8 month old sod issue
Comments (9)
reeljake
8 years ago
darktower00844
8 years agoRelated Discussions
New House Sod Issues
Comments (46)iforgotitsonevermind I think you have a misunderstanding of how long Bermuda and Zoysia is green and productive in this region of the country. Normally Bermuda and Zoysia is green from mid April to around Halloween. Fescue can be grown in the area in question, but it really needs trees to protect it from the sun and a ton of water which presents the next problem of fungal diseases. When I converted the family farm from cash grain crops to sod some 30 years ago I had tall Fescue, it almost cost me the farm literally. On the farm we could grow it because we have the very sandy loam which drains well, the irrigation to keep it alive in the summer, but the users/customers did not. So we almost went broke replacing all we sold under guarantee. The summers around here are just too hot, dry, and brutal for the cool season grasses to survive the summer. They have to be replanted every fall around here. I agree with you overall most folks think TTF and KBG has better eye appeal over all if conditions are right for it. But using my cynical sense of humor that some donÂt understand, you donÂt fight Mother Nature. Bermuda grass is the most dominant around these parts and the most popular choice....See MoreMonth old sod turning brown
Comments (14)Basics of Lawn Care After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct. Watering Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an hour in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds. You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in Las Vegas your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week. Mowing Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush. Fertilizing Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it. Too little is better than too much. At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide. ------------------ Okay it's me now. Looks like too watering too frequently. At this time of year once a week might be too often. I'd be looking at every 14 days or more. Don't feel the soil to determine the watering. Watch for the grass to dry out. If it is not drying out, then wait. Your soil should be dry and hard for many days before you water again. Your lawn is either fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, or both. With that location and the proximity of the shade, any Kentucky bluegrass will die out. That is a fescue area because of the wall blocking half the day's sunlight. With that in mind you should be raising your mowing height all the way to the top. The reel mower is not great for mowing high. Good for mowing low but that's not your grass. Do not seed this time of year. If you need seed, wait until late August. You cannot have grubs yet. The grubs show up several weeks after the June bugs swarm your porch light. If you don't have any June bugs, then you can't have any grubs. That's not a universal truth but it is fairly useful for most people. And on that line of thought, please don't try to prevent problems you think you might have. Wait until you have the problem. The fungus problem is pretty apparent. I have a suggestion if you are interested in an organic solution. tiemco will disagree based wisely on his experience. My experience is 180 degrees opposite to his. This time I'll wait for him to suggest something....See More8 week old sod looking brown
Comments (9)I used to think all of WA was as wet as the Seattle area, but there are areas that are basically desert. If I remember, the SE corner is one of the drier areas. Is that right? Many people tend to set the timers on their sprinklers at the beginning of the season and then forget about them. I test mine at least once a month. Sometimes sprinkler heads get partially or completely clogged or get stuck and spray one area instead of the entire zone they're supposed to cover. One thing that is a little tough to gauge is the true coverage you'll get. I water during the wee hours of the morning (1 AM to 5 AM), but I test during the day. There's better water pressure when I water than when I test, so I may not be adjusting exactly as I should. To get a good test of your watering rates, do the tuna can test. Set some tuna cans around the lawn and run the sprinklers as you normally do. Measure the water in the cans. The goal is about an inch of water a week, preferably all at once (although I think it's tough to keep a lawn in good shape in the desert with once a week watering). If most of the lawn is in good shape, I would hand water the brown spots. Bring the hose to the brown spot, set it on the ground, and let it run at a little more than a trickle, but not so much that it puddles for about 20 minutes to a half hour. Do that about once everyh two weeks. That's a lot better than increasing the water you give the entire lawn. You're right on how easy it is to overwater. Almost everybody in my area has automatic systems. Everything I've read says that the biggest problems faced by Utah lawns is too much water, and I believe it--my next door neighbor waters so much there are dead spots in the lawn, and I have to shut down one of my stations due to overflow from their lawn. If you really want to cut down on watering, you could consider replacing your KBG with wheatgrasses. Western, Streambank and Thickspike are natives and all are rhizomatous (thickspike and streambank are similar except that thickspike prefers sand vs clay for streeambank). Crested wheatgrass is an import. Most crested wheatgrasses are bunchgrasses, but newer varieties (such as roadcrest and ephraim) are rhizomatous. Another drought tolerant grass is sheep fescue (I've seen conflicting reports on whether this is native or imported)....See MoreMy 3-month old sod is looking weird
Comments (2)Welcome to the forum. You have been reading some very old posts. Bestlawn has been missing from the forum for about five years. In any case, we miss her and I will let her know that the heavens parted and you have seen the light. Please name the town you live in in SoCal. I grew up in Riverside, went to school in Pomona, worked in Downey and Hawthorne, and had relatives in Los Angeles (the real Los Angeles), Stanton, Palm Desert, and Indio. Sometimes I can help with details that most people would not be aware of. I would wait a few weeks for the soil to dry out before making judgements about the soil. One thing you might do is to apply a thin layer of compost. Let's see, if you have 400 square feet then 1/2 yard of compost is all you need. Normally I would say that mowing the grass that short might result in seeing the yellowish blades, but that grass is a dwarf variety and should not show yellow. How do you know you had a grub problem and which insecticide did you use?...See Morenewtolawncare Scranton 6a
8 years ago
dchall_san_antonio
8 years agoI got a couple of things...first of all don't get discouraged with what you already have.
