# GM560 2020 Lawn Journal.



## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

This is the year I will keep good notes. Starting today!

Goals for the year:
1. Starting a deck build off the back of the house in early April.
2. Clean up all the garden beds. I cut beds were the pines shaded the turf in the back yard. Will plant with perennials and annuals.
3. Finish converting an area that used to be a flower bed into a new small patio/grill area.
4. Find out whatever (suspect triv) is invading the back corner of the back yard and kill it.
5. Finish a run of fencing I didnt get to last year.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Prodiamine went down this morning. Did 0.185 oz per K rate, planning on another app in June and another in the fall.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

My starting point. Second season with the new turf.

Front looks like its almost awake.




Back still has some green up to do.


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Good start! With a little spoonfeeding, that front lawn should great in a month. I'm guessing that your front yard has a southern exposure like mine, since the backyard is a little behind. I have the same situation. I'm going to try spraying some AS, once 4/1 comes around. Will you be trying anything similar?


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Chris LI said:


> Good start! With a little spoonfeeding, that front lawn should great in a month. I'm guessing that your front yard has a southern exposure like mine, since the backyard is a little behind. I have the same situation. I'm going to try spraying some AS, once 4/1 comes around. Will you be trying anything similar?


I'm not sure the reason the backyard is behind, actually. It is a bit more shaded this time of year, so that could be part of it, but it might also be the mix of cultivars in the back vs the front. Green up has been pretty patchy, and that's the only explanation I can come up with.

In terms of feeding. I am going to try to hold up for a while, but now being home 7 days a week, its going to be really tough to not get out and throw down. I will start spoon feeding in a week or 2 depending on weather. I only have Urea and CX on hand so it will be one of those most likely.


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Does your backyard have a northern exposure? Mine does and is typically 1-2 weeks behind in the spring and cools off 1-2 weeks earlier in the fall.

I'm looking forward to seeing your progress this year. I started spraying urea last fall for some foliar spoonfeeding and liked it. Since you're holding off a little on the N, maybe spraying some light doses when you're ready might be a consideration. You can spray light amounts frequently to evenly add a little N to get the color to pop without excessive topgrowth.


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## bencrabtree27 (Jan 8, 2019)

Dont you hate those sweet gum balls...ARG


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

I think the front is now awake. I see it starting to grow and will likely be doing a first mow this weekend. Maybe throw down some CX, too although, I am thinking about going to Site One (if they are even open) to get some Screamin' Green instead, which is my preferred Springtime product.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

First fertilizer application today. 0.5 N/k via CarbonX (2019 formulation)


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Busy weekend. Ordered 6 yards of mulch and got it all down. Almost enough for the whole backyard. Will probably order another 5 yards to do the front. Also transplanted some perennials, fertilized shrubs, and did some general clean up in the back.









As is pretty evident, especially in the last picture, I am dealing with a ton of junk in the back. Definitely Poa A, and what I believe is Poa T. I was originally planning to dig it all out, but there is so much it feels like half my yard world have to be dug up. Not sure what I am going to do. I am considering an experiment with some herbicides, but since my kids are out in the yard all the time since the state is on lock down, I'm not sure that's going to work out. Here are some more close up shots:





I have some weed pressure in the front, as well, but I think this is contained to some Poa A. I dug out some pieces and replaces with soil or, in some larger spots, sod I removed when working on some bed edges. Finishing the front will be next weekend's project.

Cutting an edge:



And a spot where I cut out some Poa Annua.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Okay. So a bit of an update here. My backyard is under siege by both poa a and poa t. I'm not really sure how this happened. Not much poa a last year, although I reno'd the year before so maybe that is why. Also no poa t, but this year its all over. Under normal circumstances, I would have followed the suggestion of wither digging it all out, or hitting it with gly. However, with the kids being home all day and no parks open, having an unusable back yard is not an option. Therefore I decided to go another route that, who knows if it will be effective or not, but it makes me feel like I am doing something.

After reading this post (https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=257040#p257040) on Friday where @Mike1Bravo shows his success with Acclaim Select on Poa T, I was at Lowes on Sat AM and saw this product (BAYER ADVANCED 32-fl oz Concentrated Crabgrass Control ), which has the same AI as Acclaim, albeit at a much lower rate. Also, it is much cheaper entry level cost, so I figured why not give it a try.

I did the math and to get to the rate Mike used, I measured 8 oz of that product with 1 gallon of water, some tracer dye and some NIS and I spot sprayed anything on my yard that looked light green (I lit it up with tenacity last weekend). I waited until late in the day on Saturday after I knew my kids were done playing out there and since Sundays forecast was for rain, I know they wouldn't be out the next day.

