# RDZed's Journal



## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Hi all. Glad to be contributing after lurking for quite a while.

I'm getting a late start on my journal. Not many early pics but I hope some of you may finds some of this useful in the future. 
Briefly, I'm a 47 year old retired Coastie born in Riverside, Ca and raised in Santa Barbara, Ca. I spent most of my Coast Guard career in Hawaii. Married 28 years and have one 16 year old daughter.

I'm now located in Virginia, on a tributary of the James River, the Appomattox River. Zone is 7b. I've lived in this house since 2005. My lawn area is just over 12,000 square feet with 8k of that being in front of the house. The property originally had a bunch of diseased hard woods in front that I had removed except for a willow oak. The previous over didn't give af about anything and it showed.

So after being stuck in the TTTF loop of diminishing returns for 6 years in the front yard (faces due south and gets pummeled by summer sun for up to 14 hours a day), I decided to start the soil sterilization process in summer 2011 to prep for a spring 2012 Bermuda stolon installation. I laid down Glystar and highlighter every 14 days from late July until September. At that time I didn't have an irrigation system so I sprayed as it needed it. After about 6 cycles with the gly and the summer heat, the front was smoked. I hit the fall and winter weeds as I saw them. By the time spring rolled around, the yard was a barren.

FF to May 2012. I picked up 80 bushels of Bermuda "Patriot" stolons. The cultivar was developed at OSU for use in transition zones because of its extreme cold hardiness. It's a hybrid of Tifton 10 and C. transvaalensis. 
Below are a few screen caps I pulled off of Google Street view a 5 days after I laid the stolons. Surprisingly, Google hasn't updated the street view for my area since 2012. These images are still there after 7 years, lol.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

So here is last Saturday. There have been quite a few changes to the landscape since 2012. The Oak is huge and had started to shade out a bunch of the bermuda. Same with the Maple on the left. The maple is going to be removed in the next few weeks because the 70+ inches of rain we picked up last year induced Black Tar disease. It isn't dead but it will be in the next year or two. So im going to yank it and plug the area shortly.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Last year in July I decided to plug Meyer Zoysia under the large oak to see what happens. A neighbor had some sod leftover and asked if I wanted it. Sure, why not, nothing else is growing there except old KBG. Wouldnt you know it, the Zoysia is starting to take off. Ill post a pic later today.

Im just going to let the bermuda and zoysia duke it out in the transition zone around the shadelines of the tree.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Unfortunately, I havent been able to make the transition to 'something other than TTTF' behind my house next to the river. Its still Fescue. Between it being north facing, the uber tall Lob Lolly pines and the house at 40' tall, nothing else will grow back there. Its basically a 20'x 200' strip running east to west. It gets maybe 4 hours of sun a day in summer.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

I'll try to get some more pics up later today and I'll jot down my fert and amendment regimen in the next few days. Ive pretty much gone all in with the N-ext liquid this year and I have noticed quite a few changes to the soils and turf.


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## Bmossin (May 31, 2018)

Beautiful property


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Bmossin said:


> Beautiful property


Thanks man, it really is.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

It's getting a bit dark but after the mow but I was able to take a few pics of the Meyer Zoysia and Bermuda duking it out...


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

The zoysia just woke up about 5 weeks ago. Bermuda has been waking up for 7 weeks.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Random images around the property....


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

The TTTF is new from last fall. I smoked the fescue last summer, put down 16 yards of topsoil/sand blend because the back yard was slowly eroding towards the river, as it has been for years.

Fighting erosion and a river is tough.


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## tcorbitt20 (Aug 31, 2018)

Looks great! Welcome!


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Really liking the huge load of Humic Acid I've been putting down over the last 5 months. In late January, I put down 40#'s of Anderson's Humic DG. That and the 2 apps of Air-8 and 2 apps of Humic 12 have made a HUGE improvement in how my clay/pebble subsoil handles water. Especially down in the 2-3" range. My Bermuda roots haven't entered the 4" range yet but the soil is finally becoming 'soft' enough for it. It appears to have helped my Ph to stabilize a bit, for some reason...


Put down another gallon of Humic 12 in the front yard this past Monday (3June19) after doing a Humic 12/Greenpunch combo over Memorial day weekend. The Bermuda perked way up for about a 12 days, obviously from the GP and started to taper off thereafter.

I'm going to take some random 4" deep core samples around the front yard this weekend and a couple random 4" cores from the untreated back yard and compare them to some cores I did at this same time last year.

