# Togo's 2019 Lawn Journal



## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

Well the 2019 season has begun and I'm gonna make an effort to keep a better journal this year. Last year quite a few people helped me and the knowledge and experience gained has seemed to help a lot as the yard is off to a fairly good start.

I was able to get my pre-emergent down early right as the first forsythia started blooming in my neighborhood. However in doing so I did slip up a small amount and mix up the amount of product for Prodiamine WDG that would be for the front 4,500 sq/ft and apply it for to the rear 3000 sq/ft. Not the end of the world as it's still well under the max dosage for the season since I plan for split apps but now I have to apply the split apps at two separate rates at two separate times. More work for me but I suppose I'll be more cautious next time.

Last weekend I got in my first app of insecticide since the ticks are already out.

My soil samples came back quickly from Waypoint. I mailed it out on a Saturday, they received it Monday, and had my results by Tuesday. @g-man helped with some valuable recommendations based off my results and I went to work today to amend the soil ph. I found some Jonathan Green Mag-I-Cal (fast acting calcitic lime) and applied that to the backyard for now and will do a second round of calcitic lime in a few months. Also added dolomitic lime in the front yard although at a higher rate than waypoint recommends. They recommended 35lbs/M last year as well which is what I followed but my levels remained the same. This year I followed closer to the recommendation on the bag to amend from my current ph which was at about 45lbs/M.

Got a quick mow in since it's grown a lot in the week since I last cut. It's cut at 2 7/8" at the moment. 








The plan going forward from here it to weed the beds and lawn through out the week. I have lots of POA coming up in the lawn even though I did a pre-E last fall. I know I could do off label tenacity but if I can manually pull lots I feel like that will work better overall for control. I also have some Penterra to apply as well. In the last picture you can see I have standing water in one of my beds. We have had lots of rain and my back doesn't dry out well after heavy rainfall so I'm hoping to address a lot of those issues. I think ultimately however I will need to put in some French drains and move water away from the backyard and into the front.


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

Rains is on the way so I went out and did my first app of Penterra at 4oz per 1000 and then watered it in with the hose to make sure it gets at least 50 gals per 1000. Hopefully this works for me as well as it has for a few others. This area of the house stays wet for days after a heavy rainfall. It doesn't get a lot of direct sunlight throughout the day.





The Poa a is driving me nuts. I'm half tempted to glypho areas and just reseed in the fall but I'm sure the seed beds will bring more back next year


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## social port (Jun 19, 2017)

Good to see you back, @Togo. It seems like you've already gotten quite a bit accomplished this year. Those stripes look good.


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

Thanks @social port. Yeah I'm trying to get out ahead of things early and quickly this year. My work schedule is a bit more conducive to getting work done around the house which helps too.

I was looking through your journal the other day and it looks like yours is off and running already!


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

Well we have gotten lots of rain the past few days and it's safe to say the Penterra is working very well. We received in the neighborhood of 3+" of rain in two days after a week of occasional showers and the standing water on the side of the house only lasted about 12 hours after the rain stopped. Normally I'd expect the water to stand there for 2 or more days! I'll definitely be ordering more.


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

After last weeks cut, the mower deck desperately needed to be cleaned out as it was definitely building up very heavily under there. Here is what I pulled out the first time on Monday...



I then proceeded to cut the grass quickly and clean it out again. I wanted to double cut, and with the growth I had, it needed to be double cut but I didn't have the time so I left it for another day. Today after I got home from work I ran out and gave it a quick mow and decided to mix things up a little and do double wide stripes.





The sun was setting behind me and the lighting isn't great but overall I think the bigger stripes look pretty good and a change is kinda nice.


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

On a separate thought, the Poa a is driving me nuts. I think I read something about spot spraying Tenacity at the 4 fl oz rate and then follow up often with the 2 to oz rate until the heat sets in and hope that the stress and heat kill it off. I'd like to give this a try in an attempt to rid myself of it. Does anyone have any thoughts or recommendations?

Here are a few of the areas I have. I've tried to manually remove some and I've pulled a lot but there is so much. These aren't best pictures to illustrate it but the sun was setting so it was a little difficult. I'll try to get some better pictures later but you get the idea from the light colored spots. Most, but not all, is Poa.