Here she is after the spot spray. Man she's an uggo right now.



I will do a second app in 7-10 days and will take a picture of a few of the triv patches daily to see what, if any impact it has on them. Here is one that I will be monitoring a few minutes after spraying:



I also plan on using Anuew PGR back here so we will see if the combo does anything to hurt these invaders.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Here is that spot 2 days later. I dont see any change yet other than the blue dye being gone. Wouldn't expect anything though.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Day 4 since I applied the Fenoxaprop. Some blades look like they are starting to lighten up in some spots.


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## Thejarrod (Aug 5, 2018)

Good luck with the Poa a and t. i also had a breakout of Poa a. Kids are chem-blocking my treatment plan too, so i'm just going to dig up larger patches and do a pre-em in fall. 
When you dug up that spot, did you throw down seed and did it germinate despite the prodiamine?


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Thejarrod said:


> Good luck with the Poa a and t. i also had a breakout of Poa a. Kids are chem-blocking my treatment plan too, so i'm just going to dig up larger patches and do a pre-em in fall.
> When you dug up that spot, did you throw down seed and did it germinate despite the prodiamine?


Yea I threw down seed. I dug pretty deep and filled the hole with Scott's Lawn Soil. Then I tossed down a little seed. I don't think the Pre em will impact it, but hopefully it fills in without needing the seed.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

This weekend I applied Anuew PGR at the 1 lb per acre rate.

Poa triv in my backyard is starting to sweat a bit. It doesn't show up great in pics but here are a few. First the spot I keep showing. I mowed this weekend so its way shorter:


Here is a spot you can see is browning out.


I am going to follow up with another identical app of Fenoxaprop on Tuesday. We will see what the long term impact is... i am cautiously optimistic.


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

I'm definitely tuned in for your war on Poa T.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Chris LI said:


> I'm definitely tuned in for your war on Poa T.


Hopefully there is a good ending!


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

2nd app of Fenoxaprop this evening. Same cocktail. Many of the triv spots are really starting to look beat up. So hopefully this app will be a knock out punch. We'll see. Regardless, while it is weaker, and the turf is regulated, I am now going to begin spoon feeding and maybe providing supplemental water if I need it, to 1. keep the triv out of any dormancy. 2. put the kbg on steroids to get it to spread. Rain in the forecast tomorrow, so it will probably go down then.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Half rate of CX today in the back. Snuck it in between meetings and before the rain, but did not have time for the front. More rain on friday, will go down before then.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Same triv spot. It looks really promising. There are a few triv blades still there, but they are not happy and I don't think the 2nd app has really kicked in yet. You can see the KBG is out competing at this time for sure. Makes me wonder if an early season blanket app of Fenoxaprop might be a good idea.



A few larger spots:


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## Alex1389 (May 23, 2018)

@gm560 you mowing with the reel yet?


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Not yet. Probably next weekend. I built a HOC gauge and need to do some clean up around the yard.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

More zoomed out view of what the Fenoxaprop is doing to the triv as of today.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Some updates on Fenoxaprop apps to triv. Seems to be killing it and bluegrass that was mixed in coming up. Hopefully brown spots start to dissipate.


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## KadeCarter (Sep 2, 2019)

Nice! I'll be following this for sure. I am glad I havent had much triv to deal with. Looks like the Acclaim coupled with the PGR is really kicking its a$$. Hopefully it works out for you. KBG is looking beautiful. Thanks for sharing!


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

I really need to stop only posting to my journal when my lawn looks its worst.... but here I am again. Like many, we have been dealing with some brutal weather here in NJ. Hot every day with long stretches between any precipitation. This, coupled with some neglect from me has left my lawn in a pretty sorry state compared to what I am used to. The neglect was in part due to the pandemic, and the prevalence giant baby pool in the lawn, but also that I have been building a deck off the back of my house for the past several weeks, reducing my time for mowing, increasing traffic, and having various objects on the grass for sometimes prolonged periods of time :blush:.

Here is the current state of affairs:

Front isn't too bad. A little thin and hungry but looking okay other than needing to weed my flower beds and redo the edging.





The back is what really needs work. Plenty of dead spots from poa a dying off, but probably equal spots from my aforementioned neglect:



This was the worst spot for poa this year. It took over the whole area.


A few weeds have snuck in. Will take them out when I have some reasonable temps. Area around is dead poa.






