# WaffleMan's 2021 Journal - TTTF (front) & Reel Low BlueBank (back)



## WaffleMan (May 11, 2021)

Hey guys, started getting a little crazy with lawn care and needed a "support" group that can understand the terminology and has the same addiction to lawn care that I have. Neighbors just think I'm some mad scientist in my backyard.

This first post will just be a 2020 recap:

Sold our old 1950s starter home in Feb 2020 that had a Bermuda front lawn where I began to develop my lawn care addiction and acquired a taste for low mowed turf. This was manual reel mowed around 7/8" every other day. 
Pic is Summer 2019


We moved into our new house June 2020, this pic is of the 2nd mow after we moved in, all tall fescue. 


2020 Soil Test:



The backyard was riddled with brownpatch, and lots of the plants had fungus as well since the sprinklers and drip system were tied together in the same zones. Previous owners were watering 45min every single day on the rotors...

I had been planning to do KBG and decided to just do the backyard first. Brought 6yards of 50/50 compost/topsoil in and got it all leveled out after killing, core aerating, and collecting cores. 


Seeded 10lbs of bluebank over my 3.7kft2 backyard, and of course, it downpoured right after, washing away a lot of seed and messing up my leveling job. These pics are Sept 9th 2020



Ended up putting down another yard of soil in the lowest spots and putting another 4lbs of seed down.

Seed took forever to come in, and once it did it pouted for the longest time. But it initially had great color
Nov 27th 2020



Totals for 2020, all from propeat products and menards natural (milo copy) with one 50lb bag of elemental sulfur:


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## Lust4Lawn (Aug 4, 2020)

My backyard is nearly identical in size to yours and I am looking to do a reno of that area this Fall. What did you use to level out the soil? Drag? Powered or manpower? Leveling rake?


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## WaffleMan (May 11, 2021)

See my signature for my google sheets spreadsheet on my product applications for this year. Goal is 5/8" on the bluebank kbg with insanely dark color.

Feb 11th 2021
Excellent color, this got me really excited for this year seeing how dark this was. 


March 21st
Picked up a pair of Jacobsen Tournament Cut 22 on FB marketplace for $540. All the cable controls were way out of adjustment, bednife needed adjusting, needed a backlap, just a bunch of little stuff. Unit #2 is running real good right now, unit #1 I have stolen some parts off of and it also does not stay running after it is started even after I have cleaned the carb, haven't spent too much time on it... I really need a shed to put all my lawn crap. 


2021 Soil Sample Results:
I pulled these cores before any fert this year, idk why it shows April 1st as sample date. But the sulfur did some work! pulled pH down half a point. Hopefully I'll be in the upper 6.X range this fall.



March 26th
Threw down some Scotts Greenmax as my Propeat order hadn't came in yet. 0.67lbN/M on the back (kbg) and 0.43lbN/M on the front (tttf).

March 30th
Front (tttf) is looking decent but the back (KBG) color is horrible, up to this point kbg has been mowed at 1.25" with my Toro rotary. 





April 10th
First mow with the greensmower, did a double cut at 0.75", color is still horrible. Also threw down another 0.65lbN/M on the back (kbg) from the leftover greenmax and some gardnwise 13-13-13. Putting down 0.5lbN every other week from here on out on the backyard. 


April 14th
2.5tsp Tenacity for the backyard (kbg). had a little poa and random grassy weeds, little henbit. I skipped my prodiamine this year so the kbg would have maximum spreading potential.

April 24th
0.53lbN/M on the back (kbg) from Propeat 13-5-8, as well as 130oz of Gravity L Micro over my entire 6.7kft2. I got scared with the amount of Gravity L Micro I put down and ended up running the sprinklers about 45min after application. Didn't see any response from the application whatsoever in terms of green up probably due to washing it off so quick.

April 25th
50lb bag of elemental sulfur over the entire yard

April 28th
Obligatory pic of my fert stash that has been growing, I have TNex my brother let me borrow waiting to go on the back but wanting the color to look better before I apply.


