Do I still have to upload pictures to imgur or something? Made a “before/after” picture of my lawn after one year and need someone to see it since my girlfriend is trolling me.
I’ve got an all Bermudagrass front yard and no matter what I do I seem to have one of two issues. If I cut it short, it doesn’t fully green up but otherwise looks good. I’ve watered the hell out of it and done all the fertilizers/treatments. If I cut it a little longer, like just one setting higher, it looks great for a few days then 3-4 days later the yard is covered in these growths, probably twice the height of the rest of the grass. *(No idea why my phone inserts pics sideways)
My grandad was a double major in civil engineering and forestry. My mom inherited his house and the upkeep on the pines is ridiculous. He planted dozens of species hardwoods on his land (back in the 60’s) because he just liked the variety. Then in one corner he planted a grid of pines every 20 feet or so. Limbs, needles, and more limbs. I spend more time cleaning up that ~acre than i do the rest of it combined. My mom has had landscaping crews knock on the door occasionally asking if they can have some of the pine needles for flower beds, but normally I’m left to clean all that up.
Watch this guys videos if you don't have a spray service for correct chemicals and pre-emergents to use.
For Cool Season turf, you have already missed the window for Pre-Emergent crabgrass control. Want to get it out when the Forsythia is in bloom.
Studied Warm season turf in school, but have no experience in managing it. I just know that for Cool season you will have to go with post emergent control options now.
It's really the same window for either. When soil temps start to get around 55 (which is when forsythias start to bloom) you should put it out, I do it in 2 apps. Once at 55 degree soil temp and then again at 70 degree.
What kind of Nitrogen carrier are you using with your herbicide for a 2x app and how long do you stagger between apps? I usually use a 18% N or so fertilizer in one go. I do like the redundancy of a double application.
I usually stick with milorganite for nitrogen. Did a .5 pound application a few weeks ago, I'll probably do a .75 pound this week sometime now that my zoysia is fully awake and going. The two prodiamine apps where about 3 months apart, first was very beginning of March and second was end of May.
Thinking I need to aerate my lawn pretty bad. It’s hard packed clay and needs some help. Problem is whoever did the irrigation for previous owner laid the sprinkler lines and a buried downspout extremely shallow. I’m afraid I’m going to bust every sprinkler line in the yard. Any suggestions or just suck it up and get ready to fix the lines? Don’t think I’m really interested in liquid aeration, but may be a better option right now.
Posted about it, then forgot to post the picture. Was going through my phone today and was reminded. Nothing crazy here, but a comparison from April 2019 (when I moved in) to April 2020. Not perfect but for one year of effort, I’ll take it.
It has been crazy wet here in North Carolina for the past month or so and just crazy weather in general. We broke a record yesterday for coolest high temp, 61 degrees in June. Been fighting fungus in my front yard the whole time. Think I'm going to have to put down a third app of probably propiconazole when it finally dries up.
Great transformation. What have been the big contributing factors? We bought our house last August, and front and side yards look good. Back yard is a constant struggle. I can’t seem to get it to turn around.
By the time I got moved in and everything I missed the window on spring time applications (I’m in Nebraska). So I guess the biggest things I did were done between last September ish and this March/April. Last fall I had a huge portion of my lawn (not pictured) where I started completely from scratch with new seed after killing all the weeds that were left growing by the previous owner. - Aerated in late August - Labor Day I put down the seed in there area mentioned above and used the remaining seed to over seed my entire yard - Put down a winterizer type application in mid November (right before snow/freeze etc). Then early this spring I put down a pre emergent for crabgrass with nitrogen added, and I think that had a huge effect on it because within two weeks it was growing like crazy and super green. So I think that plus the winter application made a big deal early this year. Also, we had a pretty mild winter, and Spring game early for us which I would assume also has a positive effect on the green up.
It’s mostly just thin spots/bare spots, and it’s growing at a much slower rate than the front and side. I have to cut it about every other time that I cut the front and side. And I could probably wait even longer. It’s all bermuda, by the way. The back gets a lot of sun so you’d think it would take off. I added a round of nitrogen at roughly 1lb per 1k sq ft last weekend. Hoping that helps soon. Definitely need to aerate soon. It’s hard packed clay.
How shallow is shallow? If they are say, 6” under ground can you aerate 4”? You could also trace the irrigation lines and not punch by heads or on the lines.
The downspout is seriously 1-2” deep. It’s a really short run, and I know where it goes so not too big of an issue. The sprinklers, I’m planning to stay away from the heads and trace any lines I know of from replacing heads earlier this spring. The lines I’m aware of are 3-4” deep in some places. Thinking I’ll be ok punching at 3” deep, but there’s lines I have no idea about. Just don’t feel good about it based on what I have dug up/seen.
