# GrassOnTheHills' Lawn Journal: 100% PRG Zone 7a (2021 starts page 5)



## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Hi all,

Thanks for stopping by. I'll be using this journal to document progress following my reno in the Summer/Fall of 2020, which included an irrigation install over my (sloped) 3000sqft front lawn. As for the irrigation install, I learned SO much. I posted in the irrigation board to gauge whether there is interest in a detailed write-up (I'm sure it's been done before), so if that happens I'll be sure to link it here.

To give some context as to where things started -- we bought our house in May of 2019. At that time, my criteria for a lawn was that I wanted it to be small because I DIDN'T want to mow it. I also paid no attention to the fact that 3/4 of our lawn is sloped. I regret both of those things, because now I LOVE mowing, and all I want is a flat yard. But aside from the yard we really like our house, and so we won't be moving just to appease my weird hobby.

The first thing I did was to remove all the hedges in the front of our house. It was probably close to 10' from our porch and took up just about the only flat part of our yard. At the same time, I removed the hedges from the side of our house. There was 3000+lbs of red rock in the garden beds, which was a ton of work to remove by myself, by hand...





Once it was all gone, I seeded with Jonathan Green Black Beauty. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, so the leveling was horrible, I didn't use anything to cover the seed, and I didn't water it nearly enough. Attempt 1 was basically a failure, so I researched, learned, and went at it again with more seed that I haphazardly through down in frustration, but covered with Peat Moss and watered a lot more. Results were much better that time around, but there was definitely overcrowding due to not measuring anything. All in all, things looked OK going into the winter of 2019.




Coming into Spring of 2020, things looked decent. But as we went into summer, I was really unhappy with the color of the lawn. You could easily tell where the newer, better cultivar of TTTF was, as it was much darker and had a finer leaf. The rest of the lawn was very patchy with dark spots and light spots all over. I found out after the reno that the previous owners (who drive by from time to time to check up on what we're doing to the house) had used sod due to the severity of the slope on the property, so I'm not sure that it was great seed to begin with?



Despite the fact that I know I can't expect TTTF to look bomb in the summer without at least some dedicated irrigating, I also wasn't happy with the higher HOC, thicker leaf blade of the older cultivars, and the fact that I had to pump iron at the lawn just to get it to a somewhat acceptable color.

So I decided to reno. And since I really hated doing the sprinkler dance during the first time I seeded, I decided I'd fully commit and install an irrigation system. Irrigating with sprinklers was just too hard because our property is oddly shaped with a slope and small side yard, so no sprinkler would do a good job without a ton of manual intervention.







I did a good deal of leveling after the install. Brought in about 4 yards of topsoil. Despite my efforts, heavy rainfall and the fact that the trenches still needed more compacting (even though I rolled them several times each) will necessitate future topdressing and leveling in the coming seasons.





In 7a our first frost is expected around October 21, so as soon as I was done with the irrigation and leveling, I put seed down on the 22nd and 24th of August. On the 22nd I seeded our side yard and the strip along the road. On the 24th I put seed down on the main portion of the front including the slope.

The seed I put down was Champion GQ PRG with the following label:



I seeded at 9-10lbs/k, and then added 3lbs/k of starter fertilizer (was just some generic Scott's starter, not sure of the analysis at the moment).

I took the very ballsy approach of not putting down any kind of seed blanket on the slope, mainly because I couldn't find any meshless blankets sold near me, and I felt that with PRGs quick germination coupled with peat moss and a lot of rolling, that I might get lucky. I'm happy with the choice, as the slope did decently despite a ton of rainfall about 3-4 days after seed down.

That brings us to today, Sep 1. I began noticing germination after 4 days in both sections, so we're 6 & 8 DAG respectively. Given the major downpours and sloped property, I'm happy with what I have so far.









This side has been pummeled by rain. Most of the water on the property sheds over the driveway and comes over here. I had also re-configured the downspouts prior to seeding and incorrectly gauged how hard the water would come out of the downspout which ended up completely destroying a lot of my work near the downspouts (kicking myself for that one). I'll have a lot of leveling to do over here.



My plan right now is to wait at least another week before mowing the main section. I may mow the road/side a day or two before that. At that time, hopefully it will be pretty clear as to where the spots are that will need more seed, and I'll put down seed and peat moss on those sections. I'll also need to start thinking about a 2nd tenacity application. I'm new to tenacity, so I need to read up on when it can be applied to new grass.

I plan on mowing with a manual reel for the foreseeable future, as I'd never be able to operate a powered one on the slope, and honestly 3000sqft is perfectly fine for a manual one. I'll just need to find a way to catch clippings. Plan is to mow around 1"-1.5"

If you have any advice/comments/questions don't hesitate at all to comment!


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Mowed the rear portion of the side lawn and the road strip at right around 1.5". This was at 11 days after seed down, probably a little early but I'm not very patient and all grass in those areas was around 2". Since I plan to put more seed down and continue mowing around 1" long term, I want to start getting the grass going and see exactly where I'll need the most seed. Things in the front yard (now 10 days after seed down, but picture taken at 9 days) are looking better by the day. Definitely some spots that are thin and even bare, but I feel like I have plenty of time to get more seed down before first frost in late October, at least with PRG. last year I planted TTTF in early October and it did just fine going into winter.


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## SOLARSUPLEX (Aug 4, 2020)

Great work! We're doing very similar things right now. Granted i'm on the other side of the country. I found your thread in the irrigation forum and would definitely benefit from your write up.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

SOLARSUPLEX said:


> Great work! We're doing very similar things right now. Granted i'm on the other side of the country. I found your thread in the irrigation forum and would definitely benefit from your write up.


Awesome! Yeah, I'm going to get working on that today I think. Hopefully by the weekend I can put something up!


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Found patches of pythium the morning of Sep 4  Definitely a lot of patches, luckily none too large at this point. Discussed with some folks here: https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=22853&p=325255#p325255

Ordered some azoxy from DoMyOwn, which shipped same day, so I'm hoping it's here before mid-late next week when temps are supposed to be high at night again... But that's probably wishful thinking. Also applied Disease Ex which has the main ingredient azoxy, but probably applied when it was too dry, so we'll see if it does anything. Lawn doesn't look much worse this morning, temps were cooler last night so that likely helped. There may have been a little spreading, but nothing obvious at this point.

So long as I don't lose everything (or close to it), I'm happy with the progress thus far. Things are filling in and the only trouble spots are the ones from washout during some heavy rain. Going to let the other areas harden up a bit and mature through regular mowing once I get rid of this pythium, and then do an overseed with some heavier seeding on the bare spots.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

First mow on the main section today, only 10 or 11 DAG but some sections were pushing 2.5-3". It looks like the Pythium didn't really spread much. I doubt it was because of the Disease Ex as the temps at night have been favorable with no rain lately. I've been trying to ride this awkward line of keeping things dry-ish without being bone dry. In these pics it's on the dryer side so I could mow. Im also adjusting things in the front irrigation zone because there's actually TOO much head to head coverage such that one head is being hit by 3 heads, so it's getting too wet. Need to dial some of the heads in that zone back so I can get more even coverage.

Plan is to begin spoon feeding in 4-5 days with .2lbs N and then maybe in 1-2 weeks put down more seed and peat moss in the bare spots. Have to consult the reno guide to make sure I have that in the right order.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

So catching up on your journal, I'm curious, why did you choose PRG vs a higher end TTTF or even KBG?


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

ksturfguy said:


> So catching up on your journal, I'm curious, why did you choose PRG vs a higher end TTTF or even KBG?


A few reasons, none of which I'd die for or try to convince others of:

Regarding TTTF, I want to mow low (we like to play lawn games and I don't like 2.5"+ HOC that makes playing games like Kube annoying because the pieces fall over due to high grass height.)

Regarding KBG, our property has a pretty large slope on it and I didn't want to risk washout waiting for a week+ germination rate of the KBG. I also feel like because it's so easy to overseed with PRG, it's actually competitive when it comes to the spreading of KBG. I.e I can put down PRG seeds and have a spot filled in and ready to mow in 14 days versus waiting for KBG to spread. Obviously I have to wait until Fall to do so, but all in all I don't think KBG is the *clear* winner there

I also love the way PRG stripes. I'm getting nice stripes on it with a manual reel without any burning in at all, so looking forward to some nice pics once everything fills in

All that said, some things I'm worried about:

Already got NAILED with pythium which PRG is more vulnerable too (not sure about KBG)

The slope in our yard gets a LOT of sun during the hot months, and I don't know that PRG will take to kindly to that. Seedlings came in fine but the next year or two will tell if I can keep up with it (at least I have irrigation now)


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Lots of pythium in the yard today (womp). It's a little surprising considering the temps at night haven't been too bad, but I suspect my mowing & high day temps yesterday contributed. Either way, I hit it with azoxy @ .77oz/k. Hopefully there's no issues with over-application or resistance considering I threw down Scott's Disease Ex 4 days ago. I suspect that app was a waste because the grass wasn't wet and should've been per http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agcomm/pubs/ppa/ppa1/ppa1.pdf.

Plan on ordering Mancozeb in case I still see more fungus pressure and in the future can either tank mix that or alternate with the azoxy. I'm really hoping that the next 2 days are the end of the heat and I can begin to think about overseeding without too much fungus pressure...

