tiemco:

Do keep in mind how poa triv spreads. It seeds only when allowed to grow tall ... VERY tall. It is easily transported via its stolens, which can get hung up under a mowers deck or on a wheel. Triv is very shallow rooted and can pull out easy while turning the mower. Something to consider. You may want to use separate mowers between the front and back or wash the one mower after each time you mow the rear. It would be a shame to have poa triv invade your front after all the hard work and money you just put into it.

Best of luck, Gary.

I hope your shady areas are also moist--without much water, poa trivialis does not do very well in the summer. Last fall, I experimented with my slightly shady, but moist area in back with Turf-Seed Inc's Winterplex (winterstar, winterlins, Winterplay) mix. Despite being described as "darker, elite" varieties, I still found them too light for my liking, although clearly darker than "wild" poa triv that I had in the same area. They were indeed very fine-leaved--not course like common poa triv. I ended up spraying Certainty in that area to end the experiment this summer.

Thanks Gary, and yes I am aware of poa triv's growth habits. I actually have some native triv under the maple tree that I haven't mowed for at least a month or two, and it has seeded at about 7-9 inches, but I don't intend to let this occur after I mow the back in a week or so. I am also aware of its stolons, but when I mow, it is always front first, then the back. I usually mow once a week, so any stolon pieces that may have been stuck to the mower will have dried out by then. The area in question is usually very moist as the land is very shady and it slopes toward the house. Also I can water during periods of dry weather, just gotta keep an eye on it I guess.

Well it's been about a month for the Poa triv experiment, and it is taking it's sweet time. I mowed it yesterday, with the mower set at 1.75 inches, and I probably cut about half a dozen blades. At least it sucked up the leaves. The blades are still superfine and short, and the downpour we got a week or two ago definitely washed out or covered some areas with mud. The herd of local deer also did a number on it leaving lots of bare holes and scrapes. It looks much better than it did before I killed off the existing grass, and I think that if I had seeded at a higher rate I would have been OK. I think 10-12 lbs per 1000 sq. ft is about right. Here are some pics:

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In this pic you can see the light areas where there is no grass. This is where a lot of water and mud collects during a downpour:

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Here's the above view but at a slightly lower angle:
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So that's what it looks like after about a month. I am ok with it, but again, if I planted on Sept. 1, and used a higher rate I am pretty sure it would look much better now. I plan on either doing a dormant seeding before the first snow, or a very early overseed next spring to fill in the bare areas and thicken the grass overall. I wish I could put TTTF or KBG there, but there isn't enough light. I guess for my only option it looks pretty nice.

>"I wish I could put TTTF or KBG there, but there isn't enough light. I guess for my only option it looks pretty nice."

No mention of the Fine Fescue family. Is that not an option for you?

I tried this spring, twice, if you start the thread from the beginning you can see the results. It is a very shady area, and usually damp, especially after a good rain. My fine fescue results were destroyed by constant rain this spring, both times I seeded. After seeing a FF lawn this summer I decided against trying it again in the fall, not really into the long, wispy look. What I hope is that after a good overseeding next spring I will be able to keep this area nice and short, around one inch.

Very nice! I'm sure the bare areas will fill in come spring.

Good luck. I live in zone 6b and tried that last year. Mine all died in the heat of the summer. But, it doesn't get a whole lot of water there in the warm months either. I hope you have better luck.

Keep us up to date next year.

Are you in Texas? If you are then our climates are definitely different. Also this area is so shady that it stays much wetter after rains and morning irrigations. Thanks for the advice though, I would hate to see this grass die out.

I was just wondering, timeco, how did the triv make it through the summer?

Wow, another old thread brought back from the dead. It did ok. It looked great this spring, but I did get some fungal disease that affected some areas in summer. The heat definitely wasn't a friend to it, but since it is so shallow rooted it doesn't require deep watering. I overseeded mid-September to fill in the areas that had some die off. Despite what the literature says it does best in 2-3 hours of sun. The areas in very deep shade didn't make it.

This was June of this year, before it got hot. I did a spring overseed as well to thicken up some areas.

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very cool...looks great.

Is the bend of the grass a result of the strain of seed or are you using a roller with your mower? I have fescue in my backyard (oklahoma city) that I've recently overseeded (12 days ago) and getting some nice germination but the original turf is upwards of 4-5 inches. The seedlings are about 1-2 inches and I'm afraid my power mower will pull up the remaining seeds and/or the seedlings so I purchased a reel mower. Any suggestions here? Too early to mow?

