# KSTurfguy's 2021-2022 Lawn Journal



## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

2018-2020 Journal: https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=6340
2019 Mazama Reno: https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=12747

It's that time of year again! As of now I've done nothing to my lawn. I had baby #3 on Friday and we've had 3 to 4" of rain in the last week so haven't been able to get out and really do anything besides clean up some flower beds.

Current Soil Temp according to greencast is 45 degrees and the 5 day average is 47.2. Soil temps did reach the mid 50's for a solid week earlier in the month but things have cooled back down.

50 day GDD is 23.5, 32 GDD since mid Feb is 356.

This weekend I will mow for the first time and then apply 2 LBs per K of 14-0-7 Lesco Stonewall .43% Prodiamine. This year I'm doing two apps, 1 now and 1 in early June. In the end still applying 4 LBs per 1k which is about 5 months of control. Just splitting it instead of all at once.

*2021 Goals:*


Do a better job of getting my nutrients right. Last year I applied 3.2 LBS of N, 0.15 LBS of P and 0.67 LBs of K. Really would like to get closer to a 4-1-2 ratio.

Level some areas.

Keep things simple. Easier said then done but as of now don't plan on using any of the "hot" items on Youtube. Just focus on N-P-K, proper mowing and watering


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

Congratulations on the baby!
Even with this cool down it looks like we're gonna have an early spring.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Mowed for the first time today. HOC was 2.75". The color still isn't there yet. A few areas have turned green and are growing good but it's not even. Still have to remember it's only March.





Also applied 2 pounds per K of Lesco Stonewall 14-0-7 with .43% prodiamine. This equals about .28 LBS of N and 2 1/2 months of control, I will apply again in late May or early June to get me through August.

Cleaned up some flower beds and spread Preen. I plan on buying a bag of snapshot and seeing how that works in the flower beds.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

2nd mow of the season. HOC 2.75". Color coming along nicely now.


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## badtlc (Aug 22, 2019)

I can never figure out why some grass greens faster than others. I have some patches that grow super fast, super thick and super early. I had to start mowing a couple weeks ago just to keep some areas about 15'x5' from getting so thick they bog the mower down. I always feel silly getting the mower out for 2 small spots.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

A little windy today but still enjoying the Spring day. Our magnolia tree starting to bloom.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Mow #3. HOC 3". It's been pretty dry the last week or so. Gonna need some rain soon.





Also haven't given an update on my Mazama since last fall. HOC about 2". Like last year it's much slower to wake up then my fescue.


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## SEKBrian (Jul 20, 2020)

Man I finally broke down and watered this morning. With all the wind and lack of rain, things are getting dry.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

@SEKBrian yeah I got a few dirt areas with cracks in them already. Just a week or two ago we had more then enough rain. Nothing real promising in the 7 day forecast either.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

This morning I dug up some poa. Filled the holes with top soil and added some TTTF/PRG seed.

Also mowed today. HOC was 3". Had to double cut it. Lawn starting to look good. Will start spot spraying weeds maybe on Sunday.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Mowed. My lawn is so uneven it makes the stripes look like crap but oh well.


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

Looks good to me. The lack of sun yesterday definitely was not helping the stripes pop.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Was out of town all week so finally got around to mowing today.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Been awhile since I posted an update to some of my test plot areas. First is the Mazama. I think it's just a KBG thing but it's been slower to get going compared to the TTTF but is getting there.



Next is the other test plot area. From closest to farthest away is 90/10 TTTF/KBG mix, then 100% KBG, then 100% TTTF, then farthest is the Zoysia. At this stage in the game the 100% fescue is by far and away the best.



Here is a closeup of the Zoysia. Most of it looks to have survived the winter and is slowly coming out of dormancy.



If I get bored in the Fall I thought about killing off the TTTF and KBG plots and going 100% PRG. I will then mow the PRG and Zoysia at the same height.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Sprayed glyphosate on a few areas of Poa Triv in my backyard area. Had a couple areas 2 years ago that I killed off and then all off a sudden this Spring I have it everywhere in this section of the yard. I was going to wait until Fall but from what I read you get a better kill if you treat in the Spring.


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## moedank (Sep 10, 2019)

How is your lawncare maintenance different between the 100% KBG test plot and Mazamba section?

The test plot gets minimal care. So, only extra waterings during the worst parts of summer? Any other care?

Is your Mazamba section irrigated? Does it get more shade than the test plot? More fertilizer applications, etc. It looks really good. The test plot KBG not so much.

I'm trying to get an idea of how well KBG does on its own with minimal care in the transition zone.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

@moedank fert and weed control are the same. The mazama is not irrigated but I did water it more then the test plot area. Also I applied fungicides in the Mazama area last year when I started seeing some Dollar spot but none applied in test plot. Mazama gets a lot more shade then the test plot. Also test plot is Baron KBG so not really a new, elite variety.

This will be my 3rd year with the test plot. Every year by the end of May it had thickened up and looks pretty good and them by the end of August that left side thins out. The first year I treated the right side with the N-XT products so thought maybe that was why but last year it was treated the same and still lost the left side. This is what it looked like August 6th


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## SEKBrian (Jul 20, 2020)

What was your fungicide plan on your Mazama and when did you start applying them? It looked great last year and still does!


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## moedank (Sep 10, 2019)

Interesting. Thanks for the response. Debating if I want to attempt a KBG front main yard, which is only approximately 1700 sqft. Though, it is non irrigated, full sun and has frequent moderate to high winds, so pretty dry conditions. I prefer to only manually irrigate when absolutely needed, say 3-5 infrequent times throughout the summer.

Is any of your Mazamba in full sun like your fescue? If not, how do you think it would handle it?


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

SEKBrian said:


> What was your fungicide plan on your Mazama and when did you start applying them? It looked great last year and still does!


@SEKBrian Didn't really have a plan. Just kind of winged it. In late May after I started noticing some issues I applied the granular propiconazle, then 2 weeks later applied Scotts Disease X. Also did that in June. After that I was good until July 21st when I had to spray 1oz of Prop per 1k sqft. Did that again 2 weeks later. On the last spray I mixed in some urea which equaled about .1 LBS of N.

