# Slow Spring Green Up?



## NEWMUDA13 (May 12, 2021)

Anybody else's yard look like this? I'm located in Central MS. We have had colder temps here than past records show, but this time last year my entire yard was green with very little brown. Most of the brown is in lower areas that will some times hold water during a heavy rain. I applied prodiamine at just under the label rate the first week February and scalped as low as my mower will go (around an inch) the first week of March when there a little green everywhere. I did roll my yard twice during the winter to smooth out some bumps. It is much smoother now, but did the dormant grass make a grass matt over my yard and cause a slower green up? That's the only thing I did different than last year. Is it the amount of water from standing water? Did I scalp too early and not allow enough green? Or am I just being impatient with the weather….


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## rockwalltxguy (Oct 1, 2021)

Mines not quite that far behind but definitely it's taking longer than in years past. I just attributed it to the fact that I scalped to dirt for the 1st time this year but other folks told
me they are seeing the same thing so I wouldn't worry too much if I were you.


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

You are just being impatient, the warm weather will come and you will be mowing twice a week before you know it. You usually need days in the 80's and night's in the 60's before it really takes off.

What did you roll your lawn with?


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## NEWMUDA13 (May 12, 2021)

I rolled it with a roller off Amazon that you fill with water. Just pulled it behind a zero turn. My weather has only gotten to 80 for about two days, then rain and back to low 70s and 40s at night. Just seems like everything's a month behind last year.


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## Reel_Alabama (Aug 22, 2021)

Curious what grass type your neighbors have. Is it a salad mix because theirs looks green from a distance.


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## CenlaLowell (Apr 21, 2017)

My crepe myrtles haven't started to lead out yer


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## ABC123 (Jul 14, 2017)

scalp it down?


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## NEWMUDA13 (May 12, 2021)

Yea my neighbors yard is a healthy stand of weeds haha. It's tough to keep them out of my yard. I'm the only one on my street that does more than just cut the grass. It is what it is. I've scalped it as low as my mower will go and bagged it. I've been raking the tiger stripes from the rain and running over it with the mower to bag them up every now and then too. I guess it's just the cooler weather and that area of my yard being where the water settles.


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## NEWMUDA13 (May 12, 2021)

My backyard is greening up really good though. Same Bermuda. I plan on killing it off though because it's too much shade for the Bermuda. It's always been weak growing and thin. Going with Zoysia. What's confusing is, it's greening up faster with less sunlight than my front yard. But it is sloped so it doesn't hold water like the front does. That makes me think the amount of settling water has to have an effect on green up as well.


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## NEWMUDA13 (May 12, 2021)

So I thought I would add some pics of my yards progress. Unfortunately it has pretty much gone backwards. I have even less green than I had before(which may be because of three nights in the 40s). It's been raining a lot still, but dry weather for a while to come. I know you aren't supposed to aerate until the lawn is healthy, but by the looks of it that wasn't going to happen. The only thing I did different was I rolled my lawn twice when it was pretty wet over the winter. MAYBE that caused compaction. That's why water pooled in the more brown area instead of filtering into the soil? So I bought a pull behind plug aerator from Home Depot and went at it hard. It's pretty aggressive and I might have only made things worse. There are a few sprigs of Bermuda coming up in that area. The reason I think it is a compaction issue is because of the green Bermuda strip right beside where there is barely any growth. That is on my neighbors property so I didn't roll it. That is what my yard SHOULD look like. I haven't touched my backyard at all besides cutting it and it looks 10 times better than this. Anybody else thinking what I'm thinking?


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## tjtennispro (Sep 16, 2021)

Does your yard face the North?



NEWMUDA13 said:


> So I thought I would add some pics of my yards progress. Unfortunately it has pretty much gone backwards. I have even less green than I had before(which may be because of three nights in the 40s). It's been raining a lot still, but dry weather for a while to come. I know you aren't supposed to aerate until the lawn is healthy, but by the looks of it that wasn't going to happen. The only thing I did different was I rolled my lawn twice when it was pretty wet over the winter. MAYBE that caused compaction. That's why water pooled in the more brown area instead of filtering into the soil? So I bought a pull behind plug aerator from Home Depot and went at it hard. It's pretty aggressive and I might have only made things worse. There are a few sprigs of Bermuda coming up in that area. The reason I think it is a compaction issue is because of the green Bermuda strip right beside where there is barely any growth. That is on my neighbors property so I didn't roll it. That is what my yard SHOULD look like. I haven't touched my backyard at all besides cutting it and it looks 10 times better than this. Anybody else thinking what I'm thinking?


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## NEWMUDA13 (May 12, 2021)

It faces the south.


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

How many hours of sunlight does the lawn get everyday?


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## NEWMUDA13 (May 12, 2021)

Mightyquinn said:


> How many hours of sunlight does the lawn get everyday?


The latest pictures I just posted were taken at 5 in the afternoon. The surrounding trees cast shadows over my yard from then on. About 8 in the morning is when the sun breaks over the trees on the other side and covers the entire yard. So around 9 hours or so of full sun.


