# coreystooks Lawn Journal



## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Time to get going with another season. Didn't do much at the end of the season last year as me and my wife had our first baby at the end of September. I went into dormacy at 5/8" on the reel low area and 2.5" on the big area. A couple of weeks ago I ran over the main area at 0.5" to clean it up, and then last week got the 15" Sun Joe dethatcher and tested it on half of the backyard and then scalped that section to 3/8". The Sun Joe made it extremely easy to scalp afterwards due to how much it thinned it out. I hope to get started on the rest of it sometime this week as well as getting my big area scalped. Also got to get prodiamine down ASAP the weather just hasn't cooperated with my schedule lately.

The section I did my little test scalp on

Quite a bit of rye survived the two MSM apps as well as an Alabama summer and is showing bad

Main yard as it sits now


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Finally got prodiamine down this morning, going to try to get my scalp done within the next week or two.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Got the backyard scalped down to 3/8" this morning, just doing everything in sections as I get the time for it.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Finally got everything down to 3/8". I got around 35 40 gal bags of material off it plus filled this tarp up 3 times, bermuda is insane. Also everything on the tarp is just from going from 0.4" to 3/8".


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

First cut at 0.4" after scalping, getting a lot of green.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Second cut this week at 0.4". Really filling in and greening up good, going to try to drop some fert this weekend. Excuse the little bit of poa in the front.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Put out 8 lbs/1000 of 13-13-13 this morning with rain moving in here in a little bit.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Cut at 0.4" this morning


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## jasonbraswell (Aug 18, 2019)

Wow! Nicely greening up. Still behind over here


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Forgot to get pics but mowed today. Probably going to put down some PGR in the morning as it is starting to get away from me a little bit even mowing twice a week. Also seedheads already going crazy.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

PGR Iron and Urea this morning. Ran 0.15 oz of PGR, 6oz of iron, and 0.10 lbs of N. Grass looking pretty rough due to seedheads.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Spread 50 lbs of urea on the big area after work today with some rain moving in to get it watered in good. Should be right around 1 lbs of N per 1000. Finally got to test out my newest toy, got it for $50 and just had to put a few parts on but in it for less than $100 just got to get that crack on the hopper fixed. Now I see why everyone wants one of these it's like a Cadillac compared to cheap spreaders.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Been seeing signs of dollar spot so put down the high rate of eagle 20 this morning.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Freshened up the pine straw with some Envirocolor dye and man does does this stuff look good. It'll be interesting to see how long it lasts.

Before



After


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Full property spray this morning. Ran 0.25 oz of PGR, 0.15 lbs of N, 6 oz of iron, and 0.25 oz of BIfen XTS on the main yard then ran 0.25 lbs of N on big yard as well as 0.25 oz of Bifen XTS.

Got some aerial shots to update grow in progress. We're getting so close going to keep up the nitrogen better this year and hopefully get it all the way. Also threw in a shot from July 2020 to compare.





July 2020


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Mow this morning, still maintaining 0.4" and just chugging right along.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Just pics from mowing this morning.


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## robbybobby (May 15, 2017)

When are you going to introduce a triplex to your garage?


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

@robbybobby trust me I want one especially once the big area is fully grown in. If I go that route though I'm going to have to bring in a lot of sand as that whole area is pretty rough.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

PGR, urea, iron, and Celsius this morning. Going on vacation next week so bumped the PGR rate up to 0.38oz/1000 to really slow it down. Added the Celsius to clear our some crabgrass that is coming up due to my late Pre-e application, also wanted to see if it would do anything to the few spots of ryegrass that are sticking around in the backyard.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Did a down and back double cut this morning before heading on vacation, seeing some bronzing from heavier PGR app so it should be shut down pretty good.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

2nd cut after getting back from vacation. Still maintaining 0.4" but about to verticut and bump it to 0.5" once there's some rain in the forecast. Did a little test verticut on my small side section and got a much cleaner cut. I need to measure but I would say the actual HOC pre-verticut was 0.5" or higher due to the thickness of the turf and the mower floating on top.





