# Brett2k07 Fescue Learning Adventure



## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

5/13/21 - First mow on the new lawn. It desperately needs a level job. Noticed the grass is thin around/under the fence. I have a soil test kit and will be grabbing my samples next week.


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## amartin003 (Apr 30, 2021)

Same here, lots of dips in my lawn that I'll have to address soon. Trying to figure out the best way to approach it. Your lawn looks great in the pictures!


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

6/13 - So it's definitely been a learning curve so far. We've had a bunch of rain in this area so keeping up with mowing has been a challenge. I've had a lot of issues with clumping and it's caused some bare spots in the grass.

Today was in the 90s, so I waited until it cooled off this evening and applied one bottle of Simple Lawn Solutions Soil Hume to the back yard.


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

Applied Simple Lawn Solutions Lawn Food 16-4-8 to both the front and back today and watered in. First nitrogen application of the year, and quite honestly, it needed it. The yard is looking rough.

Seeing the wild Bermuda kicking in high gear with the warm temps. Also saw what looked to be some nut sedge popping up with all of the rain we've had, and some clover. Need to grab an herbicide to take that out.


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

Yesterday (7/22) I applied Ortho Weed B-Gon both front and back to treat clover and crabgrass. It says it treats nutsedge too, but I have some sedge hammer on the way if it doesn't work on that. This picture is the worst area by far.


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

Applied Ironite front and back, and a humic application to the front only. Also increased watering from 2x/week to 3x/week.


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

2/20/22 - Prodiamine application 10.5 pounds (3 lbs/1,000 sq ft)

Had a really bad problem with crabgrass last year. Hoping to keep that at bay with some pre-emergent. Grabbed some stronger post-emergent if any pesky seeds sneak past.


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

Put down 0.25lbs/1k of granular fertilizer. I wanted to spray, but it was too windy and with rain coming tomorrow, now was the time to put it down without having to manually water it in.

Backyard will probably need to be mowed in just a couple of days with this application. The front yard is waking up more slowly, but it had a rough year last year and I didn't do an overseed.


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

First mow. Put down another 0.25lbsN/1k continuing to spoon feed the lawn.

Front yard is struggling. I'm being dominated by my neighbors. The front yard has a lot of bermuda which is contributing to the brown along with some dead crabgrass leftover from the winter. I plan to go out and rake some of the dead stuff out over the next couple of days. What it really needs is an overseed which I'm planning to do this fall. So I'm looking forward to that. Going to keep up with fertilizer/weed/fungus control in the mean time.

Backyard looks better than the front yard, but has its own set of issues. There are some thin spots from crabgrass that died out over the winter. Those areas are being invaded by other weeds now. Need to spot spray those. Have some bare spots/holes from where I ripped out crabgrass last year as well. But overall this should green up nicely.


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

Got another mow in today. I was going to spray some Drive XLR8 to kill off some weeds I'm seeing, but it was way too windy.

Backyard has greened up nicely. Looking much better than the first mow.


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

Double cut and spot sprayed some weeds with Drive XLR-8.


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## rookie_in_VA (Sep 27, 2021)

Parts of my lawn are also fescue. At what height are you cutting yours?


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

rookie_in_VA said:


> Parts of my lawn are also fescue. At what height are you cutting yours?


I have my mower set at the second highest notch. From the the ground to the bottom of the deck is about 3 inches. So it's probably cutting at about 3.5 or so.


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## rookie_in_VA (Sep 27, 2021)

brett2k07 said:


> rookie_in_VA said:
> 
> 
> > Parts of my lawn are also fescue. At what height are you cutting yours?
> ...


Last year I kept mine at 4" but had a bit of trouble with fungus setting in during the humid summer in VA. This year I am trying a 3" HOC.


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

rookie_in_VA said:


> brett2k07 said:
> 
> 
> > rookie_in_VA said:
> ...


Yep, I had mine set to the highest notch last year so I brought it down one this year. I also had issue with fungus so I purchased some azoxystrobin in the off-season to put down as a preventative this year. I'm also planning to dethatch this fall when I do my overseed which should also help with future fungus problems.


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

Snapped a picture of my front yard this evening when I went out to get the mail. It seems to have really responded to the nitrogen apps and rain. It has greened up nicely over the past few weeks. The picture is a bit deceiving because it is a bit thin, but I'm happy with how it's doing given the circumstances. The overseed in the fall should make this area nice and full.


