Thanks - It's only a 4 ft by 16 ft area - 7 pieces of 2 ft by 5 ft sod covered it.
OT: growing grass
- Thread starter JMORC2003
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Thanks - It's only a 4 ft by 16 ft area - 7 pieces of 2 ft by 5 ft sod covered it.
Watch out with all round up products. There's a reason it's banned for use in Europe and banned from being sold in stores in California. There's also a reason Monsanto's spends an obscene amount of money on politician's. They don't want you to know exactly what it does to humans. We do know it kills bees, birds, and small animals. I wouldn't want my kids rolling around on that.
Been waiting on my final yard grading to get done, and with rain and other issues, looks like will not get done until next week at earliest. Had considered laying sod, but I am now considering going back to seeding the lawn to save some $$$.
Yard will be completed graded and soil conditioned. Will have a sprinkler system connected to a well, and therefore, we can apply copious amounts of water to the newly seeded yard. Will we get good results if we seed in the first or second week of June? Or is this a worst case scenario???
Yard will be completed graded and soil conditioned. Will have a sprinkler system connected to a well, and therefore, we can apply copious amounts of water to the newly seeded yard. Will we get good results if we seed in the first or second week of June? Or is this a worst case scenario???
If you are able to water should be fine but I would suggest a good layer of straw to prevent rapid drying/burnout. Remove straw as grass comes in, you don't need to rake it all out as will degrade and you will pull grass out having only tiny roots.
so the area I put in with Pennington 1 Step looks great. I put Lime down this year across total lawn for first time ever. Wife says greenest it has ever been. Would lime help the color? Also, I've been cutting lawn like every 3-4 days...nice and high. (setting 5 vs. setting 4)....which means maybe a half inch higher than summer cut. But my grass is seeding even while fairly low. Never seen this before. Patches of light green grass where the seeding is. Thoughts on that fellas? Its not dry so its not gonna grow...but is it good, bad, or indifferent?
I've limed lawn a few times when able to get bags of it on sale, usually end of season and I believe it helps the availability of nutrients and for last 5 years I have cut my grass at the highest level. Keeps moisture during summer and reduces weeds. Lawn stays full year round and I do not have a sprinlkler system. The best look is a shorter cut but for long term full healthy lawn a higher cut really works.
Many grasses seed now, including Kentucky blue grass, so nothing to be alarmed about there if it is KNG. However, poa annua is also seeding now and you probably want to put a Fall preemergence to keep that from germinating next spring. Poa annua is a lighter color than KGS or perennial rye, or turf type tall fescue. Poa annua often dies out in the heat and leaves patches in the lawn. Worse than poa annua is poa trivialis, or roughstalk blue grass. This too is lighter than KBG, grows faster and has a different blade texture so it doesn’t blend in with a lawn. It goes dormant in the summer and looks bad, is very tough to deal with. So let’s hope your seed heads are just KBG. By the way, Pennington sells many different types of seed so what is on the label is more important than the brand. Good luck, glad your lawn looks good!
Nice post and quick question on those undesirable bluegrasses. Would they come in with the purchased grass seed? Often wonder how some of these grasses/ weeds make it into lawn. I had a real battle with Japanese stiltgrass, which I eventually won but I know it came in from the woods. I have two acres and lots of deer. It is a constant battle.
You do not want copious amounts of water - it should be lightly watered twice a day until the seed germinates.
Or buy a 3 cubic yard bundle of peat and spread that on top of the seeded area.
Bingo! Yes, they often come in from contaminated seed. I spend a little more to buy seed with “zero other crop” “zero, weed seed” and “no noxious weed seed.” If you don’t go for zero, then as little as possible. Of course it can be air born too and poa trivialis can be dormant underground for years and then germinate when the soil is disturbed. There is no selective herbicide for residential use for triv. Bad stuff. Congrats on your battlewith Japanese stiltgrass. That is a tough one and usually a multi year battle. It generally is in wooded areas and damp areas as you say. Fenoxaprop, which is really a warm season herbicide, will help kill it and then a preemergent to keep it from coming up.
for Stiltgrass, as you said, crabgrass pre-emergent works but you need to put it down much earlier than for crabgrass. There were sections so infested, I just did round up on and re-seeded. I read the stiltgrass seeds can remain dormant for up to 7 years. Another foreign import that will take time for nature to control.
Yes, combination of preemergent and post emergent in a multi year battle. At least you know what it is and what to do, the importance of that can’t be overstated.
This is exactly what happens every year. The grass in the shady area (which is a beautiful soft grass hangs in there but what is in the sun gives out, and crabgrass takes over. But comes back in Sept hen temps moderate. I've treated the CG with pre-emergent last couple years which has left some bad spots. The soil is clayish so Lime now too.
I will definitely keep the fall treatment on the planner. Thanks for all the insight. Country back yard but it still looks great until July-Aug.
Just sharpened and put the summer blades on the tractor yesterday.
Yes, spring preemergent for crabgrass and a variety of other weeds, fall preemergent for poa annua and some other grassy weeds.
@phs73rc77gsm83, I laid down grass seed in the area above 5 weeks ago, it germinated after 13 days, so it's been coming up for 3 weeks. I have a specific weed showing up which is either due to the soil, compost or grass seed I used. How soon can I put down something to kill it without hurting the new grass?