In the meanwhile, I had to panic mow in the rain tonight knowing we're about to get slammed with rain over the next 6 days. Precision was not an option...


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

tcorbitt20 said:


> Looks great! Welcome!


Thanks man!


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## sanders4617 (Jul 9, 2018)

Awesome! Looking forward to seeing the cores from the treated vs non-treated areas!


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## cglarsen (Dec 28, 2018)

@RDZed Wow really nice job on the front yard. How do you lay stolons by the way and get them to stay put? How long does it take them to tack down?

Is the zyosia doing well in the shade? I have some areas that Bermuda is not wanting to grow and I want another warm season grass for those areas but wasn't sure how they'd mix.

I'm also considering TTTF for my back yard. It just doesn't have any Bermuda like the front does. How much more work is it maintaining Bermuda and Fescue together? Especially regarding herbicides and pre-emergent apps?


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

cglarsen said:


> @RDZed Wow really nice job on the front yard. How do you lay stolons by the way and get them to stay put? How long does it take them to tack down?
> 
> Is the zyosia doing well in the shade? I have some areas that Bermuda is not wanting to grow and I want another warm season grass for those areas but wasn't sure how they'd mix.
> 
> I'm also considering TTTF for my back yard. It just doesn't have any Bermuda like the front does. How much more work is it maintaining Bermuda and Fescue together? Especially regarding herbicides and pre-emergent apps?


TBH, I just laid the stolons super thick (3/4-1") and watered the snot out of them. In the past I've put down tree bark shavings and pine straw but it's always seemed to be a waste in the long run. Just straight stolons took 3 days to stick. A lot of watering though. 5-6 times a day in 10 min intervals.

The zoysia is doing surprisingly well, honestly. My expectations were really low. It's such a slow grower to begin with, being in the filtered sun/shade, it's even slower. I planted them on July 20th, last year. Here's a spot where the Bermuda and Zoysia have intermingled. Zoysia is on top and Bermuda is bottom...



I think once the zoysia has filled it, they'll complement each other quite well. There really isn't a huge difference in leaf textures between the Patriot and Meyer.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

So in between rain drops, I took 2 core samples from my front yard which I've been religiously applying humic acid (Humic DG, Air8 and Humic 12) since January and 2 cores from my side and back yard which I haven't touched.

Very, very interesting results...



Top 2 plugs are humic treated, bottom are native soils which is clay, sand and pebble.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Just did the "Finger Smoosh" test and the treated plugs have a sandy peanut butter consistency whereas untreated plugs are chunky, hard and not as uniform in color...


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

So I gently rinsed the dirt away to see the roots, length and structures. Quite the difference...


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Here's the last pic of the roots. As I mentioned on the main board, this wasnt a test about the grass, it was always about the soil. The root test showed me nothing other than how the clay layer is blocking my TTTF roots from digging deeper.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Humic treated is left, untreated is right.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Btw, I mow my Bermuda at 1", my zoysia at 1.5" and my tttf at 3"


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Here is my Humic and N-Ext app calendar to date. I'll update it as I go through the growing season.

Application is to my 8k front yard.

26JAN2019- 1 ea, 40lb bag of Anderson's Humic DG (8k sf)
07MAR2019- 48 oz of Air-8
17APR2019- 48 oz of Air-8 and 48 oz of RGS
12MAY2019- 48 oz of RGS
24MAY2019- 64 oz of Humic 12 and 128 oz of Green Punch
18JUNE2019- 48 oz of RGS and 128 oz of Green Punch


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## BenC (Mar 27, 2018)

Wow. Very nice read through your journal. Top dressing that zoysia will make it grow.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

BenC said:


> Wow. Very nice read through your journal. Top dressing that zoysia will make it grow.


Good call. I've actually got about a yard and a half of screened topsoil/compost/sand mix that I've been waiting to dress the area with. Just haven't had the time to do it yet between work and rain.

Probably going to get in a quick mow and throw down some RGS this afternoon. Beautiful day here today but back to rain tomorrow.

Thanks for the props dude.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Fortunately the seed heads are done. Now the Fariy D---s are popping out


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

I actually did nothing in the yard today, although she could have used a trim.

I decided to pull the old mower out, wax and trim the chassis. 900 hours. 2007 with a bulletproof 20 hp Courage engine.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Tried to fit in a mow but came home to heavy drizzle and wind so I decided to spray out some RGS. 48oz over 8k. Max reccomend app.

