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Harts' 2020 Journal

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#1 ·
*****2020 JOURNAL STARTS ON PAGE 13*****

I know it's late in the Spring but better late than never. It's been a busy couple of months and I have welcomed a new addition to the family:





This is a 2001 and in decent shape. This kind of came up out of nowhere. @Trogdor found a golf course that closed last Fall and had a couple of 1000's and 1600's. They were asking $750. I offered $500 and we settled on $600. At the time I didn't even know if it would run. All I knew is that they were in commission last golf season.

I then found an absolute gem of a guy who runs the maintenance for a golf course about 20 minutes from me. He gave me great advice when I first told him about the GM1000 and said if I ended up buying it, to bring it to him and he'd go through it and make sure it wasn't a lemon. So, I finally picked it up last week and brought it right over to him. It ended up needing a new bed knife and a fresh sharpen of the reel. All told, it was $160 cash. So I've got $760 invested, which I think is a great deal.

I brought it home last night and it fired up on the first pull! Took it for a quick test run without the reel engaged to get a feel for it, then cleaned it up a bit.





The first cut will be tonight at 1". I plan to start bringing it down and testing different heights to see what works/looks best. I also have to build a height of cut gauge.

Lawn Update:

So far this year I have thrown down two apps of the Brett Young 5-1-2 fert - 1lb N per k each for a total of 2lbs N for the season. That will be all that goes down until the fall.

Overall I am happy with how everything has responded coming out of winter dormancy, although it isn't as dark green as it was at this time last year. Having said that, last April (2018) I power raked, over seeded and fed the lawn. All I've done this year is add fert. It is thick and happy and virtually weed free - I haven't add to spray anything this year.

Going forward I'm going to do regular apps of humic and look to get some PGR (if I can stomach the cost and shipping to Canada).

More pics and updates to come.
 
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#2 ·
Are you looking at PrimoMaxx or Anuew for PGR?

I'd be in on splitting the cost, if you're going to do it.

Nice new toy! I picked up a new rotary a few weeks ago. I now have a front yard mower and a back yard mower. :)
 
#9 ·
Did my first cut with the reel tonight. HOC is 1". It looks awful but that might have been the most fun I've ever had mowing. Definitely going to take some practice.





One thing I learned tonight is that I'm spending this fall levelling. Prior to tonight I thought my backyard was fairly level. The reel mower doesn't lie.

Rain tomorrow then another cut on Friday.
 
#11 ·
Thanks @g-man.

I did see them after the mow but they weren't noticeable prior. I was cutting at 1.5" with my rotary and haven't been concerned with any fungal pressure this year. I've been in the yard most nights after the kids go to bed and nothing really presented itself.

You thinking brown patch?
 
#20 ·
@Sinclair here you go. This was taken last week. I was late with my spring N blitz. To date I've done 2 apps of the equivalent of 1/2lb N. Unfortunately I forgot to take into account I was only doing 200 sq ft with the first app. I ended up putting down the same as I would have over 1k sq ft! I gave it extra water and only got minor burning.

It looks even better this week than last. I will upload another pic this weekend.
 
#22 ·
Here are pics from Sunday:

Backyard - starting to look better after bringing it to 1" a week ago.



Here is how fall reno is looking in the front:

2.5"



1" with the reel



I sprayed propoconizole on the backyard Monday night. I'll probably do one more app in 2 weeks then start using PGR.
 
#23 ·
So I chickened out on the iron app the other night - ended up just applying Humic. I was in a fight with the daylight and didn't have time to properly calculate the rate. Can someone confirm this label. 8-16oz per k sounds high. Maybe I'm wrong.

I was also planning on using the ortho dial n spray for this.

 
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