Took some pics because this may be the best the lawn looks this year


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

The pythium is still present in the lawn today, but seems to be less "aggressive" than it was when I took the first and second round of pictures of it. I'm hoping that this means it's backing off, but it could just as easily mean it's taking a little nap before becoming resistant to the azoxy  Either way, I'm in its hands down. I am curious to know what @halby has to say since he had a crushing defeat over it recently. Did it just stop and go away, or did it weaken and fade slowly?

I did some light weeding of crabgrass, nutsedge and purslane. I'm surprised at how little bleaching I see on these weeds (I have seen a good amount, but I pulled up a 3 gallon bucket of weeds today with none of it bleached...). Maybe the rain we had 2-3 days after seed down reduced the effectiveness of Tenacity? I also only went at it with 4oz/acre versus the 5 I've heard others use, so that may be why.

The lawn is starting to look hungry for some N. I'm due to start spoon feeding tomorrow, but I'm hesitant to go tromping around the yard with a spreader with all the pythium still out. It's also supposed to be AWFUL tonight with a high of 72 and 1 inch of rain expected today into tonight. Dewpoint is 77 right now with humidity at 90%. It's like a pythium incubator around here.





Monster crab I needed to snap a pic of, with seed heads! I haven't run irrigation in 2 days but I bet if I did this monster would decrease the throw of that sprinkler head! P.S everything at the top of this pic is my neighbor's neglected lawn, my reno is the bottom 1/8 of this pic haha.


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## halby (Jun 8, 2020)

GrassOnTheHills said:


> The pythium is still present in the lawn today, but seems to be less "aggressive" than it was when I took the first and second round of pictures of it. I'm hoping that this means it's backing off, but it could just as easily mean it's taking a little nap before becoming resistant to the azoxy  Either way, I'm in its hands down. I am curious to know what @halby has to say since he had a crushing defeat over it recently. Did it just stop and go away, or did it weaken and fade slowly?
> 
> I did some light weeding of crabgrass, nutsedge and purslane. I'm surprised at how little bleaching I see on these weeds (I have seen a good amount, but I pulled up a 3 gallon bucket of weeds today with none of it bleached...). Maybe the rain we had 2-3 days after seed down reduced the effectiveness of Tenacity? I also only went at it with 4oz/acre versus the 5 I've heard others use, so that may be why.
> 
> ...


Yo yo

So I stopped watering for 2 days, blasted it with my fungicide cocktail and it went away as soon as it came, but also the temps dropped. I think the temps dropping is the key. I'm already almost fully recovered and it hasn't been 3 weeks. But again, the only reason I started watering again is because temps dropped way way down. Also I didn't mow for a full week. Did not want to stress it out. PB is no joke man. But I don't think you need to drop big bugs on mefonoxam necessarily. Biophos, mancozeb, and daconil smoked the PB out for me.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Wow! You're no stranger to hard work and making the extra effort to do it right! Well done!

You have quite a challenge there, with the road being well above the lawn and having a significant slope. Actually, I'm surprised that the house is so far below the road, without even having all the ground sloping away from the house -- it seems to me there would be a risk of runoff getting to the foundation and wanting to get into the basement.

It looks like the renovation has been proceeding pretty well -- one of the nice things about PRG is that it germinates quickly and establishes fast -- much quicker to get erosion control on a slope than with KBG.

Sorry to hear about the pythium blight issues. I haven't experienced it myself yet, so I don't have firsthand "lessons learned" to offer. However, PRG is particularly susceptible to pythium.



GrassOnTheHills said:


> He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills.
> - Ps. 147:8


Thanks also for the reminder of who's really in charge of whether or not these renovations end up meeting our expectations -- even if we don't know the outcome that's best for us in the long run, He does.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

ken-n-nancy said:


> Wow! You're no stranger to hard work and making the extra effort to do it right! Well done!


Thank you! Let me tell you, though, the irrigation project was no joke. I learned a lot -- mostly that I wouldn't do it again unless the conditions were completely different.



ken-n-nancy said:


> You have quite a challenge there, with the road being well above the lawn and having a significant slope. Actually, I'm surprised that the house is so far below the road, without even having all the ground sloping away from the house -- it seems to me there would be a risk of runoff getting to the foundation and wanting to get into the basement.


Surprisingly, we've only had water in the basement on 2 occasions. The first was right after we moved in and we hadn't yet cleaned the gutters. Water fell over the gutter and directly next to the house, which, to your point, was not graded correctly and so it ran back towards the house. I've since fixed the grading issue there and will keep up with gutter work, so hopefully that's behind me. The second occasion was also my fault. It was during the irrigation install and I had left a pile of dirt in a bad location so that the water from a storm ran into it, was redirected towards the house, and against the foundation. In both cases, it was a mere tiny puddle in the (unfinished) basement so no damage was done!



ken-n-nancy said:


> It looks like the renovation has been proceeding pretty well -- one of the nice things about PRG is that it germinates quickly and establishes fast -- much quicker to get erosion control on a slope than with KBG.
> 
> Sorry to hear about the pythium blight issues. I haven't experienced it myself yet, so I don't have firsthand "lessons learned" to offer. However, PRG is particularly susceptible to pythium.


The quick germination of PRG was one of the big selling points for me. I didn't really know it was more susceptible to PB until after seed-down (at least I don't recall reading that). So the jury is out on whether the trade-off is worth it. I think I would have a really tough time establishing KBG on the slope. My THEORY is that the PB is only this bad right now because of the conditions of a reno (frequent irrigation, soil being moist almost all the time, etc.). If I can't control it in future seasons with preventative applications, I may need to take another look at KBG and using erosion blankets. Just don't know if I have the patience for that 



ken-n-nancy said:


> GrassOnTheHills said:
> 
> 
> > He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills.
> ...


Amen! My affinity for lawn care perplexed me for a while until I heard a chat with John Piper where he mentioned that we (humans) often have a tendency to enjoy "making" because were were made in the image of, well, the greatest Maker there's ever been. Shortly thereafter I think I read the verse in my signature and it was kind of a cool "aha!" moment.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Broke ALL the rules today!

Mowed when fungus was present!

Didn't bag with mycelium present!

Broke the 1/3 rule!

Scalped a little bit because I can't hit 1.5" with the rotary!

The grass was getting very long (pushing 3", maybe more?) and needed a cut. I haven't watered in several (maybe 4?) days waiting for temps to drop and the mycelium to go away. It was still present today, though looking very dry, and the grass seemed dry as well, so I risked it and mowed with the rotary.

Problem is, I don't have a bag (it's been ordered) for the rotary, so while I definitely should be bagging with the mycelium in the yard, I am unable to... So I just had to go for it. We'll see how bad things turn out, but at this point I'm in "learning mode" and will take what comes.

After the mow, 08-12-2020. Mowed around 1.5".










I then put down .2lbs/k via spray of a 10-10-10. When I was dissolving the fert though, I noticed these ROCKS in the mix that wouldn't dissolve. Well, after a little googling I found out that this is the P (in the form of rock phosphate). The good part is I didn't actually want the P from the fert, its just what I had laying around. So I left that out of the tank (it wouldn't have sprayed anyway) and sprayed away the 3,000sqft.

Rock phosphate?


If I indeed didn't spread the PB everywhere I'll be putting down more seed shortly, hopefully timed just before a bit of rain. If things continue to dry out I'll need to irrigate, but I'd like to try to hold off both for the risk of PB and because some of the spots that didn't seed well are from sprinkler run-off and they may not take if not for rain!


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Overseeded 2k of the 3k yesterday (9-13-2020) at around 3lbs/k, both to fill in natural spots that didn't come in well and recover from the war on PB. There was only one spot that actually didn't come in well which was because I had totally missed a sprinkler head when installing the system... The rest was killed by PB. I tried to be conservative with the overseeding, I'd rather the lawn be a little thin than going into next year have overcrowding to deal with.

After seed down, I covered bare spots with peat moss. This morning I'm watering for ~15mins a zone, which doesn't really mean anything until I actually do a sprinkler audit which I plan to do in a couple days.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

Looks encouraging! Hopefully some cooler, dryer weather will help with avoiding pythium blight this time around!


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## M32075 (May 9, 2019)

I did a full PRG lawn renovation a few years back. It was stunning that late fall and early spring. Summer came the disease pressure took most of it out. I'm a big fan PRG fast germination and does look beautiful compared to fescue. Have a really good disease plan in place for next season and with irrigation system installed keep it watered PRG doesn't bounce back if it goes dormant like fescue or KBG.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

M32075 said:


> I did a full PRG lawn renovation a few years back. It was stunning that late fall and early spring. Summer came the disease pressure took most of it out. I'm a big fan PRG fast germination and does look beautiful compared to fescue. Have a really good disease plan in place for next season and with irrigation system installed keep it watered PRG doesn't bounce back if it goes dormant like fescue or KBG.


Curious, did you stick with PRG afterwards or change things up? Yes, I'm hoping that next year since I won't be in "reno conditions" of constantly moist soil, it will at least be easier to battle, but I know I'm up against a challenge, especially if the weather is like what we had this Summer/early Fall. My wife's uncle is a former golf-course groundskeeper and tried to convince me not to go with PRG because of how much they had to spray it to prevent fungus. If I end up having to do something different, I think I'd go with 50/50 KBG/PRG to maybe get the best of both worlds. If my lawn were totally flat I'd have no issue going with fully KBG but the slope is a beast to get germinated.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Seeing what I *think* is nitrogen burn in the lawn. Noticed it a bit yesterday and didn't think too much of it, but it's a little more prominent today (2 days after foliar application).

