Did my first cut today. Most areas needed it some didnt. It was a nice day out so I took advantage of it after work. Supposed to rain the next few days so might as well do it today. Waiting on Lawn Doctor to come and put down the first treatment.
OT: Eternal Lawn Care Thread
- Thread starter Knight Shift
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Blaming the Gov. for global warming? :Wink:
Have to thank you and @wisr01 again--if I had let the landscaper do the pre-emergent, it would not have happened.
Have a lot of chickweed all over my yard. As I understand, pre-emergent does not address that. Was thinking of using the sprayer.
Glad you got it down because it is a little early this year. You hit the sweet spot perfectly. I used Scotts with Halts so I am going to have to apply a second time in a few months.Blaming the Gov. for global warming? :Wink:
Have to thank you and @wisr01 again--if I had let the landscaper do the pre-emergent, it would not have happened.
Have a lot of chickweed all over my yard. As I understand, pre-emergent does not address that. Was thinking of using the sprayer.
Dimension is a good pre-emergent that has some limited post emergent effectiveness but if that’s a picture from now I’d use Ortho CCO from a hose sprayer. You can get that at Lowe’s or Home Depot. I’ve noticed a lot of chickweed in the park by me and in some lawns. It is one of those weeds that comes up early.
I have been meaning to do a full core aeration for quite some time. I’m in southern Morris County. Although they make ride-on aerators, and Home Depot in other states carry them for rent, I have not been able to find a single place within 25 miles that has one. Lawn is too big for the walk behind. Was hoping to do it myself without hiring a contractor, but may have to bite the bullet unless someone knows a rental outfit that carries them.
This is what you want. Great piece of equipment for $229.
TSC in Hillsborough, Flanders and Ringoes-website says they are in stock. Tinton Falls Store gave me the assembled one out front, which did not require any assembly. Thing worked great. Make sure you have a couple of heavy paver blocks or concrete blocks to put on the back.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/agri-fab-48-in-tow-behind-aerator?cm_vc=-10005
Thanks, that looks pretty good. I have a de-thatcher that’s very similar. I’ll check this out.This is what you want. Great piece of equipment for $229.
TSC in Hillsborough, Flanders and Ringoes-website says they are in stock. Tinton Falls Store gave me the assembled one out front, which did not require any assembly. Thing worked great. Make sure you have a couple of heavy paver blocks or concrete blocks to put on the back.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/agri-fab-48-in-tow-behind-aerator?cm_vc=-10005
The chickweed is brutal this year.Blaming the Gov. for global warming? :Wink:
Have to thank you and @wisr01 again--if I had let the landscaper do the pre-emergent, it would not have happened.
Have a lot of chickweed all over my yard. As I understand, pre-emergent does not address that. Was thinking of using the sprayer.
So are ticks. People should check themselves after working in garden/yard.
Was out trail riding near Allaire yesterday. Stopped for less than 5 minutes and a tick was crawling up my leg.
Its amazing you commoners attract ticks so easy....had maybe 5 or 6 total on me all of last season working
Think that out the woods, where all the deer hang out, there are more ticks. Allaire woods are notorious for ticks.
So is the woods behind me. There are 5 to 10 deer foraging almost every day. Early spring means tons of deer ticks until I start treating my property.
Have no idea if these are effective, but I bought a pair. White crew socks are no longer fashionable, but I usually wear white crews when I ride during tick season. When I stop, and thereafter, I check the socks to see if any ticks are crawling up the socks.
I have been doing that with pants tucked in white knee highs for 25 years. My wife and family laugh at me but I see the MFers much sooner than later. I did get burned last year and did not find him until the next morning as my pant leg came out of the sock and kept working. He crawled up under pants and attached.
Blaming the Gov. for global warming? :Wink:
Have to thank you and @wisr01 again--if I had let the landscaper do the pre-emergent, it would not have happened.
Have a lot of chickweed all over my yard. As I understand, pre-emergent does not address that. Was thinking of using the sprayer.
I put pre emergent down in the mid to late fall and it greatly reduces the amount of chickweed I have in the spring. I’ve used both barricade and dimension in the fall.
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Bumping this up to see how everyone's lawn is doing. Mine is doing mostly really well. Greened up very nicely. Not many dandelions. Had a wicked chickweed infestation, which I have not sprayed for yet. Will try to get picture, but have several small clumps of a strange looking reddish grass in our backyard. My landscaper who knows his plants had no idea what it was. It is not nutsedge.