April 29th
Made my way all the way down to .5" scalp so I can maintain at 5/8". You can see some of my color problem in the up close pic where the thicker blades laying over are an ugly blue-green, while the more upright skinnier (younger?) blades are a much more healthier looking green.





April 30th
5oz Speedzone mixed with 2.5tsp Tenacity sprayed on the backyard (kbg). I messed up and basically did two trim passes closest to the house, super easy to tell in later pics, the grass is just cooked. But I tell you what, Speedzone destroyed everything except my poa, I sprayed some neighbors yards that had tons of weeds and it wrecked them within 12hours, quality product.

May 3rd
.43lbN/M from Propeat 13-5-8 on the front (tttf)

May 8th
.53lbN/M from Propeat 13-5-8 on the back (kbg)

May 12th
5/8", been mowing every other day. You can see how the grass is toasted closet to the house from the Speedzone/tenacity messup. And also all the bumps and ridges the washout I had fall 2020 caused when it moved a bunch of my soil and seed.


May 13th
Tank mixed 15oz (weight) of dry powder Main Event 6-0-0 (10%Fe), and 40oz (volume) of Gravity L Micro (4%Fe), sprayed entire 6.7kft2 with it at lunch time since I am still working from home at the moment. I am leaving it set on the leaf until morning, front (tttf) sprinklers will be running in the morning and the back will be getting a mow probably over lunch. I checked on everything before the sun went down and I think there is going to be some pretty dramatic results tomorrow from the iron application.


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## WaffleMan (May 11, 2021)

Lust4Lawn said:


> My backyard is nearly identical in size to yours and I am looking to do a reno of that area this Fall. What did you use to level out the soil? Drag? Powered or manpower? Leveling rake?


Manpower, moved the 6yards by wheelbarrow and shovel, it sucked. My brother welded up a leveling rake that I drug around over and over until I was happy with how it all looked. Obviously the rain ruined my leveling. I will be doing sand this fall after core aeration and collection of cores.


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## WaffleMan (May 11, 2021)

If anyone has any advice on my bluebank's lack of color feel free to help me out. I know the speedzone/tenacity and the scalping to 0.5" didn't help but even before all that the color was just horrible this spring. When it was still pouting coming out of winter maybe it was acting like pgr controlled hence the real dark color? It's only when it finally started growing real good it lost its color, I was thinking maybe its a maturity thing as well but it sure had great color in November last year only being a month or two old.

I have also been collecting all the clippings while reel mowing thus far but didn't collect on May 12th. Not sure which I should be doing on the reel low turf. Will probably be moving forward without collecting unless I hear a good reason to collect. Also I pulled a plug last week to check root depth and the kbg is already down to 4".


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## WaffleMan (May 11, 2021)

Tons of rain these past few weeks, here are my updates.

May 15th: Decent color response from the Main Event 6-0-0 and Gravity L Micro that was applied on the 13th.


May 23rd: 
Azoxy 50 WDG .3oz/M on front TTTF, .4oz/M on back KBG
Tnex .75oz/M on front TTTF, .45oz/M on back KBG
Main Event 6-0-0 2oz/M on entire yard


May 25th:
Brown patch (I think?) I found on the north side of the house where it is always shaded, glad I got the Azoxy down when I did.



Been maintaining the back kbg at 5/8" for awhile now.


May 28th:
This is where things start to go downhill... Found dollar spot in the kbg, so I mowed and put Propiconazole 14.3 down at 2oz/M only on the kbg, not knowing I needed to water it in right away to avoid PGR effects, I just assumed foliar disease -> leave the product on the leaf as long as possible.
I also put down .5lbN/M from ProPeat 13-5-8 over the entire lawn, also did not water it in as we were getting tons of rain so I figured I shouldn't add more water to the soggy lawn and just let the next rain take care of it. 

At least the triple wides looked decent.