I used Prodiamine last Fall in hopes that I could stop the Poa from returning but it doesn't appear that I was effective. I'm thinking maybe it was poorly timed or I didn't have enough length of coverage, I'm not sure. I applied it on July 28 at a .65lb/acre rate so roughly half of the max dosage. I already did my spring application this year, which was effective last year against crab grass, but I am trying to figure out when I should apply for fall to stop the Poa or should I also start doing a third application a season with dithiopyr? I know the AI is different but does anyone know if you reach the max dosage of Prodiamine per season can you still use Dithiopyr. I presume it's basically the same mode of action? I'm just concerned I could damage the grass. I mean, I _think_ it would be ok since they are different AIs but I could just as easily be wrong. Would this be a better approach to try and control it by having more than say 6 months coverage or should I just time my fall application better and not worry about it so much?


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

Went out today to assess some troubling spots I noticed the other day when I cut. I've been seeing some red thread showing up. I've gotten this pretty much every year I've lived in the house but I'm really trying to be more on top on fungus this year. In all honesty I've only just started attempting to treat it these past two years and am still learning when I even have it. Hopefully this won't have caused too much damage and the fungicide knocks it out quick. 






After identifying my trouble spots, I went and gave a quick cut since I'm expecting rain for a few days and won't get another chance to for a while. Then spot sprayed some Poa a and spot sprayed the red thread. Then I applied my first application of fertilizer this season, a 19-0-19 that I picked up. Put it down at .5lbs/M and will reapply again in two weeks.


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

Nothing major accomplished today but picked up some organic fertilizer from Island Bio Greens today and applied some of their Bio Hume G (granular humic) to the lawn. I also threw in the last little bit of SOP I had left over from last year. It wasn't much, maybe .5lbs of K per M for the back yard only.


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

Got some spot spraying of Tenacity in yesterday on my Poa spots. Need to spot spray this weekend with some CCO, finish some work in the beds, spray for ticks again, hopefully get down some FAS if I have a chance.


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## Budstl (Apr 19, 2017)

@Togo you like that checkmate? Worth the cost? I have a ferris and it stripes well, but curious if the checkmate would give more define stripes.


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## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

Looking good @Togo. That Tenacity is lighting it up nicely. I spot sprayed it 2 weeks ago and will do a follow up spray this Sunday. I'm using the spot spray label rate of 1 tsp Tenacity + 3 tsp NIS adjuvant + 2 gallon water - 1 gallon per 1k. I don't get that perfect especially when spot spraying.


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

Budstl said:


> @Togo you like that checkmate? Worth the cost? I have a ferris and it stripes well, but curious if the checkmate would give more define stripes.


I like it and for the price it's worth it, IMO. I priced out making essentially the same thing and it was a pretty hefty chunk of change so I just bought the checkmate, with a GCI coupon (10% IIRC).

The Scag stripes pretty well when you side discharge, slightly less so when you put on the mulch baffles and chute block. The checkmate brings all that back, and then some. I think it's definitely been a noticeable improvement.


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

pennstater2005 said:


> Looking good @Togo. That Tenacity is lighting it up nicely. I spot sprayed it 2 weeks ago and will do a follow up spray this Sunday. I'm using the spot spray label rate of 1 tsp Tenacity + 3 tsp NIS adjuvant + 2 gallon water - 1 gallon per 1k. I don't get that perfect especially when spot spraying.


On the initial application I did the 4oz/acre rate, 1/2tsp of Tenacity with 1.5tsp NIS in 1gal of water but for the follow up application I only did a 2oz/acre rate, 1/4tsp Tenacity with 3/4tsp NIS in 1gal water.

I read a plan of attack for Poa here that recommended doing a full rate for initial dose and then roughly half rate for each subsequent dose there after for about 10 applications, spaced out roughly 5 days apart. I'm hoping that this will injure it enough that come the summer heat it just dies out. I picked up some dithiopyr so that I can do split apps between that and the prodiamine for better coverage throughout the year. Hopefully next year I see a lot less of it.


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

So earlier this week I got in a much needed mow. Had to raise the height up to 3 3/8" for the first cut because it had grown a lot. Then I lifted the deck and proceeded to drop the blades for a sharpening and clean out the deck before installing and setting it back to 2 7/8" HOC.

I saw @GrassDaddy's video about the All American Sharpener and it was exactly what I had been looking for so I picked one up by the end of his video. Also cheaper than the alternative of buy something a like 1/2HP Oregon sharpener plus attachments to sharped wavy mulching blades.

So I grabbed my wavy blades which have been off the mower since last summer and gave them a sharpen, and sure enough they came out much better than my by hand skills have done. I then hit up my G5's off the mower and those came out great as well. So for anyone considering it, excellent purchase.

I didn't grab any pictures while sharpening but I did remember to when I was wire brushing them and balancing. 




Then after my cut I got down another application of the 19-0-19. It's got a lot of added micro-nutrients so I'm pretty happy with this stuff and hoping it helps a lot to amend the soil.

