard freeze or two).

Summer performance could have been better, but wasn't terrible. The thing that has not been that great the past few years is the Winter color. More than 3 years ago, I had better Winter color than what I've gotten the last few years. The only thing I changed is that I applied less Potassium. Apparently this made a lot of the issues (temperature stress, rust disease) worse.

Next Spring, I'm going to fertilize more regularly with Potassium, starting as soon as the soil temps are in the upper 30s consistently.


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## SOLARSUPLEX (Aug 4, 2020)

Seeing as I did a renovation and hardly got to maintain a lawn, it will be nice to have somewhat established turf that i can take care of. I need to level after the renovation and take care of my vanity strip as the half reno i did on it just resulted in 2% grass coverage and 100% everything else dead.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

This was my first year trying to take care of my lawn and I couldn't be happier. I spent a lot of energy in the fall with aerating and overseeding, then fertilization.

I think the aeration was a waste. I wouldn't do this again.

The overseed was critical. I used a pretty high rate and re-seeded a few areas. I think this was most important.

I put down a lot of fertilizer. Every time I fertilized my lawn improved. My lawn looked the best about 1 week after dropping 0.5 lb of nitrogen. This has been my biggest management take away.

I would like to improve my irrigation practices and my pre-emergent practice, primarily to keep crabgrass under control.

May:



October:


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## Jeff_MI84 (Sep 28, 2020)

My front yard improved after the fall overseed. When I overseeded in the spring, the KBG went dormant and didn't do well come the end of summer. I also need to figure out how to water the boulevard strip better because I have two large trees that presumably take too much moisture. Switching to TTTF made a difference though, and I see now what areas I need to seed better come spring time.

Since I had sod put down in the backyard back in September, I'm going to aerate and overseed that come the spring (front too), then do slit overseeding in the fall to really fill it in.

Either way I'm happy with how it turned out. In my neighborhood nobody really takes care of their lawns, so my yard stands out in a good way. Next spring I want to try and keep it no higher than 3" until early- mid May before raising the HOC to 4". My plan is to have irrigation installed to really get better watering and not have to wake up at 4am anymore.


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## Jeff_MI84 (Sep 28, 2020)

Pezking7p said:


> This was my first year trying to take care of my lawn and I couldn't be happier. I spent a lot of energy in the fall with aerating and overseeding, then fertilization.
> 
> I think the aeration was a waste. I wouldn't do this again.
> 
> ...


What about aeration, do you think was a waste? Did it not improve the quality of your lawn after? I ask, because I have not aerated my lawn since I had sod installed in both the front and the back.


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## Pezking7p (May 23, 2020)

Jeff_MI84 said:


> What about aeration, do you think was a waste? Did it not improve the quality of your lawn after? I ask, because I have not aerated my lawn since I had sod installed in both the front and the back.


It's hard to say how much the aeration helped or not, because I did not do any "test" areas without it. The main goal of my aeration was to improve water penetration and to help with seed germination. I really could not tell you how much it helped either one. Probably not much at all on the germination based on what I saw (it did help, just not very much), and maybe some, slightly, on water penetration, but that is short-lived.

I think the bigger part was that I rented a big ride-on commercial unit to do it. It was broken when I received it, I had a huge ordeal trying to get it fixed, and while I ended up not paying a dime for the aerator it was a very large time commitment, and I can't imagine using one of the walk-behind units to do what I did.

The lawn didn't REALLY respond until I threw down decent amounts of fertilizer, and the new grass really has filled in the lawn nicely. The biggest bang for my buck (and time) was seed and fertilizer. I could have saved at least 12 hours off my rehab work by skipping the aeration. The money I intended to spend on the aerator would go a long way toward more seed, more irrigation equipment, more fertilizer, etc etc etc.

Just my experience this fall. I am still pretty inexperienced overall, so my experience isn't worth too much lol


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## situman (Nov 3, 2020)

My lawn did alright. I slacked in anti fungal program and my backyard suffered. Disease pressure was bad in NY. It was super humid and for some reason it like to rain for lik 5 mins at night just make sure my lawn stays wet all night and piss me off. I killed off the front because of a huge color variation caused by cheap grass seeds. All is well now.