Verticut section


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Doing some irrigation work and just had to share this picture. This hole is about 12" deep and the roots in the bottom of the hole go down even further. This area is outside my fence and although it does get cut with the reel that is really all I do to it. It get's pre-e and a little bit of fertilizer but nothing else, none of this fancy root growth stuff, humic acid, carbon, nothing. And all of this in thick red clay that everyone thinks is horrible. Sorry for the little rant I just think it's crazy the money you see people spend on all these products when if you just let the grass do its thing it will do just fine.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Verticut the rest of the front this morning and cleaned up with the rotary, going to go over it with the reel tomorrow morning.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Put a new roller on the Jake. Been wanting to get a golfco roller but they've gotten just a little above my price range. So I went with this poly 3" roller that's meant for a 2653a cutting unit. Really excited to try it out in the morning.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

What a difference it makes. The mower tracks better and the wider grooves really allow it to get the HOC true. The section in the picture still hasn't been verticut and it did not float one time whereas with the old roller it was dancing all over the place. Grass build up is significantly less also. I also bumped the HOC up to 0.5".


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

First time mowing during the day, the front is recovering good from verticut. Verticut and scalped the back as well. Not going to do it on the side yard to see how it does with it.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

The lawn is looking great!


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Interesting week this week. Sprayed PGR and iron Monday, then Tuesday morning as I was almost finished mowing the front the alternator on the Jake gave out leaving it dead. Now we've gotten 4" of rain since then with the mower on the sidelines. Back to the mower, I've ordered the parts to do a full battery conversion since a new alternator is $2k, there's a a guy in the Jacobsen facebook group that has done this conversion and I'm following his method so hopefully everything turns out good. I think I'm going to go ahead and spray another dose of TNEX to try to keep it under control until I get the Jake back going.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Got the battery conversion mostly done still have to tidy up the wiring but I just got it to where I could mow this morning. It works great it's very quiet all you hear is the grass being cut and a slight hum from the motors. I'm confident that it can double cut my 12K sq ft easily. Also talked to local seed supplier yesterday and they should be getting their ryegrass in any day now and prices will be much better than last year, only $114 a bag. They usually get Champion GQ but looks like they're only getting Sunrise Primo which based on what I've read is a really seed as well.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

PGR at 0.25oz this morning.


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## Boy_meets_lawn (Sep 27, 2020)

Looking really nice.

You may be able to rebuild the old alternator or have someone like ozark fairways do it and recoup some money. What was the total cost of the electric conversion? Battery powered reel would allow me to mow whenever I wanted and the price would probably come in cheaper than the consumer options that don't seem to hold up to normal use.


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## robbybobby (May 15, 2017)

+1 on the battery conversion. Any reason why the same couldn't happen with a flex 2100?


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

@Boy_meets_lawn well I was planning on pulling it apart just to try to see what went wrong but I can't get it apart. You have to pull the heat sink off to get to the bolts that mount it to the engine but I sweat this thing is jb welded onto it or something. All in it was around $290 and $260 of that was the battery.

@robbybobbywell it would have to be the e-flex because I think that's the only one that has the electric drive motors.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Haven't posted much on the big area. I would say it's about 95% filled in but dealing with a pretty bad goosegrass problem in the areas that were still bare but other than that looking really good. Still have it at 2" HOC.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Sprayed first part of my split app of prodiamine and simazine yesterday morning on the big area so the rain would water it in. Going to spray the parts of the main yard that's not getting PRG next week one day. Did 0.21 oz/k of prodiamine and 0.5 oz/k of simazine.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Put down the same Pre-E mix on the back and side yard this morning and watering it in. Already seeing POA sprout up next to my AC unit on the north side of the house.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