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

Did you fertilize at all last year or at all this year?


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## NEWMUDA13 (May 12, 2021)

Mightyquinn said:


> Did you fertilize at all last year or at all this year?


Last year was the first year I started really trying to make the yard look good. I did a light rate application once a month with 16-4-8 and it looked really good. This year I rolled it twice during the winter, prodiamine the first of February, scalped and spread 13-13-13 at the beginning of March right when I started to see some green coming through, about a week ago I put down some milorganite, and two days ago I spread just a little 17-7-6 because the bag tore open and I didn't want to waste the pile that spilled in my shed. Here's a pic of last year on May 23rd. I don't see it getting to this point in 23 days.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

I don't see how it would cause much damage but what was the reason to roll it in the winter?


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

From some of the pictures it looks like you don't have much grass left in some spots but it has been a very cool Spring here in the South, so until conditions are favorable for rapid grass growth I would just hold what you got and only water if you are not getting enough rain.


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## NEWMUDA13 (May 12, 2021)

Redtwin said:


> I don't see how it would cause much damage but what was the reason to roll it in the winter?


I rolled it in the winter because the ground was more saturated. I figured the roller would make a bigger difference with the ground being so wet. My yard wasn't crazy bumpy. Just enough to cause a few spots to scalp. So I figured the roller would help so I didn't have to do a leveling project over the entire yard. It's just weird how one spot could have good Bermuda and right next to it is basically dirt. The roller is the only thing I could think of that might have done this.


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## Kenny Penny (10 mo ago)

Your lawn looks a lot like mine. Except I'm a stone cold newbie who just applied fertilizer for the first time today. Mine looks bad due to neglect. Yours looked great last year, so I'm sure you're frustrated. I'm following this thread to see how it turns out. I'm curious to see how you think the aeration turns out. A friend recommended to me to do that. Sorry I don't have anything to offer. Good luck!


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## NEWMUDA13 (May 12, 2021)

Just thought I'd do an update. Slowly getting more green springs popping up. Hitting it hard with Air-8 and Humic acid and it seems to be helping. Not 100% sure if compaction was the issue, but the physical aeration and Humic products definitely aren't hurting anything. A few weeds popping up probably because of the aeration. There's worse things. I'll handle them once my yard is healthy. Put down some 16-4-8 yesterday and watered it in. Keeping the yard watered in the morning as well due to not having rain for a while. We'll see how it progresses.


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## Jeffersonzoysia (12 mo ago)

Did you get a soil test this year yet? May help in solving some of your issues. No sense "Throwing down" products without knowing what your soil needs. I would suggest getting a soil test ASAP and then develop a plan to address deficiencies,
Just my 2 cents worth.


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## NEWMUDA13 (May 12, 2021)

Jeffersonzoysia said:


> Did you get a soil test this year yet? May help in solving some of your issues. No sense "Throwing down" products without knowing what your soil needs. I would suggest getting a soil test ASAP and then develop a plan to address deficiencies,
> Just my 2 cents worth.


I did do a soil test. Low in N, P, and K. Which is expected coming out of the winter. I've been trying to slowly incorporate those instead of dumping a lot at one time. Ph was spot on. A little high in sodium and Iron, but nothing crazy. Maybe I need to not be so timid and pump some nitrogen into it to get some growth?


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## NEWMUDA13 (May 12, 2021)

Another update…. Not much better than last week. Not much more growth at all. The water seems to pool less in the low areas than it did before the aeration. So maybe some progress in water penetration into the soil. Applied 16-4-8 on the 8th and watered it in the morning for 10 minutes for two days to help it get in the ground. No rain for 3 days then got a lot of rain for the past two days and hot temps on the way so I guess we'll see what happens. How can my soil be healthy enough to grow a volunteer tomato plant but not healthy enough for Bermuda to grow? I've been hand picking the few weeds I have as to keep anything negative off of the lawn to help the Bermuda as much as possible.


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## UFG8RMIKE (Apr 21, 2019)

There's a sports field (HOA owned) down the street from us that looks the same, they have hit it with everything. Cored, fertilized, watered, sprayed. There's Bermuda there but it won't grow. I've been watching it. This is in Florida so, temps were never an issue.


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## NEWMUDA13 (May 12, 2021)

UFG8RMIKE said:


> There's a sports field (HOA owned) down the street from us that looks the same, they have hit it with everything. Cored, fertilized, watered, sprayed. There's Bermuda there but it won't grow. I've been watching it. This is in Florida so, temps were never an issue.


Yep. Sounds like me haha. I've done all I could think of as well. Core aeration, fertilized with granular and liquid, no weed killers whatsoever, watered when it's been dry. Nothing seems to get a reaction out of it. I'm just going to stop everything and let it figure itself out instead of throwing away money at it. I'll focus on improving my backyard that has the exact same grass and is looking better than ever. Even though I haven't done a single thing to it…. I've come to terms that I am the common denominator in my lawn looking like 💩 so far 🤣.


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