# Waffleman's 2022 Journal - Bluebank KBG



## WaffleMan (May 11, 2021)

Feb 27th
Baby kbg starting to green up near the house


March 1st
Still waking up slowly


April 6th


April 21st/23rd/24th
Threw down some Lesco 15-3-7, I am liking this fert as it a blend of synthetic and milorganite basically.




May 2nd




May 6th
Little man adding his own stripes haha


May 18th
Leaf spot/melting out, I think this was what was giving me the symptoms of N/Fe deficiency. 


May 21st
I am already at 3lbs of N/k this year. Front yard is at 1.75" and backyard is at 2.75". Thinking of raising the height of the front to get a darker green. Not sure when I will get a powered reel again, maybe in the fall. I am wanting the grass to be much much darker, hoping after it fully recovers from the melting out it will darken more.


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## WaffleMan (May 11, 2021)

I am amazed at how much fert I have put down and I have only been having to mow every 5 days, both on the front yard (1.75") and the back (2.75"). I redid my cup test a week ago just to make sure I'm getting a good amount of water and I am. Rachio is applying .48in per watering session and with crop coefficient set at 1.00 I am getting about 1.5in a week or more. I applied .37oz/k Tnex early may but even before that I was easily able to keep on top of the growth. This kbg just seems to grow much slower than fescue, I have just been pumping it in hopes of darker/better color.

We are about to get a ton of rain here this evening, Tuesday (5/24), and Wednesday (5/25). I might go spray some Tnex and Lesco 12-0-0 w/ Iron over lunch before it all rolls in.


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## bf7 (May 11, 2020)

This is looking dang good in the first year, great job! Regarding your comment in my journal, If you want the darkest lawn possible, definitely do not reel mow. If you want something resembling a golf course but can compromise a bit on color, then do it.

3 lbs of N? Holy cow! So obviously your grass is not starving. And you are definitely on top of watering. My biggest question would be - did you get a soil test? You mentioned something about an iron deficiency. Perhaps that or a funky pH is causing some issues.

Other than that, I would just say be patient. @JerseyGreens Bluebank monostand was slow to green up in year 1, and it looked immaculate by summer time. It could just be the way the cultivar behaves and not really anything you're doing wrong.


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## JerseyGreens (Aug 30, 2019)

@bf7 - thanks for the shootout.

Turf is looking good and yes it's a late riser but once the cultivar gets going it only gets better with summer heat. The blue starts to show it's colors mid summer.


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## WaffleMan (May 11, 2021)

bf7 said:


> This is looking dang good in the first year, great job! Regarding your comment in my journal, If you want the darkest lawn possible, definitely do not reel mow. If you want something resembling a golf course but can compromise a bit on color, then do it.
> 
> 3 lbs of N? Holy cow! So obviously your grass is not starving. And you are definitely on top of watering. My biggest question would be - did you get a soil test? You mentioned something about an iron deficiency. Perhaps that or a funky pH is causing some issues.
> 
> Other than that, I would just say be patient. @JerseyGreens Bluebank monostand was slow to green up in year 1, and it looked immaculate by summer time. It could just be the way the cultivar behaves and not really anything you're doing wrong.


I did soil tests beginning of 2020 and 2021, but did not get one at the beginning of this year, as my 2021 test looked decent and I figured I could just do it by feel this year based on how the plant is responding and get a test next year to check how I'm doing.

I've read how hungry kbg is in it's first year and have seen the Phile's method for growing in kbg the first year like a sod farm so that is why I have been throwing down so much N. My backyard is over a year old though as it was planted in 2020 and I feel like the only reason it is darker is because it is cut at an inch higher.


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## WaffleMan (May 11, 2021)

JerseyGreens said:


> @bf7 - thanks for the shootout.
> 
> Turf is looking good and yes it's a late riser but once the cultivar gets going it only gets better with summer heat. The blue starts to show it's colors mid summer.


I sure hope it gets darker, last year I maintained my backyard at 5/8" and I think it hated me through the summer, was really light in color and didn't really spread at all. As soon as I got rid of the reel mower and took the height up it immediately started to fill in some of the bare spots via rhizomes.. I really like short cut grass but I want the dark color more. Thinking of upping the height so I can get better stripes with my roller as well as a darker color, might do some test strips in the back yard at a range of different heights to see how they look.


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## JerseyGreens (Aug 30, 2019)

I'm at 3/4inch and I had color variations throughout the Summer as well. Usually alerted me that it needed to be fed. Based on NTEP scores BlueBank scores at the very bottom (3.0) for early spring green up compared to it's peers.

Oklahoma was the nearest test site to you and for density ratings it scored near the top (6.0). I can attest that it spreads like wildfire if fed well and the soil is in good shape.

Did you use PGR last year with N and Iron mixed in? That helps a lot.


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## bf7 (May 11, 2020)

WaffleMan said:


> bf7 said:
> 
> 
> > This is looking dang good in the first year, great job! Regarding your comment in my journal, If you want the darkest lawn possible, definitely do not reel mow. If you want something resembling a golf course but can compromise a bit on color, then do it.
> ...


Overall looks pretty good, although a year old and not sure how sulfur levels that high impact turf health.

You should be ok bombing N in spring and fall on a first year lawn. Last year I put down over 7 lbs - 2.4 lbs of which in the spring and nothing in the summer. All of it was fast release and most of it foliar.


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