Good Thing Growing

16 years ago

Below is the tedious story of my new lawn seeded this spring. Don't read if bored easily.

Long story short: 750 square feet seeded in April with 40% Blue Velvet and 20% Award, Rugby II, and Midnight.

Soil: mostly organic matter tested in March. Excess phosphorous, adequate potassium, 7.5ph. Tilled in about 4oz sulfur per square yard. Applied 1lb. actual nitrogen with Milorganite at seeding time (mid-April) and again in early June.

Made it through hottest summer in recorded history with no loss of dark blue-green color and now looks great.

My question is now what (e.g. fertilizer, organic, soybean, cornmeal, aeration)? No problems with pests or disease have emerged. I just don't want to screw it up. Please keep in mind I discovered this forum in August so everything I did wasn't exactly "according to Hoyle."

Thank you very much.

It took several years to catch the lawn care fever, but now I've got it.

I moved into a new (to me) home several years ago and quickly grew weary of gazing into the back yard June through October only to be greeted by the sight of 750 square feet of haggard, listless, weed-infested lawn.

The front and side lawns were just as bad or worse, but I xeriscaped those areas to save water and because the soil was hopelessly ill-suited to grow decent turf without a huge investment in excavation and soil amendments. The xeriscape worked out great, and the plants are thriving in our native rocky clay soil.

However, I still longed for a lush, emerald oasis in the back yard and, thinking grass was grass was grass, I had a contractor sod the area in March last year.

The soil in the back wasn't nearly as rocky as that in the front, so I thought I could get away with sodding over the existing soil. It looked great that spring, but quickly faded when the withering heat of July descended like the blade of a guillotine.

I knew there great lawns in the area, I'd seen them, but I didn't know why mine was so bad in comparison.

While checking for bugs (I didn't find any) gnawing on the rotting corpses of what had been thriving grass plants just two months previous, I noticed how heavy, dense, and bereft of organic matter the soil seemed.

I concluded the soil was too hard (rightly or wrongly I'll never know) for grass roots to penetrate, and thinking core-aeration would only forestall inevitable compaction problems later, I went to the best locally-owned garden center in town to see if they sold good topsoil in bulk (they did), and hired a contractor to excavate the entire area to a depth of five inches, haul away the clay soil, and replace it with good top soil I purchased from the garden center.

I was thinking I'd just sod over the new topsoil and voila!, instant perfect lawn, able to withstand the rigors of the hottest July.

By now it was mid-September, and I happened to stumble upon the Seedland website one day while absent-mindedly surfing for information about growing healthy turfgrass. In a matter of minutes I realized how much variation truly exists between the various cultivars of KBG. It was then I decided to seed rather than sod.

It was too late for fall seeding, and I couldn't wait for the following fall (the present), so I let the topsoil sit in the back yard all winter in anticipation of spring seeding. I knew there were drawbacks to spring seeding, but I just couldn't wait.

I bought a blend of 40% Blue Velvet and 20% each of Midnight, Rugby II, and Award from Seedsuperstore in March. These were the highest rated commercially available cultivars at the nearest NTEP testing center.

I tilled the topsoil into the native soil (I only went down about seven inches, so I didn't stir up too much of the native soil into the purchased topsoil). I then had this soil tested. Results were excess phosphorous, adequate potassium, 7.5ph, mostly organic matter. Generic recommendation of 3-3.5lbs actual nitrogen per 1000 square feet.

I wanted a ph of about 6.5 eventually, so I tilled elemental sulfur into the soil at a rate of about 4oz per square yard. This may have been too much at one time, but so far so good. I know the sulfur doesn't lower the ph immediately.

Seeded on April 15. Temperature 70F. Mulched with sphagnum peat moss. Applied one lb. actual nitrogen with Milorganite. Set irrigation system for frequent, light watering.

Seedlings appeared on April 29. Temperature 89F, warmest April 29 in history.

Very warm and dry spring, but great irrigation system keeps seedlings watered very well.

June 6, first mowing. Looks like mostly hell with crabgrass, spurge, black medic, elm seedlings everywhere, but the KBG obviously has great potential with dark color and spreading fast. About three square yards (of 84) look great. Another lb. of actual nitrogen with Milorganite.

July - hot, hot, hot. No rain. Watering .75in twice per week. Weeding daily. Grass still dark blue-green and spreading.

August - actually looks like a lawn. 80% filled-in and looking good. Still hot and dry.

Now - looks great. Made it through the hottest summer in recorded history. Exceeded my expectations (and my expectations were high). Lush, dense, bluegreen turf. Mowing at 2.5in.

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Comments (7)

dchall_san_antonio
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The key to your success following spring seeding was your sprinkler system. Congratulations!