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## M32075 (May 9, 2019)

CowboysRDaBest-2020 said:


> I was so happy with my lawn this season. Maybe one of my best seasons but then a few week ago and got smashed with crabgrass. It came in sneaky and took over quickly. But I realized my mistake I decide to mow much shorter then I normally do. It's perennial rye and usually have it at 2 inches. Curiously wonder how it would look at 1 inch and did so I think it's all the sun light the crab grass needed and took over big time ... although it has recovered some
> 
> Next season mow high again. And pay better attention to catch the problem as it happens.
> 
> Also I've never used pre emergent and maybe it's time to do so


I would definitely get down a pre emergent early next spring it's a game changer when battling crabgrass


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## M32075 (May 9, 2019)

situman said:


> My lawn did alright. I slacked in anti fungal program and my backyard suffered. Disease pressure was bad in NY. It was super humid and for some reason it like to rain for lik 5 mins at night just make sure my lawn stays wet all night and piss me off. I killed off the front because of a huge color variation caused by cheap grass seeds. All is well now.


Long island ny here my fungus battle and scorching dry summer definitely made for a interesting summer


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## CoopyHarry (Sep 26, 2020)

Thought I knew what I was doing all these years. Would look good in spring then fade in summer get disease and sometimes look ok in fall

I joined this late in the season and did some N blitz and if recovered decent

Next year is when I try to do pre m and fungicide with irrigation installed in spring and hopefully get where I want to be. Maybe buy a striper for my ZTR


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## timmybluegrass (Oct 19, 2020)

CowboysRDaBest-2020 said:


> I was so happy with my lawn this season. Maybe one of my best seasons but then a few week ago and got smashed with crabgrass. It came in sneaky and took over quickly. But I realized my mistake I decide to mow much shorter then I normally do. It's perennial rye and usually have it at 2 inches. Curiously wonder how it would look at 1 inch and did so I think it's all the sun light the crab grass needed and took over big time ... although it has recovered some


A small thought, but one that might be helpful: if "a few weeks" means somewhere around four or six, the odds that what you are seeing is crabgrass are _very_ low. Crabgrass is a summer annual; the large majority of it germinates in spring and shows up in summer. Crabgrass will continue to germinate all season; I can attest to this as I had a tiny bit show up in the early weeks of my late summer renovation, but most of it is on its way out by mid-fall anywhere near either of us. Having it take over in October in New Jersey would be extraordinarily rare if not impossible.

Perhaps what you are seeing is another grassy weed like poa annua or poa trivialis?


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## TimmyTurf (Oct 10, 2019)

Pezking7p said:


> This was my first year trying to take care of my lawn and I couldn't be happier. I spent a lot of energy in the fall with aerating and overseeding, then fertilization.
> 
> I think the aeration was a waste. I wouldn't do this again.
> 
> ...


Looks awesome, congrats


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## Colinwjholding (Apr 6, 2020)

This being my first year going hard in having great grass, everything went great.

I purchased a lot of much needed equipment.

Aerator
Tow behind sprayer
Chemicals

And coming spring i will be irrigation 1.25 acres of grass.

My only complaint is i did not take enough before photos.

Next season i look forward to the irrigation install followed by another full round of top dressing👍🏼


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## badtlc (Aug 22, 2019)

I plan to make 2 changes to my program:
1) Apply Menard's natural fertilizer every month starting in March. I didn't realize how high-input my wants are for my grass. I had not been feeding it nearly enough.
2) short daily waterings just before sunrise to wash off the dew and help prevent fungus outrbreak.


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## BobLovesGrass (Jun 13, 2020)

I started the year with plans to do a lot then hurt my back and lost the summer.....
All things considered I made good progress but have a POA T. explosion in the front yard.
This winter I am taking down a pine that provides a lot of shade and will aggressively prune the maples to try and get more sun in.


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