Do you know what the weed is? Some herbicides are effective against some weeds and not others. Also, some herbicides are okay in some turf types but can harm other turf types. A general rule of thumb is to wait until the new grass is “established”before using a herbicide. This is often interpreted to be after 3 or four mowings. If you can’t identify the weed you could start with a triclopyr (weed be gone CCO, or general weed be gone 2,4-D, quincloric, dicambia). Follow the label so as to not harm you desired turf. In a relatively small area you can just try to pull it too.
No, I don't: it's something I've never seen before. This weekend I plan to pull a sample and take a picture of it in hopes someone can help identify it.
I haven't mowed that new grass yet, was considering whether I should do it this weekend. Although right now the weather does not look conducive to doing so.
So I guess that leaves out doing anything for a few weeks at least.
This is exactly what we do when we need to reseed a pasture every few years. In the fall till, york rake the field, pasture seed then we have a friend who has one of those hay blowers. We never rake up the hay just let it mulch in. The hay is what does it. Holds moisture and protects seed from direct sunlight and heat.
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Not the ideal time to seed as the roots of the grass most likely not be deep enough to survive the July August heat. That is the reason why it is best to seed in the fall. I would only lightly water twice a day to just keep the ground moist....Once you have good germination and are ready to cut then I would start to deep water it preferably before sunrise. I usually water for 55 mins per zone between with it timed to have watering complete by sunrise.
I’ll tell you what, the weather has cooperated so far for us spring seeders. Other than a few days we haven had a lot of heat, and the rain has helped the last week or so. Hopefully grass has a chance to get good roots down before survival mode.
To cut costs, considering installing our own sod. We have two teenage boys. I like doing hard, dirty work.
Anybody have any good or bad experience with:
Reid's Sod Farm in Freehold
Reed's Sod Farm in Allentown
Brookcrest Sod Farm in Marlboro
Brookcrest and Reids sell a Fescue/Bluegrass blend. Reed's only sells Fescue or Bluegrass. I understand that one goes in the shade and one in the sun. Might that be a good option to get a mix, or is the blended stuff better?
Anybody have any good or bad experience with:
Reid's Sod Farm in Freehold
Reed's Sod Farm in Allentown
Brookcrest Sod Farm in Marlboro
Brookcrest and Reids sell a Fescue/Bluegrass blend. Reed's only sells Fescue or Bluegrass. I understand that one goes in the shade and one in the sun. Might that be a good option to get a mix, or is the blended stuff better?
Personally I don’t think you can go wrong either way. Different cultivars behave differently within the same grass type. For instance, Bewitched is a KBG that does very well in the shade while other KBG cultivars may or may not. Within KBG you have some cultivars that are more disease resistant, some green up earlier, some are better in sun or shade, some are darker or lighter than others, etc. Same with TTTF. One factor to consider is whether the all fescue or all KBG sod is one cultivar or a blend of different seeds within the category of fescue or KBG. Monostands (I.e., one cultivar type or KBG or one of TTTF) can look beautiful but a monostand can be more susceptible to a disease or fungus. In the end, I’d be fine with a KBG blend of various KBG cultivars or a mix of KBG and TTTF. If you want to really get into it google NTEP trials undertaken at the Rutgers sites and they go into great detail about different grasses and how they perform in our area. That’s if you really want to go nuts about it, though.
I love these details. And I already went nuts a long time ago, so that's fine.
Wondering if Reeds will tell me to go pound sand (or topsoil) if I dig in (no pun intended) with such detailed questions.
I guess I could ask Reeds the simple question- are their Bluegrass and Fescue sods monostand a blend of cultivars.
EDIT- Just saw this on Reed's website:
We grow our crops from seeds that are "certified" sod quality, blending three to four varieties in our mixes.
I posted in this thread and others where you can buy certified sod seed. Don’t know if the sod farm sells it.
Went to Cook with one of Reed boys.
Nice guy. His parents were really nice to us too. Used to snowmobile on the property and they had us all up to their house in VT which was near Pico and Killington.
I like nice guys, but you know what they say about them. . . .
How was their grass and sod?
No. But I think all the guys who rode the snowmobiles and were invited up to the Vermont house were.
Just lived on the same floor our first year. Woodbury at the time was a Cook dorm.
Our project drags on, mainly because of rain delays.
While we wanted to do sod, the timing/expense of labor to install is moving us back toward seed.
Took your advise and looked at the Seed Super Store.
Leaning toward this:
https://www.seedsuperstore.com/catalog/p-100057/fiesta-4-perennial-ryegrass
They recommend this starter fertilizer:
https://www.seedsuperstore.com/catalog/p-100008/kinder-blend-starter-fertilizer
The cost of their mulch master shredded straw is steep:
https://www.seedsuperstore.com/catalog/p-100077/mulch-master-shredded-straw
The seed and fertilizer is $515, but the straw is nearly $700.
Is there a less expensive option than their shredded straw to cover about 10-12,000 square feet?
Yeah...my seeded area is looking kinda poor again. Mixed into a so so area but is a bunch of mushrooms now. Mother nature hasn't been very nice these last 3 month's. i've got grass, but below avg grass....for the $$.
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Mine is going wild!
Just cut it for the first time Sunday because it's been so wet out.
Just cut it for the first time Sunday because it's been so wet out.
Wow that is some expensive seed and materials. Do you have a local agricultural store/Garden center that you could go to and see if they have anything comparable but also suitable to our area. I used to go to Agway before they closed and now Mendham Garden Center.
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