# How Much To Water - Pre Vs Post Germination



## jaygrizzle (Jun 6, 2018)

So I know best practice for pre germination is to water frequently to keep the seedbed moist. The majority of my overseed has germinated and now I am wondering what the best watering schedule is going forward.

My overseed areas were TTTF and I had a small area about 300 square feet that had large bare spots so I decided to do KBG there. The TTTF sprouts have gotten a few inches tall while the KBG has germinated but has stayed pretty short. Probably under an inch. Once the seed has germinated is it better to go back to my normal summer watering of less frequent and more water to try and get the roots deep?

A side note that is we are currently in a heat advisory for the next fews days with temps in the mid 90s. After that it cools down into the 80s.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I keep the area moist. The roots are not deep and will dry out quickly.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

Some people taper off to normal watering relatively quickly, but I don't know how well that works. I like to make changes very slowly, and give it at least a week between each change.


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## j4c11 (Apr 30, 2017)

You definitely can't go to a watering schedule designed for mature lawns. With heat in the 90's it will need a good soaking daily, and you can cut back to every 3-4 days as the temps go down and the grass matures a little.

I would highly recommend a dose of propiconazole right now, with frequent watering requirements and high temps and young grass you're in a very vulnerable state.

Finally, keep the fescue at 2.5" for the first 30-45 days. It will help with tillering and keep it from bending over and creating a mess. Once it stiffens a little you can raise the HOC if you wish.


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## jaygrizzle (Jun 6, 2018)

Thanks for the tips everyone. @j4cll (seems like its not letting me tag you correctly), do you know if the granular Bayer Advanced Fungus Control for lawns is a good product? I'm looking to pick something up ASAP as I had been thinking about the potential for fungus but hadn't put anything down. Ideally something that I could pick up from a big box store, but if there is something better I'm sure I could find a local source for it.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/BAYER-ADVANCED-10-lb-Lawn-Fungus-Control/3027697


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Check the fungicide guide (see signature below). There is a list of what works for what, names and sources. I find that propiconazole works better if foliar applied.


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## jaygrizzle (Jun 6, 2018)

Thanks g-man, I will take a look.


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## jaygrizzle (Jun 6, 2018)

@g-man so from my understanding it is best to use two different types of MOA when applying. So I was thinking about applying the Bayer Advanced that has the AI of propiconazole and the Scotts Lawn Fungus Control with AI of Thiophanate. Am I understanding the Fungicide guide correctly in using these two together? I am a little wary of using the liquid version of the Bayer propiconazole as I'm nervous that I won't use the hose end spraying application correctly.

My other worry is that I would be applying the fungicides in some areas that have recently germinated seeds. So I'm also nervous about having to apply granular with the broadcast spreader and walking over the newly sprouted grass.


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## Mozart (Jul 17, 2018)

So it's okay to apply fungicide ( propiconazole ) to new grass? I'm definitely worried with high temps next week (90+) and frequent watering.

The fungicide guide is great by the way @Suburban Jungle Life! But I'm still not advanced enough to know what types of fungus to expect and preventitively treat.

So my questions are:
What should I worry about with new grease, 5x/day watering and temperatures in the low to mid 90s?
What fungicide is best for those concerns?
When can I apply the fungicide to new grass?
Do the concerns warrant fungicide application/walking on the baby grass?
Liquid or granular application?

Thanks guys!


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## Suburban Jungle Life (Mar 1, 2018)

Thanks @Mozart! I'm not good with ID though. Some of the fungicides do cover a wide range of fungus so you could mix 2 of the broad spectrum ones and hope for the best... There are products with 4 different ones mixed together to basically hit everything (not labelled for residential though).


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## j4c11 (Apr 30, 2017)

jaygrizzle said:


> Thanks for the tips everyone. @j4cll (seems like its not letting me tag you correctly), do you know if the granular Bayer Advanced Fungus Control for lawns is a good product? I'm looking to pick something up ASAP as I had been thinking about the potential for fungus but hadn't put anything down. Ideally something that I could pick up from a big box store, but if there is something better I'm sure I could find a local source for it.


Bayer fungus control is propiconazole. Very good product. They also have it in a ready to spray bottle, you just hook it up to a garden hose and spray. Do a double pass on the area.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bayer-Advanced-32-oz-Ready-to-Spray-Fungus-Control-for-Lawns-701270/202529163

I would recommend the spray instead of granular, since you have to walk on the grass to spread the granules. After spraying, immediately water. Yes, the spray is meant to be a foliar, but in this case we need to get the propiconazole into the soil so it can be taken up by the roots. Follow up with another application in a week. Once the grass can be walked on and mowed, apply a dose of Scotts DiseaseEx(azoxystrobin) at curative rate.

Finally, fungicide is perfectly safe and actually recommended at seeding. One of the major components of the coating on coated seed is fungicide to improve establishment. Don't worry about which fungus you're preventing, with propiconazole and azoxystrobin the answer is pretty much all of them.


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## jaygrizzle (Jun 6, 2018)

Thanks j4c11. I guess I will just go ahead and give the hose end sprayer version a try. Any tips for using it? A lot of the reviews say it empties really quickly. The company that replies to the reviews says it should last 5-6 minutes. My guess is to just turn the hose on about as low as it goes and then spray so that it doesn't empty quickly.