Last year was really the first year I've ever messed with fungicides so didn't have a plan. My KBG did pretty good but my TTTF was a disaster. I had brown spot bad. I tried to treat it with Scott's Disease X but it was too late. This year I will watch the Dollar Spot Model and will probably do preventative apps from most of Mid May through August. I scored a good deal on Scott's Disease X last year so bought several bags of it.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

moedank said:


> Interesting. Thanks for the response. Debating if I want to attempt a KBG front main yard, which is only approximately 1700 sqft. Though, it is non irrigated, full sun and has frequent moderate to high winds, so pretty dry conditions. I prefer to only manually irrigate when absolutely needed, say 3-5 infrequent times throughout the summer.
> 
> Is any of your Mazamba in full sun like your fescue? If not, how do you think it would handle it?


@moedank With that small of area if KBG is what you want I think it's at least worth trying.

Also I would say maybe 1/4 to 1/2 of the Mazama plot receives 75% or more sunlight throughout the day in the summer. It held up pretty good. I would say the areas that received slightly more shade were a little thicker but I did not have any of it die off or anything. I didn't water a crazy amount. Maybe 1 or 2 good soakings a week if we didn't get much rain. Didn't water it anymore then my TTTF front yard.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Mowed today. 3" HOC. Mowed twice and really burned in the stripes.


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

Looking good!


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## SEKBrian (Jul 20, 2020)

@ksturfguy That sounds like the same plan I am going to follow this year so that gives me confidence. I have been checking the Smith-Kearns model and thanks to the higher temps and rain we got this week, we are already having some pressure. I dropped a Disease Ex/Propi combi last weekend to get an early jump on things. Tractor supply was basically giving disease ex away last year so I stocked up as well.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Butter said:


> Looking good!


Thanks @Butter , Your lawn is looking great as always.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

The Mazama. HOC 2".


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

The KBG looks awesome! Will you maintain the 2" HOC all year?


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

For the most part. Will probably raise to 2.5" in the summer.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Hasn't rained much but grass is growing at a good clip now. Already had to mow again. Not sure if I accidentally sprayed roundup on them or if the extreme cold temps we experience this winter killed them but our bushes in front of our windows all died. We weren''t huge fans of them anyways but still curious what happened.





Bought a bag of Lesco NOS Plus 24-0-11 and will apply it sometime soon. Was going to do it yesterday but saw the rain chances were less so going to wait for a rain event. Also a little late but I grabbed some soil samples and plan to mail it off to Waypoint sometime this week.



The above area I spot sprayed glypho to try and kill some Poa Triv. I didn't get it all and I'm sure the grass seed wont grow well this Spring so probably will look like crap until Fall.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Got my soil test results back from Waypoint. Overall it was fairly close to what I received last year from My soil or soil savy. Biggest difference was the PH. It was showing in the mid 5's last year and this shows 6.5. P and K are a little low but not terrible. Overall fairly pleased and was very impressed with how fast I got the results. I mailed the sample Tues afternoon and received the results Fri morning. Don't plan to do a soil test every year but maybe every other year.


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

What kind of shrubs are/were those that died?


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Butter said:


> What kind of shrubs are/were those that died?


I'll be honest I know nothing about shrubs or many plants outside of turf grass lol but I think it's a forsythia based on the yellow leave in the Spring. I do notice some growth at the very bottom so they aren't completely dead. Our monkey grass was also severely stunted this Spring and that crap is impossible to kill.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Busy day in the lawn. Mowed, leveled a few small areas of my Mazama KBG and Zoysia with sand. Also applied 24-0-11. Equaled just over .5 pounds of N.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Mazama looking great besides in 1 spot. Some sort of fungus brewing. Been busy so haven't applied anything. Hoping the fert I applied might help it grow out of it.


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## Budstl (Apr 19, 2017)

Looks like that may be rust. Paper towel should confirm.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Mowed. The last 2 mows I've tried to do double wide stripes but it didn't turn out good. Im guessing if I mowed this way a couple more times they would stand out more. Overall I'm pretty pleased. Lawn looks pretty good. Will probably spot spray weeds tomorrow.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Applied 8-32-16 today due to my recent soil test. My phos was a little low and so was Potassium. Neither were too bad but figured I would up it some. I only did 0.15 LBS of P in each 2019 and 2020. and I did 0.67 LBS of K in each of those years as well. I never kept a log in 2015-2018 but my maintenance has always been the same so really haven't been giving the lawn any P or K in the 6 years I live here.

So far in 2021 the lawn has received 1 LB of N, 0.79 LBS of P and 0.81 LBS of K.

Also I need to get in shape or find an easier way to spread product. I thought I was going to die today after pushing the spreader around my 20k sqft lawn haha. The lawn is too big to quickly and easily apply fert with my push spreader and it's too small to justify me buying a used permagreen ride on machine or a tractor or ATV with a pull behind unit. Getting old sucks.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Got in a quick mow. We've received 2.7" of rain the last 3 or 4 days so it's pretty soggy. Also the DS model is up to 33 today which is in the elevated range. We're are predicted to hit the 50s by this weekend. I applied a preventive rate of Scott's Disease X to my Mazama and to 4k sqft of my TTTF.

I've really never done preventive apps of fungicide but going to try it out on the same 5k sqft of lawn this year and see how it works. In 2 weeks I'll follow it up with prop.

KBG portion of the test plot is starting to thicken up. My plan starting next week is to spray the left side of the plot with Feature and Kelp4Less extreme blend on a monthly basis through summer. See if there is much of a difference. Also in August I plan to spray the entire test plot with round-up and seed with the left over Mazama that I have. This will be the 3rd Fall with this same Mazama seed so hopefully it's still good. I will then mow it at 1.25" like I do the Zoysia plot.



HOC 3"


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Diseasex (azoxy) does not help with dollar spot. Propi can.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

g-man said:


> Diseasex (azoxy) does not help with dollar spot. Propi can.


Yeah I'm aware, you broke the news to me last year haha. :lol:

My lawn is mostly TTTF. Brown Patch is a problem. I'd imagine when the DS index is high, the chances of Brown Patch are also high. Both fungus types are created from the same environmental factors. Wet conditions and warmer nights.

If I start seeing DS in my Mazama then I will treat it with Prop only. But in the meantime I'll be doing rotating apps of Azoxy and Prop every 2 weeks from now through August. I probably should have done them both at the same time but was running a little short on time. But mostly this is just me tinkering with stuff. If I get BP or DS I'm not super worried. Up until last year I've never used fungicides.

Also thinking about experimenting with Hydretain in a few areas and products like Feature and Kelp4less. Not going to go all out but playing with it to see if it's worth the extra $$$ from just doing Fert, Weed control and herbicides like I used to do.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Cleaned out my gutters and took a few pics from above.





