# Sprigging/plugging/clump project



## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

Last summer I sodded and sprigged half my yard with TifTuf. This part of the yard looks great. I picked up a pallet of TifTuf yesterday and was a little short.
Rather than drive to pickup more in the next few weeks, I took about 3/4 of a roll and decided to do what I did last year (see my journal) and tear the sod into small pieces and water it like hell for a few weeks.

Steps
1. Removed common bermuda 
2. Raked area and added a small amount of sand to level
3. Tore sod by hand into clumps and sprigs, threw down.
4. Used my sunjoe dethatcher and attempted to harvest sprigs. Ultimately, this produced poor sprigs. However, since my Lowes was our of sand, pear moss and only had topsoil (Sunday afternoon) I decided to just use the harvested "thatch" as a cover.
5. Watered and walked all over it.
6. I'll get some 10-10-10 or starter down in a few days

We'll see how it turns out..

Bare


Healthy TufTuf


Clumps/sprigs


Close-up


Cover


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## CenlaLowell (Apr 21, 2017)

Better than my sprigging job to say the least. I'm thinking if you keep it moist and fertilizer once a week or so it should take hold.

My st Augustine is taking at about a 75% rate as of now fingers crossed that I didn't do all that work for nothing


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## cglarsen (Dec 28, 2018)

Oh yes, that will be full turf in one month depending on temperatures. Nicely done.


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## cglarsen (Dec 28, 2018)

Also, your harvested "thatch" is totally viable. Get that area nice and wet, almost soupy, and run it over with anything to compress those pieces into the soil at least partially, and they will take off so long as you keep it moist, watering multiple times per day. They will grow new root hairs out of the smallest pieces given the right conditions. Spray with a little kelp solution if you want to get crazy.


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

@CenlaLowell I've had great luck on the past. I looked at your journal, good luck

@cglarsen I've read your tahoma thread 20x, great job.


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

Day 3. Everything is still green. I planned this before rain and it has rained heavily the past 2 days. No wash out at this time.


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## cglarsen (Dec 28, 2018)

The rain has been really welcome, hasn't it! You'll probably start seeing tiny root hairs soon tacking down. My TifTuf looks awesome right now and the Tahoma is still getting into gear - thought it would be the reverse.


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

@cglarsen I've been impressed with the spring green up of TifTuf. I was about 90% green by April 12th.
My neighbors zoysia is just 50% green as of this week (I think emerald).
The golf course behind me is just now starting to take off.

How was the fall color retention of Tahoma vs your TifTuf?


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## cglarsen (Dec 28, 2018)

probasestealer said:


> @cglarsen I've been impressed with the spring green up of TifTuf. I was about 90% green by April 12th.
> My neighbors zoysia is just 50% green as of this week (I think emerald).
> The golf course behind me is just now starting to take off.
> 
> How was the fall color retention of Tahoma vs your TifTuf?


No significant difference. Both very good.


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

Day 7. Clumps rooting, Some of the sprigs/thatch showing small roots at nodes.

Was green, green, green and then brown. Certainly kept it moist, but sprigs and plugs in the past have done this prior to greening back up.


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## CenlaLowell (Apr 21, 2017)

Yeah mine always does this just keep pushing it will come back


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

CenlaLowell said:


> Yeah mine always does this just keep pushing it will come back


Thanks. That's the plan, there's enough green to cover regardless. It's been "cool".

I've found 5 weeks is typically the sweet spot for diy sprigging.


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## tmwebb3 (Sep 20, 2018)

I've used the clump method to transplant zoysia into my front lawn. I would break up soil on a one foot grid, turn those into small mud pits, then sink the clumps in. I've done this with both cut up pieces of sod and zoysia that has overtaken gravel driveways and flower beds.


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

@tmwebb3 what kind of zoysia? 35k of zoysia is Western Kentucky, awesome! Curious what your green-up and dormant time frames are?


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## tmwebb3 (Sep 20, 2018)

probasestealer said:


> @tmwebb3 what kind of zoysia? 35k of zoysia is Western Kentucky, awesome! Curious what your green-up and dormant time frames are?


Meyer, and a little Zenith that I seeded in that I dislike compared to Meyer. I green up sometime in early April and go dormant around Halloween with the first frost. My father has ~50K (that I transplanted from) just down the road, and my grandfather has over 3 acres in southern Indiana (that my dad transplanted from) that he bought from the ads in Parade Magazine in the late 60s or early 70s and plugged through his property.


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

3 acres from plugs? That's nuts! @tmwebb3


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## tmwebb3 (Sep 20, 2018)

probasestealer said:


> 3 acres from plugs? That's nuts! @tmwebb3


Growing up, my dad and grandfather would spend a day every weekend plugging and filling holes with sand., or buying a trunk-full of sod from the local sod farm when they had some then installing it as clumps. My dad said it took over a decade to complete the entire property.


