# My first Lawn Reno Project



## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

Hi everyone, new member here. Moved into a new house approximately 1 1/2 years ago. June of 2017 to be exact. The previous owner had a new septic/drain field installed prior to putting it on the market. I believe that project finished up in March and then they spread some seed and put straw down. Not sure what type of grass but I'm sure it was cheap contractor mix or something like that. It was coming in nice until the Heat of last summer and which it all died and turned into weeds. This past spring which was one year later most of the yard was covered with clover. I did an application of weed and feed hoping that after clover was knocked out some of the grass would come up. Boy was I wrong. All that did was open up the door for Crabgrass and some other kind of weed which was probably either goosegrass or quackgrass. So I just pretty much said that they would staying through the summer keeping it cut low and paying close attention to not let anything go to seed. Then in the first week of August I am killed everything with Roundup. I actually had to do two separate treatments to kill everything. My property is one acre approximately 30000 square feet of lawn. My plan is to do half this fall & Half next fall. The backyard area that I did is proximately 3000 square feet in the side yard area that I did is aproximately 12000 square feet. First thing I had to do was get this dead tree down and out of my way.


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

On the side yard which is the picture with the tree I didn't go all the way back to the woods. My only went approximately to the area where the tree is because early spring it flooded from the tree to the woods. Going to wait and see what happens this spring and then decide if it's something I want to do in the fall. We had a very rainy spring so I wanted to see if it was just a fluke thing that it flooded or if that's and yearly thing I have to deal with. There is a drainage ditch about 3 ft deep back in the woods. Here's a picture from when it flooded.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Welcome to TLF.

How did the Reno turned out? What seed type you use?


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

On the backyard which is 3000 square feet on use Jonathan green black beauty. On the side yard i used 50 lb of United Seed Tuff Turf 2 tttf with 10%kbg and 40lbs of NoNet Tttf and 10lbs of united seed overseeder kbg blend. I basically put all the seed into a wheelbarrow and mixed it all up real good before spreading. Came out to be approximately 8.5lbs per ksft.


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

Here is the seedbed once i cleared the weeds


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

Here isthe back yard....JG TTTF


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

This picture is of the side yard right after the first cut.
Neither yard is looking quite as good as it did in these pictures. I have some kind of fungus which I believe was brought on by improper watering on my part.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

It looks great. We had a challenging year for Reno. Post some images of the fungus and we might be able to help id it.


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)




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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

I spread a granular broad range fungicide about 3 days ago that i picked up at local hardware store. Its called bonide infuse. I'm hoping to not in the cooler weather things will clear up. I did my second last night. Im also thinking it may be time to drop a little more nitrogen on it. I put Scott's starter fertilizer down when I seeded on the 17th September.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Is it the blank on the top of the blades?

What is your current hoc? And yes to some nitrogen (0.25lb of N/ksqft).


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

G man not sure what you mean by the blank on top of the blades. My hoc is 3 in. Here are some better close-up shots of individual blades that are dying.


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

Couple more pictures of dying grass / fungus


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

This is it was overall picture from this morning. It was cut last night if you notice in the first picture the two darker green circle areas. Those were areas that were are areas that were thinned out from a seed washing away. So i mixed up some garden soil and peat moss and a very tiny amount of starter fertilizer. Mixed seen in with that and then just spread it in those thin areas. If you notice in the second picture the right sign the lawn which slopes down towards the right seems to be greener then the left side.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Auto correct, black instead of blank.

That looks like leaf spot .https://www.turffiles.ncsu.edu/diseases-in-turf/leaf-spot-in-turf/


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

Does leaf spot cause mycelium? When it first started i noticed cotteny cobweb like growth and white ball shaped fungus spots on soil. Those areas died within 2 days. Circles of dead grass from about 6 inches to a foot in diameter. Then i started noticing larger areas with more of a yellow tinge to it than green and blades that look like above picture throughout. I guess it could be more than one disease. The weather preceding it was warm and humid during day but cooled at night creating alot of dew. Multiple cloudy days in a row with pop up showers and some thunderstorms. A recipe for disaster so im finding out. Hopefully the infuse that i applied will keep it contained. I spread some cheapy walmart brand fertilizer this morning at approximately .25lb per ksqft. I think it was 32-0-02. Then watered it with an impact sprinkler for 30 minutes. Hopefuly that helps.


