New Lawn seed dying after 4 beautiful weeks of growth!!!???
12 years ago
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- 12 years ago
- 12 years ago
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Dryness and Dying Lawn - 4 Photos - Comments Appreciated
Comments (6)1. The first thing you are doing wrong is installing a new lawn in the spring. 2. Expecting a spring lawn to do well all through the summer. 3. Watering incorrectly. 4. Fertilizing incorrectly. 5. Bonus thing you're likely doing wrong is mis reading California geography about where you live. I realize that is a bold statement but it is based on reading 4 lawn forums for 10 years. 95% of people claiming to live in northern California live in the Bay Area or Sacramento. If you live in Sacramento you really are watering wrong. If you really do live north of Redding, then I apologize and some of what I'm about to say does not apply. Let's skip down to #3. Once a lawn is established (and yours is NOT), then watering should be done once per week but apply a full inch at a time. You are barely moistening the base of the plant with your approach. At this point you must keep your grass alive for the rest of the summer. Start by measuring the output of your sprinkler. Put some cat food or tuna cans our on the lawn and turn on the sprinklers. Time how long it takes to fill the cans. That is one inch of water. Let's say it takes an hour to fill all the cans and you are currently watering Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Start watering twice as long as you are now on Monday and Saturday. Water the regular amount on Wednesday and Thursday. When the summer heat breaks, start backing off on the frequency. Skip Wednesday and water on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. Continue with the double time watering on Mon and Sat. When the temps are in the lower 80s during the day, drop to 2x per week. When the temps drop to the 70s, you should be able to fall back to 1x per week but go to the full inch (hour?). Actually by the time your temps get down to the 70s, you should be watering once every 3 weeks. #4 If you are using chemical fertilizers, fertilize 3x per year. Do it once in late spring (Memorial Day) once in early fall (Labor Day), and once in late fall (Thanksgiving). If you are using organic fertilizers, you can do that any day of the year with no fear of burning the lawn. If you feel the need to use preemergent in the spring, get one that is not mixed with fertilizer. The grass does not need fertilizer that early in the spring. Hint: with KBG you should not need a preemergent herbicide. KBG is too dense to allow weeds in....See MoreNewly seeded lawn - sparse growth
Comments (11)>>I was worried that the high sun around noon would dry it out too much by the time 6PM came around so that's why I have 4 instead of 3. I tend to just glance at it from my window and see if it has a darker, wet color. If it works for you, I'm thrilled. If you're watering four times, three times, or twice, it's all good. >>If I'm to repair the washed areas, can i walk on the area now? With a 4000 sqft area, i'm bound to step on some area to get to the areas that need repair. You'll have to, so I'd say yes. Just be careful, gentle, and try for minimal disturbance of areas that are sprouting. Any sprout you unseat is most likely going to die, but sometimes they surprise you. >>And I still haven't received a direct answer on this but I'll ask again - should I rake or just spread topsoil over the new seed? Maybe even roll it too? Raking is fine if you want to, I didn't. Any covering up to a quarter inch is fine, so top soil (or peat moss or compost) would work fine and it does help hold moisture...but it's not absolutely required. Don't exceed 1/4" coverage, and shooting for 1/8" is usually safer as any accidents still aren't likely to go over a quarter. You can roll if you want, although covering the seed will also improve seed-soil contact. Most people recommend rolling...I never did it. If you're detecting that there's a wide range of tolerable conditions on just about everything except minimum watering, you're right. :)...See MorePlease help, new lawn is dying
Comments (5)It is probably too late to do anything now. The time to winterize was right after the grass stopped growing and before the first frost. I'm thinking you're having a pretty good "frost" right now up there, because we are almost getting it in Texas. Similarly, the time to seed was in the fall, not in the upcoming spring. If you try to seed in the spring, you will end up with a lot of crabgrass by July. I would watch it over the winter and check back with the current condition of the grass in early March. There is something you can do now, which won't hurt anything and might help with your disease. Corn meal is an organic approach to disease control. One of the early decomposers of corn is a fungus called Trichoderma (try ko DER