Also found this guy next to my house.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Why is it still alive?


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

Looks good! I love the shots from the roof!
I hate getting on my roof but I love the view.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

g-man said:


> Why is it still alive?


Haha only cause I hate them so much I didn't want to get close enough to kill it. Its a black snake though so I guess they good. Kill rodents and stuff.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Butter said:


> Looks good! I love the shots from the roof!
> I hate getting on my roof but I love the view.


Luckily a couple areas of my roof aren't too steep but yeah the views are great.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Was out of town the last 4 days and it's rained around 4 inches the last week. The last mow was on Tuesday. Needless to say the lawn was thick and wet. It was probably a bad idea but I had to mow it.

KBG area looks pretty good.



Made a rookie mistake here and tore up the yard pretty good. Also appear to be getting brown patch or some brown spots in portions of my fescue. I'm hoping mowing it will allow it to dry out some.


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## moedank (Sep 10, 2019)

Black snakes are good to have around for rodents. You never anticipate seeing one, so when you do there is always an initial spook. Found one in a mound of peat moss in the garage that spooked me pretty good.

On another topic, do you have a stripe kit or is that just from the riding mower? Do you stripe all summer or just spring and fall? Any concern about the slightly bent over grass being more susceptible to certain fungi during the hot and humid times? I got into striping recently. Enjoy the look but question if my grass is as "healthy" compared to the regular mow which leaves it fairly upright.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Mowed the Mazama tonight with the Pro-Stance. HOC was 2.5". Rarely mow this area with my big mower because it scalps in a couple spots and I'm worried it will tear it up but man I love the looks of it. Pics don't do it justice and obvious my push mower tracks screw it up some.


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## SEKBrian (Jul 20, 2020)

Seeing any disease in your bluegrass? I mowed tonight and I think I'm seeing places already.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

I had some rust in my Mazama a couple weeks ago but it's getting better. Everything else is just in my TTTF.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Love the color of the Mazama. You might see a spot right in the middle. Im guessing my cat pissed there as it went from good to brown over night. So my assumption is Urea burn.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Sprayed 1 oz per 1k of Propiconazole tonight on my Mazma. I immediately watered it in as a Summer Patch preventative application.

In another note, I remeasured my lawn yesterday and my numbers were pretty different from when I measured a few years ago. Not sure why or how lol. This time I calculated my lawn was 19,875. A few years ago I had 20,300. It also appears my Mazama area is more like 1,500. I swear when I killed the old grass off and planted my Mazama I measured 1,000. In the end it's not a huge difference when it comes to overall numbers. Still pretty much 20k but was just interesting observation. Some parts of my lawn I was off by 500 sqft lol.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Mowed today. HOC 3.5". For the most part the lawn looks pretty good. A few areas that just havent really dried out much over the last 2 to 3 weeks and they have kind of a matter down crappy look. I have some fungus but the cooler weather last week seemed to help that some. Weather looks to be turning hotter and drier over the next week.

Also still battling rust or some sort of fungus in my Mazama. Might have to up my next round of fungicides to see if it helps.


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

Looks good! It's nice to have some sunshine!


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

@Butter yeah the sunshine is nice. I could have waited a couple more weeks for the 90 degree weather though lol.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

This morning I sprayed Hydretain on about 5k sqft of my lawn. I sprayed half my test plot, also sprayed my Mazama KBG and then a little over 3k sqft of my front lawn that receives full sun from about 10 am to 8 pm. I struggle with dry spots in that area so curious to see if this helps.

Also my Mazama has got all sorts of issues right now. The rust seems to be getting worse and lately my cat seems to think that area of the property is a great place to piss. I now have 3 or 4 dead spots from the piss. At least I'm 99% sure that's what is causing it. The spots are dying almost over night so don't think its a fungus. At least with KBG I know it will eventually fill back in but it's still really frustrating.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Mazama at 2.5"



TTTF at 3.75"


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Watering for the first time this morning. Hasn't rained in 8 or 9 days and it's been in the mid 80's to low 90's for the entire stretch. I've never really done an irrigation audit but just run the sprinklers for 1 hour and move on. This morning I ran it for an hour and half and put my rain gauge out in the middle of the path. It only put down 0.3". This tells me in the past in a normal week I'm only irrigating about .5" which is clearly not enough.


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## situman (Nov 3, 2020)

The mazama seems to be handling the drought better than the TTTF.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

situman said:


> The mazama seems to be handling the drought better than the TTTF.


Neither areas are currently showing any signs of drought or heat stress. I think it just looks that way because of the time of day I took the pics. In person both sections still look good.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Sprayed a new product this morning. Also last night I applied my 2nd app of the Lesco 14-0-7 with prodiamine. Supposed to get some rain this afternoon so should get It watered in. Season totals so far 1.37 LBS of N, 0.8 LBS of P and 0.96 LBS of K. Don't plan on applying any more fert until Late Aug or early Sept.

Also I forget how much I hate spraying. Maybe if I had a better sprayer setup it wouldn't be as bad.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Late April I helped my brother with his lawn. His "lawn" was basically 95% weeds or dirt. He also had a large hole in his backyard that the previous owners used to burn stuff. Luckily my brother's friend has access to some heavier equipment. He brought in a bunch of dirt. It was not high quality top soil but it filled in the hole. He then brought in a ride on roto tiller type machine and broke up the dirt and leveled it out. I then applied a 90/10 mix of TTTF and PRG. This was on April 30th.







Germination was slow going but luckily the weather was fairly decent and we got a good amount of rain. I was worried about wash out but held up pretty good.



On May 24th I threw down some starter fert.





It has thickened up fairly well. It's been really hot the last week and almost no rain for the last 2 to 3 weeks. My brother is not really a lawn guy so we'll see how much he waters. Luckily it gets a fairly decent amount of shade so that helps. I did not spray tenacity so there are a lot of weeds. I'm going to wait until it cools off some next week and then do a blanket spray. I might also do a 2nd round of starter fert. I plan to come back in Sept and aerate and overseed with TTTF.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Also a quick update on a couple sections of my lawn. KBG is holding up good besides a couple pee spots from the cat. Not sure how to prevent this but it's driving me nuts. We've been near 100 the last 3 days and will be almost just as hot for the next two. I think we have maybe received 0.3" of rain the last 2 weeks so it's getting dry. I've irrigated a couple times but not a lot. I do not have an in-ground system so it's a lot of work dragging hoses and setting up sprinklers to cover 20k sqft.



