# GM560 2019 Lawn Journal



## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Adding a journal to memorialize my process in 2019

Lawn woke up in the last 2 weeks. After a reno last fall, I have decided to spoon feed it this spring to help it fill in. I still have plenty of thin spots, so hopefully I can get it to flush out before summer. Skipping pre em for now, because I did some dormant seeding this winter. I haven't seen any germination yet.

What I have done so far:

3/23 - 9 oz/k Air8 / 6 oz/k Homemade RGS. Had some drainage issues that I am trying to combat. This was a primary factor in some of the aforementioned thin/bare spots.
3/31 - .25 N/k Screamin Green
4/6 - .25 N/k Screamin Green
4/6 - 6 oz/k Homemade RGS
4/7 - Tenacity @ 5 oz/acre rate. Hopefully wipe out any poa a and give me a few weeks of protection.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Today I cleared a flower bed that I have wanted to redo for the past few years. Also got my hands on some urea, which should be enough for my spoon feeding now, as well as my fall blitz.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

My front lawn this morning. As you can see, I have some filling in to do this spring. Lets see what this KBG can do!


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

^ nitrogen and you will be good.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

g-man said:


> ^ nitrogen and you will be good.


Thanks. That's the plan. This weekend I will be switching to 0.25 /k urea on a weekly basis.

I don't love spreading low amounts of urea... I only need to do ~3.5 lbs total on my whole property and even with a whiz spreader, I feel like it is difficult to do that low of a rate evenly across the lawn. I have thought of a couple possible solutions.

1. Mix the urea with some other beneficial non-N product to make it flow better. Was thinking worm castings or granular azomite.

2. Dissolve and spray it.

Any insight into how people get it done? Am I overthinking this?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I use the wizz. But dissolving works too. Make sure you have a good water qty.

Another option is to use AS or Ammonium nitrate.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

g-man said:


> Make sure you have a good water qty.


3.5 lbs of Urea in 4 gallon pump sprayer enough? Or split it up into 2 batches?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

For soil, you should be ok. Spray it and then run the irrigation to clean the leaves.

For foliar you want 2gallon/ksqft.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

g-man said:


> For soil, you should be ok. Spray it and then run the irrigation to clean the leaves.
> 
> For foliar you want 2gallon/ksqft.


You're the man. Thanks.


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

gm560 said:


> g-man said:
> 
> 
> > For soil, you should be ok. Spray it and then run the irrigation to clean the leaves.
> ...


@gm560 
When are you looking to start with the urea? I've been following, and planning on making the drop soon, but I've been holding off to see what the Fall N Blitz has accomplished. Spring temps appear to be cooler than normal. I'm still on the fence between dropping .25 N/k weekly or biweekly or dissolving and spraying half that weekly.
@g-man Great info. I think others will be interested.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Chris LI said:


> @gm560
> When are you looking to start with the urea? I've been following, and planning on making the drop soon, but I've been holding off to see what the Fall N Blitz has accomplished. Spring temps appear to be cooler than normal. I'm still on the fence between dropping .25 N/k weekly or biweekly or dissolving and spraying half that weekly.


Urea goes down this weekend. I really want to push growth so I am going to feed it pretty heavy this year. Part of the reasoning is I have a crew coming to paint my house in mid May. They have to to a 95% strip, so I am going to have a few guys trampling on the lawn for the better part of a week.... I want it to be as strong as possible by that point.

Soil temps for me hovering around 55 according to GreenCast and my lawn seems to be awake. I have noticed spreading already and I think I will be mowing by next week, latest. Probably this weekend.


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Good luck! I'll be following and am interested in hearing about strategies for dealing with traffic and compacted areas, as I have my own issues. This year I will be starting with 1/2" lower HOC at 2", and will try to maintain a lower HOC throughout the season as I gradually raise the deck, to maintain better density. Last year I upped my mowing frequency to 2x per week, for as long as I had the time to do so (work gets insanely busy in the summer). It helped with density, and I'll be doing the same again this year.

Are you considering changing your HOC or other mowing strategies to deal with the contractor's traffic issue?


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Chris LI said:


> Good luck! I'll be following and am interested in hearing about strategies for dealing with traffic and compacted areas, as I have my own issues. This year I will be starting with 1/2" lower HOC at 2", and will try to maintain a lower HOC throughout the season as I gradually raise the deck, to maintain better density. Last year I upped my mowing frequency to 2x per week, for as long as I had the time to do so (work gets insanely busy in the summer). It helped with density, and I'll be doing the same again this year.
> 
> Are you considering changing your HOC or other mowing strategies to deal with the contractor's traffic issue?


Planning to start at 2.5 inches. I am thinking about using T-nex leading up to the paint job and if I need it, let it surge out once they are done. Thoughts?


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Sounds good. Maybe drop some Milo/OceanGro and alfalfa pellets a week before they show up, to aid in recovery.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

First mow of the season today. I didin't get many clippings, but cleaned up some gumballs, twigs, and leaves on the lawn, 
Also seeing a bunch of germination from the dormant seeding I did in thin spots.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

I didnt get to put down any N this weekend as other landscaping tasks occupied my weekend. No time for the liquid app and got scared off of doing granular because of forecasted storms last night. Good thing I held off, it got nasty last night. I will try to get it out mid week as we are expecting some more rainfall. I think I am going Carbon X from here on out.