Reasons I think it's burn:

The only places I'm seeing it look like a path I would've taken, and I may have taken it 1-2 more times than the rest of the lawn due to it being on the perimeter

There's one circle of it that I BELIEVE is where my tank ran out and when it runs out it drops much more liquid than its normal "mist". I can likely prevent this from happening again by not going right to the end of the tank and/or not having the wand as low as I did when it's about to run out so the mist disperses more before hitting the turf.

An over-application is possible because I don't know the EXACT size of this part of the lawn. It may be closer to 2000sqft but I usually apply at 2500sqft because that's the reading I got from the Scott's app. I don't measure it exactly because it's a super odd shape and I dislike math 

I'm not going to post a new thread about it since I'm fairly sure it's not disease, but I'll continue to monitor and start asking around if it gets worse.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

ken-n-nancy said:


> Looks encouraging! Hopefully some cooler, dryer weather will help with avoiding pythium blight this time around!


Thank you! Weather is looking very positive (all 70s, night temps in the 50s) let's hope it stays that way...


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

GrassOnTheHills said:


> Seeing what I *think* is nitrogen burn in the lawn. Noticed it a bit yesterday and didn't think too much of it, but it's a little more prominent today (2 days after foliar application).
> ...


OK, this is the case of a picture being worth a thousand words. The above picture looks to me like a desirable grass showing whitening from Tenacity. The effects of Tenacity kind of peak around 10-14 days after being applied. When was it that you applied Tenacity most recently?

When desirable grasses show whitening from Tenacity, it wears off in about 2 more weeks. Their growth is slowed in the meantime, but they should fully recover.

For some pictures of what stronger Tenacity dosing (an 8oz/acre rate, applied twice about 2 weeks apart for maximum effect) looks like you can see some photos of where I applied Tenacity a couple years ago to try to eliminate fine fescue from a northern mix lawn. (Fine fescue is less tolerant of Tenacity than KBG.) More information on the FF Thinning experiment is in a posting in my lawn journal of 2018-09-11 from that year. The picture below is taken from a followup posting on 2018-09-16: (Tenacity applied on the right; control on the left.)


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Looking good man! I'm not familiar with Tenacity and what all it is labeled for since I'm a warm season guy but the picture you posted of "crab grass" is actually goose grass. Could be why it wasn't affected not sure if Tenacity is labeled for that or not.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

ken-n-nancy said:


> OK, this is the case of a picture being worth a thousand words. The above picture looks to me like a desirable grass showing whitening from Tenacity. The effects of Tenacity kind of peak around 10-14 days after being applied. When was it that you applied Tenacity most recently?


Have I mentioned how much I love this site? Firstly, thank you for your picture and detailed posts once again. I love the academic approach to your experiments and thorough write-ups. If you ever feel like you're doing them in vein, moments like this is what it's all about!

Yes, Tenacity was actually my first thought. However, I applied it at 4oz/acre rate exactly 21 days ago to this area. THAT SAID, I do think that the last thing I used my tank sprayer for WAS Tenacity, and while I try to make every effort to rinse it out after each use, sometimes I don't quite have the time and then I forget before using it again (now that I think about it, I may not have cleaned it out after my last N app). All that to say, it's VERY possible that this was the last bit of that Tenacity and this was the _first_ spot I hit on my N app a couple days ago (I often start on the perimeter for spray apps).



ken-n-nancy said:


> When desirable grasses show whitening from Tenacity, it wears off in about 2 more weeks. Their growth is slowed in the meantime, but they should fully recover.


I'll keep an eye on this and report back -- the ONLY thing that makes me wonder about it being burn is that there was a spot in the back (TTTF) that I sort of haphazardly sprayed the last bit of my N the other day (I had some left in the tank but not enough to do a meaningful pass on the PRG) and it also seemed lighter this morning in the exact location I sprayed. I'll check again in a bit and snap a pic if I still see the color difference.

Either way, I'm very optimistic that it's not disease or something to worry about!


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

coreystooks said:


> Looking good man! I'm not familiar with Tenacity and what all it is labeled for since I'm a warm season guy but the picture you posted of "crab grass" is actually goose grass. Could be why it wasn't affected not sure if Tenacity is labeled for that or not.


Right on! Thanks for the tip. Just did a deep dive into quackgrass v. crabgrass and you're 100% right on that. Without looking into what Tenacity is labeled for, it's possible this spot didn't get hit OR that it spread from my neighbor's yard because it's directly where they meet.


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## M32075 (May 9, 2019)

GrassOnTheHills said:


> M32075 said:
> 
> 
> > I did a full PRG lawn renovation a few years back. It was stunning that late fall and early spring. Summer came the disease pressure took most of it out. I'm a big fan PRG fast germination and does look beautiful compared to fescue. Have a really good disease plan in place for next season and with irrigation system installed keep it watered PRG doesn't bounce back if it goes dormant like fescue or KBG.
> ...


 I didn't stick with PRG I lost half of it to heat stress and disease. Ended up doing a overseed with a tall fescue. If it doesn't work out for you I definitely like the idea of the PRG and KBG mix. Just enough PRG in the mix to hold your soil until the KBG spouts.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Mowed today at 1.5". I've been mowing just about every other day, and I'm surprised at how quickly it's growing. Today I measured it at roughly 2.5" after being cut 2 days ago. I still feel like things are filling in and tillering which is leading to an overall healthy look.

Had a lawn/mowing company truck stop by and ask a bunch of questions about the lawn and comment on how good it was looking. That felt good. Still nowhere close to what I'm shooting for, but the yard is only a few weeks old so I think it's headed in the right direction!


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Today marks 21 DAG if counting from the last day seed was put down on the main section.


Mowed at 1.5"

Applied .3lbs/M foliar N, but...

Totally jacked up on the main section by not having 2.5 gallons of water and only having a bit over 1. We'll see how detrimental that is, but my plan as of now is just to irrigate in the morning (N went down around 1:30PM today). It's overcast and temps are low so that will help avoid burn. I DID have the right amount of N dissolved in the sprayer, just totally blew it when it came to having the right amount of water. I was able to make *almost* 2 passes on the main section, but the 2nd pass was a quick one after I realized I had messed up. Oh well.

Despite the mess-up, things are looking OK. I haven't been treating the overseed as a true overseed because I didn't want to promote very wet conditions on grass that just came out of a battle with PB. Despite this and no rain, there are little sprouts noticeable in some of the bare spots. I may have burned them with the N app but I really want the majority of the lawn to grow in strong so I'm pretending the overseed didn't happen and just seeing what happens.

I also ordered the ingredients for making FAS and hope to start putting that down end of September. Might only get 1 or 2 apps of that in, but I'm excited to see what it does for color.

Caught this decent angle that hides some of the bare spots today


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## SOLARSUPLEX (Aug 4, 2020)

Wow! That color and density looks great! Honestly at this point you're seeing the bad things but you need to take a step back and enjoy what you've done. This looks incredible! for only being ~1 month old!


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

SOLARSUPLEX said:


> Wow! That color and density looks great! Honestly at this point you're seeing the bad things but you need to take a step back and enjoy what you've done. This looks incredible! for only being ~1 month old!


Thanks for the kind words! I'm definitely very happy with how things have come in, especially considering I was looking at bare dirt a month ago like you said. Makes me even more excited to begin planning for next season and starting to do apps of things I've never done before!


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## SOLARSUPLEX (Aug 4, 2020)

DId you follow this guide for the FAS you plan to spray?

https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&p=3002#p3002

Iron is something i've been reading about but not actually having much of a lawn (yet) i've not bought any product.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

SOLARSUPLEX said:


> DId you follow this guide for the FAS you plan to spray?
> 
> https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&p=3002#p3002
> 
> Iron is something i've been reading about but not actually having much of a lawn (yet) i've not bought any product.


Yes that's exactly what I plan to do. I may also add a surfactant if I learn that it will be beneficial, just haven't looked into that yet!


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Lowered HOC to 1.25" after cutting at 1.5" for the past couple weeks. Cut at 1.5" yesterday and then today at the 1.25". No SERIOUS scalping going on, but there are some places I need to be careful, and they still probably get cut a good .50" shorter than the rest. But overall I think it's an OK HOC and I will keep it here unless those spots indicate I should be doing otherwise.

Also, got my ingredients for FAS earlier than expected... Hoping to put those down this evening or tomorrow (probably tomorrow, who am I kidding)



The side yard is starting to look less horrible, but still nowhere near the main section of the yard. Lots of baby sprouts though so here's to hoping.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Mowed yesterday at 1.25" and then put down FAS at the rate specified in this post for cool season lawns. Watered in for ~5 min this morning (irrigated yesterday morning so didn't want to throw too much water down today). I really feel like I notice a big difference just overnight, the color seems a good bit darker than yesterday. We have some rain coming up in the next few days so I may put more seed down on some of the bare spots, possible right after a Tenacity app that will hopefully aid in preventing poa annua from germinating.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

- Mowed today at 1.25" again, double cut.
- Sprayed .2lb/M foliar N via urea. I chose to back down from .3/M because the grass is really growing a ton and I'm (read: my wife) not super amped to mow every day. If I mow every 2-3 days I'm basically breaking the 1/3 rule.