Depends what produce you use. The active ingredient in Scott’s Grubex is chlorantraniliprole and that can be applied in our area now. Products whose active ingredient is imidicloprid are applied later (late June or July). Both are fine, the former is less harmful to bees and earth worms. The latter is a quicker kill. I use the former.
Is it Red Thread? I would be surprised if it is as Red Thread shows up during wet humid summers but figured I would throw it out there..
A product with triclopyr will kill it, for example Ortho CCO (make sure it is the purple label with triclopyr, Orthos has several products, this is what you want for creeping Charlie). Two sprayers a couple weeks apart
As golfer said, it could be red thread. I noticed it last year the first week of May, the year before it was mid May. It could also be a rye grass (some have a reddish purple hue at the base, or even Kentucky Bluegrass can look the color and stalky when it goes to seed this time of year. Just hope it isn’t Poa Trivialis, which grows faster, is lighter green but reddish at the base, will turn brown in the summer and look like hell. There is no selective herbicide for Poa Triv that is available for anywhere other than golf courses and sod farms. There is a new product that hopefully in a year or two will be available for residential use.
I looked up red thread. Don't think it is red thread. Thanks.
Most likely not red thread.
Does not seem to be rye grass.
My lawn seed was from Hogans in Tennessee, and it is a 99.5% blend of three types of fescues.
Here are two pictures (please don't identify other problems with my lawn, as I will be traumatized! [roll]):
If it is nutsedge or one of the others you guys said, I will hang my pictures in the lawn care hall of shame. 0__0
This stuff grows in small tufts, and when I mow weekly, these tufts are usually 2 to 3 inches higher than the main body of grass. Seems to be more of it in a wet area of my lawn where the drainage is not so great, and my topsoil before putting the lawn down was a bit thin. That is shown in the top picture.
Edit- and while this is not showing the red hue it showed a couple of weeks ago, you can see a reddish-purple blade or two in the bottom picture.
As an aside, I had meticulously thatch raked a section of lawn between our pool and patio last fall. Perhaps I was too aggressive, as that his the worst patch of lawn in my yard. Overall, however, as a person who sucked at lawn maintenance and care, we have been really happy with the Hogan seed and how it looks.
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I looked up red thread. Don't think it is red thread. Thanks.
Most likely not red thread.
Does not seem to be rye grass.
My lawn seed was from Hogans in Tennessee, and it is a 99.5% blend of three types of fescues.
Here are two pictures (please don't identify other problems with my lawn, as I will be traumatized! [roll]):
If it is nutsedge or one of the others you guys said, I will hang my pictures in the lawn care hall of shame. 0__0
This stuff grows in small tufts, and when I mow weekly, these tufts are usually 2 to 3 inches higher than the main body of grass. Seems to be more of it in a wet area of my lawn where the drainage is not so great, and my topsoil before putting the lawn down was a bit thin. That is shown in the top picture.
Edit- and while this is not showing the red hue it showed a couple of weeks ago, you can see a reddish-purple blade or two in the bottom picture.
As an aside, I had meticulously thatch raked a section of lawn between our pool and patio last fall. Perhaps I was too aggressive, as that his the worst patch of lawn in my yard. Overall, however, as a person who sucked at lawn maintenance and care, we have been really happy with the Hogan seed and how it looks.
This is a cross of Kentucky Bluegrass, Featherbed Bent, and Northern California Sensemilia.
I hate to say it but those pix look like it could be poa trivialis. It’s hard to tell without close up pix. It’s often hard to tell with pix anyway. Does it have a boat shaped tip? Stolons for roots? Does it have a membranous ligule that seems pointed if you peel back a blade from the sheath? It’s lighter green and grows faster. Did your seen have 0% weed and 0% other crop on the label? Poa triv falls under “other crop.” I only use seed with 0% of both weed and other crop. Triv seed can be viable for 7 or more years and come up when the soil is disturbed (aerated) or just when conditions are favorable (wet, cool, shady).I looked up red thread. Don't think it is red thread. Thanks.
Most likely not red thread.
Does not seem to be rye grass.
My lawn seed was from Hogans in Tennessee, and it is a 99.5% blend of three types of fescues.
Here are two pictures (please don't identify other problems with my lawn, as I will be traumatized! [roll]):
If it is nutsedge or one of the others you guys said, I will hang my pictures in the lawn care hall of shame. 0__0
This stuff grows in small tufts, and when I mow weekly, these tufts are usually 2 to 3 inches higher than the main body of grass. Seems to be more of it in a wet area of my lawn where the drainage is not so great, and my topsoil before putting the lawn down was a bit thin. That is shown in the top picture.