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

If it is leaf spot the the fungicide i spread should take care of it.... according to the bag. How long do granular fungicides take to work?


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

Not sure if it's a coincidence or not but grass seems to be suffering the most and hit by Fungus the most over the septic drain field. Here's a couple more pictures of the devastation. I read up on leaf spot per the link you sent me but my rookie eyes still aren't sure.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I've been on vacation and I've not kept track of your issue.

Do you have pictures of the mycelium you saw? It is possible that you had multiple issues at once. I noticed some dollar spot damage in one of your images. And you could also get some melting out or pythium blight with the weather descriptions you shared.

Is the Fungicide you used the one? https://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/bonide-infuse-lawn-landscape-granules
If so, that's Thiophanate Methyl and I don't think it will be that effective to the fungus you described.

I would do a combo of propiconazole(deal - https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=189&start=300) and azoxystrobin (scott diseasex).

Granular products need to be watered in, then the plant needs to absorb it in thru the roots. Liquid is mostly absorbed thru the leaves.

Check the Fungicide guide in my signature.


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

Thanks for checking back in on me g-man. Yes that is the product i used. I was just reading an article from Purdue extension regarding turf disease profiles and identification. Some syptoms i read about and pictures i saw make me wonder if I don't have gray leaf spot. Apparently new tall fescue can be severely affected. 
Here is a picture of mycelium


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

These make me wonder if possibly gray leaf spot. But like i said.....im a rookie.


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## tgreen (Oct 20, 2018)

Ryan, I have first hand experience with GLS this year and it is devastating on young TF, I'm really sorry man. Let me try to help. First, I made a video on youtube that may interest you. Search for 'gray leaf spot on tall fescue'. I haven't posted the follow up yet because the disease only recently subsided and the outcome is still not clear.

Given the time of year, your location, the species and the pic's, you are likely dealing with GLS. Here's the deal: I was unable to control GLS with chemicals. I used: azoxystrobin, t-methyl, myclobutanil and propiconazole. None of it stopped the GLS. In the last 10 days, temperatures cooled significantly and we had 2 nights over that stretch where temps reached about 35 degrees. For the first time in two months, there is evidence the GLS is no longer active and the TF is growing out of the disease.

My main question to you is give me a sense for what temperatures have been over past seven days and what do they look like over the next seven. I don't need a lot of detail but just want to know what the night lows are doing. Have you had or will you get lows in the 30's? For high temps, will you get anything above 70?

In terms of chemicals, you did the right thing by using t-methyl. That is THE single most effective chemical and chance you have at controlling GLS, according to academic research (see this link

https://turfpathology.plantpath.ncsu.edu/2018/10/16/gray-leaf-spot-on-the-rise-in-north-carolina/

In my case, nothing worked though except for the cold weather.

The question you are going to have is 'what about next year' and will it come back. IF so, when should I start a preventative treatment and what would a fungicide rotation look like. Although research says t-methyl is highly effective, you can't use it back-to-back-to-back. I'm going to address this in my follow up vid. Hint: I don't have the answer but will try making a suggestion.

Good luck and keep your head up. I know how incredibly frustrating this is.


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

tgreen, the past 7 days temperature has be 60s daytime and 40s at night and the next seven look like 50-60 daytime and 35-45 at night. I checked out your video and it looks very similar to what i have going on. Something that I just realized today is that all of the areas which are infected are the same areas that I spread the new topsoil that I had brought in. Majority of that topsoil was used to fill in low areas and try to regrade areas so that water will not lay.


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## tgreen (Oct 20, 2018)

Ryan, expect the GLS to subside at those temperatures, if it hasn't already. I would not do anything more with fungicides.