I also pulled a core with my new toy, and I'm definitely not an expert in cores, so I'm looking for the experts to weigh in here.

What I *think* I'm seeing is root activity down at the 7"-8" range but that seems pretty insane (picture 1, see index finger). The second picture is around 4" (this I actually measured), and the final picture is just another picture of what I believe to be roots which look to be the same thing in the first picture.


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## SOLARSUPLEX (Aug 4, 2020)

That yard came together NICE! I cant say it enough times. That color is stunning and i'm incredibly jealous of the blue skies.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

SOLARSUPLEX said:


> That yard came together NICE! I cant say it enough times. That color is stunning and i'm incredibly jealous of the blue skies.


Haha thank you!!! I swear the FAS I sprayed a few days back really put some nice color on the lawn. Even the wife noticed which is saying something. Yeah weather has been gorgeous the past few days. No rain at all but perfect temperatures. The core I pulled is a touch on the dry side (it's also in a spot that doesn't get full coverage from the irrigation cause it's a bit out of the area I built the system for) but I'm holding off on irrigation cause we are expecting rain like all week next week (we'll see lol)


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## SOLARSUPLEX (Aug 4, 2020)

We've managed to have complete opposite weather. 3" of rain in 3 days with a high of 55. I put more seed down in hopes I can get some additional germination but with these cool temps I'm not feeling super confident.

I'm glad the PRG responds so well to FAS. I'll have to do a few apps in the spring once things are more established.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Snapped this beauty of a pic during golden hour. No stripes and looking super tight 



I also managed to get rid of the remaining rocks that were sitting in this tiny spot in the hellstrip where our property adjoins our neighbors, and I leveled and seeded that area today. It has no irrigation so I'm interested to see what happens (I likely won't manage to keep things moist there). I seeded the same PRG as the rest of the lawn but without irrigation I imagine it will struggle, so I plan to throw my cool season mix seed down there when that happens. Just wanted to get some quick germination going there in the meantime since first frost is approaching fast.

I also made the decision to probably not put Tenacity down. I have a good bit of grass from the overseed that still isn't mature enough and I'd rather play it safe and deal with some poa annua next year than have more bare spots than I do now. The yard gets good sun so I imagine it'll die off early in summer anyway... If I remember correctly my worst area this past Spring was underneath a tree that we cut down this summer so I may not have it as bad this time around anyway.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

GrassOnTheHills said:


> Snapped this beauty of a pic during golden hour. No stripes and looking super tight


Looks awesome! I happen to be a fan of the "no stripes" look -- just lush, beautiful, uniform grass!



GrassOnTheHills said:


> I also managed to get rid of the remaining rocks that were sitting in this tiny spot in the hellstrip where our property adjoins our neighbors, and I leveled and seeded that area today. It has no irrigation so I'm interested to see what happens (I likely won't manage to keep things moist there). I seeded the same PRG as the rest of the lawn but without irrigation I imagine it will struggle...


Depending upon how long that section of the hellstrip is, even just doing a daily hand-watering with the hose every morning makes a *huge* difference over no watering at all. With PRG, you only really need to keep it up for about 5-7 days. If you have time for a 2nd daily watering, something around 4pm is the other one I'd add. Did you add anything to help retain moisture? Peat moss? PennMulch? The combination of a daily watering and something to retain moisture is usually all that is needed for a quick-germinating grass such as PRG or TTTF.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

ken-n-nancy said:


> Depending upon how long that section of the hellstrip is, even just doing a daily hand-watering with the hose every morning makes a *huge* difference over no watering at all. With PRG, you only really need to keep it up for about 5-7 days. If you have time for a 2nd daily watering, something around 4pm is the other one I'd add. Did you add anything to help retain moisture? Peat moss? PennMulch? The combination of a daily watering and something to retain moisture is usually all that is needed for a quick-germinating grass such as PRG or TTTF.


Yeah I'm going to do my best to hand-irrigate, the strip is less than 10 feet (I'll put a picture up soon for some before/after comparisons, just keep forgetting to snap one). I didn't put any peat moss down like I did with the rest of the reno, simply because I'm out of it and don't feel like going to get more for such a small section 

The section before clearing & seeding looked like this, so even if I get 0% germination I'm going to count it a win, haha. This is sort of a mini-experiment in itself, and I kind of plan to use this tiny section as a test plot for different grass types in the future since it's out of the way and isn't really influential on the overall look of the lawn.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Mowed yesterday at 1.25", grass is growing crazy fast... I could likely mow every day if I wanted to/had the time. I think I'll be using some PGR next year because I'm more of an every 3-4 days type of person 

The side yard continues to fill in and look a lot better. It's not super enjoyable to mow because the leveling is really off from the rainstorm we had early on in the seeding process, but that can be fixed in future seasons.





Here's the little spot by the road I seeded 2 days ago, we're expected to get rain for the next 3 days so I may not need to do much (if any) hand irrigating. Excited to have this spot fill in and hopefully mature before winter!


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Did a little bit of garden bed cleaning (I haphazardly let seed fall into the bed when seeding for the reno, so we had grass in there and a bit of pruning to do) and felt like taking a pic of the whole front yard which I rarely do. From the road it doesn't look too shabby!


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## Vandy (Sep 2, 2020)

GrassOnTheHills said:


> Did a little bit of garden bed cleaning (I haphazardly let seed fall into the bed when seeding for the reno, so we had grass in there and a bit of pruning to do) and felt like taking a pic of the whole front yard which I rarely do. From the road it doesn't look too shabby!


Looking vibrant!!


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

GrassOnTheHills said:


> ... From the road it doesn't look too shabby!


Forget "...not too shabby!" :?

*Looks awesome!*

Oh, the wonderful color uniformity of new PRG!


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## zeus201 (Aug 30, 2017)

Dang that looks great!


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## SOLARSUPLEX (Aug 4, 2020)

This looks great! have you had any more weed pressure other than that crab grass you mentioned a few posts back?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

GrassOnTheHills said:


>


It takes a lot of self control not to nuke the rest of that weed strip.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Vandy said:


> Looking vibrant!!





ken-n-nancy said:


> Forget "...not too shabby!" :?
> 
> *Looks awesome!*
> 
> Oh, the wonderful color uniformity of new PRG!





zeus201 said:


> Dang that looks great!





SOLARSUPLEX said:


> This looks great! have you had any more weed pressure other than that crab grass you mentioned a few posts back?


Thanks for the kind words all. The whole lawn journal thing is such a great idea because it's amazing being able to look back at day 1 and see how far everything has come. Next summer will be the true test but I'm excited to see where this lawn goes.

@SOLARSUPLEX I've had a little bit of weed pressure but not a ton. A little bit of crab grass here and there that are near the heat sinks but they come up easy. I think the grass is finally at a point where purslane has given up (or maybe its temps?), and there's few spots of clover that have very obviously migrated from my neighbor's yard... But overall nothing that can't be easily handled next season or with handpicking.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

g-man said:


> GrassOnTheHills said:
> 
> 
> >
> ...


Hahahaha I hadn't even thought of that. Could have, too. My neighbor told me to just nuke his whole half of the side yard when I nuked mine, but I was hesitant as I don't have the flow bandwidth to run 360 heads to water his side in addition to mine, and I didn't like the idea of his lawn looking horrible and mine looking great when I couldn't keep up with hand watering his side lol. The hellstrip, however, would have been easier to manage... But I don't think time was on my side even for a mini reno like that.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Continuing to mow at 1.25" every 2-3 days. I'm due for another hit of N today, and I have PGR on the way as well. I'm not sure whether I'll use it yet this season, but definitely looking forward to at least using it at least next season.

Snapped a couple pics this week... Just had to snap this feet one. Feet are ugly but grass is looking GOOD.


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

GrassOnTheHills said:


> Snapped a couple pics this week... Just had to snap this feet one. Feet are ugly but grass is looking GOOD.


Yup, that grass sure does look GOOD! Bet'cha it's comfy under the feet, too!


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## mac_mellow (Jul 30, 2020)

GrassOnTheHills said:


> Continuing to mow at 1.25" every 2-3 days. I'm due for another hit of N today, and I have PGR on the way as well. I'm not sure whether I'll use it yet this season, but definitely looking forward to at least using it at least next season.
> 
> Snapped a couple pics this week... Just had to snap this feet one. Feet are ugly but grass is looking GOOD.


Enjoyed reading your journal. The growth looks great so far! I can only hope and pray to have my lawn be as green as yours is now. Thanks for sharing.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Mowed at 1" and had planned on putting down PGR one hour afterwards, but my son (who was napping) had different plans and decided he didn't want to nap, so my time playing outside came to an end after the mow. Hopefully I can get it done tomorrow. Lawn still looks good though, this was my first time down to 1". Going lower is sort of addictive, I must say.



Also, had a delivery driver drive over the mini reno area! Good thing it's only grass.



Thanks to the weather, we're seeing pretty decent germination despite almost no hand watering.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Felt like doing a bit of a longer update today:

The Lawn

As for the lawn, it was a simple day. Cut at 1", and I could definitely see the impact of the PGR I put down 2 days ago. Clippings were very small, probably around 1/4", maybe a little bit more. Will continue to track this because as I read in a few other threads, 3 days is around the time people said to expect the full effect of the PGR. I ran irrigation on the right side and hellstrip zones because they were feeling/looking a little dry. They get the most sun out of all parts of the lawn.