ma). Trichoderma is a predatory fungus which preys on other fungi...like pythium. It is also a weak, but not insignificant, organic fertilizer. I used corn meal exclusively for many years when the cost was down around $3 for a 50-pound bag. It was only when the price went above $10 that I changed to alfalfa pellets. Invariably, though, I use some corn meal every year for my own fungal disease control. The application rate is 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet or (10 kilos per 100 square meters). You can use more and not hurt a thing. You can put it down now or wait until the snow melts. I am also hearing more and more about using a simple soap as a non-chemical approach to fungal disease control. Yes I realize soap is a chemical but it not the deadly, harsh, fungicides you see on the market. I'm talking about baby shampoo or any other clear shampoo. These are very simple soaps without any antibacterial qualities. The application rate is 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet (roughly 3 ounces per 100 square meters). You can use 2x, 4x or more and it won't hurt a thing. This should be sprayed on the grass, not snow. The soap will also help with your drainage, because it allows water to penetrate deeper into the soil. Now the question is what to do about the grass in the spring. There are a lot of magical, unexplainable things that happen to the soil and lawns in the cold of winter. If you have a blend of grasses, then there's a great chance the disease will be gone no matter what you do. Also there is a reasonable chance the grass will return by itself where it is brown now. Do not jump the gun on fertilizing. Spring grass will grow like gangbusters in the spring. The time to fertilize is after the grass stops the really fast growth. You and your lawn mower will know when that is. Usually it is in May to late May. Then, if you are using chemical fertilizers, you can fertilize. If you are using organic fertilizers, like alfalfa pellets, you can fertilize any time, but you still don't need to help it along early. For example if you don't do anything you'll likely have to mow every 5 days. If you fertilize with chemicals you'll likely have to mow every 2-3 days to keep it from getting too tall before mowing again. If you use an organic fertilizer, the growth won't be as spectacular as with chemicals, but you will likely notice a little extra boost. Your watering regimen sounded good to me. Once per week is the max for the hottest part of summer. Of course Mother Nature helps out, too. With temps below 70 you should not water more frequently than once a month. When you do water apply a full inch. Use cat food or tuna cans to measure the time it takes your sprinklers to fill them up. That's your target. Mine takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. My neighbor's system takes 20 minutes. Every system is different. When the temps get into the 70s you can move to once every 3 weeks. Temps in the 80s you can water every other week. If you ever get temps in the 90s then go to every 7 days. Always apply the full inch unless you've had rain, and then just supply the rest of the inch you didn't get from rain. The reason for this deep and infrequent watering is to allow the surface of the soil to completely dry out before you water again. Weed seeds are on the surface and need continual moisture to germinate. If you deprive them of that, then you won't have weeds. It also helps to keep the grass mowed up at least 3.5 inches. Tall grass needs less water than short grass. Tall grass grows deeper roots to get that deep water you're applying. Tall grass shades out any weed seedlings that might germinate and helps suppress them or shade them out altogether. Tall grass does not grow any faster than short grass. I'm out of ideas...somehow that seems like the info was scattered all over the map, but that's all the more clear my brain is working right now. Hope that helps....See MoreSpearmint Growth in 4 weeks after full prune
Comments (5)Just an update for anyone interested: It appears that the plant has not grown much from this latest picture. There have be changes though. The plant has went to seed on many of its stems. I have been pruning the seeded portions and using for my daily mint tea, as well as pruning the fading and dying foliage that often occurs in the shady areas of the plant. The stems seem to be growing new stems, and the roots are continuing to grow. Amazing that the roots should be able to fill this entire container so fast!... The main reason why I haven't harvested is so that that plant can get as much energy from the sun as possible to grow the roots to fill the container before it's brought back in in about 5 days for the fall and winter season. shane & seysonn, thanx : ) This post was edited by bedtime on Fri, Aug 9, 13 at 10:15...See MoreRelated Professionals
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