The N I have put down so far seems to be working:

Here is my worst spot the evening of 4/11:



And today, 4 days later:


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Put down a spoon feeding of Carbon X. I couldn't resist the temptation. I skipped last week due to time/weather constraints, so I was a little heavier than normal. Clocked in at somewhere between 0.25 and 0.50 lbs/1k (I measured out 0.50 for my lawn sqft, but let a bunch go into the beds to give the shrubs a little boost).


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Few shots from this evening. I have been terrible about updating since the lawn has been more or less on autopilot. Just mowing 2x a week. Mother nature has been providing 1-2 inches of rain per week, without fail. Haven't even turned on the sprinklers. Last N was 0.75/lbs of Carbon X about 2 weeks ago. Brought HOC up to 2.5 inches from 2 inches at the same time. Going to start up PGR/FEature apps again, as I am sure temps will start to rise and the nitrogen party is over until the blitz.


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

The lawn looks thick and healthy. The signpost in the left side of your first photo in this post looks like the one in the post on 4/15. Is that correct? Can you post a photo of the area which was filling in on that earlier post? I'm curious as to how well that area has filled in. Thank you.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Chris LI said:


> The lawn looks thick and healthy. The signpost in the left side of your first photo in this post looks like the one in the post on 4/15. Is that correct? Can you post a photo of the area which was filling in on that earlier post? I'm curious as to how well that area has filled in. Thank you.


That area is the foreground of the second image.The photo was taken from the from the sidewalk next to the sign you see in April pictures. It has filled in really well. I can take a picture from the same angle this evening.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Here you go @Chris LI:


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## ericgautier (Apr 22, 2017)

Nice @gm560 !


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

Wow! That's fantastic! The spoonfeeding you did, really closed up that area. The density, uniformity, and color are amazing! I have issues in my yard with shallow rooted trees, so seeing those exposed tree roots make it even more impressive. I will be going through your journal again. Thanks for sharing the info.


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Thanks @ericgautier !


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

Thanks @Chris LI! So far, I have been super impressed with the KBG I put down. I get a fair amount of shade on the front, so was pretty worried about how the KBG would do there. The spring went great, it spread like crazy and the color and growth habit are exactly what I was hoping for.... but most of that happened before the shade trees fully leafed out. We will see how the rest of the summer goes. It still gets blasted by afternoon sun for a few hours, but most of the morning and mid day it is getting shade/filtered sun. I am keeping my fingers crossed it stays this dense. My plan to try it help it is to use PGR all summer and to keep the HOC around 2.25 until the lawn tells me to go higher.


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## ericgautier (Apr 22, 2017)

gm560 said:


> We will see how the rest of the summer goes. It still gets blasted by afternoon sun for a few hours, but most of the morning and mid day it is getting shade/filtered sun. I am keeping my fingers crossed it stays this dense.


I have the same issue in my front corners where the KBG gets shaded. It thins out during summer. Early Spring and late Fall, those area looks great because it doesn't get shaded by the trees.

What cultivars did you seed with?


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

ericgautier said:


> What cultivars did you seed with?


I wanted to use a 3-way KBG blend. So I went for 3 of the most shade tolerant of each type I could find. I settled on:

Compact: Bewitched
America: Mazama
Midnight: Everglade

Everglade not really known for shade tolerance according to NTEP.... but other "glades" were and Jacklin mentioned it in marketing materials (FWIW), so I took a shot. I couldn't find anything better in the Midnight Type Classification that was available. I have a feeling the Mazama and Bewitched have already or will be taking over the shadier spots.


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## ericgautier (Apr 22, 2017)

gm560 said:


> I wanted to use a 3-way KBG blend. So I went for 3 of the most shade tolerant I could find. I settled on:
> 
> Compact: Bewitched
> America: Mazama
> Midnight: Everglade


Gotcha. Those should do better. Blueberry doesn't like shade that much. :lol:


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

ericgautier said:


> Gotcha. Those should do better. Blueberry doesn't like shade that much. :lol:


Fingers crossed!


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

gm560 said:


> The spring went great, it spread like crazy and the color and growth habit are exactly what I was hoping for.... but most of that happened before the shade trees fully leafed out. We will see how the rest of the summer goes.
> 
> I am keeping my fingers crossed it stays this dense. My plan to try it help it is to use PGR all summer and to keep the HOC around 2.25 until the lawn tells me to go higher.


I think we are definitely on the same page. I'm trying to stay as organic as possible, so I haven't tried PGR yet, but am considering it for next year (I will spray if necessary-clover is my enemy and CCO is my friend, right now).

Part of being on the same page is seed selection. As @ericgautier brings up your seed selection, I have used Bewitched for a few years for its shade tolerance, but ordered a Mazama/Beyond 50/50 blend this past winter, and dormant seeded them into my Bewitched and made an equal 3 way blend for the remainder of the lawn. I picked Beyond as my compact midnight, for its relative aggressiveness and NTEP color and other good ratings (I can't remember off the top of my head). I think we're thinking along similar lines...two shade tolerant cultivars, a beautiful midnight, and still hitting three different classifications.

I also have good performance in the spring before the trees leaf out, and everything (turf) thins out in the shade. With Norway maples and othe maples with shallow, dense, roots, I did some 'drill and fill' aerating in the spring; one foliar feed (so far), and just sprayed some molasses, kelp, and baby shampoo in the shady areas which dry/thin out due to the maples. I hope to do more foliar feedings to get fert to the turf without the tree roots sucking it up. Also, I'm trying to stay at 2" for as long as possible.


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