My innovation Zoysia is really thickening up. It's not as dark green as TTTF or KBG but I still really like this section. It has a little bit of weeds but not much. You can barely see the TTTF section of my plot at the top of the pic. The TTTF is mowed at 2.5" and the Zoysia is 1 3/8"


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## Jfarm_13 (Sep 22, 2019)

Looking good. How you think the kbg is holding up compared to the fescue in this heat? I think I'm gonna add some kbg in with the fall overseed this year


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

KBG has done great so far. Besides a small area of rust it has had no disease issues so far this year (knock on wood). I've battled brown patch in my fescue and do every year. Both have handled the heat fairly well so far. We'll see how it looks in a month or so.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Took advantage of the cooler weather and sprayed a mix of Gordon's Trimec 3way and Quinclorac. Also sprayed Halo5WDG for some nutsedge that has popped up.

The majority of the rain missed us the last 2 days. It rained enough to wet the roads but was so little there was basically nothing in the rain gage. We've received maybe 0.30" of rain the last 2 weeks. Might be a long summer.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

We got 0.2" of rain this morning. I mowed this afternoon. HOC is 4". We are supposed to get a lot of rain over the next couple days so hopefully it happens. We need it.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Sprayed 2nd round of Propiconazole on the Mazama tonight. Been alternating ever 14 days between that and Scott's disease X (azoxy). Not really seeing any disease issues in the mazama, so so far so good. Also dealing with brown patch or grey leaf spot in my fescue (I suck at disease identification). Really hit some of my areas I spot seeded a couple months ago pretty hard.

Temps have been a lot better lately. After 9 straight days between 90-100 it's been Mid 80's to upper 70's the last 4 days and looks to continue for a few more days. We've also received around 1.3" of rain since Friday.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Mazama KBG cut at 2.5". Still holding strong



TTTF cut at 4". For the most part looks good but as you will see in the pics below I'm battling brown patch.



You can see the area hit the hardest by BP here. This area was newly seeded in the Fall so not sure if that's why its struggling more or not.



God my stripes suck lol Daylilies in the ditch blooming.





I hope everyone has a good 4th!


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## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

ksturfguy said:


> Mazama KBG cut at 2.5". Still holding strong


That Mazama is looking beautiful! Have a happy holiday!


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

It was a little windy but wanted to take advantage of the cooler temps today. Sprayed another round of Trimec 3-way, Quinclorac and Halosufuran. The nutsedge seems to be a lot worse this year for some reason. Also seeing some crabgrass in spots. Overall not too bad. Spot sprayed 1 gal for my 20k sqft. Most likely will be my last herbicide application until later in fall.


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## SEKBrian (Jul 20, 2020)

Have you been spraying that cytrogro? If so are you liking it?


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

SEKBrian said:


> Have you been spraying that cytrogro? If so are you liking it?


I sprayed the initial app last month and I'm due for a 2nd app. Plan to try and spray it again tomorrow if I get time.

Haven't used it enough to really say if it helps.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Got 1.2" of rain yesterday. Also on Sunday I sprayed my 2nd round of Cytogro and Wednesday I applied some Disease X. For mid July the lawn looks good.

Bought a 50 LB bag of Winners Circle TTTF blend. Will use about half on my brothers lawn and other half on mine.



My mazama is holding up pretty good. Been mowing it at 2.5".



Test plots also mowed at 2.5" besides the Zoysia which is like 1.25". In a couple weeks I'll spray out the test plots besides the Zoysia plot and will use up the rest of my Mazama seed. This will be the 3rd Fall for it so we'll see how well it germinates. Could be a fail but last fall it did fine.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

My big Maple tree in the front lawn had several dead branches so finally hired a company to come trim it. Originally they said they could do it without driving their trucks on my lawn but I guess that plan changed. You can tell where they parked and left it running. Grass is completely fried.



They also left some ruts. They aren't terrible so hoping maybe they will fix themselves but we'll see.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Have barely watered the test plot because I'm going to renovate this Fall but after this hot stretch you can see how much better the TTTF is hanging in there vs the KBG. TTTF section doesn't even looked stressed. KBG has almost all checked out. The zoysia section obviously doing good too. Outside of mowing I don't do much to the Zoysia. Would be interesting how good it could look if I fert more or did iron apps.



Rest of the lawn looking rough. This 100 degree heat is baking it fast. I'm watering now in the afternoon too just try and keep it looking somewhat decent.


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## SEKBrian (Jul 20, 2020)

Wow that KBG checked out quick! Whats the difference between this spot and your Mazama plot? I know you said you water less, but does your Mazama get a lot more shade also? Does your test plot usually bounce back from that kind of dormancy? The spots in my yard that get hammered with sun look similar and if they bounced back when it cools down I will be totally shocked. Also, have you been able to tell if the hydretain you put down earlier in the year has worked that well? Sorry for so many questions, I'm already trying to come up with plans for next year lol.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

SEKBrian said:


> Wow that KBG checked out quick! Whats the difference between this spot and your Mazama plot? I know you said you water less, but does your Mazama get a lot more shade also? Does your test plot usually bounce back from that kind of dormancy? The spots in my yard that get hammered with sun look similar and if they bounced back when it cools down I will be totally shocked. Also, have you been able to tell if the hydretain you put down earlier in the year has worked that well? Sorry for so many questions, I'm already trying to come up with plans for next year lol.


Yeah the Mazama gets a lot more shade especially late afternoon shade. There is a small area of my Mazama that gets more sun in the afternoon and it's starting to struggle too. I also think just being a superior variety of KBG helps it. I plan to kill off the test plot this weekend and plant all Mazama there so curious how it does compared to this variety of KBG.

As far as Hydretain it's hard to tell. The area I used it in is struggling with this heat but I feel like it's held up better than years past. Also if I give it a good amount of water it seems to bounce back fast. So i think it's helped some but not 100% sure.


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## SEKBrian (Jul 20, 2020)

I'm thinking of buying hydretain or maybe tournament ready next year but I'm hoping mature grass will solve most of my problems. Supposed to cool off quite a bit next week so that will be welcomed.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

This week was definitely the worst of the summer. Dry and 3 or 4 days in a row of temps in the upper 90s to 100 degrees. One of my kids bday party is tomorrow so watered the hell out of the lawn all week to try and keep it somewhat decent looking. Overall looks alright for this time of year. Clearly the brown patch has messed up my TTTF. Mazama looks solid still.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

I skipped my normally scheduled prop app on Tuesday because it was hot and I got busy. It appears I'm paying for it now. Ds percentage peaked at 31 yesterday so I wasn't too worried about it but yesterday afternoon some brown spots started to be obvious to me. I went and sprayed this morning so hopefully gets it under control.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Sprayed gly on 3 of the 4 sections of my test plot this morning. Keeping the Zoysia plot and then will reseed the other 3 plots with Mazama. Fingers crossed my Mazama seed is still good.

