Hi Nina, "I buy packets that show large, full blooms and when they bloom they are about half the suggested size and one layer of petals instead of three or more." Some seed companies buy their seeds from growers who do not spend the extra money to hire people to rogue their fields, and the zinnia varieties "run out" under those conditions. Generally, the seeds in packets on seed racks are not the best. "I have bought several packets that show bluish purple and when they bloom they are always magenta or towards pink. I don't really believe there is a bluish zinnia." The color pictures on seed packets are not reliable and, even if they were pretty good to start with, the ink colors aren't lightfast, and some colors fade with exposure to sunlight. In general, seed racks are not a good place to store seeds. I have even seen seed packets that were water damaged, but still for sale in a home store. The best way to purchase seeds is by mail order or online sale from a reputable seed company. Higher prices do not always ensure higher quality, but lower prices usually mean lower seed quality. You stand a better chance of getting quality seed if you buy from a seed company that also sells to commercial growers. "I don't really believe there is a bluish zinnia." There are bluish zinnias, but they are not for sale commercially. As a person who grows zinnias as a hobby, I can assure you that there are lots of zinnias that you can't get commercially. I don't think there will be a true blue zinnia until blue genes (I always think of blue jeans when I say that) from other flowers that have true blues are added to zinnias by genetic engineering. That has already been done to get blue roses. But in the meantime, there are bluish lavender zinnias that actually look sky blue when they first open in the shade. But on exposure to sun, that color turns to a lavender. They are not available commercially. "Does anyone know if it could be a deficiency?" Zinnia buds and blooms can be seriously harmed by certain nutrient deficiencies. For the best results, use a soluble nutrient formula that contains a complete range of macronutrients and micronutrients. That includes the usual nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium as well as magnesium, boron, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc. Plants, including zinnias, also need quite a lot of calcium, which unfortunately is almost always absent from soluble nutrient formulas. Hydroponics growers almost always supply calcium as calcium nitrate to their plants. Garden soil usually contains some calcium, but not always enough for zinnias (or tomatoes). If you have previously added lime or gypsum to your garden soil, it should contain enough calcium. If I see calcium deficiency symptoms in my zinnias (and I do from time to time), I include some calcium nitrate in their foliar spray. Foliar feeding is a good way to make sure your zinnias get the nutrients they need. If I see boron deficiency symptoms, I add a little extra boron in the form of boric acid in my foliar spray. You have to be careful with boron, because it doesn't take a lot of it to reach a toxicity level. I also supply a little cobalt and nickel to my indoor zinnias, but there is usually enough of those in garden soil. And it is beneficial to supply soluble silicon to zinnias, to increase the strength of their cell walls, which makes for stronger stems and leaves, which contributes to disease resistance. Rice growers frequently supply soluble silicon in their fertilizer, because it is important for rice stems to be strong to keep the seedheads out of the water. It may seem counter-intuitive, but sand is not a way to supply silicon. I use a solution of potassium silicate to supply soluble silicon to my zinnias. ZM

Here is your post with the pictures... Hello! I'm looking for some assistance, but there is some back-story and I'm afraid it is lengthy (sorry!). I moved into our home here outside of Charlotte, NC a few years ago having never owned a single family home. I had always lived in condos or apartments with landscapers hired through the HOA to do all the outside work. Short story is - I love our home and I love working outside chopping wood, mowing grass, and all of that stuff. Some I'm not adverse to spending time and effort on something. Being a new home owner, I had to buy all the lawncare stuff from a riding mower, to aerator, dethatcher, etc.. Again, I really enjoy doing all the work. When we first moved in, the law was terrible. We have two acres of property, of which about one acre is lawn/grass. Upon moving in, much of the lawn was just red clay. The soil is fairly rocky with a lot of large rocks too. The only section of grass that was consistently good was where the pool filter backwash drained into the lawn combined with the septic drain field. So - I worked hard that first year or so and got the lawn looking pretty darn good. Here is a pic of part of it last winter: So then in the spring I had a really bad outbreak of what I believe is dalisgrass. At first I started pulling it to get it from the root, and I pulled a ton of it out of the yard, but I couldn't keep up with it. I did some research and found out that my local store was still carrying a product with MSMA in it. Bought a tow behind sprayer and coated the lawn and it really damaged my lawn. Turns out I had mixed it wrong, using a tablespoon per 5 gallons instead of a teaspoon. Coupled with the summer heat - it really did a number on my lawn. Most of the grass survived, but despite the double dose the dalisgrass didn't really seem to be hurt as much as the lawn (tall fescue). It was painful to see the relatively lush grass go bad. Perhaps due to the damaged state, another problem reared its head - at the downslope part of my lawn another type of grass started to spread and work its way up the slope. It appears to be Bermuda grass I would guess. It has long stringy runners that can go for four or five feet and no matter how many I pulled up by hand, they just kept marching on. It was smothering out the remaining fescue. * Note - I have learned in my rapid lawn education that I had been cutting my lawn too short. I now cut at 4" to promote taller grass and drown out the weeds at the dirt level. So by early this fall, I felt I had to do something because nearly half of the lawn was being taken over by the Bermuda. I went with the nuclear option and it does seem to have worked. I took my dethatcher, and basically tore out all of the lawn section where the Bermuda was growing. I can't tell you how satisfying it was to rip all of that out and I had a mountain of Bermuda grass as tall as me off in the woods when I was done. So that left basically red clay, although I know that Bermuda (rhizomes?) are probably still down there lurking and waiting to spring back up this spring. Here is a photo of the area after I had dethatched it down to the dirt and reseeded it with tall fescue: I was happy to get the seed growing and the grass is probably about two inches long now before it went semi-dormant for the winter. I say "semi dormant" because it has been unseasonably warm here in Charlotte this winter (it was 74 today!). So here is where I need some advice. I have this relatively new grass down there that is looking pretty good, then last week I noticed Henbit (purple flowers) starting to grow down there. And some spotty clover. This is what the lawn looks like today (Jan 12): And this is the Henbit poking through: Can I spray something down there or lay down some fertilizer this early to help control that? I worry that the new grass isn't tough enough to take it though. I do see we have some sub-freezing temperatures in line, and I'm sure we have many more weeks of that lined up and this warm stretch won't last. On the plus side - the winter garden (another project we started last year) is going great! My second question - I do know that I still have Bermuda down there on the fringes of where I tore out the stuff this late fall. I can see it and it even has a few green shoots here and there: Here is a broader view of that segment of lawn. You can see the "furrows" where I had last drug the dethatcher and where the fescue really seeded well. The whitish stuff is the skeletons of the remaining Bermuda: At what point this winter or spring can I treat the Bermuda - and is there a product I can spray on it that will kill the Bermuda, but not harm the relatively new fescue? Interestingly - a few of the seeds that had not sprouted late in the fall recently decided to sprout in some other areas of the property..although I doubt they will survive coming freezes: And this is the critter that started it all - the dalisgrass that is still around in the grass, although the MSMA did seem to put a bit of a damper on it. This stuff is obnoxious and I'd love to get rid of it (without having to pull it all). I have tried using a weed stick with Round Up in it to dab on little clumps of it, and it works OK, but 1 acre is a lot of work if I chase it down that way. Is there such a product that will attack clover, dalisgrass, and stuff like Henbit yet leave the fescue relatively unscathed? If so - how early can I apply it? I *really* want to try to win this war this year. I love having a great looking lawn, and I don't mind working for it, but I feel like I've been throwing money at a problem that is consistently outfoxing me and draining my wallet at the same time. I've even called lawn professionals in the area, but the ones around here must not need the business because they NEVER return phonecalls or come to take a look and give me an estimate on what it would take to professionally weed control. (I'd still want to do the mowing and stuff..but if someone could treat this acre and make a real difference, I'd love it). So there is my sad, sad story . I hope I can get some help - and I'll be very happy to share what has and hasn't worked with others here on the forum. Regards, BeachAV8R This post was edited by dchall_san_antonio on Wed, Jan 16, 13 at 15:46

