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problems with tall fescue

14 years ago

Well,it has been 2 weeks since i applied certainty and i still do not see any effect on the tall fescue in my bluegrass lawn.There are brown stripes across parts of the lawn where i applied it.The fescue has not turned yellow or stopped growing.I would have thought by the second week i would see something happen.I would like to make the second application per instructions but am curious as to why no signs of progress.The temps have been in the mid 70's and a bit cooler at night and has been very dry lately.If anyone knows if it could be stress related or something else with my application method please help.I applied certainty herbicide at the recommended rate with a pump sprayer.I also mixed in turbo surfactant.

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Comments (5)

auteck
14 years ago
The herbicide can take several weeks before you can see any results, click on the link below:

Here is a link that might be useful: Purdue University
jeremywildcat
14 years ago
Keep us posted - I think I have a lot of tall fescue in my lawn, and would like to get rid of it if possible without killing off my KBG.
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The only way to completely convert from one kind of grass to another is to kill and start over. I tired to overseed a KBG/tall fescue lawn with native grasses, figuring that over time, the KBG and tall fescue would die because they need so much more care than the natives. I had to overseed a number of times and, although the lawn now has native grass throughout, it still has a fair amount of KBG and tall fescue. If that's the case with grasses that have such differing needs in a desert environment, I doubt if you could succeed with grasses that have similar needs. You could probably favor the tall fescue by fertilizing and watering more, since fine fescue needs less of both, but since tall fescue doesn't spread much, you'll probably need to overseed regularly. And even then, you're likely to end up with the tall fescue dominating, not completely replacing the fine fescue.
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tomslildeere
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for the link auteck.I was thinking that it should have stunted its growth a little.That stuff grows twice as fast as my kbg and sticks out like a beacon on my lawn.I will try to get some pics posted soon.
auteck
14 years ago
Tom, if the fescue grass grows that much faster than the bluegrass, you can let the fescue grow taller then get a rubber glove and sumerge it in roundup, then carefully rub the glove over the fescue clumps. This of course, is, if you have a few clumps of fescue (small areas) and that you are up to it. If the fescue invasion is too much, then continue applying Certinty at the recommended rates (read the label)
tomslildeere
Original Author
14 years ago
There are parts of the lawn that have clumps here and there.But there is a newer section of lawn(third season)that is overcrowded with TF.That was the main reason for not spot treating,i just figured i would do the entire lawn with my sprayer.The newer part was seeded with midnight which is very slow growing especially in the spring when temps are still on the cool side.It won't start gaining height until temps are in the 80-90 range and by then the TF gains it's ground.I think it would also help if i overseeded this fall with something that would fill in the bare spots while the midnight matures.

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