Also the moles seem to be active again. I've killed 3 in the last 3 days in my Mazama section.

FALL PLANS:

* Reseed test plots with Mazama.
* Level and reseed small section of side yard.
* Aerate and overseed entire yard. Haven't done this in 3 years or so. 
* Aerate and overseed my brother's lawn.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Well I'm in panic mode now. I was walking in the lawn this morning to turn off the sprinklers when something caught my eye. Never seen it before in my lawn. Not sure if it's bermuda or some weed. @Ware @tcorbitt20 @g-man can any of you tell me?

EDIT: After some more research I think it might be Nimblewill and not Bermuda.


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## SEKBrian (Jul 20, 2020)

It almost looks like bentgrass. I have something of similar appearance in my side yard. Thought it was bermuda last year but it didn't go dormant like bermuda in the winter.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

SEKBrian said:


> It almost looks like bentgrass. I have something of similar appearance in my side yard. Thought it was bermuda last year but it didn't go dormant like bermuda in the winter.


Yeah could be. All 3 kind of look similar. I pulled what I could. Either way looks like Gly is the cheapest option and it's a very small area that I saw it in so hopefully can contain it.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

KBG hanging in there. Been really hot lately and will be for the rest of the week. Luckily we got about an inch of rain a couple days ago so that helped. Outside of that we've barely got any rain in the last 2-3 weeks.



Sprayed my 2nd round of gly this morning on the test plot. It's getting nice and crispy.


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## Jfarm_13 (Sep 22, 2019)

Looking good. I'm doing a few small sections of kbg to test it out. If you indeed have nimblewill I had good luck with tenacity last year. 4 apps to equal 16oz/acre total . Haven't seen any re appear this year. Hoping this is our last week of miserable heat


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

The KBG is looking good! 
Heads up, there is some serious armyworms infestations in Topeka and I have some to the south. Those things are doing some serious damage in a hurry!


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Butter said:


> The KBG is looking good!
> Heads up, there is some serious armyworms infestations in Topeka and I have some to the south. Those things are doing some serious damage in a hurry!


After seeing your post last night I went out and inspected a couple brown areas of my lawn and they have hit me too.


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

It's crazy the damage they do and so fast! One of the pictures I saw of a lawn in Topeka looked like the best most even application of glyphosate ever. It also seems like they take advantage of the weather because the damage could easily be attributed to drought/heat stress or fungus unless you take a closer look. Are you going to treat them?


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Yeah I thought it was drought stress until we got all this rain and it didn't recover. I just went to Premiere Farm and bought some Bifen

EDIT:

Well as luck would have it, I got home and immediately sprayed the infested area. 20 minutes later I hear thunder and pull up the radar and a storm is headed this way. Needless to say it rained about 30 minutes after spraying so probably wasted my time.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Sprayed my 3rd round of Cytogro this morning. Also mixed in some Bifen I/T to control the armyworms. Main front lawn just isn't picture worthy. It's losing color from a combo of probably needing nitrogen or iron and then also just heat from summer. Also a fairly good size was damaged by the worms.

Sept is really close and we getting a break from extreme heat so I'm half tempted to start renos but probably wait 1 more week.



Zoysia plot doing good. It probably has another solid month or so left before it really starts to slow down.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Quick update on my "project" lawn. My brother came down with covid last week so he hasn't been able to do much. I went over there this morning and mowed. Mowed with my pro-stance. HOC was 3.75". I also sprayed a 2nd round of Gly on the left half of the backyard. For some reason that half of the lawn just didn't take and it was 90% crabgrass. Decided just to kill it and reseed. I will over seed the rest of the lawn in a couple weeks with TTTF.

Pretty pleased with it. There are some weeds here or there but not terrible. I didn't use any tenacity at seed down so I knew weeds would be an issue. I have spot sprayed weeds once or twice. I doubt my brother has done much to it besides mow so pleasantly surprised most of it survived the summer. I think the fact it's fairly shaded helped.

A couple weeks after I do the overseed I'll come back and apply starter fert to the whole lawn. Then in OCT I will spray weeds another time and might do a round of Urea or AS.





ksturfguy said:


> Late April I helped my brother with his lawn. His "lawn" was basically 95% weeds or dirt. He also had a large hole in his backyard that the previous owners used to burn stuff. Luckily my brother's friend has access to some heavier equipment. He brought in a bunch of dirt. It was not high quality top soil but it filled in the hole. He then brought in a ride on roto tiller type machine and broke up the dirt and leveled it out. I then applied a 90/10 mix of TTTF and PRG. This was on April 30th.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Got seed down on the test plot area last night. Yesterday I scalped and bagged it. Then raked up the debris and blew it off. Late yesterday evening I put down the Mazama KBG seed and covered with peat moss. It's an approximate 300 sqft area. Seed rate was approximately 2 LBS per 1k so about 0.6 LBS of seed.

My main issue going forward is going to be the Zoysia plot. I was amazed at how far into the old TTTF plot I was finding Zoysia runners. No way I'll be able to keep it out. If I see it I'll just have to rip them out by hand. My plans for the Mazama is just to mow it at approximately 1.25" to keep it the same height as the Zoysia.

Also couldn't have picked a worse week to put seed down. It's going to be in the mid to upper 90's through this weekend. Hopefully a cool down next week. Only reason I did it so early was to give the KBG an extra week or 2 and I wanted to space out my work. Here in a week or 2 I'm going to overseed my brother's lawn and seed a couple areas of my main lawn so going to be a lot of work and didn't want to do it all at once.



*NOTES:*

SEED DOWN DATE: 08/23/2021
24 Hour AVG Soil Temps: 81
5 Day AVG Soil Temp: 78.8
5 Year AVG Soil Temp: 76.6 so a little warmer than normal.
Forecast: Temps in the mid to upper 90's for the first 6 to 7 days. No rain in the forecast.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Got in a late evening mow to beat the heat. Love the look of the Mazama when it's cut with the Pro-stance. Unfortunately it scalps a lot easier than a push mower and it's a pretty small place so don't want to tear up the turf so I rarely use it.