I'll post pics later this afternoon. (don't mean to hijack your thread...very impressed with your results)

I am assuming by bend of the grass you mean how I get light and dark stripes? Improved poa triv is a very fine, very supple grass. I use a regular rotary push mower, no roller, nothing special. It starts to lean over at about 3 inches, so you need to mow it to around 1.5-2 inches. Regarding your tall fescue. When you overseed, you have to gradually lower your mowing height in the month prior to the overseed so that when you do overseed your existing grass is 1.5 to 2 inches. That way you won't have to mow for 3 or 4 weeks. I think you should be ok for one more week of not mowing, unless you are due for a lot of rain. Mowing now wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, but most TF gets it's first mowing at 3-4 weeks or when it hits 3 inches.

yes...more simply put I was asking if you had a roll bar of sorts on your mower or if the grass naturally leans over.

I did get my height down to around 1.5in before overseeding but the rest of the turf has really taken off from all the watering I've done.

I'd rather wait as long as possible considering that I checked the new seedlings and although they are roughly 1-2in tall, they pull right up when I applied just a slight amount of "tug" to them.

As for the rest of the lawn (the original sod was laid last spring), the blades are nearing 4in. I did purchase a reel mower which I've read helps reduce damage to seedlings but the reel mower did not come with a bag attachment and the longer I wait, the more thatch I could create with the clippings. The mower I bought also only adjusted to a max 2.25in. (the only one I could find was a "task force" reel mower and I actually plan on returning it once I'm done as I've heard these aren't the best long term)

Just feels as though I'm in a catch 22 here.

How do you post pics on this forum? I tried with my initial thread but typing out the image brackets b/w my url but it didn't work ( [img][/img] )

Thanks for the info update tiemco.

In the small world dept, this became of new interest to me this week as follows:

Its been a hectic year for me and my yard work has been kinda catch as catch can without my usual degree of planning, preparation and follow through. Right in line with that was my overseed operation this year. I didn't really have time to research seed, etc, so I just kind ran down to a local nursery and picked up some "shade" bluegrass. I had it planted before I figured out it was Poa trivialis. Ha.

The good news, from what you tell me, is that although those less than stellar results I reported to you they were in an an area that gets less than 2-3 hours of sun and the new area I planted them in actually gets morning sun for two or three hours.

So, your report makes me somewhat hopeful my lack of info might not come back to haunt me.

The challenge of getting it right by skill OR luck always keep yard and garden interesting.

Thanks for the update.

Drew, wait a week, and use your rotary mower. It is easy to pull up seedlings by hand, but the force of the mower suction isn't sufficient enough to pull up seedlings. I used a leaf blower on two week old seedlings this year and last year and it didn't have any detrimental effects.

thanks again T.

I'll plan to mow at the end of the week with the rotary...being that it's brand new, I'm sure the blades are sharp so hopefully it'll make a clean cut. It also seems wise to hold off on watering the lawn a couple days before I mow to allow for the roots to firm up a bit.

anything on how to post images on the forum?

I noticed this year, it's 2nd year, that the Winterplex/SabreIII poa triv I planted was fairly dark! I was trying to seed some bare areas over the summer (didn't work) but with irrigation, the triv did pretty well--despite being a record hot summer here. I seeded the bare spots again this fall, and the new stuff is very very lime green compared to the year old stuff. So don't think the seedlings is anywhere close to as dark as it will be (provided you bought the improved poa triv).

Sorry, forgot to touch on that. Upload your pics to a web hosting site like photobucket. Once you do that take the picture's html code and use this code:

(img src=picture's HTML code)

Also you need to bracket the whole thing with carats, i.e. , instead of parentheses. If I used carats on the above code you will get a tiny picture icon or a red X in the message. Also you might have to resize pics if they are too big. If you preview your message and you don't see your pic, then you did something wrong.

rcnaylor, that sounds like a perfect spot for poa triv, but it likes it on the moist side. Also it is not as dark as most turfgrasses, so it doesn't mix great with TTTF, PR, or KBG, but would be OK with FF and poa supina. You might have issues with heat in Texas however, this stuff looks great in late October, early November, it loves the cooler weather.