Andrew,

It appears "rolawn medallion turf" is a sod product particular to Great Britain, but your profile says you live in the U.S.

Anyway:

Even though the sites for rolawn do not specify a turf type, the most likely difference between the new sod and the older sod is the intensive feedings that sod receives during cultivation and preperation of cutting and delivery. If you treat your whole lawn identically over the next year, by next Fall it should all look the same. If you wish to bring the older lawn up to speed you will want to adjust your lawn care. One feeding in the Spring, for any turf, is not sufficient. Improvement for next year's lawn appearance will be had by doing a n early September fertilization and a winterizer application when the turf stops growing (slows where it doesn't need mowing). If you can find the seed used in the sod you can overseed this Fall to fill in bare or thin areas. Also you could do a shampooing of the older areas to help loosen the soil to improve any possible water absorption/minor compaction problems that have developed.

the scotts company.. used to.. offer a 4 bag system ... 4 feeding spread over the season ... different formulas.. and different weed and feed ....

so when you say you fed it once ... that says it all ...

the yellowing also indicates.. to me... lack of proper watering ... explain your protocol on this.. and we will bring you up to speed .... and what the soil is under such.. is part of how to water properly .... more info ...

the new sod... is a high maintenance girlfriend... you havent been spending enough time and money on the old girlfriend .. lol ... if you learn to maintain the new... the old will step it up ....

its just what tractor said ... simplified a bit ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: i have no vested interest in this product.. the point is.. if you do enough research.. you can determine what is in each bag as far as fert.. weed killer.. etc ... and then set out your own plan ... as to how to maintain your lawn ... its info.. rather than an endorsement .... and i bet these lawn warriors.. may not approve of scotts.. just a gut feeling ...

Ok, thanks for replying. So it just looks like i need to fertilise more. I will look at the different types.

I water it when the weather is dry so I think it's not too much of a problem.

Andrew.

I don't have a problem with Scott's products if you use them properly and for their intended purpose. Most people seem to use weed-n-feed improperly, get poor results, and write in here with problems. Proper application of weed-n-feed is almost impossible for one person to do, so it is much easier to recommend using fertilizer for fertilizer and liquid herbicide sprays to kill weeds. WNF products seem too good to be true, and they are. When it is time to fertilize, fertilize. Two weeks later you can spot spray herbicide if you need it.

Your watering protocol can use a tune up. You might be doing it perfectly but you left out a detail. How long do you water when you water? It should be a full inch applied all at one time. How do you measure that? With cat food or tuna cans. Set some out the next time you water. Time how long it takes to fill the cans. When the cans are full, you have an inch. Use that watering time every time you water. GENERALLY...when the daytime high temps are in the 90s, you should water deeply once a week unless Mother Nature steps in to help. When the temps are in the 80s, the grass should go 2 weeks without water. With temps in the 70s, it should go 3 weeks. This is considerably different from what most people think is correct watering. Once you change to this plan, you will see a dramatic reduction in weeds, dramatic improvement in drought tolerance, and a much more even coloration.

Fertilizer should be applied once in the late spring (Memorial Day for most of us). The problem with that is the Scott's company starts their high pressure advertising in March on the Golf Channel and football, etc. If you fertilize in early spring, you will overload the lawn. First of all you cannot bring dormant grass out of dormancy by applying fertilizer. Fertilizer only works on active roots. The easy way to tell the roots are active is when the grass is growing. If it isn't growing, the roots are not active...and there's no need to fertilize. If you fertilize in early spring but after the grass begins to grow, you overload the grass plants with nutrients. The early spring grass is going to come out of the ground like a rocket whether you fertilize or not. If you force it to grow faster, it will essentially burn itself out leaving it depleted by mid spring and really depleted by late spring. Just don't fertilize until late spring and it will improve.

Then in the fall it needs two applications of fertilizer. One on Labor Day (NOW!!!) and again after the grass stops growing later in the fall.

Great dchall_san_antonio, thanks for the timings and feeding advice!

When you say i need a winter fertilizer, should it be a slow release, high nitrogen one? Because I read that the winterizers are actually quite low in nitrogen (proportionally) and work too fast.

Also, I probably water it every 5-7 days when the temperature is in the 70-80f area and there has been no rain. It doesn't really get any hotter here in the UK. And when I pulled up a corner of our new turf after watering the bottom was wet and I normally am almost as thorough as this with the rest of my lawn.