Test plot reno has hit the 4 day mark. I expect to see germination by the end of the weekend. Its been in the 90s all week, most days in the upper 90s, soil temps are in the 80s, so be interesting how it effect germination.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Started getting germination yesterday in the test plot. Was a lot more widespread today.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

The struggles of 2021 continue. We've received a good amount of rain this week and cooler temps so 95% of the lawn has bounced back including almost all of the army worm damage. How ever there were a couple areas that were still brown (dead). I started digging this morning and found grub worms. I've never done a preventative for grub worms so finally caught up to me. I bought some Sevin for lawns today so hopefully that helps.

Tomorrow I plan to aerate and overseed my lawn and my brothers.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Long day today. Mowed low, aerated and overseeded my entire lawn. Also did the same at my brother's lawn. It had been at least 3-4 years since I did an aeration/overseed on my lawn. After all the army worm and now grub damage, it needed it.


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## Mark2 (Jun 3, 2021)

ksturfguy said:


> Long day today. Mowed low, aerated and overseeded my entire lawn. Also did the same at my brother's lawn. It had been at least 3-4 years since I did an aeration/overseed on my lawn. After all the army worm and now grub damage, it needed it.


Nice! That does sound like a long day.. so is next fall when you're going to reno the whole yard to mazama?


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Mark2 said:


> ksturfguy said:
> 
> 
> > Long day today. Mowed low, aerated and overseeded my entire lawn. Also did the same at my brother's lawn. It had been at least 3-4 years since I did an aeration/overseed on my lawn. After all the army worm and now grub damage, it needed it.
> ...


If I had an irrigation system I would lol I did overseed some shady areas with mazama but who knows how much will take. I had a couple pounds left so just wanted to get rid of it as its 3 years old.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

The reno of the test plot has been a struggle the first 2 weeks. I feel like it's way behind where it was 2 years ago when I planted the 1500 sqft section.

It's been in the 90s for over half the days since seed down and has only rained on 2 or 3 days. 2 of the days it rained it rain a lot so I probably had some washout. If it's a total flop then it is what it is. There is actual germination there that you can't see in the pic so I'm still fairly confident come next June it will look good but at this rate I might not even have a chance to mow it by winter lol


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

3 week mark for the test plot reno and 1 week mark for my overseed. All are struggling. Temps have been in the upper 80's to mid 90's almost the entire 3 day stretch. No rain in the last 8 to 9 days and only 2 days of rain in the entire 3 weeks.

I'm watering 3-4 times per day when I'm off work and 2 times per day when I'm working. It looks like we might get a little cool down starting tomorrow but then right back into upper 80s and 90s. Outside of tomorrow no rain in the 7 day forecast,



My front lawn doesn't even deserve a photo. It's riddled with insect damage.

Not going to lie I'm mentally beat and usually this is my favorite time of year. Just a lot of things out of my control not working in my favor. If I can't get the front lawn to recover I might be looking at a full reno next Fall.

Tomorrow night we "might" get some rain so going to throw some fert down,


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## Chris LI (Oct 26, 2018)

I feel your pain. I skipped posting photos of mine for the time being, too. If you have seed, I would try dropping some on the front yard when conditions permit, and consider dormant seeding next Jan/Feb. It will help to fill in, so weeds don't, even if it doesn't have enough root development to survive next summer. Dormant seeding has helped me some, over the years. Hopefully, the rain/fert will help to perk it up a bit.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Applied Lesco 32-0-8 to the entire lawn. Rate equaled about .8 LBS of N. Was hopeful for some rain tonight but it's looking less likely now so got the hoses dragged back out and running.



@Chris LI Yeah I overseeded the front lawn last week. Got germination so we'll see how much it fixes the damaged areas. I'll give it another week or 2 and if the overseed doesn't help enough I'll buy a little more seed and throw it down. Wont be ideal timing but better then nothing.


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

I missed the rain too. Did you have armyworm damaged turf recover? A lot of mine recovered but areas with previous stress did not. I also had a second hatch of worms. Did you see a second hatch?


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Butter said:


> I missed the rain too. Did you have armyworm damaged turf recover? A lot of mine recovered but areas with previous stress did not. I also had a second hatch of worms. Did you see a second hatch?


Decent percentage of it recovered but some hasn't. I dug around in the areas that haven't and found a few grubs so not sure if that's the cause or not. Also as far as I know I haven't had a 2nd batch but I'll be honest I haven't looked. Just kind of ready for winter at this point lol.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Brother's lawn overseed at 11 days. The section on the left was a full reno but right side was just an overseed. It hasn't rained at all in 11 days, temps have been in the upper 80's to 90 the entire time and my brother has been out of town for the last week. I've done my best to go to his house and water once or twice a day but it's not ideal. Even with all that said I'm fairly pleased with the results. I've really concentrated the watering on the left side since it was a full reno so unfortunately the rest of his lawn really has seen almost zero germination. It is what it is. Price you pay when you dont have irrigation and it doesnt rain in 2 weeks lol



My Mazama section was aerated 11 days ago and fertilized a couple days ago. For the most part its still in good shape. HOC today was just over 2". Sorry all the shade makes it tough to get a good pic


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Havent posted an update on my front lawn in over a month and for good reason. It's been a rough month or two with little rain and tons of insect/mole damage. It's been almost 2 weeks since the aeration and overseed. Decent germination and coverage in areas I've been able to keep moist. Some areas of my lawn are tough to get water to or keep moist. My plan is to throw down more seed on Tuesday when cooler temps are expected. Still not much rain in the forecast. Oh well, it is what it is.







Here is a section I renovated a couple years ago with a mix of TTTF and Mazama. For the most part doing good considering how much shade it gets.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

The drought continues. In the last 6 weeks we've only received measurable rainfall on 4 days. We've received nothing since Sept 4th. Temps cooled down into the upper 70's, low 80's this past week. Even had a couple mornings into the 40's. Today and the next 3 days appear to be back into the 90's. Lawns with no irrigation are brown and crisp.


