The May photos for the lawn and gardens are below. The gardens were just planted, so as always this early in the season look rather sad and sparse. This will rapidly change.
I’m trying SumaGreen Turf on the lawn and gardens this year, a biological product with many different types of bacteria in humic acid. I had wanted the reference shots for today as I applied late in the day yesterday. Changes should take place over the next four weeks.
As always, you can click on any image to increase the size.
The May lawn. Density and growth rate are both excellent, although color isn’t wonderful at the moment. I haven’t had much time to keep up with the spray iron.
The purple rhododendron, which seems to be very happy where it is. It’s tripled in size in the last two years.
The magnolia bloomed nicely earlier, and the rose bush behind it should be along shortly.
Newly-planted gardens always look sparse, and I just finished this yesterday.
I have uploaded new photos that were taken on 5/9/2012. Hopefully they can be better compared as I tried to keep the same photo angle and white balance. jglongisland is also creating a composite picture for me. I will upload it as soon as I get it.
Full Plot
Composite Photo (Thanks jglongisland! Click photo again for FULL size)
Boutique
Prosperity
America
Bedazzled
Midnight Star (Note: slight rust issues)
Midnight II
Blue Velvet (Note: has noticeable case of powdery mildew)
Midnight (Note: also has powdery mildew)
Moonlight SLT (Note: disappointed by the color. Seems yellowish. Might be due to my high pH soil).
Moonbeam (Note: beautiful gunmetal blue color. Shaggy looking)
Diva
Bewitched (Note: my new favorite alongside Prosperity)
Blueberry
Julius
Emblem
Scotts/Schultz Big Box Mix
Every so often (well, quite often actually) someone will talk about the hard “red clay” soil they have in their yard. Recently a poster described the soil as “Georgia Red Clay”. Now, usually we say: “it’s probably just hard, not actually clay”. But this time I decided to go looking for the clay – at least a little.
The USDA National Resources Conservation Service has a neat online tool for exploring a lot of soil survey data. It’s called the Web Soil Survey. There are lots of things to look at, but I specifically looked at the soil survey for Houston and Peaches Counties, which are near the center of the state. I looked at all the texture analysis for all the distinct mapped soils to a depth of 6 inches and plotted them on a USDA soil texture diagram. The area of the bubble is relative to the percent area of the survey district covered by that soil family. In several cases you can’t really see the bubble because that soil doesn’t occur very frequently.
There really isn’t much clay in Houston and Peaches Counties, Georgia. If we group the soil classes together and plot the percentage area of the survey area with those soils (to a depth of 6 inches), you can easily see that most of the soils in these two counties are a mix of sand and loam.
Now, a soil survey can’t tell us what kind of soil is in a particular yard – you need to test that for yourself. And it’s probable that in many urban and suburban areas, the surface layers have been disrupted by construction. A more detailed analysis of this soil survey shows that the clay-fraction of the sub soil is generally higher than the surface soil, so as top-soil is removed, what is left will be somewhat more “clay-like”, though usually still towards a loam.
Comments, suggestions and critiques always welcomed.
I got motivated and dropped the cracked corn on the lawn immediately. I’ve applied 20 pounds per thousand square feet.
Cracked corn is a fairly mild and gentle anti-fungal for the lawn, as it encourages Trichoderma fungi which will hunt other surface fungi.
As a feeding source, it’s extremely light. All told, it works out to 0.33 pounds of nitrogen per thousand.
I finally made it to the grain mill today! Cracked corn was $9.23 per fifty pound bag, down $0.04 or 0.04% from last year. Soybean meal was $12.47, up $0.20 or 1.6% from last year.
All in all, prices are pretty reasonable for 2012 so far.
I wasn’t quite happy with the lawn color in the Thanksgiving Day photos, so I’ve added iron twice since then for a grand total of 12 ounces per thousand. That would be very high for a non-elite bluegrass, although elite bluegrasses just turn very dark greens.
That’s the last for the year, and this shot should last right into early spring.
As always, click on any photo to make it larger.
The standard shot:
Across the back:
Posted in General
|
Tagged iron, lawn, photo
|
The lawn’s doing very well for November, although I have a feeling that a lot of my winterizer washed through and got lost in the 2 1/2″ of rain we got. If I see evidence of that, I’ll do a partial re-winterization over the next few weeks.
As always, click any image to embiggen it.
The standard shot, with extra leaves. I sent the mower out to take care of it just after I took this shot:
A shot across the back, including the last of the trees that’s currently de-leafing all over the lawn. Myrtle (the robotic lawnmower) had just chopped through these:
The southern face:
Bonus Image! My Christmas cactus decided to bloom a little early this year:
I winterized the lawn today with Vigoro Super Green, which contains enough slow-release nitrogen to keep my lawn green over the winter (as it doesn’t tend to go dormant). This marks the last addition for the year. This year’s total organic amount is well down from last year’s 450 pounds per thousand, and far down from the 1,200 the year before.