As your research has shown, you can fertilize with most organic products any day of the year, as much as you can afford, without fear of burning anything. The only organic material that burns is blood meal. Stick with grains or Milorganite and you're good to go. Whatever Alphagrow is, it sounds expensive. If it costs more than $14 for a 50 pound bag, then visit your local feed store and get a bag of rabbit or chinchilla food. Any grass that remained green in the winter was likely to be the fescue. Kentucky bluegrass might have remained green or turned brown/dormant. I would hold tight until you see what happens. If your neighbors' lawns are all green and yours is not, then this growing season will seem like a lifetime. Any fescue that died since it was installed is gone until you reseed. Good news is that any KBG that survived will spread to fill it in. Dethatching is a waste of time on new sod. Thatch is usually only a problem in a mostly Kentucky bluegrass that was watered and fertilized improperly. You can do a soil test if you want, but acting on a soil test is beyond your general skill level. You're still at level of mastering watering, mowing, and fertilizing. I'd wait until August to think about a soil test. I've been doing my lawn(s) for 45 years and never did a soil test. The theory behind soil testing is that your grass will perform much better once the macro and micronutrients are perfected. Nitrogen will always be needed, but potassium and phosphorous might be a little out of line. Acidity can also be addressed, but again, I'd wait until you are deep into summer. You have to pass Lawn Care 101 before you can take LC 201 or 301. What happens in the fall depends on how things look in July. Wait until then to make those plans. Until then... 1. water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means about an inch each time. Infrequently means monthly in the cool months and gradually moving to every 7 days in the hottest heat of summer. 2. Mulch mow at your mower's highest setting for fescue. Mow it one notch lower for KBG. Start that now. 3. Fertilize with chemicals no earlier than May in your neighborhood. Then don't fertilize with chems again until Labor Day. Fertilize with organic any time you want to. Apply organic at 20-40 pounds per 1,000 square feet depending on your budget. Corn gluten meal is the best organic fertilizer and currently the most expensive. Soy bean meal is second best. Alfalfa is in the middle. Cottonseed, ordinary corn meal, and used coffee grounds round out the bottom of the list.

>>Also I was watering once a day for about an hour then I was told by a friend that may be making it worse. It is making it worse--it encourages weeds, shallow roots, and disease. If you made me guess, I'd say that' a tri-mix lawn, or standard builder's grade. It actually looks very nice from a distance and entirely reasonable given the weather we've been having. Right now, the season for seeding is so close to ending that you can either treat for weeds or seed. There's no longer time enough for both. Personally? I'd wipe the weeds and evaluate at that point. You can dormant seed in December or January if you find you need to. For that, I'd use something like Weed B Gone with Oxalis, Chickweed, and Clover control. The second step here is feeding. It's time--the optimal feeding date for northern lawns is the week around Labor Day, again on October first, and a third time when growth ceases for the year but the grass is still green (Thanksgiving for me). The fourth yearly feeding goes around Memorial Day and no earlier as it'll tap carbohydrates from the roots if applied before that. Overall, mow at the highest setting you can stand for the longest lawn you can stand (mine is about 3"). That'll shade out weeds, encourage longer roots, and give you generally healthier grass. Your last mow of the year can be shorter to reduce snow mold problems, or leave it long if you don't spend a lot of time under snow cover.