Lawn is starting to get a bit fluffy. Haven't been able to mow since Thursday, which puts me behind a day. Storms tomorrow might push me to Thursday.



Damn huge *** red fox is still pissing and shitting in my yard at night. I've got 4 or 5 urea burns in the bermuda. You can see one of them in the bottom right. Life on the water.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Managed to fit in a max app of Green Punch tonight also. I f-ed up and learned you can't mix RGS and GP. I was putting down GP and accidentally tried to top off the Ortho with RGS. Bad decision, it coagulated and made it useless. I assume it the pH values being so different.

Anyway, I ended up wasting 29 ounces of GP and 3ish ounces of RGS. Oh well.


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## cousineau18 (May 28, 2019)

RDZed said:


> So in between rain drops, I took 2 core samples from my front yard which I've been religiously applying humic acid (Humic DG, Air8 and Humic 12) since January and 2 cores from my side and back yard which I haven't touched.
> 
> Very, very interesting results...
> 
> ...


Wow this is amazing, you mind taking a minute and jotting down your applications? I have the RGS and Humic 12 jugs amd have been using the RGS every 30 days and Humic every 60 days...thinking about getting the Air8 though


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Dallis has made its annual appearance. Pretty late in the season though. I'm usually pounding it the 1st week of May. Been a pretty cool spring here in the Virginia Piedmont.



Spot sprayed with some Target. It should be gone in 3 days.

Been pretty hard spraying for weeds this year. Between the rain and keeping up on mowing, there hasn't been a 2 day span without rain. Yesterday and today have been the first consecutive sunny days in about 3 weeks.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Finally! Summer time is here! 
The Bermuda should look amazing in a week...


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Getting ready to put down 30# of Ironite prills and 30# of 29-0-3 slow release.

Although I like Green Punch and I've been applying it at max rate every 3ish weeks, it's just not feeding the grass at a sustained rate, for my liking. Its 12-14 days of glory but the drop off thereafter is harsh. It's a great booster and supplemental but that's all it is, for my usage at least.

Not dissing GP, I'm just realizing I might be asking too much of it...and that's on me, not the product.

I will say, the foliar uptake of GP is fantastic though. If you're about to entertain at the house and need a quick boost, it's worth every penny. 2-3 days ahead of the party and you're golden.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Seems the lawn has really appreciated the dose of N and Fe. It's already showing better color and growth. We've also had about an inch of rain since I put it down.

Pre mow...

Yellow sports are where I applied MSMA for Dallis earlier this week.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

So the Meyer Zoysia is kicking into overdrive under the oak.

May 30....


June 29...


August 4...


August 22


Sept 19


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Just added the August 4th pic to the Meyer Zoysia experiment under my oak (see post above). The grass has really hit its stride filling in. I decided to let it grow without cutting it to it's normal height. Smart decision. Its leggy but its producing more horizontal growth with the added leaf exposure. Edit: the MZ isn't as dark green as the pic would suggest. I took the pic around 730 this morning and my truck shadow is casting over the Bermuda/Zoysia compete line.

Also notice that I had my red Maple removed last week (top right). I plugged the area, put down 4 bags of peat and loaded it with 34-0-0. It's already starting to recover nicely. With it being gone, I've added about 5 hours of additional direct southern sun to about 3500 sf of the front lawn. The whole 25' diameter area should be completely recovered in about 5 weeks.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Lawn is a mess. I haven't mowed in 10 days. I've taken 4 days off from work to troubleshoot my boats electrical system. Stupid squirrel got into the chase from the center console to the stern electronics, including my transducer. That and I lost 2 injectors on the Yamaha 150 4sk, and found 3 cups of hydraulic fluid in the bilge from the power steering.

Owned this boat for 12 years and never had an issue. As of today, I'm $2500 in the hole BUT, I have a new chartplotter. So that's good.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Just uploaded an August 22 photo of the Patriot Bermuda Meyer Zoysia combat zone under the oak and the Meyer is really starting to dominate the wirey Bermuda in the shade. Exactly what I wanted to accomplish.

There are a few areas I need to address next spring concerning the Oak and Zoysia combat zone. That willow oak's rootlets are just sucking the life out of the Zoysia stolons and rhizomes. The fight for water is real.

2" of soil/compost mix next spring should remedy it.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Been away for a while, both TLF and home. The lawn neglect this year has been real. Life and work collide. Sucks because we're about 4-5 weeks away from our "normal"first frost. I basically haven't done jack s--- fert wise since late June, and the bermuda shows. It's all been about finding time to just to keep it under 3".