Yeah, that sounds super tricky. You’ll get there over time with an aggressive aerating and topdressing program.
The nitrogen definitely worked this spring for me, and I am planning on one more application via Milogranite probably closer to mid/late July to give it a boost for the last half of summer. It’s been like 90+ here all June and we’re about 4.5 inches behind the normal rainfall. If you can, try to play down some seed this fall and keep it watered. I think that helped a lot. In the blatant bare spots I had I added a layer of soil too before I seeded.
I'm a bit of a lawn products/treatment novice as I'm a new home owner. My dad (in Houston) has a nice full-year treatment schedule for his lawn. Came out of the newspaper or maybe a print off from the local lawn radio host. Really handy. Dates, products and their N-P-K breakdowns, in case you don't use those exact products. I went to the feed store and asked the employee what I needed to accomplish the same thing (basically a full year cycle for treating my lawn). He grabbed a notepad and wrote up pretty much the same thing for me. Russell Feed and Supply for anyone in DFW. Gonna be putting down some 15-5-5 asap and have the bag of 28-0-0 for +60 days later. Spoiler
So, I killed probably 80% of my lawn pretty much overnight thought my st Augustine was just really dry from hot hot and dry it’s been, and was getting bad weeds all of a sudden. I forgot to do my weed and feed in the spring so I went ahead and put it down, then watered it in on Friday morning. Saturday I noticed I was getting brown spots on the blades. Sunday it was everywhere. Went to Home Depot and got some fungicide as I diagnosed it as gray leaf spot. Today it’s dead. turns out nitrogen, and herbicides ignite grey leaf spot. I also spread it everywhere by walking while spreading the weed and feed. Don’t do what I did
Sucks man. I have tentatively ID'ed this as slime mold, but terrified if its not and its actually a problem. googling says slime mold isn't bad.
Sprayed this as I felt a spray would somehow start working faster than a dry spread If it slows down and I don’t lose the whole yard, going to get and spread this in a week or so as I read to switch up the active ingredients
Yep. I’ve spent the last few years really working on it. I lost my front yard to really bad cinch bugs last year that even a commercial guy couldn’t get rid of fully. I’d say at least 80% is dead, or some combination of yellowing, grey spot, or a combo although this may just get me to join the zoysia master race
That’s a good rotation you have there. The top product uses Propiconizole, which is a contact fungicide that will check it up, and the DiseaseEX is a systemic fungicide with Azoxystrobin. The Azoxystrobin is some good stuff. Checking both boxes of disease control by using different active ingredients and modes of action. Edit: Zoysia is a pretty awesome turf grass. Super resilient and drought tolerant.
I used this article as a fungicide guide just FYI https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/gray-leaf-spot-on-st-augustinegrass/
How long after putting down a herbicide for weeds do I need to wait before throwing down some milogranite?
Any product recs for caterpillar issues? Just had to trash a couple plants that were eaten to shreds and covered in those fuckers
Anything with Bacillus thuringiensis as the ingredient. It's toxic to caterpillars, but won't hurt bees. Edit:https://www.homedepot.com/p/Montere...-Outdoor-Organic-Insecticide-LG6332/206211430
Good course of action, You can go ahead and put down the disease ex though, I do them together often as I have consistent fungus problems.
was going to try and take up the dead and clean up the thatch this evening and give it a good watering in the morning. should I put it down tonight, or after watering?
If it was me I would go ahead and put it down tonight and water it in. I'm by no means an expert on fungicides but with both Propiconizole and Azoxystrobin one night time watering won't make things worse and would be a good idea to go ahead and get the Azoxystrobin moving.
Shouldn’t be watering at night with a fungus on the lawn. Just no reason to add any conducive conditions if you can avoid it.
I water 2x a week in the morning when it’s not raining. It hasn’t rained here in a week and I last watered Friday
You generally don’t want to over water when your lawn is under disease pressure, but since you’re applying a a contact and systemic you should be alright. Just be sure to give the contact a good window to dry.
whats yalls watering schedule look like this time of year? I'm currently running Monday thru Friday at about 13 minutes a zone (all rotors) set to finish right as the sun comes up
Yes, I know watering at night is bad, but I was using the logic it would be good to get the azoxystrobin working. Like I said though, no expert by any stretch.
You want to give some days to dry out between those waterings. I currently go every 3 days at .5 inch, also ending right before sunrise.