Q1. Should I put down any type of weed preventer with the sod being so new A1. Not at this point since it was laid dormant. You will have to put up with some weeds this year, but if you mow,water, and fertilize properly you should be OK. Just get aggressive with hand pulling for now. Q2. When should i do my first fertilize treatment and with what A2. This is a bit hard to answer since you did not mention whether or not a starter fertilizer was used or not with good amounts of P & K. I will assume you did not so with that said as a professional I would recommend the first application be with a balanced slow release urea formulation with either a 3-1-2 or 4-1-2 ration (ie. 15-5 -10 or 20-5-10) Lesco makes excellent fertilizers. After that and every month after up till a month before the first frost use a straight slow release nitrogen urea like 39-0-0. Oh yeah wait until the grass is about 50 to 75% green before first application. Q3. I had the lawn rolled after the install, but it still seems not to be as smooth as i want, is this just because of the age of the new sod and will it smooth itself out, or should it smooth more with sand of some sort before spring hits? A3. Wait until the grass is rooted, fully greened up, and growing vigorously. Then you can top-dress with sand, good top soil, or a pro mix of 50/50 sand and peat. What ever you use, just do not smoother the grass, leave some green showing, and apply incrementally to get level. If you have the means build a 4x4 frame with lumber and stretch some chain link fence on it and use to screed the soil smooth and level. If it is a really small area just use the back side of a yard rake. Q4. My yard is rather small, so what type of reel mower should i purchase so i can keep the yard as short as possible? A4. You are on your own here and it depends on budget and how much elbow grease you want to put into it. You want to keep Tifway-I between ½ to ¾ of an inch. For powered reel mowers there is McClain and Tru-Cut. Push types look at ScottÂs. Q5. Any other suggestions for a newbie with tifway? I have done some searching on this forum for some tips already. Use quality slow release urea fertilizers every 45 days (Lesco makes the best) or you can go the organic route if you wish and do not mind the extra expense and time it takes to convert. I do not suggest going organic yet or sudden switch, but something to think about, keep it watered and mowed properly. Come fall we can talk about pre-emergence for fall and spring apps.

heelsfan, the arithmetic is flawless. The application method will work but some fine tuning might have to be done before your next application. If you have used this spreader on your lawn before and you know the N content of the fertilizer and the spreader setting that you used, you can do some more arithmetic to arrive at a spreader setting for the present blend. For instance, if you previously applied a 16-4-8 fertilizer at a setting of say, 9, then you might use a setting of 3 for the present blend.

Great pictures. That looks like take-all patch or take-all root rot. Chinch bug damage looks the same. See if you can find little bugs at the perimeter of the damaged areas. If you cannot find anything, then treat for fungal disease. It is too hot in Houston for chemical fungicides. If you want to try an organic approach, find a feed store that sells ORDINARY corn meal (not corn GLUTEN meal) in 50-pound bags. Price should be about $15/bag this year. The application rate is 20 pounds (minimum) per 1,000 square feet. Apply again in 3 weeks. If you have already applied a chemical fungicide, sulfur, or baking soda, then the corn meal approach will not work against the disease. Corn meal does not kill fungus disease. Corn meal decomposes on the soil via many species of microbes. One of those microbes is another fungus which is predatory on fungi. When you apply corn meal, within about 2 weeks the killer fungus is on the job and will kill the disease fungus. By applying again you ensure the killer fungus will be around plenty long enough to stay after the disease. Good news is that corn meal is also an organic fertilizer, so your remaining grass should turn a very dark green in 3 weeks. You can apply it any day of the year without fear of harming anything. Okay so why do you have the disease? Because you have been watering every day. As Texas Tifway said, it is a common mistake. Quite often the sprinkler installer will set up the system to impress the new owner with all the capability. There are many reasons why to water once a week. Without getting into all of them, suffice it to say there is no good reason to water every day. Your grass will have to be weaned off of the daily watering. Daily watering develops short little roots. If you went cold turkey with once a week watering, you might lose the remaining lawn. I would skip a day and see how the grass looks. Then on the next watering, water for twice as long and skip two days. Also I would set up the watering system to shut off while I am awake in the morning. That way you can look outside and see if there are any broken sprinkler heads. I walk my dog at midnight and it is not all that uncommon to see broken sprinklers that the owners never know about. Everyone's watering system is different. Mine waters very slowly. It takes 8 hours to get 1 inch of water (as measured by tuna cans). Thus I normally water once a week for 3-4 hours per zone. That is usually good for 10 days but with our watering restrictions, there is no provision for going off of weekly watering. How long I water depends on drying winds from the west. I'll go up to 7 hours if I need to just to keep the grass from dying in a week. But some neighbors have a system that will put down an inch an hour. Everyone's is different. Thinking more about the chinch bugs versus disease. Can you take a close up of the grass near the edge of the brown areas? I'm looking for yellowing and/or spots on the grass blades. In any case, find some corn meal. Call around. Careful because lots of feed stores are selling corn GLUTEN meal but not all sell ORDINARY corn meal. They are different. Cracked corn would work as well. Corn is always going to be a good thing for your soil and grass.

I might be inclined to get a rider that your other half will enjoy using rather than a walk-behind tank that she won't touch. Some riders have tremendous vacuum and can probably suck up and bag most of the gumballs.