You can see the burn spot where I left a deck board in the sun too long 



My redemption begins today. While calibrating my new DIY sprayer, I decided to not let my efforts go to waste and mixed in a low dose of water soluble kelp. It is supposed to get as high as 98 here today so I will skip any other products, but word is the heat will be breaking midweek. I am going to use this opportunity to get some fertilizer down for the first time since May. I picked up the product which I think should fit the bill perfectly. I plan to put down the whole #50 on my 6500 for ~0.50 N. I will then follow up this weekend with my fall prodiamine application. I hope this has me in good shape to start the blitz in a few short weeks!


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## Jconnelly6b (Mar 4, 2018)

This looks like a real solid fert. Interested to see how it does for you.

I am in the same boat, lawn is looking a little tired and running out of N, but all I have on hand is CX.

I do think the Hydretain ES+ and SLS app I did before the last rain helped the lawn handle this heat wave much better.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Jconnelly6b said:


> I do think the Hydretain ES+ and SLS app I did before the last rain helped the lawn handle this heat wave much better.


I hoped to get penterra down before that big storm last week, but life got in the way.

#50 Whole Shebang went down today. I got some cloud cover so figure as good a time as any to put it down and get it watered in. Spinklers going now.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

I took my front lawn down to 1.75" today. I did it thinking this mini heat wave was over, only to then realize it will be 93 on Thursday. Whoops. Going to start back up on PGR and FEature apps and finally start cutting this area with the greensmaster. I will still have to use the rotary around my exposed roots and on one hill.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Heavy sand topdressing this weekend. Did about 12 tons over 6500. The back was much heavier than the front. I keep dragging and raking but I am not sure I have the ability to work it in all that much more, which sucks because it looks uggggly.

Ground level view now.


And the view from the 2nd story as of last night.


Here is a picutre from when I started moving the sand. You can see the dead spots. There were also plenty of bumps and low spots that have a half inch to inch of sand in them. Which is why I say I am not sure dragging and raking will do a whole lot more.



The good news is it will be much, much flatter now. But like I said, ugly as sin. I was very close to overseeding it with some Barenburg Turf Star RPR PRG.... I figured I could have a real lawn back in 2 weeks that way. I actually placed an order for the seed only to cancel it 20 minutes later. Instead I decided I just need to let the KBG do its thing and fill in this fall. I am also going to do some seeding and spread some peat moss in some of the larger thin/sand spots.


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## Biggylawns (Jul 8, 2019)

looks good! you should drag a hose around and hand water the spots that have a ton of sand (no grass showing) so it works down more - just don't use a stream or jet spray.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Biggylawns said:


> looks good! you should drag a hose around and hand water the spots that have a ton of sand (no grass showing) so it works down more - just don't use a stream or jet spray.


I have in ground so can give it lots of water. Right now I am trying to let it really dry out which seems to help with the raking.

I realized I probably should have de thatched prior to doing this, but what seems to work is letting the sand dry up and then going after those spots with the greenskepper rake. It pulls up the dead stuff on the surface and the sand falls in its place.


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## Zcape35 (Sep 17, 2019)

That's a lot of work, It'll be fun watching it fill back in.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

It will be fine in a couple of weeks. Feed it nitrogen.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

g-man said:


> It will be fine in a couple of weeks. Feed it nitrogen.


It has been on the "intense" blitz for 3 weeks already...


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Backyard is recovering. Lighter spots are over seeded bare areas for the most part. Also have some triv sprinkled in. Cut at 1.25 inch with the greensmaster. Going to bring it down to an inch in a few days. It still has some filling in to do, but is recovering nicely from a lot of sand.


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## tilsonturf (Aug 19, 2019)

That's filled in nicely. Looking good!


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Would love help if anyone can id what this is. So my front yard is struggling with this weather right now. Even though I am watering a fair amount, it appears to have no impact. I suspect that because we have had so little rain this summer and so far this fall, the trees are sucking up anything I put down. It is what it is, however the conditions have exposed some patches of I am not sure what. Here are the pics:

You can hopefully see the patches of lighter and more green than the rest. Also growing faster.




Some more close ups of a spot I pulled up:







Tips appear to be boat shaped. Folded vernation. So these plus light green, fast growing would lead me to believe it is triv. However how would it be doing better with no rain than the KBG? Is the shallow root system actually helping it get water before it gets down to where the trees can access? Curious to hear thoughts.


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## SNOWBOB11 (Aug 31, 2017)

@gm560 Do the patches pull up very easily? Are they spongy? It has the look of triv. Have you seen tgreens videos on identifying triv? If not I'll link them.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Not super easy but also not a ton of work to rip that piece up. The patches are small and the lawn already doesn't look very good. I think I will use it to my advantage and nuke those spots now and then plug them in a week or 2.


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## Jconnelly6b (Mar 4, 2018)

That does look like triv.


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