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

Sprigs on Day 16.
Sod day 17.
Heavy sanding yesterday of both with some urea.
Don't freak out anyone, in my experience the heavy sanding "stunts it" and in 3-4 more weeks it's dense turf


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

Day 27 sprigs


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## Still learnin (Sep 9, 2017)

Sprigs are looking great!


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

Still learnin said:


> Sprigs are looking great!


Thanks. Hoping it'll all blend in 2-3 weeks


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## Twodollarblue (May 26, 2020)

probasestealer said:


> Still learnin said:
> 
> 
> > Sprigs are looking great!
> ...


Sod is looking great as well.


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

@Twodollarblue thanks. I've heavily sanded the sod 2x in it's first 28 days, I can't believe how well it's responded.

Lots of sand work left on the sprigged section this year.

I should have made this a journal, but it's nice looking back at the pictures when I think things are taking forever..


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## cglarsen (Dec 28, 2018)

Looking good - hey what type of sand are you using and paying for it around Triad? I have coarse white sand and orange mason sand here with the latter being uniform and finer. $35-$40 per yard is best I've found and I need a LOT.


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

Day 36. Filling in nicely, slower than I had hoped, but May wasn't optimal weather.


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## Chuckatuck89 (Mar 28, 2019)

instayard. Awesome. I need to try this on a barespot I attempted to plug that is moving pretty slowly. How did you deal with weeds in this area?


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

Chuckatuck89 said:


> instayard. Awesome. I need to try this on a barespot I attempted to plug that is moving pretty slowly. How did you deal with weeds in this area?


Luck..

There are a few weeds I've hand pulled. I'll drop pre-emergent once it's forther along.

Large scale though, I'd likely just spray them out once established


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## Chuckatuck89 (Mar 28, 2019)

@probasestealer I am attempting this with some sprigs I harvested from my Sunjoe. what was your watering schedule during the first couple weeks? I have my sprinkler set for 5 min every 2 hours (the most frequent I could go with my timer). Its a pretty small area so the 5 minutes is plenty, but the two hour gap in full 90 degree sun I am concerned about..


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

Chuckatuck89 said:


> @probasestealer I am attempting this with some sprigs I harvested from my Sunjoe. what was your watering schedule during the first couple weeks? I have my sprinkler set for 5 min every 2 hours (the most frequent I could go with my timer). Its a pretty small area so the 5 minutes is plenty, but the two hour gap in full 90 degree sun I am concerned about..


I'm interested in how your sprigs look? Mine were pretty pathetic from the SunJoe, but the turf was short.
I watered every hour in the beginning, but was over watering and puddling. I cut back to every 2 hours.
If the area isn't staying moist, i would bump the time up or topdress (with sand or peat). I only rated from 10:30am until about 6pm and world hands water before bed. Sorry 1.5 weeks you can troubleshoot cut back.
The clumps are much more resistant to drying out


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

probasestealer said:


> Chuckatuck89 said:
> 
> 
> > @probasestealer I am attempting this with some sprigs I harvested from my Sunjoe. what was your watering schedule during the first couple weeks? I have my sprinkler set for 5 min every 2 hours (the most frequent I could go with my timer). Its a pretty small area so the 5 minutes is plenty, but the two hour gap in full 90 degree sun I am concerned about..
> ...


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

probasestealer said:


> probasestealer said:
> 
> 
> > Chuckatuck89 said:
> ...


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## Chuckatuck89 (Mar 28, 2019)

probasestealer said:


> Chuckatuck89 said:
> 
> 
> > @probasestealer I am attempting this with some sprigs I harvested from my Sunjoe. what was your watering schedule during the first couple weeks? I have my sprinkler set for 5 min every 2 hours (the most frequent I could go with my timer). Its a pretty small area so the 5 minutes is plenty, but the two hour gap in full 90 degree sun I am concerned about..
> ...


I'm not an expert on good vs bad sprigs but I thought they looked decent. I am converting from rotary mowing to reel this year, and also havent verticut/dethatched at all, so theres definitely some long runners throughout the yard. There were quite a few 4-5" sprigs in the bag with a few nodes.

I did cover with a bit of peat moss which I think is helping. It's so hard to tell with how dead they look after a couple days.. I'll keep watering and see what happens.


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

@Chuckatuck89 keep me posted. I'm addicted to sprigging projects and progress pictures


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

Day 43 or 44. Posted late.
I sanded (again) a few days prior to this. I'd say 85% filled in.


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## Chuckatuck89 (Mar 28, 2019)

probasestealer said:


> @Chuckatuck89 keep me posted. I'm addicted to sprigging projects and progress pictures


Starting a thread!


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

Ok, here is a 2 month update.
Project started 5/2, here's 7/2.
I can't keep up with mowing right now, yard is 1.25" as I lost control during vacation


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