New turf should not be soaking wet. If the soil is saturated below new sod the roots will resist growing into it - not enough air in the soil and rot sets in. So for new sod or seed we recommend watering three times per day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) but very lightly (5-15 minutes). Do that until the sod had knit into the underlying soil.

The winterizer should be high N fast release. It is applied after the grass has stopped growing for the season, so it will have no effect on growth this year. What it does is prepare the soil and roots for early spring growth. I don't use it because I don't want the chemicals in my garage (went organic back in 2002), but those who use it seem to like the way it works.

So, UK, huh. What part? If you would like to discuss organic lawn care, that would make your prince happy. I can't be sure but I have a strong suspicion that Charles was a participant here at GardenWeb back in 2001 and 2002. Whoever it was was a genius at organic gardening. And he became paranoid and left the day he discovered his IP address was available when posting his comments. Who else in the UK is an organic guru and would get that paranoid?

Zone 10 UK? Andrew, does your lawn even go dormant in winter? If not, some slow release component on your winterizer can be an advantage--I do like a little in mine as mine doesn't go dormant here in Zone 7 USA--Pennsylvania (about the climate of south Germany, but hotter summers).

Also, your feeding cycle is going to differ in Zone 10 and I'm not that familiar with your climate. Can you fill us in on what monthly temperatures and rainfall are like?

Winterizer is the one fertilization with the greatest impact on all aspects of the turf. If you were to do only one feeding a year (not recommended), that's the one to do for the bang for the buck. You want to use the biggest first number fertilizer you can find. Here in the states we have 46-0-0 and 39-0-5 Commonly available. It will promote root mass and earlier Spring green up and overall turf health.

Haha, it does seem like the thing he'd do. Although usually he's less careful about his private opinions than he should be.

It does slow down in winter as I don't need to cut it over winter, however, it will need cutting by spring. Sorry I can't give more details I just don't remember exact dates.

As for the weather, in summer it usually stays between 70 and 80 f however, this is often severely delayed and sometimes it only lasts for a few weeks. We tend to get a decent amount of rain in the summer too, but there will normally be a drought period if only for a few weeks. Basically, the weather is so varied that it's difficult to generalise. Normally in winter we have a week or so of sub zero temperatures (no worse than 24f) but this year I'm not sure we even had one day. The graph which I attached doesn't support this properly because it is the average over 3 decades and in the past 10 years the climate has been very random.

Here's another graph from climate-data.org. It's more accurate I think

This post was edited by andrew700andrew on Fri, Aug 29, 14 at 4:40

Living in the uk too I have found this year challenging with periods of very wet humid weather late spring early summer and until recently, a period of sudden warm dry weather.

Firstly it depends what grass your old turf is, I'm guessing rye grass which is thirstiest for water and nitrogen than the other finer grasses which are in your medallion blend. This suggests one or both of tees things is the issue.

Although lawns will act very different I have found following up your spring granular fertiliser after 12 weeks with a soluble liquid fertiliser over 4-6 weeks periods (not during drought conditions though) very good. Infact next year in going to just use liquid fertiliser from spring (apart from autumn) as the regular intervals to feed the grass should hold of the red thread issues I've had better as the uk weather can be so unpredictable which can mean feeding requirements can suddenly change.

Finally I'd overseed your old lawn with a medallion type seed which will be a blend of mainly rye grass, fescues and some smooth stalk meadow grass (Kbg in the u.s). Do this in September following your scarifying and then gt some autumn winter granular fertiliser down

The old grass is medallion too.

You recommend overseeing in autumn but won't the birds just eat it over winter?

Also, do you just apply the liquid feed with a watering can?

Off topic, but years ago when I was looking to purchase a dethatcher/vertical rake, I kept getting Google hits (many, many, many) for "scarifyers" for sale in the UK, so I've often wondered how common scarifying is in the UK, the reasoning for it and how often it is done.

Gotcha. You have a climate something like Canada's southern Pacific Northwest (which makes sense as you're the Atlantic Northwest).

On the up side, Medallion isn't a very heavy feeder and flourishes on 3 pounds of nitrogen per year. I'd be tempted to go a little high, but nothing extreme. We're talking 4 pounds of nitrogen per year.

By your temperature graph, feeding using 1 pound of nitrogen (however many pounds of fertilizer that turns out to be) in late May, mid-August, middling-late September, and whenever topgrowth stops for you (by the temperature, it should be around November 10th-20th, but that will vary year by year).