Do you still have seed? If so, I would broadcast it in the bad areas and cover it with peat moss or penn mulch, for example. It is getting late in the season to seed so I can't guarantee it will work but I have successfully seeded small areas this late before. Will depend on temperatures but you are not too much further north than me. If you do seed now, expect germination to take much longer than your initial seeding, maybe up to two weeks depending on temps. You shouldn't need to water it much at the low temps but still need to keep it moist just like with a normal september seeding. Your goal at this point is just to get something established so it will continue growing in the spring. You're not going to get this seed to grow to 4 inches tall in November. Good luck.


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

Yes i already threw some seed down in those areas. Like you said its worth a try. Thanks


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

Well im happy to report almost 4 weeks later things are looking good. That fungus really had me worried. I think between the fungicide treatmeat, cool weather and spoon feeding Nitrogen i avoided a potential tragedy. I have a few dead spits but they are very small.


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## samjonester (May 13, 2018)

Congrats! Glad the fungus worked itself out for you. It looks great.


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## tgreen (Oct 20, 2018)

Great news Ryan. Had wondered so thanks for letting us know


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

I'm not sure if this is a disease issue or if it's going into dormancy. I did my last fertilizing treatment on 11/15 with a winterizer. Everything was a nice deep green color until about 3 weeks ago after my final cut of the year. I brought it down to 2"HOC following the 1/3 rule. Shortly thereafter I started noticing that the grass started turning a lighter shade of green then started getting a yellowing tinge in some areas. We have had a ton of rain lately. Actually it's been a very wet fall overall. Today I went out for a closeup inspection and found many of the blades/tips turning yellow. Check out the pictures and let me know what you think please.


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

Here are a couple close UPS.


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## jessehurlburt (Oct 18, 2017)

A common tip around here for fungus is to give it a little hit of nitrogen and lower cutting height, yet according to Penn State, both can worsen symptoms of Leaf Spot. Maybe I'll start a separate thread on this to dive a little deeper..I am really curious how lower heights worsen this, since it would seem lower heights would allow the grass to dry quicker..

"However, as cutting height is reduced and the nitrogen level increased, leaf spot diseases may become so severe that complete loss of the turf can occur."
https://plantscience.psu.edu/research/centers/turf/extension/factsheets/managing-diseases/leaf-spot


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Yes with leaf spot you don't want more nitrogen and you don't want to cut it lower than you had it.

Nitrogen use depends on the fungus.


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

Well this just stinks. I had GLS shortly after this reno and got through it only losing a few small areas.


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

I have a bunch of bottles of black flag that I got on clearance a couple months back. Do you think an application will help?


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

I also have a few bags of scotts disease ex.


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

I applied the scotts disease ex today at the curative rate. Hopefully that works.


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Do you have an update? I hope the lack of a recent post doesn't mean the situation worsened.


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

Chris LI said:


> Do you have an update? I hope the lack of a recent post doesn't mean the situation worsened.


Sorry for the late response. I'm just getting back into the swing of spring. It's kind of hard to tell right now how things are going to turn out. Lawn is just now starting to green up in some areas. Spent the weekend cleaning up up leaves and sticks. I take some pictures tomorrow morning. Thanks for checking in.


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

Here are some up to date pictures. Still has a brown tint but it's getting greener every day.


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

Put down dimension. 13% 0-0-7 at 5lbs. Per 1k. I also applied to back of property and front yard which have not been renovated yet. Total of 160 lbs. Expecting rain tomorrow and 2 other days later in week so it should get watered in nicely. Ground Temps been averaging between 47-50 past few days. Ground was about 53 degrees today in the middle of the afternoon. My forsythia is just starting to bloom so timing should be right.


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

Things are looking much better. Note to self.... Don't ever use straw again for mulch. Everywhere it was used I have what looks to me annual ryegrass or winter wheat popping up. The one small area that I used peat moss on looks so much better than the rest.


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

Started spoon feeding nitrogen yesterday. Applied 1/4lbN per 1k. Just waiting for rain to water in.


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## Ryan1+2 (Oct 16, 2018)

Back yard


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