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

Looks like you're holding up alright for as dry as it's been. It kinda seems like last fall seeding season when we got zero rain the entire fall! There may be a chance of rain later this week.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Yeah it's been rough for seeding projects. My test plot that I reseed with mazama is a compete disaster. I've never had such poor results with a seed project. I'm out of Mazama seed so not going to do anything about it but just hope for the best lol

Rest of the lawn is fine besides that middle section of my front lawn. Armyworms, grubs, moles and who knows what else has left it looking bad. Put more seed down on Tues so should start getting better. Will also put more seed down this week when chances of rain return and cooler temps.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Here is my test plot or what's left of it at the 6 week mark. I will say this failure has scared the hell out of me from ever attempting a large scale reno. I've never had any issues like this before. Not sure what the cause was. 3 year old seed? Seeded when temps were in the mid to upper 90's for a week and soil temps in the 80's, only 4 days of rain in the last 6 weeks. I felt like I watered the hell out of this thing, 3 to 4 times a day but just couldn't keep it moist enough.


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## moedank (Sep 10, 2019)

Glad you posted this. In the same boat. I can only recall two rainfalls over the last month. Luckily, the recent one dropped about an inch and a half of rain. The lower temps have been nice but the dry weather has kept a lot of lawns dormant in my area.

No major reno this year but I did seed a couple of leveled spots and an area that had cement debris buried in the ground. Those areas have definitely struggled. I began to wonder if my bag of GCI turf seed was going bad because germination rates have been less than what I've come to expect from renos. Following the fall nitrogen blitz has been difficult as well without mother nature's help.
Moving around hoses and sprinklers over the last month has not been fun.

Good luck with everything.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

@moedank Goog luck to you too and yes I've been moving around sprinkers almost 2 times per day for a month now. It's getting really old.


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

That's a bummer. I know that you were shooting for a KBG test plot but there's still plenty of time to scratch in some TTTF.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Butter said:


> That's a bummer. I know that you were shooting for a KBG test plot but there's still plenty of time to scratch in some TTTF.


Yeah I'm not too worried about it. Was basically just wanting to get rid of my Mazama seed that was getting older. My plan is to just let it be and see what happens. If by next fall it's a wasteland then I'll throw down some TTTF seed or shit just plug my zoysia and try to make the whole are Zoysia. It's an area out of sight and out of mind so no big deal either way. Biggest problem was just the mental loss of confidence lol.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

It's still not great but my lawn has finally turned the corner this Fall. HOC 3". Got maybe another 3 weeks to a month of decent growth left for the newly germinated fescue. We'll see how good I can get it.





Mazama HOC 2".


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Got up to 90 degrees today. Chance of rain tomorrow night. Plan to drop Urea tomorrow and let it get rained in. The areas I've really concentrated on watering look good. The areas I cant reach with a sprinkler are basically dormant. We have received .2" of rain since Sept 4 and are 7 inches below average for the last 6 months.





You can see in the above picture a dry area around a tree. It's received the same amount of water as the dark green areas close to it but the trees are soaking up all the water they can.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Urea went down this morning. Was about 1 LB of N per 1k. Yearly total is 3.3 LBS of N, 0.8 LBS of P, 1.16 LBS of K.


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## SEKBrian (Jul 20, 2020)

We are supposed to get like 2 inches of rain tonight. Are you guys supposed to see any of it?


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

SEKBrian said:


> We are supposed to get like 2 inches of rain tonight. Are you guys supposed to see any of it?


Supposed to get about an inch. Much heavier rains south and east of us. At this point I'd take anything lol


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

It's raining at my house! I hope it's raining at yours!


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

It is!. At least enough to water in the urea.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

@Butter I haven't checked my rain gauge yet but according to K-State Mesonet site my area received 1.6-1.7" of rain. Looks like you guys got a lot more in OSCO.


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

4.5" at my house.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Looks like we finished with 1.7. I'll take it. Hopefully didn't wash away all my Urea lol


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Mowed this weekend. This time of year it's hard to get good pics because the sun angle sucks and my property gets too much shade. Overall I'm pleased. A month or two ago parts of my lawn were a disaster but now it's pretty much all back to normal.

I'll try to get 1 more round of N down in early or mid Nov. I spot sprayed weeds last week with Speedzone.


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

There's just something about the calendar turning to October. Looking good.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Mowed HOC 3". Hoping for some rain later today but not holding my breath. Temps wise it's been perfect for the last couple weeks.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Mostly mowing up leaves at this point.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Well I'm back for another year!

Current Soil Temp according to Greencast is 56 degrees and the 5 day average is 48.6.

50 day GDD is 51 and 32 GDD is 357.

I have not mowed yet but today I did apply 2.5 LBs per K of 0-0-7 Lesco Stonewall .68% Prodiamine. Since the Prodiamine is a higher strength I think I can get away with just applying 1 bag vs the 1 1/2 bags I usually apply. I bought it from Lowes.



Got some uneven greenup and will probably mow for the first time this weekend.

*2022 Goals:*
Last year I applied 3.32 LBS of N, 0.80 LBS of P, and 1.16 LBS of K. I have not done a soil test yet this Spring and if I don't get around to it then I'll probably just shoot for similar amounts this year or a 4-1-2 type ratio.

With the increased cost of everything I'm going to try and Keep things to a minimum and not "experiment" with as many products.

Also I got some exciting news. A week from today we close on 5 acres of land. Our hope is to start building our new home sometime this year. My sister and her husband bought 20 acres and sold us 5 of them. Our lot will be Plot 2 in the picture below. The only downside of the lot is it's on a dirt road. I absolutely hate dirt roads and said I'd never live on one but here we go lol Luckily it's only 1/3 of a mile onto dirt and it's a very lightly traveled road. I'm terrified of the cost and building process that is ahead of me but also excited to see everything come together and of course start planning my new lawn lol.



2018-2020 Journal: https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=6340
2019 Mazama Reno: https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=12747


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

Congrats on the new property!


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## SEKBrian (Jul 20, 2020)

Don't forget to budget for irrigation at that new place!


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

SEKBrian said:


> Don't forget to budget for irrigation at that new place!


For sure. Haven't decided yet how much lawn I want. I was think 1/2 acre to maybe a full acre at most. Then just let the rest me native grass or something.


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## SEKBrian (Jul 20, 2020)

More grass more money more problems.....I think that's how the saying goes.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Mowed for the first time today. HOC was 2.75". Lawn is slowly waking up.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Been a little bit of a slow start to the spring but things are waking up. Got mow #2 in this evening. This area of the yard looks the best besides a couple spots with mole damage.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Mowed again. It's been a little dry to start off Spring. Most of the lawn is decent but some of it is a little slow to get going. Probably a combination of little rain and no fert so far. Most years I buy the prodiamine that has fert in it this year I didn't.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Supposed to get a decent amount of rain this week. Will probably fertilize in a week or two.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Been slowly clearing out the new land. Probably won't start the build until this fall so maybe by next Spring I'll be starting my lawn there. Most likely I will start small maybe just 10k around the house and then every fall reno a new 5-10k area until I have a big enough lawn lol The total lot is 4.8 acres so dont plan on having that all as lawn but maybe up to a full acre of it.