Looking at your solar insolation curves for the UK, growth may actually stop sooner than that due to the reduced energy levels. If that statement seems true to you, pull the September feeding back to September 15th and then fertilize when top growth stops.

Given your marked lack of anything I would consider winter (February for you is the same weather as November for me), some slow release nitrogen in the winterizer wouldn't be a bad idea--but not a vast amount.

You can certainly use a soluble fertilizer if you want, but a granular is also just fine. Or go organic if you prefer that as it'll shape up your soil.

Sorry if this sounds stupid but what do you mean by 1 pound of nitrogen?

Also, should I use the same fertiliser for the first 3 feeds? Do you have any NPK recommendations for the fertilisers? (Apparat from the winterlizer which was recommend to be as high in Nitrogen as possible)

Also, I was considering to use my weed/moss killer once a year and then use a plain fertiliser for the other two feeds. Just to keep the weeds in check. Is this ok or do you still recommend me to ditch that stuff and just go for a normal fertiliser and weed manually?

And finally, do you have any recommendations for organic fertiliser for the 4 feeds? Although I'm not afraid of using the inorganic fertiliser, But i would prefer to use the organic stuff since it improves the soil quality and doesn't contaminate the water as much, although it all depends on the price, ease of use, effectiveness etc. I'll research this myself if you could just recommend a product and I'll make my mind up.

I apologise for the question bombardment but thanks again for your help!

I'm most definitely not in the UK so can't give you direct guidance on too much.

'Round these here parts (pulling out my banjo) I get my organic fertilizer at the semi-local grain mill. I use soybean meal most of the time, but I'm not sure what crops will be common (plus cheap and effective) over there.

You'll have to let me know if grains are available, and if so, which ones.

For one pound of nitrogen, assuming your bags are marked the same way ours are (N-P-K right on the label), take 100 and divide by the N number. That will give you the number of pounds of fertilizer to use to put down exactly 1 pound of nitrogen (being exact isn't important; being somewhat close is important).

So for 29-0-3, a fairly common set of numbers, 100/29 = 3.4 pounds of fertilizer per thousand square feet to put down 1 pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet.

1 pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet would be 0.5 kilos of nitrogen per 100 square meters. It is sometimes easier to figure how many kilos of N are in the original bag. If you have a 10 kilo bag of 5-4-3 fertilizer you multiply 10 kilos by 0.05 to get 0.5 kilos of actual N in the bag. If it was 19-5-8 you would multiple 10 kilos by 0.19 to get 1.9 kilos of N. Then if you want to apply 0.5 kilos per 100 square meters, you adjust the amount you apply to match up. Always water chemical fertilizer in right after you apply. If you do not, then tomorrow morning's dew will create a very strong fertilizer solution that kills the grass.

I like organic fertilizer for many reasons but for this discussion it does not need to be so carefully calculated, nor does it need to be watered in. Modern organic fertilizers are primarily made up of food like wheat, corn, soy, alfalfa, and other ground up grains, nuts, beans, and seeds. Here is a picture of plain alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow) used at a rate of 10 kilos per 100 square meters.

{{gwi:79339}}

It was applied in mid May and the picture was taken in mid June. Thanks to mrmumbles for posting the picture here back in 2011. That photo has cleared up the questions about whether organic fertilizer actually works. The best place to get these raw materials is a feed store. Here is a link to feed stores near you. Call first to get availability and prices.

Moss killer? You should not need to routinely use weed or moss killer. What was your watering schedule again? I think we got the schedule but not the timing. Once the lawn is established you should never be watering more often than once every 3 weeks (note that his average summer temp is below 70 degrees F). ONCE! When you allow the ground to dry out completely before watering, weeds and moss are seldom an issue. Sometimes rain plays havoc with your best intentions, but it should not be a routine to apply weed and moss killer.

Andrew,

Overseeding in September in the ku is optimal as temperatures are good for growth, moisture from rain is likely and there is no real competition from weeds. Birds and squirrels can be a bit of a pain though. Apply liquid feed with a pump sprayer I have one for just over ã20 from b and q which is good, it makes the process quick and easy. In regards to nitrogen amount I use lawnsmith soluble fertiliser, considering I have a seed mix like medallion which contains fescues which don't need as much nitrogen as rye grass I put down 800g/1.8lbs in total a year, split up over 4 to 5 feeds which is optimal. This works out about 600g of fertiliser a time (as the mix is made up of not just nitrogen hence the ratio of npk). I suggest you do the same

That's on a lawn of approx 140sq.m by the way