Second, put everything the guy told you on hold. "Clay" is almost NEVER clay, but it's easier to call it clay and get the owner to throw out all hope of recovery. Here is a picture of a lawn that actually is in true clay.
So if that is satisfactory to you ;-), we can set that as a potential goal. But first let's determine what you have in your soil. The previous posts mentioned getting a soil test at Logan Labs. LL is the premier soil test lab in the lawn care world. They have been vetted by several people who have sent samples in to many labs and LL came out far and away superior to all of them with one exception. UMASS is on par with LL for quality of tests, but they missed a beat with reliability and repeatability. The LL test is $25 and they will email you the results within 4-5 days. Post your results here on this forum and morpheuspa will give you about $200 worth of free advice about what to you have, what to apply, when to apply, how much, how often, and where to get the materials. So given the distant remote possibility that you have clay and the high probability that you have a salt imbalance, morpheus can help you fix it. That picture above is morph's lawn, so if you need some credentials, there is it. In the mean time ignore everything the lawn guy told you. Don't add starter fertilizer or gypsum until your soil test comes back and tells you whether to use it, how much, and what kind. Morph will tell you all that.
But why else might your lawn look more like morph's neighbors than like morph's lawn? Watering. The watering mantra is deep and infrequent. Deep means one inch all at one time (we'll address the hydrophobia, too). Infrequent means to allow the soil to dry out completely before watering again. The photo above was taken in July several years ago. It was a dry summer so Morph was watering deeply once a week while his neighbors all water lightly every day. Both were watering about an inch per week, but deep and infrequent clearly works better than light and frequent. This works in Phoenix, Philly, and Washington. Time how long it takes to fill several cat food or tuna cans placed around your yard. That time will be your watering time from now on. Then you watch the air temperature to determine when to water. With temps in the 90s, water once per week. With temps in the 80s water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s water once every 3 weeks. Water once a month the rest of the year. Rain counts so if it rains, then start counting days after the last day of rain. Or if you only get a light rain with little accumulation, you can supplement with the sprinkler.
You said your lawn was shedding water. We call that hydrophobia. There is a fungus that can cause that. Normally it is seen on golf courses that water every morning or multiple times per day. They break through the hydrophobia by using a surfactant called Cascade Plus (not related to the dish washing detergent). Cascade Plus costs $90 per gallon, but you can get the identical effect by spraying the lawn with any clear shampoo at a rate of 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet. I used generic baby shampoo back in 2012 and my lawn is still soft and the water soaks right in. You can use any clear shampoo that you like the smell of. Spray the lawn with the shampoo using a hose end sprayer and then water it in with 1/2 to 1 inch of water. The water should penetrate the soil much better. You might have to water it for 15 minutes and wait 15 minutes in cycles to get the water to penetrate the first time. After that it should penetrate easily. You will also notice your soil softens with the shampoo treatment.
dchall_san_antonio
8 years agokrantzda95
7 years ago
morpheuspa (6B/7A, E. PA)