I also hit some of the weeds in the left side yard up against the house with glyphosate. WIll be establishing a garden bed there next year (details below) so I'm OK if I kill the first foot or so of grass.

One thing that I'm stumped about is that I keep finding water under the lid of both valve boxes on the right side of the house.





I don't see any valve leaking, and even if one were, why would the circular valve box have water in it, because that one houses the flow meter... I'm wondering if it's just condensation because this side of the house gets sun in the morning and then shade the rest of the day. I don't THINK it's getting water in it from rain, because it hasn't rained in several days and the boxes are on a slight high spot up against the house and are separated from the nearest downspout pop-up by large ornamental grass which is in itself a high spot. So I need to keep tracking this, but figured I'd post about it in case others have experienced this too.

Some pics after the mow:







Pondering on Next Year

Since it was such a simple day, I walked the property and thought about goals for next year, mostly related to the side yards and back yard.

This is the right side yard:



When installing the irrigation, I purposefully did not put heads up against the house because I knew we'd want a small garden bed there. If you read the beginning of my journal you'd know that when we moved in we actually took a garden bed OUT! But it was full of red rock and took up way too much space. The bed I am picturing for this side would only be about 2-3' wide, and be filled with small, low-input shrubs that I can tolerate high heat, drought, and maybe only occasional fertilizer. I haven't done research into what that might be yet, so any recommendations are highly appreciated!

This is the left side yard (picture not taken today):



On this side I'd also like to do a small garden bed, just enough to line up with the A/C unit so I don't need to mow around it. I am interested in doing some shrubs here too, but this side gets a good bit less sun (just in the morning). Possibly even some hydrangeas which I think will do better here than they do in the front of the house because from what I understand they like morning sun, and the front gets afternoon sun. Again, recommendations totally welcome!

This is the (top of the) back yard:



We'll need some shade-loving plants here, as this area doesn't get too much sun due to coverage from a very large. In the Spring I actually removed a too-large garden bed here, too. It had river rock in it, which is WAY better than red rock but I still prefer a mulch or compost/soil bed.

I did a super-low-input "reno" here and along the front (left) of the porch this fall. I threw down some seed right around when I seeded the front yard, but barely watered it or paid any attention to it. It's really cool that you can see where the roof hangover above this picture is, as no seed established under it due to lack of irrigation. That's totally OK, because the edge of the bed will be established a few inches into the grass that did manage to germinate in order to create a nice strong natural edge.

Finally, the worst of the worst: the extremely sloped, neglected back yard. And the garden bed that's in a bit of a state of purgatory.





I ripped this landscaping out at some point (can't remember exactly when anymore) with hopes of seeding it and having all grass back here. However the roots of the tree at the top of the hill are just too close to the surface to really get an enjoyable lawn, so I'm thinking of re-establishing landscaping back here. It needs to be SUPER low-input though, and I need to get rid of water it is they had planted there because it seems to be vine-like in that it grows underground and shoots up everywhere. I hit it with glyphosate and that didn't seem to do much. I don't think I'll have time next year to do anything like a reno in the backyard, and I don't know that I even want to because of the annoying slope...

Another area I'm thinking of doing some flowers is around our shed. Both sides of the ramp and in front of the little "porch" are sort of "bleh" and retain a bit too much moisture, and I've seen several sheds in our area with small plants around them and I think it looks awesome. The wife gave the thumbs up on this one recently, so excited to do that.


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## nickalan620 (May 31, 2020)

The PRG looks amazing so far. I've had some thins spots and a little poa in the shade with my PRG reno but overall great outcome.

Yours looks amazing though.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

nickalan620 said:


> The PRG looks amazing so far. I've had some thins spots and a little poa in the shade with my PRG reno but overall great outcome.
> 
> Yours looks amazing though.


Thanks man! I've definitely been really happy with it. I think it's bound to start looking better too with having recently started PGR apps. We'll see what happens come summer though. I'll keep an eye out for pics of your reno.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Google Photos notified me of this picture 1 year ago (September 30, 2019)



Comparing that to this picture, taken on October 2, 2020.



What a difference 1 year can make!


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

GrassOnTheHills said:


> Google Photos notified me of this picture 1 year ago (September 30, 2019)
> 
> 
> Comparing that to this picture, taken on October 2, 2020.
> ...


Awesome pair of "before" and "after" photos!


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## zeus201 (Aug 30, 2017)

Progressing really nicely. Time for you join the dark side and get a greens mower 

But, I might have missed it, but did you do an blanket app of Tenacity after 30 DAG?


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

zeus201 said:


> Progressing really nicely. Time for you join the dark side and get a greens mower


If the yard was flat I'd have a greens mower in a heart beat! Unfortunately with them being so heavy there's no real good way for me to tackle the slope without it likely sliding down (I've never tried, but a rotary is a bit of a pain on the slope and greens mowers tend to weigh a lot more from what I've seen). I'm waiting for the day that I see someone with a slope like mine actually do it, and then I'll be all over it haha.



zeus201 said:


> But, I might have missed it, but did you do an blanket app of Tenacity after 30 DAG?


I did not. I was thinking of doing one as a pre-em but I was worried about the overseed I did to fill in some of the bare spots after the reno. There's a bit of weed pressure as a result, but nothing that can't be handled early next season. If you have any advice though (like maybe still applying it as a pre-em even though the newer grass may not be mature enough) I'm all ears!


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## zeus201 (Aug 30, 2017)

GrassOnTheHills said:


> If the yard was flat I'd have a greens mower in a heart beat! Unfortunately with them being so heavy there's no real good way for me to tackle the slope without it likely sliding down (I've never tried, but a rotary is a bit of a pain on the slope and greens mowers tend to weigh a lot more from what I've seen). I'm waiting for the day that I see someone with a slope like mine actually do it, and then I'll be all over it haha.
> 
> I did not. I was thinking of doing one as a pre-em but I was worried about the overseed I did to fill in some of the bare spots after the reno. There's a bit of weed pressure as a result, but nothing that can't be handled early next season. If you have any advice though (like maybe still applying it as a pre-em even though the newer grass may not be mature enough) I'm all ears!


If only you were closer, I'd let ya use a greensmower to see if is possible haha

I ended up spraying Tenacity. Had some broadleaf weeds coming up but also to help highlight any grassy weeds which made it through. I'll apply pre-em as the grass nears 60 DAG.

For your main section, I'd put down Prodiamine or Dithiopyr as you are nearing the 60 DAG. Overseed area is tough. Might risk root pruning of the new grass if you used a more traditional pre-em. Maybe do what you are thinking by applying Tenacity again as temporary barrier, deal with spring weeds and then transition to a pre-em routine.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

zeus201 said:


> If only you were closer, I'd let ya use a greensmower to see if is possible haha


I'll have to convince @nickalan620 to drive the 30 minutes and let me try out his  Maybe a bit of beer will do the trick?!



zeus201 said:


> I ended up spraying Tenacity. Had some broadleaf weeds coming up but also to help highlight any grassy weeds which made it through. I'll apply pre-em as the grass nears 60 DAG.
> 
> For your main section, I'd put down Prodiamine or Dithiopyr as you are nearing the 60 DAG. Overseed area is tough. Might risk root pruning of the new grass if you used a more traditional pre-em. Maybe do what you are thinking by applying Tenacity again as temporary barrier, deal with spring weeds and then transition to a pre-em routine.


I pretty much overseeded the entire thing at 3lbs/k and then did the bare spots with more, so I don't know that I feel comfortable with anything traditional like Prodiamine. I think a Tenacity blanket spray may be the best path forward, but I won't truly be 30DAG on the overseed until about October 17th assuming a 4 day germination period (seed went down on Sep 13 for the overseed). It's probably better than nothing, though, right? According to the label though, I remember it saying something like "30DAG OR secondary roots at some depth" (can't remember the exact depth), but I'm not sure I trust myself to find root depth on specifically overseeded plants. So I may just wait til October 17th and do a blanket spray. Soil temps have already dipped below 70, though, so I may be too late?


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## SOLARSUPLEX (Aug 4, 2020)

For what its worth i plan to do the exact same thing in terms of a blanket tenacity spray @GrassOnTheHills . I did a secondary overseed last weekend so i'll be aiming at the end of October to do the blanket application. My issue right now is measuring out the Tenacity because 400sqft requires nearly 4 drops of the stuff to be diluted properly.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

SOLARSUPLEX said:


> For what its worth i plan to do the exact same thing in terms of a blanket tenacity spray @GrassOnTheHills . I did a secondary overseed last weekend so i'll be aiming at the end of October to do the blanket application. My issue right now is measuring out the Tenacity because 400sqft requires nearly 4 drops of the stuff to be diluted properly.


Good to know I'm not the only one! Yeah, it can be nerve wracking making sure the right amount is being used. Especially with PRG being more sensitive to Tenacity. Is your plan to spray and then water in immediately?


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## SOLARSUPLEX (Aug 4, 2020)

Thats the plan. I'll do it around 9am and then water in. The hardest part will be measuring product and applying it evenly. But if you aim for the lower application rate you get a lot of headroom for error so that should help put you at ease if you think you may be over applying. You dont want to double up, but some overlap wont totally destroy you.

