# This is me actually trying... wtf



## Wjc129 (Aug 24, 2019)

I need some serious help figuring out what is going on in my lawn. 4-5 years ago my lawn was the best in the subdivision, now I am ashamed to tell people I do everything myself. Every year it has gotten worse. About 4 years ago I nuked the backyard after some heavy patio construction and paid someone to come in and level it with topsoil and compost and hydroseed. After 4 years this is what it looks like (pic 3,4,5). A little timeline of what I have done in the last year.

-August - Blanket coverage of Tenacity over lawn to get rid of creeping bentgrass spots, treated some with Glyphosate as well. Once the spots were dead I amended with some new topsoil and seeded.
-October - Treated entire lawn with Scotts Winterizer
-Early April - Scotts fert and pre-em
-Early April - Grubex to treat for grubs and european crane fly larvae
-Mid May - Milorganite, and then a week later treated the front lawn with lawnstar liquid iron. *Note - the lawn did not change any color at all with the iron except for spots in the lawn where it looked like someone dumped motor oil
-Late May - Bayer Complete Insect Treatment still trying to control crane fly and grubs

I am beyond frustrated because I used to dominate and now I am ready to nuke and start over, and my lawn is only 7 years old.

Can anyone identify what is going on in my lawn? I have a ton of Poa Annua that I plan on at least treating with a pre em in a couple months. Can anyone identify what is growing that spreads diagonal pic (6,8,10,11,12)?


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## Babameca (Jul 29, 2019)

You have tons of Poa A, not sure about Trivialis… Soil test, mowing frequency, watering?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I hate saying this, but you need to renovate. That lawn is mostly grassy weeds that need round up. You can try to round up most of the weeds, but I see too many for the area.


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## lawndog (May 12, 2018)

That's triv. Only way to get a handle on that is to roundup in early spring and keep hitting it throughout the summer. You're a little late to be killing that off now as it will only come back early next spring.


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## davegravy (Jul 25, 2019)

lawndog said:


> That's triv. Only way to get a handle on that is to roundup in early spring and keep hitting it throughout the summer. You're a little late to be killing that off now as it will only come back early next spring.


What about solarization?


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## ScottW (Sep 16, 2019)

Wjc129 said:


> Can anyone identify what is going on in my lawn?


This is triv.


This is triv.


This is triv.


This is triv.


This is triv.


This is triv.


This is triv.


Not much will out-compete triv in shady moist areas, and there's not much you can really do to bring it under control short of digging it out or using glyphosate. A renovation is probably in order.
Judging by the seed heads there's also plenty of Poa annua that's been dropping seed that will want to germinate concurrently with a fall seeding.


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## Ohio Lawn (Mar 20, 2019)

ScottW said:


> Wjc129 said:
> 
> 
> > Can anyone identify what is going on in my lawn?
> ...


 @ScottW if he renovated, would applying Tenacity at the time of seeding stop the Poa-A from germinating during a fall seeding?


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## Chris1 (Apr 22, 2020)

agree with everyone.......... smoke it , looks like my US General lime green tool cart. I would look at this as a big opportunity. get rid of all the junk, especially PT . complete reno , level , elite cultivar


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## ScottW (Sep 16, 2019)

Ohio Lawn said:


> @ScottW if he renovated, would applying Tenacity at the time of seeding stop the Poa-A from germinating during a fall seeding?


I've applied Tenacity on fall overseed day and still see Poa A the following spring. The problem is it's such a prolific seeder so even if only 0.01% of it germinates and survives that's still a lot.

Reading the advice of more experienced members on the forum, an obvious hole in my strategy is that I have not previously done more than one Tenacity app for the 30 days of coverage from seed-down. That will knock out a lot of stuff, but is by no means optimized for Poa A control and I should probably be doing at least another app 30 days after seeding. The Poa A was worse for me this spring that I remember it being in previous years, so it will be getting more of my attention in the fall. Thankfully the A is mostly along an edge/border area and not scattered throughout everyfrigginwhere like the Triv. It's also possible that if my spring nuked & seeded areas do okay, I might not need to overseed the back yard this fall, in which case I could just lay down a barrier of prodiamine.