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## jaygrizzle (Jun 6, 2018)

Oh also, in regards to the hose end sprayer version:

Once it's hooked up to the hose, do you have to use the whole bottle or can you turn it off and then switch to a different hose? To cover the yard I would need to switch to a couple of different hoses. This will effect how many bottles I need to buy. Thank you all for your help


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## emile (Jun 19, 2018)

Trying to learn from this thread. Is 5 mins every hour from 8a to 7p using a couple MP1000's way overkill? Dealing with 90's starting yesterday day going through Wed. "Feels Like" temps are 95-97. Seed went down 9 days ago.

I'm using a simple hose-bib timer that I put on intervals when I leave for work.

Below is a picture taken 30 minutes after watering:


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Is it moist after 55min? Maybe start at 8am since we have some dew in the am.


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## emile (Jun 19, 2018)

@g-man yes, at 7:55p. Temps were 88-86.


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## Budstl (Apr 19, 2017)

@emile I'm running my rotors 4x a day at 8am, 11am, 2pm, and 5pm. I had them at 13 mins at a time, but just reduced them to 10. It was mid 90s here and windy.


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## emile (Jun 19, 2018)

Thanks, @Budstl. I can do the same except I will have to manually run the first interval at 7:15-7:30am. Have you applied any fungicide?


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## Budstl (Apr 19, 2017)

@emile no, i just put seed down on Saturday. Last years reno i did not use any fungicide. The only fungus that i got was rust since kbg takes forever to get going. I don't know if you'll need to or not, just giving you my experience.


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## jboss10 (Jul 30, 2018)

Running my rotors for 14mins 4x a day here 9am, 12pm, 2pm, and 4pm. Highs in the 90s the next two days. Even at 4x a day some of my sunny areas were dried out so I increased my timers on those 2 zones. Planning on dropping water back a little bit by the end of the week when it gets cooler.


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## emile (Jun 19, 2018)

Ok seeming like 4-5x a day is a better plan than 11 (LOL). I will adjust. This is my first time and I am paranoid about watering enough. Thanks!


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## jboss10 (Jul 30, 2018)

Yeah this is my first year with a lawn overseed and I overthink everything. I think 4-5x a day is perfect. I just need to be careful because of shade and putting too much water to promote moss/fungus. I just read a post somewhere where they said that letting the soil get somewhat dry is still ok and helps promote the sprouts to dig deeper. Don't know how true that is.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

The key is to keep the soil moist, not wet and not dry, just moist. If you see that after an hour it is still moist, then extend to two and check. It is hard when we are at work and can't see it.


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## Khy (Jul 27, 2018)

g-man said:


> The key is to keep the soil moist, not wet and not dry, just moist. If you see that after an hour it is still moist, then extend to two and check. It is hard when we are at work and can't see it.


Yeah, this was definitely the hardest part for me this week after seeding. Another aspect, at least that comes with automatic sprinklers is simply that some areas don't get the same amount of water as others. I aired on the side of caution and am trying to keep as much of the area moist as possible. So like 60% was still noticeably moist (peat moss coloring) at 3 hours, but the 40% that wasn't was bone dry, so I dropped to 2 hours and that seems to be keeping the peat a darker color the entire time.

That said, here in NJ we're going through a nasty like 3 day mini-heat wave here, yesterday, today and probably tomorrow too, I've done every 2 hours from 8am-Noon and then every hour from Noon-5. Then my last at 7pm. They're all 7/3/7 (7 minutes are rotor zones, 3 minute is fixed nozzles). Seems to be doing well, on day 5 now and seeing really nice germination as of this morning when I left for work.

I'm not even doing it so much to keep the soil moist with the every hour from Noon-5 mainly trying to keep that top inch of soil temps lower during this heat wave. I believe Thursday it's supposed to storm and then drop down to 80 and below for the rest of forever though. So just have to make it through these few days and I should be in the clear.

Luckily, I did a curative fungicide treatment like 2 weeks ago, which really knocked out my brown patch and so far at least, haven't seen any signs of fungus from the watering schedule. Debating doing a light preventative azoxy application this weekend possibly as these new seedlings come up just to ensure they're not getting their own fungus as they obviously aren't affected by the fungicide treatment from two weeks ago.


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## j4c11 (Apr 30, 2017)

jaygrizzle said:


> Thanks j4c11. I guess I will just go ahead and give the hose end sprayer version a try. Any tips for using it? A lot of the reviews say it empties really quickly. The company that replies to the reviews says it should last 5-6 minutes. My guess is to just turn the hose on about as low as it goes and then spray so that it doesn't empty quickly.


It does empty relatively quickly, I'd say you got about 2 minutes depending on water pressure. But that's plenty of time, my guess is people spray directly downwards and take their time, then realize they just emptied the entire bottle. Rather than spraying at the ground, turn up the pressure and spray in a large arch then sweep across the area to be covered. I find you get more even coverage that way.

The bottle has on/off, you can disconnect it and move it to another hose no problem.


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## j4c11 (Apr 30, 2017)

Also, regarding watering. The most important one is the one in the evening. If you water at say 6PM, it will stay moist overnight and well into next morning, say 10AM. That's 16 out of 24 hours of moist seed from one watering. Last year I germinated a nice stand of bluegrass with just one evening watering per day. I don't suggest you do that, but just to illustrate how much that counts.


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