PGR and Iron this morning, most likely last regular app of the season. Looking at the weather forecast I might be shooting for next Sunday or Monday to get the PRG down on the front.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Laid down 0.5 oz/1000 of PGR on the front this morning to get ready for the ryegrass. Wanting to get seed down Monday as the weather forecast looks perfect with no rain and highs in the low 80's and lows in the 50's.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

While verticutting the front this morning couldn't help but admire how good the big area is looking.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Got the PRG down this evening.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Getting good germination now.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Day 10 update, it looks spotty but there is germination everywhere just some spots slower than others. Got another 20 or so pounds of seed on day 2 of pregerminating right now and will throw that down and really thicken it up. I didn't say when I put seed down but I did 7lbs/k the first seeding and with what's left will be another 5lbs/k. Will probably mow it Friday.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

First cut today at 1”. Starting to see cotton tips on seed I’m pregerminating so will put that down tomorrow.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Just threw out the rest of the seed, let’s see how much pregerminating speeds things up.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Day 19 after initial seeding. Second seeding is starting to sprout good, temps have really dropped so I think that slowed germination down some.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Did some double wides for game day. Go Vols!


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Sprayed PGR at 0.35 oz/k this morning.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Rye is too much fun, starting to darken up quite a bit.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Finally got the second round of Pre-e down, had to wait on some rain since the big area isn't irrigated. Same app as before, 0.5 oz/k of Simazine and 0.21 oz/k of prodiamine. The funky looking spot you see is where I scalped down an area in August where there was some goosegrass to try and stress it out. Going to have to watch for that stuff next year.

















Here's what the big area looked like in January of 2021, I really can't believe how much it grew in just this year.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Finally got one


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Forgot to mention last week sprayed 0.25/k of Nitrogen and 6 oz/k of iron on the 31st. 
Just a cut this morning, growing like crazy. 









Love the contrast against the dormant bermuda.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Updated grow in pics on big area, I would say finally 100%.

November 2022









July 2020


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Had time for some checkerboards.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Here’s what the cold temps did to the rye, 1 week difference.


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## Reel_Alabama (Aug 22, 2021)

That's rough, man. I'm in the same boat. Have you read anything on getting it turned around?Are we just done for the winter? I'm going to give her a trim and hope for the best. I'm a bit irritated that the first year I overseed we get once in a hundred years temps. Oh well.


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## Dono1183 (Oct 11, 2021)

Reel_Alabama said:


> That's rough, man. I'm in the same boat. Have you read anything on getting it turned around?Are we just done for the winter? I'm going to give her a trim and hope for the best. I'm a bit irritated that the first year I overseed we get once in a hundred years temps. Oh well.


My prg isn’t an overseed, so I watered it and added fertilizer to it. It’s bouncing back really well as we have had warm temps since the deep freeze. Not sure how fertilizer would affect y’all’s situation though. I would guess it can bounce back given the right conditions.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Reel_Alabama said:


> That's rough, man. I'm in the same boat. Have you read anything on getting it turned around?Are we just done for the winter? I'm going to give her a trim and hope for the best. I'm a bit irritated that the first year I overseed we get once in a hundred years temps. Oh well.


I'm about to hit it with some fert to see if it does anything, I poked around in it yesterday and there is green under the brown so I'm hoping it just scorched the blades. I pulled up some too and the roots seemed okay as well.


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## Reel_Alabama (Aug 22, 2021)

coreystooks said:


> I'm about to hit it with some fert to see if it does anything, I poked around in it yesterday and there is green under the brown so I'm hoping it just scorched the blades. I pulled up some too and the roots seemed okay as well.


Good to hear, I hope it works. Keep us updated. I hit mine with a heavy app 2 or 3 weeks ago. I'm going to hold off on more N but I'm thinking I'll let it come out of regulation. Maybe it will help vertical growth and I'll be able to cut off the yellow.


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## coreystooks (Aug 6, 2019)

Color coming back on the rye, mowed and threw down 1 lbs of N to get it doing again.


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