Updated December 4, 2011: I winterized for a second time and I’ve added some foliar nitrogen as well. I added the extra line and updated the information.
| Date |
N |
P |
K |
Iron |
Organics |
Other Notes |
| 3/18/2011 |
0.60 |
0.24 |
0.00 |
0.48 |
12.0 |
Milorganite |
| 4/2/2011 |
0.73 |
0.29 |
0.13 |
0.21 |
33.7 |
Corn, Milorganite |
| 5/1/2011 |
1.39 |
0.45 |
0.15 |
0.31 |
22.7 |
Soy, Milorganite |
| 6/1/2011 |
1.15 |
0.38 |
0.10 |
0.36 |
19.0 |
Soy, Milorganite |
| 7/1/2011 |
1.04 |
0.41 |
0.00 |
0.83 |
20.7 |
Milorganite |
| 8/1/2011 |
2.03 |
0.51 |
0.33 |
0.68 |
33.8 |
Milorganite, Soy |
| 8/16/2011 |
1.05 |
0.42 |
0.00 |
0.84 |
21.0 |
Milorganite |
| 8/24/2011 |
0.49 |
0.00 |
0.07 |
0.07 |
0.00 |
Vigoro Super Green |
| 9/1/2011 |
2.06 |
0.42 |
0.45 |
0.52 |
29.3 |
Soy, Milorganite, 24-0-11 |
| 9/9/2011 |
1.34 |
0.38 |
0.18 |
0.82 |
19.2 |
Milorganite, 24-0-11 |
| 9/16/2011 |
1.07 |
0.43 |
0.00 |
0.85 |
21.3 |
Milorganite |
| 10/1/2011 |
1.30 |
0.40 |
0.14 |
0.84 |
20.0 |
Milorganite, 24-0-11 |
| 10/12/2011 |
0.34 |
0.00 |
0.15 |
0.04 |
0.00 |
24-0-11 |
| 10/18/2011 |
1.10 |
0.44 |
0.00 |
0.88 |
22.0 |
Milorganite |
| 11/1/2011 |
0.94 |
0.37 |
0.00 |
0.75 |
14.7 |
Milorganite |
| 11/18/2011 |
1.45 |
0.04 |
0.23 |
0.16 |
0.00 |
Vigoro Super Green, Spray |
| 12/4/2011 |
1.16 |
0.00 |
0.16 |
0.04 |
0.00 |
Vigoro 29-0-4 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Total per K ft: |
19.24 |
5.18 |
2.09 |
8.68 |
289.4 |
2585 active organic total |
Posted in General
|
Tagged lawn, yearly
|
This will be the last update for the BTEP until spring 2012. I might get one more mowing in and will apply urea winterizer at the appropriate time in November.
This fall my lawn had issues with rust and possibly some other fungus (might be leaf spot). The BTEP plot was not immune, but it is also not uncommon for new KBG to have rust issues in its infancy. Some cultivars did better than others, but none were affected to the point of noticing any diseased blades or discoloration from afar. Here is a closeup of the worst affected area in the Midnight Star plot:
The following are my subjective and unscientific observations regarding Leaf Width, Color, Effect of Tenacity (2 sprays 7 days apart in October at 5oz/acre), and the presence of Fungus (rust and perhaps leaf spot). Keep in mind that the grass is only about 10 weeks old, so these results should be taken with a grain of salt (or potassium  ).
LW: Leaf Width – Fine, Medium-Fine, Medium, Medium-Coarse, Coarse
C: Color – Light Green, Medium Green, Dark Green, Dark Blue Green
T: Tenacity Effect (Bleaching) – None, Light, Medium, Heavy
F: Fungus (Rust/Leaf Spot) – None, Light, Medium, Heavy
The grasses are all grown up and have had a couple of haircuts! However, as you will see from the pictures, the weeds have moved in and I’m having a heck of a time trying to control them.
The weeds I am getting span from broadleafs, to clover-like, to chickweed-like, to grassy. I first used Quinclorac w/ MSO. No effect. Then I used plain Weed-B-Gon. No effect. Last weekend I brought out the heavy artillery and sprayed Tenacity with a NIS at the spot spray rate. I’m hoping for some white weeds in the near future, and will be interested to see how the individual cultivars react to the Tenacity. I will report on that once I start to see results.
60 day pictures
NOTE: you will notice a lot of light colored blades and weeds interspersed among the plots. These are weeds, not the actual cultivars or Tenacity effect.
Full Plot
Compact America. Clockwise from Top Left: America, Bedazzled, Prosperity, Boutique.
Prosperity is still the darkest of the group. I also like the thinner blades. America is nice and lush, but lighter than I expected. Boutique is also very nice.
Compact Midnight: Clockwise from Top Left: Blue Velvet, Midnight, Midnight II, Midnight Star.
Blue Velvet and Midnight Star are the darkest of this group. Surprisingly, at this point Midnight is darker than Midnight II.
Aggressive: Left to Right: Julius, Emblem.
Julius has darkened a bit and Emblem has filled out, but is full of weeds.
Big Box Blend: Top half: Schultz (mostly Barrister, a Compact Midnight), Bottom Half: Scott’s (mostly Abbey, a BVMG type).
Compact: Diva.
Compacts: Clockwise from Top Left: Bewitched, Blueberry, Moonbeam, Moonlight SLT.
We really like the gunmetal blue color of Moonbeam, but are not fans of the thick lades and prostrate growth habit, Moonlight SLT is very nice and Bewitched is nice as well.
|
Blogs