Edit- and while this is not showing the red hue it showed a couple of weeks ago, you can see a reddish-purple blade or two in the bottom picture.
As an aside, I had meticulously thatch raked a section of lawn between our pool and patio last fall. Perhaps I was too aggressive, as that his the worst patch of lawn in my yard. Overall, however, as a person who sucked at lawn maintenance and care, we have been really happy with the Hogan seed and how it looks.
I’ve got triv the last two years.
0.00% Other crop and Weed seeds.
Could be Poa Triv. This guy says to hit it with Tenacity? Will try to get some close ups later. I may have stirred it up because I aerated this Spring (see my post above). Darned if you do, darned if you don't. Thought aerating was beneficial, and now I stirred up a potential Poa infestation. :uzi:
Triv can also come from deer droppings after they eat the triv. That’s where it comes from in my lawn. Tenacity (Mesotrione) will bleach it white but won’t kill it. Two schools of thought on aerating. It can be beneficial but can kick up weed seed as RUrichdog points out. Some do it, some don’t. If you do make sure you have a good pre-e program as Rich notes.
PHS you know your lawn stuff! one thing this pandemic has brought to light for me, I need to pay more attention to my lawn. When I moved in 20 years ago, I put down 2+acres of sod. I never do anything other than have it cut before this year. And now I know I have a lot of work to do because a lot of the stuff all you guys have been talking about has crept into the lawn. This fall I will definitely aerate, put down that pre-emergent, and then over-seed. One question I have for all you guys, is this stuff safe for dogs after I spread it on the lawn?
Herbicides and fungicides are safe to use provided you follow the label. So this includes application rates, Preparation techniques, various guidelines on how long to wait for pets to have access to the area, etc. Some of these products (e.g., Mesotrione) are applied at very specific rates depending on factors such as the turf species or lawn types. Mesotrione in liquid form (Tenacity) is applied at a rate of 4 to 6 or so ounces per acre, diluted by 30 gallons of water. I can’t emphasize enough that you do research and read/follow the label very carefully. You can google various product labels or a website like Domyownpestcontrol is a good place to get information on these products as well as purchase them.
It’s not a bad idea to get a soil sample from Rutgers or elsewhere to see where you might have soil deficiencies and how to address them.
I enjoy the hobby but it can be time consuming and expensive depending on how far off the deep end you go...Good luck!
This is definitely Poa Trivialis. You most likely have Poa Annua in your lawn too as do most other people if they look close enough. It is also a lighter green color and has seed heads that typically fall below the lawn mower blade and are always present. They will drop seeds and resprout next year. Poa Triv will go dormant and come back each year. They are a grass so most treatments will kill home and your lawn at the same time. You can try to use Roundup or just dig up patches but again if you start to look closely enough it is typically more widespread than you can even see. I have noticed both in my lawn this year and many lawns in my neighborhood. It is pretty much everywhere right now and almost impossible to prevent as the seeds can come into your lawn from wind, animals, etc. Even if you plant an entire new lawn it will most likely be in the new seed or topsoil you use and will come up eventually when conditions are right.I looked up red thread. Don't think it is red thread. Thanks.
Most likely not red thread.
Does not seem to be rye grass.
My lawn seed was from Hogans in Tennessee, and it is a 99.5% blend of three types of fescues.
Here are two pictures (please don't identify other problems with my lawn, as I will be traumatized! [roll]):
If it is nutsedge or one of the others you guys said, I will hang my pictures in the lawn care hall of shame. 0__0
This stuff grows in small tufts, and when I mow weekly, these tufts are usually 2 to 3 inches higher than the main body of grass. Seems to be more of it in a wet area of my lawn where the drainage is not so great, and my topsoil before putting the lawn down was a bit thin. That is shown in the top picture.
Edit- and while this is not showing the red hue it showed a couple of weeks ago, you can see a reddish-purple blade or two in the bottom picture.
As an aside, I had meticulously thatch raked a section of lawn between our pool and patio last fall. Perhaps I was too aggressive, as that his the worst patch of lawn in my yard. Overall, however, as a person who sucked at lawn maintenance and care, we have been really happy with the Hogan seed and how it looks.
If you put down pre emergent and over seed at same time the new seed will not grow along with the weeds you are trying to keep from growing.
Interested to hear what that new product for Poa Triv is. Would be great to have since it has become such an issue with lawns.
Thanks PHS, I'll start to do my own research and look at some of the links in this thread to start. I don't think I'll put anything down until I know what I'm doing. Last thing I want to do is kill the lawn and the dog. My wife will kill me!!
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