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Necrosis' Low Lawn 2019 Journal

11K views 41 replies 10 participants last post by  ionicatoms 
#1 ·
I have a 5K Bermuda lawn that I'm on my 2nd year of growing. I let it get to 4" last year for ease of maintenance since I'm otherwise pretty busy. This year I'll be mowing low - just over an inch - and using PGR. Here is last year in peak growing season.







I started this year throwing down 6mo app of prodiamine on Feb 7th or so. Today I scalped the lawn. It had been about 2" all winter before I took it down to an inch. Soil temps here have been pretty steady at 55. We may get one more frost. We shall see if it will do any damage.





Just a warning... expect a lot of grass clippings. Still trying to figure out what the hell to do with three of these piles.



I also bought a greenworks dethatcher. Picked up a referbished one on the cheap. My yard is somewhat new. About 5 years old. It's hard for me to tell if there is that much thatch. Some areas don't look bad at all and tear/diver when using the push mower.



My soil seems to be mostly clay. I'll find out in 2 weeks when the soil test is back.
 
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#2 ·
Got a delivery a couple of days early. Time to take her for a spin.



After dethatching. Used the 1/8 of an inch setting so not deep at all. Was getting a significant amount of dirt on the deeper setting so I switched back.



Scalped again on the lowest setting. Looks decent. I do have some thin areas but they should bounce back soon...... I hope.



And the front. My only question now is should I reapply a second PreEmergent since I already laid down 6mo of prodiamine in early February. It's soaked in well I just don't know. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

 
#5 ·


Looking at the schedule it looks like we have maybe a couple days of freezing temperature in a couple of weeks. This will likely be the last frost of the Spring and it won't last long. So with rising temps I decided to start pushing the lawn with fertilizer. I did put down Milorganite at 1lb/1ksqft since I had some extra in my garage. I might put down some fast release in a week or two but I'm still waiting for soil analysis.

In addition, I went ahead and threw down some antifungal preventative. Going to up my watering to 1 inch per week since it has been at 1/2 inch per week for the duration of winter.
 
#9 ·
Oh yeah! A reel mower will hike up the domination value! Last season I used a manual reel mower and boy does it make a difference! This year I am purchasing a GM 1000, crossing my fingers. Can't wait to see what you got going on here this year!

P.S. I would hold off on the Milo apps until the average ground temps reach around 65 degrees. Check out this video about how Milo works by How to With Doc. He goes on to explain how microbials break down the Milo and how they are not active until a certain temperature.

Hope this helps brother!

Good luck and God Speed!
 
#11 ·
Necrosis said:


Received results of my soil test today. Still formulating a supplementation plan. If anyone has any suggestions let me know!
Maybe some,
Diammonium phosphate
Ferric sulfate
Peat
Ammonium nitrate

Or some diluted ammonia from your local grocer. 1 cup/ 8 fl. Oz. Per Gallon of water per 1K sq. Ft. Just spray that with a surfactant and it should help out. Those numbers don't look immensly alkaline. Remember 7 is nuetral.
 
#12 ·


No significant rain for the next few days. Time to throw down some starter fert since temperatures will be rising.



Recently put down Milo. My soil test states I need about 1lb/M of P so I got a fertilizer high in P. Then put down roughly 1lb/M of N with this which brings me up to roughly 1.5lb/M of N and 1lb/M P for the past couple of weeks. Excited for the green up!
 
#15 ·
So it has been a full month since my scalp and dethatching. Grass is just now starting to come out of dormancy.



To fill my time while I wait for the grass to green up I've decided to do something about my garden bed. The previous owner had some interesting choices regarding the hedge placement. I've decided to remove some of them to make more planting room.



Ended up taking out a hedge and placing in a different spot to frame the right side of my garden bed. Here is how it turned out.





Thinking about planting Red Japanese Maple vs Star Magnolia vs White Hydrangea vs Blue Mountain Laurel on either side of the rose bush. If you have any experience with any of these I'd love to hear about it.
 
#20 ·
Looking good. I'll be interested to see how your lawn does at 1.5" compared to mine. I plan to keep mine around that height too but mine is common Bermuda. I assume yours is a hybrid Bermuda?
 
#21 ·
@TN Hawkeye Yes it's hybrid Bermuda..... I think.

Just put down another 1lb/M of Milo a couple of days ago. Then I got this beauty.



Finally got the lawn under 1" today. Right now it is at 0.75 inches. I will be lowering this to 0.5 likely and maintaining at 0.75. I assume I will be starting PGR in the next week or so.

Overall I think we are heading in the right direction!



 
#22 ·
@Necrosis I don't even know who you are anymore. All of the sudden you're one of those reel low guys. I thought we had tall Bermuda in our future. In all seriousness, congrats. That's a nice machine. I bet you're gonna love it.
 
#25 ·
Necrosis said:
Today was a landmark day. Brought the grass down to 0.5 inches. I'm shooting to maintain around 0.6. I'm not sure if I scalped enough but will see. I could always bring it up to 0.75 and see how it looks. I also put down some PGR at a rate of 0.25oz/M. Here are the photos of the scalp.





Looking good brother!
 
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