Now what? Do you have any thin spots? If so, overseed those spots. Otherwise, continue doing the same thing. If you are not mowing at your mower's highest setting, that would be the only thing I would change. Oops. One more thing. I would shoot for once a week watering of 2 inches. If you can do that by next spring, your lawn will likely not get any crabgrass because it needs daily moisture to sprout.
bpgreen
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The sulfur will help lower the pH, but in order to keep it lower, you'll need to top dress with organic matter on a regular basis. Sulfur doesn't help much spread on the surface of a lawn, because too much of it is lost to the atmosphere. If you've got a lot of organic matter in your soil now, that must be from the soil you purchased. One word of warning about that is that the organic matter will continue to break down, so the lawn may settle somewhat, and it may settle somewhat unevenly.

If you're watering twice a week at .75 each time, you're doing a better job of watering than most in the state. From almost everything I've read, the most common problems in Utah lawns is too much water.

If you want to keep a KBG lawn green through the summer, you'll need to water it regularly.
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User
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Well, it may not have been according to Hoyle, but it sure sounds like it was close enough, congratulations! Your sprinkler system saved the day and you used it perfectly.

Fall fertilization is a good thing for bluegrass since the weeds aren't growing as much. That can start now, certainly. I find organics work better (the organic FAQ has a lot to say about that), but if synthetic is your only option it'll do.

Bpgreen's idea about organics and pH is a good one, and if you feed organically the pH will fall back toward 7. Also, organically fed, it matters a lot less.
volumetricsporetrap
Original Author
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thank you for your responses.

I don't really have any thin spots, just a few bare spots (and by spots, I do mean spots, only about 1-4in in diameter) where I had to remove stubborn clumps of taproot weeds and elm seedlings (elm seedlings courtesy of a neighbor's tree and an untimely south wind just as the grass seeds started germinating). I'm thinking with two more cool-season growth periods before next summer the lawn will probably spread into the bare spots.

I've scaled the watering way back now that the heat has finally broken. I was watering twice a week during the heat of the summer because I didn't want to risk stressing the establishing grass plants by letting the soil get too dry between waterings. I always adjust my irrigation timer to account for prevailing conditions.

I'll probably apply a pre-emergent next spring to inhibit crabgrass and broadleaf weed germination, and if we have anything approaching normal spring weather I won't have to water at all until mid-May since I won't be needing to establish any more turf from seed.

I'll set the mower blade at its highest level. I think I'm one notch below the highest level right now.

Regular topdressing sounds like a great idea to counter settling and moderate the ph. Shouldn't be a problem since the area is relatively small.

I'll check out the organic FAQ and see if organic fertilizers are available in my area.

Thanks for not making fun of my small lawn;)

I can't believe the immensity of some of your lawn renovations (seeding multiple 1000s of square feet). Where do you find the time? I guess when it's a labor of love you make the time.
User
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I'm thinking with two more cool-season growth periods before next summer the lawn will probably spread into the bare spots.

It will, so you don't need to worry about them. Just make sure weeds don't grow in there and you'll be fine.

I always adjust my irrigation timer to account for prevailing conditions.

This puts you ahead of 99% of lawn owners and is exactly perfect!

I think I'm one notch below the highest level right now.

If that's what pleases you, it's fine. Bluegrasses like to be around 3" tall, but the ones you used are tolerant of being far shorter than that. 90% of the battle was won when you chose good grasses.

Regular topdressing sounds like a great idea to counter settling and moderate the ph. Shouldn't be a problem since the area is relatively small.

Peat moss has a nice, low pH (call it 3.5 or so), but rots very slowly and doesn't generally overrun your soil's organic buffer. I topdressed last weekend on solid clay soil (my pH runs 6.8 from organics, but the normal pH in this area is in the 5.0 range).

7,000 square feet took me several days and 24 large bales of peat moss. 750 square feet should be simpler, and you should need about 3-5 bales, and perhaps three hours. On established lawn, you want around 1/4" to 1/2". Mine, a seed topdress, was 1/4".

Peat also helps the soil hold some water, so that would help during the next dry season.

Where do you find the time? I guess when it's a labor of love you make the time.

That and it's a hobby, so the time spent here is what I would spend puttering around somewhere else anyway. It's far more enjoyable for me than most other activities!
bpgreen
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
"Peat also helps the soil hold some water, so that would help during the next dry season."

One problem with peat is that when it dries out (and in Utah, that's when, not if), it can repel water.
User
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
One problem with peat is that when it dries out (and in Utah, that's when, not if), it can repel water.

True, and it does it here in PA as well. I never suggest more than 1/4" or so topdressing--even if it dries out, the water falls through to the soil beneath and you still have the mulching benefit. As it rots, it also has less trouble holding water.

That takes a year or two, though.

Good Thing Growing

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dchall_san_antonio

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