I just did a super rudimentary spray on my vanity strip when my bottle leaked in the bag. Mixed up a gallon and sprayed over a fresh seed. Then watered it in the next day as i had already watered the section for the evening. May have no impact or might work but i doubt i overdid it. We'll see.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Mowed at 1" today after 4 days and the clippings were very reasonable, safe to say the pgr is working well. I measured the bulk of the lawn at 1.5" before mowing, with a few stragglers that I probably missed with the manual reel at 2", so 4 days is definitely as far as I'm willing to push it at this point.

The lawn is looking good for the most part and has responded well to inputs of iron and spoon feeding of nitrogen. So much so that a stranger stopped me on the street as my wife and I were walking away from the house to tell us how beautiful and thick it looked. Felt good.





Unfortunately I do think I was a bit too lackadaisical recently with irrigation, and certain spots on the hill seem to have suffered because of it. I finally did an irrigation audit within the last couple of days and here are the results. I plan to do this audit a few more times, likely next season as I really hone in on my irrigation:

10 minutes, 3 cans:
Road: N/A (decided to do audit after run started)
Front: 1.0, .5, .4 = .633" (8min per .5")
Hill bottom: .5, .2, .1 = .266" (19min per .5")
Hillside: .3, .3, .2 = .266" (19min per .5")
Side: .5, .3, .3 = .366" (14 min per .5")

There's a little bit too much variance in the front end hill bottom zones, which I plan on working on a little bit next season.




I'm pretty positive these spots are toast, but there are other thin patches on the hill already so I'm not terribly concerned and plan on handling that next fall.

Also noticed some slight yellow spots in the lawn while mowing. Didn't get a chance until late afternoon to snap some pictures, and when I did I could only find one spot, pictured below:




Not sure if it's anything to be concerned about, but if someone sees this and has any suggestions I'm all ears. I have azoxy and prop that I can put down if necessary. Going to go forward with my weekly application of nitrogen tomorrow so I could probably tank mix if necessary.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Did a little work outside today and felt like getting a mow in despite having mowed yesterday. Normally I'd also put down my N app, but I think I'm going to hold off and do it tomorrow evening before it rains on Sunday. Also, since I don't have a solid reason for the stressed hill area (I do think it's just lack of irrigation, but I'm not 100% on that), I figure it's better to avoid putting down N at the peak heat hours of the day. I'm normally forced to do it when my son naps while the wife is at work, which has me putting it down at 1PM. Even though it's only a high of 70, the hill is definitely warmer than that since it bakes all day in the sun. So I'm going to play it safe and apply tomorrow afternoon/evening.

I pulled a core on the side yard today because the side has never looked as healthy/happy as the front main section. I attribute this to the same reasoning as the hill, lack of irrigation (me being lazy/dumb) and the hottest part of the yard. If I don't get my irrigation game on point by the summer time I may be in for trouble. Despite my feelings, the core didn't look too dry... Had what I *think* to be moisture throughout the whole core:



I'm still not great at understanding where the useful root depth is, but I do think it was less than the core I pulled from the other side yard which sees much less sun. I had those roots pegged at 6-8" deep.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Put down roughly .3lbs/M of starter (24-25-4). Went granular because it's about to rain for a couple days here (95% and 100% chance today and tomorrow). I was unable to get foliar down yesterday like I had hoped because I forgot we were going out of town. As a result, the grass is looking a little sickly (yellowing almost everywhere). I'm a little surprised actually how it has turned so quickly, and it now makes sense to me why I see people spoon feeding at 6 day intervals versus 7. In this case I'm at 9 days and it's showing. I will likely hit it again 6 days from now and continue every 6 days until growth stops.

Oh, and I chose to do starter versus my urea because the only macro that I wasn't in the "excessive" category on my soil test last year was P, so I'm curious to know whether a few starter apps in a year will do anything to that number (I doubt it, but it's a worthwhile experiment).


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Mowed today. I've yet to check the rain gauge but I think we got about 2" between Sunday and yesterday. Despite having put down the starter on Sunday before the rain, the grass continues to look pretty bad up close. I have four theories as to why it looks this way:

1. When I put down my PGR app, I used a measuring cup that was last used with glyphosate for the Reno . I rinsed it out well but I don't know if that possibly caused contamination and has injured the grass. The only reason I suspect this is because the tinge of yellow that a grass is displaying is very similar to the tinge of yellow that I see on some of the weeds I sprayed back on October 4th. On the other hand, there are many reasons I imagine a grass plant can display this tinge of yellow, all related to the overall health of the plant. For example, nitrogen deficiency as described in number 4.
2. If number 1 is not the case which I really hope it's not, another potential factor could be overregulation from the PGR I put down on October 2nd. I've heard that PGR can have a bronzing effect when applied too heavily, but this doesn't seem to be a bronzing effect as much as a yellowing, and the grass seems to be growing just fine and doesn't seem stressed other than the discoloration.
3. Fungus. I've done some cursory research and I don't see any fungus whose description definitively matches what I'm seeing in the lawn, but one of the pictures I'll post below does seem to resemble what fungus might do to a plant and does remind me of some pictures I've seen in the past, though I don't know if they were definitely fungus or not.
4. Nitrogen deficiency. Coloring began after I missed my last spoon feeding, and has gotten worse even with the application on Sunday, but this may be expected because even though the granular was fast acting, I still don't think it would act as quickly as a foliar application because it would have to go through the soil before it could have an impact on the plant. One big reason I feel that this may be the answer is that the tinge of yellow that I'm seeing is the exact same tinge of yellow I saw on my hydrangeas when they needed nitrogen. I'm hoping that this is really because because this is the most easily solved out of the four options. Planning on doing a foliar application at the very latest on Friday, so hopefully I can get things looking right again with that.l

Without further ado, here are some pictures I've taken of some representative spots both close up and a little farther away.









And here's some generic, after the mow pics:





This last one is the miniature reno, I have to look back on my notes to see when exactly I seeded this, but I cut it today at 1 inch because I was too lazy to change the HOC to 2".


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## SOLARSUPLEX (Aug 4, 2020)

Are those pics all cut at 1"?


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

SOLARSUPLEX said:


> Are those pics all cut at 1"?


Yeah, only single cut though on the hill cause I just didn't feel like double cutting the hill yesterday... With the manual reel it leaves a good bit of stragglers without a double.


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## SOLARSUPLEX (Aug 4, 2020)

Very nice! Have you found any areas you need to do additional leveling? Im finding that all the soil i trenched for irrigation has settled a bit and i'll need to top dress to get those areas level. Looking great and you should be proud!


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

SOLARSUPLEX said:


> Very nice! Have you found any areas you need to do additional leveling? Im finding that all the soil i trenched for irrigation has settled a bit and i'll need to top dress to get those areas level. Looking great and you should be proud!


Yeah, I'm in the exact same boat. There are several spots that have settled despite my attempts at backfilling, rolling, backfilling again, rolling again, etc. I'll hit those next year and likely overseed. Thanks for the kind words!

PS it's possible that the HOC seems longer than 1" due to float from the mower, I am wanting to get a conveyer roller to replace the stock one to add a bit more weight.


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## SOLARSUPLEX (Aug 4, 2020)

GrassOnTheHills said:


> Yeah, I'm in the exact same boat. There are several spots that have settled despite my attempts at backfilling, rolling, backfilling again, rolling again, etc. I'll hit those next year and likely overseed. Thanks for the kind words!
> 
> PS it's possible that the HOC seems longer than 1" due to float from the mower, I am wanting to get a conveyer roller to replace the stock one to add a bit more weight.


Its hard to get an exact HOC with these manual reels because of how light they are. I found one area i'm scalping pretty good and took down to about 1/4" on accident. Have you been backfilling and rolling just right over the grass?

We got 2" of rain recently and i noticed the areas next to my sidewalk were flooding and i'd love to lift those up before we get more rain this season.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

SOLARSUPLEX said:


> GrassOnTheHills said:
> 
> 
> > Yeah, I'm in the exact same boat. There are several spots that have settled despite my attempts at backfilling, rolling, backfilling again, rolling again, etc. I'll hit those next year and likely overseed. Thanks for the kind words!
> ...


The backfilling/rolling was all done prior to seed down when everything was still dirt. Definitely lots of work to do next season


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## SOLARSUPLEX (Aug 4, 2020)

Ahh yes. Same process on mg end and then it all just fell in in anyway.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Cut again today. The grass seems to be recovering and is looking a lot less yellow. I'm guessing the granular app finally kicked in. I put down .3lbs/M urea and FAS today. Supposed to get an inch of rain tomorrow so that should help water things in.





I also applied the urea and FAS to the reno. Probably a little early but that's the beauty of it being such a small insignificant part of the lawn. I get to push the limit and see how it responds without really any risk of doing major damage.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Got a triple cut in today. The regulation from the PGR has worn off and the grass had grown a lot. I would say clippings were about 1", way over the 1/3. rule. Oh well. Right after the mow I put down (well, tried to put down) .25lb/M granular starter fert. I have been using granular in situations where I don't have the time to fiddle with my backpack sprayer. Things would have gone smoothly but at some point the fert got wet and started clumping, so I couldn't get the last .5lb (out of 3lb total) out of the hopper. I'm not too worried about it because the grass is looking really happy and doesn't seem to need much N anyway. I just wanted to get some down before the irrigation goes off tomorrow.