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## bf7 (May 11, 2020)

brett2k07 said:


> It seems to have really responded to the nitrogen apps and rain.


I can tell. The difference from 2 weeks ago is stunning!


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

bf7 said:


> brett2k07 said:
> 
> 
> > It seems to have really responded to the nitrogen apps and rain.
> ...


Thanks! I'd like to take credit, but I think I was just being impatient. After having St. Augustine grass for 8 years in central Florida, this was my first winter waiting for a cool season yard to come out of dormancy and green up.


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

Applied a full rate of Simple Lawn Solutions 6-0-0 Lawn Booster via backpack sprayer. (4oz/1k)

Mainly did it for the 5% iron. We have family coming into town this weekend.


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

Double cut front and back today. Noticed the weeds I spot sprayed really don't look all that stressed. Might need to up the dosage and/or hit them with the fusilade I have.


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

Rain coming tomorrow. Put down the following stuff today:

-0.25/lb nitrogen
-Preventative rate of Scott's Disease Ex in the front yard only (2lb/1k)
-6oz/1k of Humic 12
-6oz/1k of Air-8


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

Rain coming this evening. Put down:

- Prodiamine 3lb/1k
- Talstar P 1oz/1k (back yard only)


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

The weather around here has been incredible. Temps have been in the 60s and 70s, though we have had a ton of rain. Tonight was beautiful so we grilled and ate outside on our patio. Grass is looking good. Need to spray some broadleaf stuff under our bird feeders because those seeds germinate as the birds eat them. But they really don't bother me that much honestly. The birds are worth it.


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

Grass is stressing a bit as our temps have been in the 90s all week with no rain whatsoever.

Sprayed full bottle of Simple Lawn Solutions 6-0-0 lawn energizer this morning via hose end sprayer to give it a little extra water and then also watered it in.


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

It's been a couple of months and summer has been brutal. We had a severe drought in our area and the lawn struggled significantly. Once we got some rain, most of the yard bounced back except for 2 areas in the back yard.

My father-in-law helped me rake out the dead stuff yesterday and we found grubs. So yesterday I applied some Grub-Ex and re-seeded those areas.



This area is a little different. I am working on renovating this area as there was a ton of weed pressure and it just never really looked good to me.

I sprayed it with round-up a couple of weeks ago and on Thursday evening my father-in-law and I mowed it as low as my mower would go, raked it out, and re-seeded. So we're about 3 or 3.5 days post-seeding today (8/21).

Today I went out and hit those re-seeded areas with some 6-0-0 liquid fert from Simple Lawn Solutions and some 0-0-5 Sea K from N-Ext.

Since I'm having to water large portions of my lawn pretty frequently, I also applied 0.5 oz per 1k of Azoxystrobin to the entire yard, front and back, to help keep fungus at bay until the new seed germinates.


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

7 days post seeding on the side yard next to the driveway and seeing good germination across that area


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## SNOWBOB11 (Aug 31, 2017)

Looks good.


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

So my renovation project on the front side yard is coming along. I didn't have any tenacity when I seeded, so there's some crabgrass that took advantage of the situation.

I was able to get some tenacity last week and sprayed at a rate of 5oz/acre. The side yard is spotty and I don't really see even grow-in so I re-seeded it and rolled it in with a garden weasel.

Overall, I'm happy with how it's progressing. I know it's a patience game so I'm trying to let it be. The crabgrass is already showing signs of dying back so it should be good moving forward.









The backyard with the grub damage is struggling pretty bad. I was seeing very little germination across the entire area so I re-seeded and rolled that in with the garden weasel as well to get better seed to soil contact.

Crabgrass is almost out of control. I hit it with tenacity as well, but it's mature enough that I'm not sure it's going to touch it.

I wasn't aware I could put down Drive Xlr8 on new tttf seed so if the tenacity can't handle the mature crabgrass, I'll break some of that out tomorrow. I'm a little concerned with this section, but I'm determined to get it back to looking nice.


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## brett2k07 (May 13, 2019)

Crabgrass is bleaching out both front and back. Looks like I don't need to hit it with the Xlr8. Just watering now too keep the seed moist.


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