The pond isn't on our land but our land backs up to it.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Applied my first round of fert today. Applied Lesco NOS 24-0-11. Was 0.6 LBS of N per 1k. Supposed to rain late tonight or early tomorrow morning so hopefully it gets watered in.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

So I started the season just mowing my KBG the same as the rest of my lawn but got bored today and decided to mow it at 2 1/2 inches. It just looks so much better shorter. Last year I mowed it at 2" in the cooler month and raised it to 2.5" in the summer. Every Spring I'm always surprised at how much slower the KBG is to get going vs the fescue. It seems like it really doesn't get going until Mid to Late May. I know @SEKBrian was noticing the same thing.

I can't decide if I just want to stick with TTTF when I build my new house or plant like a 5k section of KBG. Much easier and cheaper to buy TTTF in bulk around here vs KBG that I'll probably have to buy online.

I can never get good pics of the KBG because of the lack of sun too much shade just messes with the camera.


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## SEKBrian (Jul 20, 2020)

It's painfully slow. Like Bermuda and Zoysia start greening up before KBG fully takes off.

I 100% agree with you about the 2.5" HOC. I bumped mine up to 3 inches already which is taller than it was at any point last year. Seriously a struggle not just chopping it down but I want to see if it does any better with the heat this year. And boy are we already getting a taste of the heat…


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Mazama HOC 2.5"


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

HOC 3". Getting some much cooler temps this weekebd, upper 50s and low 60s.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Went out and mowed at the property yesterday. Some of the trails and areas we mow had become pretty overgrown but the Gravely handled it pretty well.





We got over 3 inches of rain last night. Also with the rain we got last week, mixed with higher humidity I have Brown Patch issues. Havent sprayed any fungicides this year and not sure I even will. Trying to keep things simple this year.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

We have received a lot of rain the last couple weeks. Mowed yesterday afternoon and it was a little too wet. Will probably apply another round of Fert here this week. Probably go with less than 1/2 LB of N and something a little higher in K. Still need to get around to applying a fungicide and also some Bifen I/T to help control insects in the lawn. Just don't have as much free time right now so basically doing bare minimum to Still have a nice lawn.


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

Looks good. Enough with the rain. Too bad we can't save some for August.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Butter said:


> Looks good. Enough with the rain. Too bad we can't save some for August.


That's no lie. It's nice not having to water so far but we could use a little break.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Tuesday I applied an 16-24-12. So far for the year ive applied 1 LB of N, .6 Lb of P and .75 LB of K.

Yesterday I Mowed, HOC was 3.25". Today I sprayed Bifen I/T. As of now still haven't had to irrigate but should be warming up and drying out soon. Overall lawn doing really well. Some Brown Patch here or there but haven't applied any fungicides so it's expected.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Mowed early this morning to beat the heat. HOC was 3.5". Yesterday was around 100 degrees and expecting mid to upper 90s for the next week or so. Todays morning low was 80 degrees which set a record for the warmest morning low on todays date and was the warmest morning low for us in 16 years.

Havent watered yet but will probably break out the hoses sometime this week. Outside of that won't be doing much until we get a break from the heat.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Mowed at 630 am to beat the heat. Today is day 8 of 90 degrees or higher also no rain for 9 or 10 days so finally broke out the hoses.

For the most part it's hanging in there ok besides some Brown Patch. Heat stress and lack of irrigation will probably start soon.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Haven't posted in a bit. Really haven't done much besides mow once a week and water when I can. Main lawn is struggling because it just gets baked by the sun all day. It's been extremely hot and dry for the last few weeks. Finally got a little break today and this week supposed to be cooler.





The KBG gets a lot more shade so it's hanging in there and looking pretty good. HOC was 3.5". There are some brown spots in the KBG that you can't see in this pic but overall I can't complain.


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## Butter (Nov 14, 2017)

That bluegrass is looking strong for the weather it's been through!


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Butter said:


> That bluegrass is looking strong for the weather it's been through!


Yeah I've been very pleased with it over the last 3 years. Now there is an area just off frame that gets a lot more sunlight and it has gone dormant in spots, I think the soil is also contaminated with rocks over there so I'm sure root depth isn't great, so that doesn't help.

I have about a year to decide but not sure if I want to go full TTTF at my new house or have the area around my house by KBG. I do plan on having irrigation at my new house so will be a lot easier to water.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

I haven't gave an update in awhile. Been waiting for the weather to change before fixing my trouble spots but long term forecast doesn't call for much rain and keeps temps in the upper 80's or lower 90's almost everyday. So going to go ahead and get some seed down.

I have an area of my lawn that receives pretty much 100% sun from 10am to 6pm and it's in bad shape. Not to mention the moles have been very active in this same area almost all summer. I've always had a mole here or there but this year has by far been the worst. I think my issue is grubs. In the 7 years of living here I've never applied a grub control. Yesterday I went and raked out some of the dead areas and the grass just pulled right up. I didn't see a ton of grubs but you could see 1 or 2 here or there.



My plan is just to mow it low, rake out what I can and overseed. I think a lot of it will bounce back if we ever get rain again. I'll probably fertilize this weekend as well and just try to water as much as I can. I do not have an irrigation system so almost have to take vacation from work to water properly.

The areas of the lawn that receive a decent amount of shade in the afternoon all look good so I'm fairly confident with some cooler temps and rain the trouble area will also bounce back. I will definitely start using a grub product at my new house.

The Mazama KBG plot has held up pretty well. The area that receives a good amount of shade still looks great, they area that receives almost 100% sun is dormant. I just plan to fertilize and let KBG do it's thing.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Supposed to get a little rain this afternoon so applied 32-3-8 with 2% FE this morning. Will be about .8 LBS of N


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Been watering the hell out of the lawn. We’ve barely received any rain the last 2 months. Temps have been great lately but lawn is really drying out in areas I can’t water.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Applied Urea a couple weeks ago before a rain. Was a couple weeks behind when I wanted to but wanted to do it before a rain. Probably have a couple more mows left and plenty of leaf raking.


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