Snapped this pic of my son's toy:



Mini-reno looking good! Curious to see if these spots fill in before winter. I'm starting to be convinced that the LS cultivar in this PGR blend is actually spreading despite my hesitancy to believe it. The sidewalks constantly have grass creeping out in the cracks, and the on the side yard next to the house I feel like the spot up against the house has been getting smaller as grass spreads in. Could totally be my imagination though...


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

@GrassOnTheHills So do you think the yellowing you were having was in fact N deficiency? Those pictures look very similar to what is going on in my PRG.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

coreystooks said:


> @GrassOnTheHills So do you think the yellowing you were having was in fact N deficiency? Those pictures look very similar to what is going on in my PRG.


Yes I'm almost certain they are. It's happened to me since (though not as bad because I caught it earlier) and in both cases I was late on my N app. I've started applying more frequently and can tell that it's helped, and I can also see that foliar apps help alleviate the yellowing faster than granular which makes a lot of sense. Lastly, there was no die off or anything following the yellowing which leads me to believe it wasn't fungus, at least not anything harmful.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

@GrassOnTheHills 
Thanks! Looks like I'll be spraying some urea this evening.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

It's been a while since my last update. After my semi-failed granular N app, I went back on Oct 25 and applied another .25lbs/M urea because I was worried about more yellowing due to not getting down all the N I wanted on the 22nd. I also put down roughly .5-.6oz/M PGR. I assume it will be my last app of the year. I went with a lower rate than last time (which was .75oz/M) because I was not super happy with how the grass looked under regulation at .75oz/M. I'm only 2 days from application but the grass is looking very good and seems to be regulated nicely.

Today I got a good double cut in. The in-laws are coming on Saturday and they are always joking about the lawn, so I had to make sure it was looking crisp. Only thing is Saturday is 4 days away, and it's going to rain every day between now and then, with maybe an exception being tomorrow. So I'm sure it will have grown out a bunch by then.

Since my last post I also received my conveyor roller. I had to grind off about 1/16"-1/8" from the shaft, but it fits like a glove now and adds a nice 5lbs to the manual reel. Makes for a cleaner cut and a bit more stripes, though scalping is also a bit worse in some sections due to actually laying lower on the ground from the weight. Whatevz.



The grass looks much better in person, TBH. Wasn't the best time of day to be taking pictures.







I dream about doing some kind of tiered retaining wall garden on the hill so I don't have to mow it. I enjoy mowing aside from the worst parts of the hill. If I did that I could also get a McLane mower or something else between a manual reel and a full GM for a better cut and the ability to go lower :twisted:


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Looking at pictures from last season has me pretty motivated to get going again! Unfortunately I have what I *think* is poa annua popping up in the warmer sections of the lawn. Soil temps should still be low (according to greencast they are still in the mid 30s), so I'm not positive, but considering I did NOT put down pre-M in the Fall it very well may be. Going to order some Prodiamine today since I think my stock from the last 2 seasons is just about out and I am looking to switch to spraying it instead of broadcast spreading it. Not exactly sure when I should apply (should I rush it since I already have some weeds popping up, or is there no point since it's likely all already germinated and so I should just wait til soil temps actually approach 55). Welcome to advice on the matter!


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## SOLARSUPLEX (Aug 4, 2020)

And just like that we're back at it! I have tons of Poa Annua as well due to my lack of any pre m after seeding. I've spent a few hours hand pulling but that doesn't seem like a scalable solution. I've read there are a few chems that can target poa and are safe for prg like poa constrictor but the price is hard to justify. I've just been getting back into the swing of things and looking for a solution as well. I'll post it I end up implementing a plan.


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## uts (Jul 8, 2019)

If that is poa (I'm not good at identifyinh) and the plant is active why not apply glyphosate with a brush, mark it with a flag and take it out/dig it in a week or so. This might help killing the non visible parts. Then reseed the small areas. PrG grows fast and good.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

SOLARSUPLEX said:


> And just like that we're back at it! I have tons of Poa Annua as well due to my lack of any pre m after seeding. I've spent a few hours hand pulling but that doesn't seem like a scalable solution. I've read there are a few chems that can target poa and are safe for prg like poa constrictor but the price is hard to justify. I've just been getting back into the swing of things and looking for a solution as well. I'll post it I end up implementing a plan.


Yeah, it seems like it'd be impossible to hand pull. TBH I'm not super worried about it because once the grass darkens up it will somewhat blend in, and I'll be sure to use pre-M this year to help combat it from happening again next season. That said, it will grow faster than the PRG and probably look pretty bad most of the time. I'm hoping the summer heat kills it (that hill gets absolutely brutal) but my irrigation may help keep it alive. Either way, we have a second kiddo on the way so the lawn is getting bumped down a peg in priority, so I'm gonna be riding the waves!



uts said:


> If that is poa (I'm not good at identifyinh) and the plant is active why not apply glyphosate with a brush, mark it with a flag and take it out/dig it in a week or so. This might help killing the non visible parts. Then reseed the small areas. PrG grows fast and good.


Probably not a bad idea! If I find myself at HD or Lowe's and remember I'll pick up a dedicated brush, but like I said to @SOLARSUPLEX up there I'm mostly going to be riding the waves this season. Will still be attempting a Tier 2 outcome but won't be too bummed if it doesn't happen


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

@SOLARSUPLEX I just went out this morning and tried to hand-pull a single bunch of poa a. How the heck are you even able to pull one up? I didn't even get CLOSE to pulling a root out. Admittedly I ONLY used my hand, no screwdriver/pocket-knife, etc. Came inside and ordered a paint brush set for painting some glyphosate :lol:


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Better shots of what I'm facing. Not sure what the flowering weed is but I've got a good bit of that, too. Pulled one out and it reminded me of the deadnettle I pulled out during the reno, but it doesn't look the same. No plan of attack at the moment, kinda waiting for the grass to start growing before I do anything.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Hand-picked a garbage-bag full of the flowering weed yesterday. It came up really easy and was very satisfying to pull, so it was 3 or so hours well spent. I also got to have my son out there pulling with me. He doesn't pull up by the roots, but I stay close and pull up the roots of the weed he last pulled so I don't miss any.

This was the state of things PRIOR to pulling. Looks terrible. Shouldn't have skipped pre-em (assuming pre-em would have taken care of these).



I didn't take an "after" picture because we had company that arrived as I was wrapping up.

We also took out the probe and pulled some soil plugs to send into the lab. Hoping to see that I've either maintained or improved the levels from our last test in Fall of 2019, since things were looking pretty good except for a minor Phos deficiency.

I also learned in the Weed ID thread thanks to @Agiuliano10 that the weed above is not poa annua, but instead Star of Bethlehem. Still sort of an annoying weed to have since it grows via bulbs and is impossible to hand pull. I plan on spraying the back yard with 2,4D soon and I'm going to hit the Star as well and hope it responds. If not, I'll either dig it out or use glyphosate, both of which will require seeding but the latter seems less invasive since I won't need to fill holes.

Itching to get a mow in and start hitting the lawn with FAS, N, PGR and Humic. But our second kiddo was just born so time is definitely tight.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Got a mow in at 1" a few days ago. I was surprised that the grass had already grown so much (I shouldn't have been that surprised, soil temps are well above 55F now). I do not think I'll be able to maintain 1" this season as our second son was just born so we now have a toddler and a newborn to care for. Mows every 3-4 days won't be possible, I don't think. I plan to raise HOC to 1.5" and maybe even 2" to give myself a little more time between mows. But I'm going to wait and see what the PGR does before I make any definitive decisions.

I also put down .25lb/M N from urea, .5oz/M PGR, and my FAS cocktail all at once yesterday. One thing I need to invest in is better spray nozzles but the nozzle thread is overwhelming and I haven't had time to do proper research. I am sure I'm losing product to drift, but I still see results so this research is not yet urgent.

I also spread 2lbs/M Bayer's 24hr Grub Killer and plan to go down with Scott's Grub-Ex later in the Spring.

Here's the lawn after the mow but before spray:





Will have to post a pic in a day or two to see if we have any good color change from the spray cocktail.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Things have been looking decent so for this season. I haven't put anything down since my last update. Been mowing at 1.5" and trying to push the mows to every 5 days or so. I'm bad at tracking my mows, but I can't remember the last time I mowed before today and the clippings weren't bad at all. The PGR seems to be doing its job. Only place that's constantly bad is the sunny side of the house, and I plan to put a garden bed there eventually because there shouldn't be grass right up against the house anyway.


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## SOLARSUPLEX (Aug 4, 2020)

How are things going with the new little one and trying to keep ontop of the grass? I'm finding my PRG is growing faster than i can keep up and i'm going down the road of PGR research. Were you overall happy with the way PGR worked on your ryegrass last year?


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

SOLARSUPLEX said:


> How are things going with the new little one and trying to keep ontop of the grass? I'm finding my PRG is growing faster than i can keep up and i'm going down the road of PGR research. Were you overall happy with the way PGR worked on your ryegrass last year?