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## john5246 (Jul 21, 2019)

1. Spray round up at 6oz per gallon over the entire lawn
2. Use spray paint the next day to mark off all of that Poa Annua and Poa Triv
3. if I were you I would physically dig out the soil about 6 inches deep where you see that poa triv.
4. Bring in a few bags of new top soil
5. Water the bare ground for 10 days and see what comes up
6. Use round-up again and kill everything that comes up
7. Use tenacity or scotts starter fertilizer with weed preventer (this is the only weed preventer you can use when seeding)
8. Put in new grass or get sod.


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## Ohio Lawn (Mar 20, 2019)

john5246 said:


> 1. Spray round up at 6oz per gallon over the entire lawn
> 2. Use spray paint the next day to mark off all of that Poa Annua and Poa Triv
> 3. if I were you I would physically dig out the soil about 6 inches deep where you see that poa triv.
> 4. Bring in a few bags of new top soil
> ...


Could he do this in late summer/early fall, or would he not be able to see dormant Triv then?


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## Tadow781 (Oct 11, 2019)

Slides toooooo small


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

Kill it now. It's not too late in the Northeast or great lakes region to kill Triv. We have a few extra weeks than the midwest and mid Atlantic does, because of cooling effects in late May and early June due to the ocean or lake effect cooling, which tend to keep the heat at bay a little longer.

Maybe break your renovation into sections and do part now and part next year. How much lawn do you have to fix?

Unfortunately, studies show killing in Spring works far better than any other time. It looks far too infested to spot kill, too. I think your topsoil or hydro seed may have been contaminated.

Look at @Ohio Lawn's latest thread on Triv for more info.


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## erickdaniels (Jun 29, 2018)

Is that triv or annual ryegrass? I used the think I could tell triv from other grassy weeds, but the more I read, the more I confuse myself. I think annual ryegrass can have that lime green color and purple stalk... but so can triv.


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## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

@erickdaniels Annual Rye has clasping Auricles. Triv does not. I can't see the auricles in those pictures well enough to see if they are clasping or not.

Annual Rye: 


Poa Triv:


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## critterdude311 (Apr 21, 2018)

Wjc129 said:


> I need some serious help figuring out what is going on in my lawn. 4-5 years ago my lawn was the best in the subdivision, now I am ashamed to tell people I do everything myself. Every year it has gotten worse. About 4 years ago I nuked the backyard after some heavy patio construction and paid someone to come in and level it with topsoil and compost and hydroseed. After 4 years this is what it looks like (pic 3,4,5). A little timeline of what I have done in the last year.
> 
> -August - Blanket coverage of Tenacity over lawn to get rid of creeping bentgrass spots, treated some with Glyphosate as well. Once the spots were dead I amended with some new topsoil and seeded.
> -October - Treated entire lawn with Scotts Winterizer
> ...


That's primarily poa triv.

If you are serious about eradicating it, there are a few things I would recommend:

* blanket spray glyphosate in early to mid spring. The window of opportunity for this spring is closing depending on where you live. You might have another week or two depending on exactly where you are located.

* after the initial kill, water heavily and kill any sprouts which come up (2nd round of gly)

* sod cut the area to a two inch depth. The reason I believe this is necessary with triv is because of the heavy seed bank it produces along with the dormant stolons in the soil. I think without the sod cut you will likely be playing whack-a-mole in the future.

* given the amount you have and the annua, i would opt for fresh screened soil, have it professionally leveled and then sod with your favorite cultivar from a local sod farm.' IMO if you try to seed you are likely going to have triv and annua remnants come up alongside it.

I really feel for you on this one because based on your history it's virtually certain the initial infestation came in via the soil and seed the contractor used. There's just no way to "prove it" at this point. If you go back to my post from a few years ago on triv you will see I was in a similar situation with contaminated seed / soil. If you are serious about it, scorched earth is the only policy... the alternative would be learning to live with it...


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## Wjc129 (Aug 24, 2019)

Thank you all for your input. While it is not what I hoped to hear, it is what I was believing was going on. It's just frustrating that I was trying to do the right things and made it worse.


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