Been keeping an eye on the 30 day forcast and it looks like the weather might cooperate with me enough to put down my last, quick release N blast of the season, this weekend. Forcast is calling for 75-90's high temps and 50-70's lows for the next month so I should be good. I'm probably going to dump the remaining Nex-T Humic-12 that I have left, also.

Just took my fall soil test (3 weeks early)and sent it in so I should have a decent gauge on what happened chemically over 16 weeks.

So, here's some humility...








Ready for spring 2020.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

My growing season is officially over. The Bermuda has been treading water for about 2 weeks but the past 3 nights of sub 25 ( 19 last might) has officially, officially put it down for winter.

See you in spring my friend. Sleep well...

May 25, 2019


November 14, 2019


RIP


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Dec 23, 2019


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Hello 2020 growing season!!!

First of all, I completely f-d up the timing of my late winter pre m application and now its showing. I usually do a split app of Prodiamine, second week of Feb, second week of March. Welp, spring being a month early screwed me out of early chickweed, clover and oxalis control. Seems the wet and mild winter diluted my fall pre m app a lot. Usually my early spring app takes care of residual weeds left over from fall. Not this year...

Quick hose end spray with Weed Stop yesterday will rid me of that.

Patriot Bermuda has awoken...



Late fall sewing of new TTTF in the backyard has looked great for about 3 weeks. I loaded her up with some leftover 25-25-4, 2 weeks ago and it's starting to pop now...


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

That's a cool back yard. :thumbsup:


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Thanks man. It's a bitch to maintain though. So much erosion each year. I would love nothing more than to put down Bermuda back there but between the 120' lob lolly pines, 50' roof line, and facing due North, not even the common Bermuda grows back there.

Its TTTF or put down 30 yards of topsoil every year.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Pano from Monday, off the house deck...


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Van Houtte Spireas look amazing this year.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

The rain and decent growth temps have been fantastic for my backyard TTTF. The lawn looks amazing. 



Bermuda hasn't done schit yet so nothing to post.


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## Getting Fat (Dec 31, 2019)

"Bermuda hasn't done schit yet so nothing to post."

except make your yard look fantastic


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Getting Fat said:


> "Bermuda hasn't done schit yet so nothing to post."
> 
> except make your yard look fantastic


Thanks man. That's all TTTF in the pics. Its north facing and gets maybe 4 hours of light on a good summer's day.

My south facing Bermuda is still in stasis, waiting for multiple 80 degree days. I cant wait.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

Gave the front Bermuda a quick shave after the 28 degree morning we had. Also put down 48oz of leftover RGS and a gallon of Humic 12. Curious to see if there's any die off from the freeze. Hopefully none. There was only a couple hours of sub 32 degrees. Soil temps at 2" deep never made it below 45 so that's good.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

The nitrogen and iron I put down 3 days ago is really making the Bermuda pop.

Finally turned the corner with the Bermuda in front. Seed heads are starting to come up. PGR time. 




Need to work on the edging wen the weather breaks.

Backyard TTTF...


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

I think I probably put PGR down a bit too early. The seed heads started around the May 26 and I put t-nex down on the 30th. Think I probably nipped the first batch of heads but didnt catch the big bloom that is happening now.

Either way, the head stalks are quite a bit shorter and less bulky.





No mow in 10 days.


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

As mentioned on the main board, I was down in OBX for 10 days so i hadn't mowed the Bermuda in a total of 22 days total after putting PGR down at the end of May. It worked out well. PGR, lots of rain and cooler temps kept the upward growth below 2". I'm really happy with that.

Got home this past Tuesday and cut it down from 1.5-1.75ish" to its happy 3/4".

2 days and 45 lbs of 38-0-4 later, it looks great. I think I cut mostly random upward blades to reveal the tightly packed PGR'd nodes under the long leaf canopy.

Mow after 22 days:


2 days after mow and fert app:


Nitty Gritty:


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

I'll try to get more angles of the yard and house soon. I've got a constant stream of teenagers parking in front of the house and it's almost never clear of cars...it sucks.

Dont park in front of the house and dont walk on the fook'n lawn!


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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)




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## RDZed (Jul 13, 2018)

House to the left is a Dallisgrass and Nutsedge machine. It's the bane of my existence. They have a TTTF "lawn" that is "maintained" by True Green. Luckily theres a driveway between us but once that Dallis goes to seed, it's a battle. I've even offered to Pre-em their lawn for free. No joy. Grrrr!


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