Hey! I have not been able to do literally anything since the 27th of March besides mow. Did a little weeding in the garden bed, and actually planted a tree today in the strip on the side of the house, but no apps or anything. Surprisingly the grass is looking pretty good, but yes it's 100% out of regulation and growing like crazy. I am mowing every like 2-5 days (crazy range because I basically run out there if I find myself with some free time), and if I go the full five I definitely am taking off too much, but it still ends up looking decent. Since I haven't sprayed any post emergent there's a good bit of little stuff out there (clover, bittercress) but not enough to really make things look terrible. I also haven't turned on irrigation yet.

Here's a recent shot from 1-2 mows ago.



As for the PGR, Im very happy with the T-NEX I got. I definitely can tell a difference, and every 3 weeks seemed to be perfect for me. I think my sweet spot was around .60oz/k even though .75 is the upper threshold. Might change depending on HOC. I went down at .5 on 3/27 and felt the regulation was less but still very helpful. I would 100% add it in to your program, it's easy to throw down when I do my N and FAS spray, so if you do something similar go for it. If you were close by I'd sell you some of mine.

Here's the new tree:



Did a little bit of weeding/edging recently. More weeding to do, but was battling a 2 year old that LOVES stepping on the edges of the beds with all his weight. I hate getting annoyed at little stuff like that but natural edges are a pain because there's like no way to repair them once they're ruined and I only have so much flat yard as it is!


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## MNLawnGuy1980 (May 10, 2019)

Congrats on the addition to the family @GrassOnTheHills, very exciting!

Don't be too concerned about the edging getting ruined, because they more than likely will anyways. I was talking to our 10 year old the other day and I looked down and she was half on the grass, half over the edge. I just kind of grimaced inside knowing I have asked her 500 times not to walk on the edges. Oh well

Grass and edging look great by the way


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## SOLARSUPLEX (Aug 4, 2020)

Great to hear things are on cruise control and just doing well. Thanks for the info about the T Nex as well! The tree and edging look really nice.


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## zeus201 (Aug 30, 2017)

PRG is looking great. I'm hoping my Pangea PRG starts looking better with nice weather ahead


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

MNLawnGuy1980 said:


> Congrats on the addition to the family @GrassOnTheHills, very exciting!
> 
> Don't be too concerned about the edging getting ruined, because they more than likely will anyways. I was talking to our 10 year old the other day and I looked down and she was half on the grass, half over the edge. I just kind of grimaced inside knowing I have asked her 500 times not to walk on the edges. Oh well
> 
> Grass and edging look great by the way


Thank you! It's good to know he'll be doing it even at the age of 10, means I shouldn't even bother wasting my time trying to teach him not to now, haha. Appreciate the kind words, especially from someone with a lawn as nice as yours!


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

SOLARSUPLEX said:


> Great to hear things are on cruise control and just doing well. Thanks for the info about the T Nex as well! The tree and edging look really nice.





zeus201 said:


> PRG is looking great. I'm hoping my Pangea PRG starts looking better with nice weather ahead


Thank you both! @SOLARSUPLEX I'm trying to figure out why I don't get notified of your journal entries. I'm subscribed but haven't seen one in a long time despite you posting a bunch. Either way, going to go check out yours now!


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Got out the other day and laid some double-singles on the non-hilly portion of the lawn, at least to the best of my manual reel's ability. The lawn continues to get compliments and while I'm happy with where it's at with such minimal input, I am not happy with the weed activity, and the color is beginning to fade since my .25lb/M app on 3/27, which is not surprising. Man, I just need a little more time! Hoping to get some post-M and a spray in before temps really take off and I'm unable to anymore. Also, I imagine I should start watching soil temps for my second app of pre-M.

Double-singles (kinda):


Sniped my mailman taking pics of the lawn. He's a super cool dude who has always been a supporter of the lawn (he saw me kill the old one, install irrigation and seed this one), so it was pretty funny catching him.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Had to post because the lawn is in extra horrible state haha. So far this season:

- haven't been able to be outside for basically anything but mowing once a week. As a result, HOC is currently around 3" with the rotary. 
- minimal inputs. I've done two cocktail sprays. One in May and one in June. Missed second split app of prodiamine and starting to see results of that
- had tree work done in back yard. Had the guys put down mats to protect the yard from the machines. Well, on a 96 degree day, that scorched the yard in less than 2 hours. Bet ya can't tell where!
- had about 15-20 cicada killers born this year. Almost couldn't mow the lawn. Luckily with better grass coverage this year I think they've mostly abandoned my yard for a place they can more easily dig. But I still have about 4 burrows where there are big mounds of dirt. If you don't know what these are, Google em! They're a wild creature.

Anyway, that's my 2021 spring season in a nutshell. Looking forward to fall where I can hopefully drop my HOC back to around 1" and do a solid overseed.
-


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## SOLARSUPLEX (Aug 4, 2020)

Still looking good! You'd be surprised how fast the lawn bounces back after it gets burnt like in your pics. Do you plan to overseed with the same seed that you put down?


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

SOLARSUPLEX said:


> Still looking good! You'd be surprised how fast the lawn bounces back after it gets burnt like in your pics. Do you plan to overseed with the same seed that you put down?


Haha thanks! I'm curious to see how it responds. I threw down an arbitrary amount of fert today (eye balled 10 lbs for .5lb/M) to hopefully give it some energy to bounce back.

Yeah, probably going to overseed with the Champion GQ annually until I run out. I think I have like 30lbs, so that would take me like 2 seasons at 3lbs/M on front and back. I actually have a new establishment seeding I'll be doing in the back yard this Fall, so it probably won't even last me 2 years. I'll have to take pics of that area soon. Was going to have a tiered garden bed installed but got quoted $17-20k to do that, so that's not happening. Grass it is, for now.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Well, I decided this morning that I'm going to need to throw in the towel on this low mow stuff. I just don't have the time. It's all good though, I'm pretty happy with the decision. I ordered some GCI TTTF this morning and plan to overseed that in a week or so. Between now and then, I need to mow really low, do some serious leveling, probably go down with some speed zone and tenacity to try and get a bit of weeds killed (I have tons of clover) and maybe some pre-emergent effect. Then I'll go down with 6-8lbs of the TTTF per k (probably on the lower end, so I have a few lbs to play with if I have runoff on the hill). I have 25lbs of unopened Champion GQ PRG that I can use in an emergency... Didn't feel like spending more than $100 on seed to get 50 or so lbs while I have that still in my basement.

The long and short of it is that PRG was a mistake in my climate and more importantly the micro-climate of my lawn. Our lawn is one big hill that faces the sun all day. PRG, even with irrigation, wasn't up to the task in my opinion. Of course I didn't give it much love this year, either, with a newborn and toddler. But that's mainly why I made the choice to start mowing higher -- I don't have the time to dedicate now, nor will I in the future (we may want 1-2 more kiddos haha).

Will be updating (hopefully) this journal with pics of the process, so stay tuned!


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## SOLARSUPLEX (Aug 4, 2020)

At least you are able to admit the scope and priorities have changed and work with it rather than attempt to maintain the low cut and manage the other responsibilities. I'm sure it will look great with the TTTF in there. I'm regretting not including KBG in my lawn because of its repairing aspects. I MIGHT overseed with some in the front but unsure how it will do in competition with the fast growing PRG.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

SOLARSUPLEX said:


> At least you are able to admit the scope and priorities have changed and work with it rather than attempt to maintain the low cut and manage the other responsibilities. I'm sure it will look great with the TTTF in there. I'm regretting not including KBG in my lawn because of its repairing aspects. I MIGHT overseed with some in the front but unsure how it will do in competition with the fast growing PRG.


I always told myself that if I was to overseed KBG, I'd put down glyphosate on the PRG like 3 days before seed down with the KBG and then if I still wanted PRG in there, put seed down for the PRG after like 21 days of the KBG being down there. Idk if anyone has ever done that, but it feels like a cool way to use both seeds' germination time frames to your advantage but not have a dead lawn for too long


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Dethatched this weekend and the ground is looking really good for seed down soon. Temperatures are now in the 70s and 80s with soil temps in the mid 70s (though the hill is probably slightly warmer since it's in the sun all day) which is perfect. Planning to get seed down early this week hopefully after doing a bit of leveling where the trenches settled from the irrigation install last year.

I'm going down with GCI tall fescue. I like Pete and I'm sure it'll be great seed, but admittedly I did virtually no research into it.


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## nickalan620 (May 31, 2020)

My PRG did the same thing. I had low cut and high cut areas that both killed over in the summer. Water couldn't keep em alive and the seed heads were terrible. The TTFF above did very well. (Pic from Aug 15) A little fungus but otherwise fine. I killed the PRG in the front and am doing kbg mono stand. 3 weeks in. Hopefully it does better. Good luck with your seeding!


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

nickalan620 said:


> My PRG did the same thing. I had low cut and high cut areas that both killed over in the summer. Water couldn't keep em alive and the seed heads were terrible. The TTFF above did very well. (Pic from Aug 15) A little fungus but otherwise fine. I killed the PRG in the front and am doing kbg mono stand. 3 weeks in. Hopefully it does better. Good luck with your seeding!


Beautiful, thanks for the encouragement! What HOC is that fescue? I'm hoping to maintain around 2.5"-3".


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## nickalan620 (May 31, 2020)

Its at 2.75 inches.


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## GrassOnTheHills (Jul 3, 2020)

Took this yesterday. Pretty happy with how the seeding project went. Only have 1 app of fert and iron down, hoping for another tomorrow along with some speed zone to knock out the clover.


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