I'm still missing the timeline. Did you spray RU 5x in one day (I doubt it). What was the timing for your spray apps? What I usually tell people is to water lightly every day, 3x per day, for a full week. That should sprout any weed seeds. Then spray with RU, but continue watering for a second week. At the end of the second week, spray the RU again. Then wait for everything to die, rake it up, and drop the seed. Would you mind opening up a new topic for Thunder Turf in Austin and keep us up to date as to what it is and how it's working for you? I don't think many of us are familiar with it, but it should be a reasonable alternative in both southern and transition zone lawns. It might even work in the north. Where did you get the Thunder Turf seed? I know Douglass King Seed has it in San Antonio.

The most frequent watering occurred during June, about once a week, whenever the grass looked stressed. I always water until I can easily insert a screwdriver into the ground 7-8 inches. During July and August, I hardly watered at all due to the rain and humidity. Right now I'm back to watering about every 10 days, but again I make each watering session count. I'm hoping this will 'train' the grass so it requires even less water next summer.

Well it is a prairie native and many folk in ND (my home state) are beginning convert to buffalo grass...it CAN stay green longer with a little water...still not as much as you would need for a regular lawn grass...and yes it is a warm-season grass that does green up later, but doesn't go dormant until frost or during extreme drought. Personally I like the buff color of it's dormant state :) There are some improved varieties specifically for lawn such Bowie and Cody.... There is a good section in the Stock Seed Farms catalog regarding growing and maintaining a Buffalo Grass lawn. There is some info on the website, but the catalog is more informative. Vera Here is a link that might be useful: Stock Seed Farms-Prairie Grasses and Wildflowers, Murdock, NE

Wow! Thanks so much people! So much info that's going to help so much! I can relate to all your steps it makes very much sence having a little bit of knowlage about buffalo but I'd be a full bottle on it now! I'll be giving the tuna tin a go this weekend! Yes summer does consist of consecutive days above 30, summer is our water restriction days also and we are limited to 2 times a week, I have been in the past runnin 3 times a week at 50mins using the hunter mp rotator, I have not done a check on how much water is being used I can't wait to give this a trial! I have a cylinder mower with a max cut hight of 4-5cm of witch is maintained through out the season until spring sets in then I lower the cut hight and scalp down till I see dirt almost coming threw, in doing this I remover quiet a bit of dry dead grass below the green, I can now say I'm pretty certain that I may be watering incorrectly, perhaps not enough to many times creating low root activity, I gather from your knowlageable steps that less frequent deep watering makes sence in teaching the roots to look for water deep down! My lawn area is approx 40sq meters and I have 2 zones about 10 MP2000 sprinklers per zone, how many tins is required to get a good average of water usage? Or should I just scatter 4 or so tins around each zone and run for my current time (50mins), also my running times are a lot higher using the mp rotator because the application rate is far lower than the standard sprinkler heads, for a clear image standard sprinkler heads requier a 15min run time and using my rotators the equivalent time is 60mins run time and I'm running for 50mins, although I have not done a check like you have mentioned above so I'm very interested to give it ago this weekend! Just a little info on my lawn, last spring I took off about half the amount of grass as I have done this time round, it looked great nice an leafy long leaf etc but by the end of the growing season and a cut hight of 4-5cm the lawn became very dense an spongy even after a regular cut... I always remove my grass clippings as I always thought the build up of grass can increase the thatch a lot quicker, that's going from previouse recourses from here that specialize in my type of lawn so I tend to always catch the clippings and disgarde, Im leaning on my watering being incorrect! Before I scalped my lawn this year the hight of the dense grass was about 5cm above the road kerb and my driveway, since I have scalped the hight against the kerb and driveway has reduced to 1.5cm to some places 2.5cm an some 3cm it's not to consistant but I tried to take as much off without going to far and into the dirt, I don't want to kill the lawn and as well blunted my cylinder blades! Last night I jumped outside and punched a few test holes in my lawn just to see if I had gone down far enough in the higher areas of 2.5 an 3cm hights and it seems to Ok but if rather an even 1.5cm hight all round to achieve a nice long leaf across the area! It's come back quiet a bit now since I last scalped about 2 weeks ago maybe I'm due to take a little more off in some areas? Or maybe I should leave it not to sure...? Also the soil is black in colour to about a depth of 10-15cm then a bit lighter in colour and sandier, I could also be over thinking/ worrying too! A big thank you to all of you! The info has been great knowlage to me! Thank you for your time an efforts!