May 31st:
Leaf burn from leaving the fertilizer sit without watering in, it's really bad around the perimeter where I had the edge guard on. I'm also afraid I'm severely over regulated with the Tnex and Prop14.3 apps, definitely not where I want to be going into the hot summer.


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## WaffleMan (May 11, 2021)

I was planning on switching back and forth with Azoxy & Prop14.3 for my fungicide this year, but after finding that dollar spot in the back kbg I ordered Clearys 3336F thinking I would just put the Azoxy and Prop14.3 down together like my own version of Headway G and switch that mixture back and forth with the Clearys... I have also read that if your lawn is getting enough N it shouldn't be getting dollar spot, so I'm not too sure what to do for fungicide now. I'm in southeast Kansas, everyone here has TTTF and brown patch is the main issue, I would prefer not having to do something different for the front lawn(tttf) vs the back (kbg). If anyone has any suggestions on a fungicide program for me I'm all ears.


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## JerseyGreens (Aug 30, 2019)

Backyard Reno looks great. Good to see a fellow BlueBank Monostand journal. My front was reno-ed last Fall with BlueBank. It's coming along just like yours is.

I'm following!


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## WaffleMan (May 11, 2021)

JerseyGreens said:


> Backyard Reno looks great. Good to see a fellow BlueBank Monostand journal. My front was reno-ed last Fall with BlueBank. It's coming along just like yours is.
> 
> I'm following!


Thanks man! I tried really hard to get Jacklin Seed's "After Midnight" kbg seed but I couldn't guarantee that I would have had it in time for planting last fall. If the bluebank does good over the summer I think I will smoke off the tttf in the front and do the after midnight this fall.


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## WaffleMan (May 11, 2021)

Ordered a digital tach off amazon to check my mower's engine rpm, was sitting right at 2910rpm, I have the Toro SR 21386 with the B&S 163cc engine. Toro website says engine rpm is 2900rpm+/-100, which 2900rpm translates to a blade tip speed of just under 16,000fpm. Looking at the commercial 21" toro mowers I found they say 3300rpm+/-100. I bent the throttle tab and brought up the revs to 3200rpm and it sounded healthy and smooth, blade tip speed would be ~17,600fpm at that engine rpm. I went ahead and bent it more and got it up to 3360rpm, engine "sounds" not as good to me, I will probably take it back down to 3300 or 3200rpm and mow with it set there and see how it does. 3300 engine rpm is ~18,130fpm blade tip speed, which all the commercial toro 21" mowers claim 18,000+ for their blade tip speed so figured it would be a good place to leave it.


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## 01Bullitt (Aug 31, 2020)

That front yard looks awesome, especially when that sexy Terminator Cobra is exposed!


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## WaffleMan (May 11, 2021)

01Bullitt said:


> That front yard looks awesome, especially when that sexy Terminator Cobra is exposed!


Thanks man, if it weren't for this darn lawn hobby the car probably wouldn't be on jackstands for such long periods of time haha.


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## WaffleMan (May 11, 2021)

Tried out Lesco's 12-0-0 liquid iron and fertilizer on 6/04 on the backyard, it had a great color response.

Got a mow in tonight and also threw down another 0.5lbN/M on the backyard from propeat 13-5-8, watered it in immediately this time so no leaf burn! :x


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## WaffleMan (May 11, 2021)

Been awhile since I updated:

6/10
Front (TTTF): Lesco 12-0-0 7.3floz/M, Gravity L Micro 5.6floz/M, Tnex .27floz/M, splash of NIS
Back (KBG): Lesco 12-0-0 8.1floz/M. Gravity L Micro 6.0floz/M, Tnex .25floz/M, splash of NIS, pinch of citric acid, but wasn't needed as something had already yanked the pH of the tank down. (reason for the weird amounts /M is due to having a small amount of product leftover in the backpack sprayer after I finished either the back or the front, so I back calculated what actually got put on the lawn)

6/12
The combo of all that iron in the Lesco 12-0-0 and Gravity L Micro basically turned the TTTF black, kbg wasn't effected much. 