I also did an application of a home brew kelp and humic mix.

Yesterday I spent some time programming my Rachio 3 controller and moved some heads around, replaced others, and raised a few. I have a few more to replace and raise but overall pretty happy with that. I'm going to spend a lot of time with the sprinkler system this year because I've decided that next year I'm gonna Reno the backyard. Some areas need to be regraded and a lot of soil needs to be brought in to do it so no reason not to do it all at once.

Oh and also got some edging/redefining of my beds in the front as well as got some preen in the beds. That was quick and easy though

End result...

You can see the tenacity spots of Poa. Don't know if it's worth continuing to attack it now if I'm going to Reno it next year anyways.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Those are some beautiful stripes


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

g-man said:


> Those are some beautiful stripes


Thanks g-man :thumbup:


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## ctrav (Aug 18, 2018)

Never heard of wavy blades...all I was thinking is boy those blades are shot :lol:


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

ctrav said:


> Never heard of wavy blades...all I was thinking is boy those blades are shot :lol:


This will give you better of idea of the "wave".



It's used for mulching.


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## ctrav (Aug 18, 2018)

Togo said:


> ctrav said:
> 
> 
> > Never heard of wavy blades...all I was thinking is boy those blades are shot :lol:
> ...


Could be interesting...will it work on a Toro ZTR?


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

ctrav said:


> Togo said:
> 
> 
> > ctrav said:
> ...


It might. Those blades are what come with my mulch kit from Scag for my mower but I've switched them over to gator blades which have also worked really well in the kit. Toro may use something similar in a mulch kit.


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

Sprayed some FAS about two days ago and got a pretty good response. It's only been 4 days since the last mow but I definitely broke the 1/3 rule with today's mow. Changed up the stripes a bit but not nearly as straight as it could be.


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

Nothing significant to add but mowed yesterday and raised HOC to 3 1/4". Today we've gotten lots of rain so I still haven't needed to use my irrigation yet this season.


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## ctrav (Aug 18, 2018)

Togo said:


> Nothing significant to add but mowed yesterday and raised HOC to 3 1/4". Today we've gotten lots of rain so I still haven't needed to use my irrigation yet this season.


Excellent stripes...


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

Thanks @ctrav 👍🏻


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

Idk of it was all the rain or what we got the other day but after only three days it needed a cut again so I gave it a quick once over. Snapped this photo quick as I left to pick up the little one. It was cool to see the stripes from 3 days ago still present after the cut.


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

Not much to report lately. Been very busy with work and with all the rain we got this past week the lawn was growing like crazy. Got a cut in today and it's looking good but I worry with the heat we're starting to see and violating the 1/3 rule. Today was definitely a cut in half type mow at 3 1/4".


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## ctrav (Aug 18, 2018)

Looks beautiful!


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

ctrav said:


> Looks beautiful!


Thank you!😊


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## VALawnNoob (Jun 9, 2020)

@Togo I don't know if you are still active on this board but how are the results of Penterra after 2 years? I know you had some short term success but not sure if the problem still exist today.


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

@VALawnNoob it worked well but I'd reapply every couple months. However it was more of a temporary fix and ultimately I decided to completely renovate my lawn this year starting with regrading my whole back yard so water pitched away from my house. I also added a French drain in one spot that didn't drain well.





Germination day 6


Day 32


Day 45


Day 51


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## VALawnNoob (Jun 9, 2020)

Oh my, those are some amazing results! :thumbup:

I'm trying to avoid it at all cost right now but after next season I may have to face the truth


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

My entire backyard pitched at the house and under my deck which would cause a river running along my foundation as it traveled around the house. 12 yards of topsoil to raise the yard level along the deck to cause it to pitch around the house, and any run off to run towards the drains.


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

VALawnNoob said:


> @Togo I don't know if you are still active on this board but how are the results of Penterra after 2 years? I know you had some short term success but not sure if the problem still exist today.


@VALawnNoob Sorry for the very late response.

Short term it did manage to work noticeably well but it was ultimately a short term fix for a long term problem. In the end when I reno'd the area I re pitched everything so that water wouldn't pool as much up against the house but would flow towards the front yard where I places a French drain that feeds into a dry well and pop up over flow down grade in the front. I'm keeping a close eye on it this spring as the rain starts and if I need to use again I won't hesitate but I believe the problem will be mostly solved with grade now.

To give you an idea, of what I mean, this was from a summer rain storm we had. You can see where it all collected at the fence, which is we're I installed the French drain to run out to the front. Hopefully the regrade and drain solve it.


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