There doesn't have to be a lot of weeds. For now you are supposed to water daily to get the roots established. I would continue that for at most 2 weeks and then start to back off, quickly. I would start watering only every other day for a longer period to get the water deeper in the soil. Your goal is to water only once a week. I water once a week for 1-3 hours per zone.

Also be sure to keep your mower at the highest setting for maximum shade to the ground. These two techniques will do more for weed control than CGM will.

David--Did you miss that the resodding happened last summer?

By now, the sod should be well established and not require daily watering. Depending on where in CO highalttransplant (HAT) is, daily watering may well not be allowed, anyway.

HAT, do you have reason to believe that you'll have a weed problem that requires a preemergent? If the sod is well established and growing nicely, you may well be able to keep weeds at bay by cultural practices.

Water infrequently and deeply (no more than once a week, but an inch at a time when you water), and mow the lawn at the highest setting of the lawn mower. Those two practices will keep most weeds at bay, and also save you a little water. You lose less water to evaporation, encourage deep root growth and shade the soil and roots with the taller grass.

Also, always mulch mow. That will save water, too, since it returns the water from the grass to the soil, and it also saves on fertilizer costs (all the fertilizer goes into producing grass, so why throw it away when you can return it to the soil?).

Bpgreen, you are correct that we can't run a sprinkler syster here this time of year. They usually blow them out in late October, and they probably won't get turned back on until April. If it needs to be watered before then, I can hook up a manual sprinkler to a hose. Our sprinkler system is set up to run off either our main water line, or can utilize the irrigation ditch water that the town provides from May - Sept.

As far as the weed situation goes, the yard was tilled twice before the sod was laid down, but there were several delays, and by the time it actually went in, there were a few patches of bindweed and other various weeds growing again, which I am pretty sure will come back to haunt me.

If I just use the soybean meal, when should I put it down?

You actually have an option on the bindweed that most others don't. That's fortunate, since tilling bindweed merely encourages it.

There are mites that attack bindweed, and they're available to CO residents, I think through the extension service. You might want to post a question on the Rocky Mountain forum to find out how to get the mites.

CGM won't help with bindweed. Bindweed is a perennial, and CGM only helps with annuals by inhibiting germination.

I can't answer on the soybean meal, but I'm sure somebody else will chime in.

Below is a link to the Colorado State Extension Service. At the bottom of the page are recommended nitrogen amounts and application timing for various situations.

Since SBM is 7% nitrogen by weight, 100 lbs of SBM contains 7 lbs of nitrogen. This information is used to calculate the amount of SBM needed. For example, for a 7,000 sq ft lawn at an application rate of 1 lb of nitrogen per 1,000 sq ft, 100 lbs of SBM is required.

-Deerslayer

Colorado Lawn Care

Thanks deerslayer! That information is exactly what I was looking for.

Now about that bindweed ... without using harsh chemicals, or spending half my day pulling that stuff out by hand, is there a way to get rid of it???

Contact your extension service and ask about bindweed mites. I think the extension offices can provide them at little or no cost.

I'm sorry bpgreen. You answered my question in your previous post, but I got sidetracked by the link that deerslayer provided. I will check into those mites, as bindweed is rampant around here. Thanks for the information.

BTW, will a Weed Hound get more of the roots up than pulling by hand, or does it just make weeding quicker?

A weedhound won't help with bindweed. It'll work fine for weeds like dandelions, and will get more of the root as well as do it more easily, but it's not much good for something like bindweed.