6/15 after a mow, looks nice and dark when its 9pm haha


6/19
Tried my hand at spraying foliar urea for the first time, I got some horrible tip burn on the TTTF a few day later but the KBG seemed mostly unfazed, didn't get a response from either for some reason though. Sprayed at 7:30am (75F, 77%humidity) and ran the sprinklers at noon (90F, 50%humidity). I will be much more careful with Urea in the future after this experience. 
Front (TTTF): 0.19lbN/M from Urea with .75gal/M water 
Back (KBG): 0.18lbN/M from Urea with .81gal/M water

6/21
Both front and back: 1floz/M Propiconazole watered in immediately to avoid PGR effects.

The combo of upper 90s everyday, Tnex, and then the foliar urea in the sun/heat/and with not enough carrier really took it's toll on the TTTF, it isn't growing hardly at all and the tips are just wrecked, this is with a freshly sharpened blade as well. If I do use tnex on the tttf again it will probably be at .1oz/M once the TTTF has rebounded from this damage. I didn't get a picture of the whole lawn but the tttf looks brown/bronze from all the fried tips. 



6/25
Cut the tttf down a notch to try to get rid of the ugliness, only did this because we are about to have cooler temps and lots of rain starting tonight. My granular fert burn mishap is finally showing its ugly face in the tttf as well, took a really long time to surface. This is why you don't let fert granules sit on a lawn overnight. You can clearly see how bad it was at the property line with the edge guard on, echo rb60. 


Will be removing the flower bed that is in the middle of the yard when I nuke and go to seed kbg this fall.


My nutsedge infestation I have been struggling with, just got the 1.3oz bottle of sedgehammer in a couple days ago, need to get the whole yard sprayed as its coming up everywhere like crazy. 






Fert burn still visible in the kbg, and where all the water runs to the bottom of the valley when we have big storms isn't too happy either, I assume the kbg doesn't like being so wet all the time in the valley. Might try to grade it a little when I'm doing the sand leveling or when I bring a little dirt in for the front to level it. 


Ignore the ugly riverbirch, we are going to have it removed and a new one planted, this one is 10yrs old, it is so sickly. We moved into this house last year so don't know too much about it other than its age and that it never has done very well. Also the small tree at the bottom of the pic got wrecked from the extreme temps this past winter, it is started to come back from the bottom so I will let it do its thing for now. 


Looks like im getting a nice wear trail from the greensmower, I might be selling this mower and try to pick up something else... Will plan on slamming the N this fall to get it to fill in and get it sand leveled as well.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Is there a concrete pipe underneath the grass in the backyard? If so, you will struggle to keep this area green in the summer heat.


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## WaffleMan (May 11, 2021)

g-man said:


> Is there a concrete pipe underneath the grass in the backyard? If so, you will struggle to keep this area green in the summer heat.


I think so but not sure how deep it is, I was thinking the cause of discoloration is from standing water when it rain really heavy, there is a grated drain right next to the fence in the neighbors lawn to the right where all the drainage water flows. I think I messed up the drainage valley some when I brought in dirt last fall and it got washed out from a heavy rain before my seed had germinated.


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## WaffleMan (May 11, 2021)

Got busy last year with the kids and my front yard renovation, didn't take very many pictures. Will do a quick follow up to capture what all happened at the end of 2021 and get my 2022 journal started.

July 4th
My brother brought over his drone. Last shot of the fescue in the front yard. 


August 21st
After I had nuked the front lawn I wanted the soil level to be as even with the surrounding concrete as possible. So I rented a sod cutter and got to work a lot of dirt. I'm guessing when this house was built the soil was level with the concrete but when the sod was installed it raised it up significantly. 


September 11th
Final grade done, deleted my front flower bed for more lawn to stripe up.


Nov 12th
Back yard is looking pretty good at a much higher HOC, sold my Jacobsen greens mowers as they were way to big and bulky. 


Dec 28th
KBG came in quite nicely. I used the pennigton slopemaster hydromulch pellets to prevent wash from rain and they worked very well.


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