Since I had so much fun doing it last year, here I am again

I had a successful renovation last fall until it was destroyed by fungus. You live and you learn, and thankfully I have gained so much insight from the members of this board that I have the assurance that I can do this again, albeit better. And for all of my fellow renovators, you could not ask for a better support system and wealth of knowledge than on BL, whether you intend to go the organic, synthetic or hybrid approach.

So rather than an extensive repair of my lawn, I decided that I want to go darker. Don't get me wrong, the lawn had beautiful color for the first year, but with so many beautiful options, why not.

I began the process earlier in the week by submitting my soil sample to Logan Labs. I expect it early next week since Priority Mail didn't get the sample to them until Thursday.

On 7/27 (Wed), I applied RU (purple cap). We are 3 days now and still waiting for the kill. Since I did this last year, I know I have a few more days before I get any real evidence of death, but it is inevitable

Lawn prior to rounding up.


For comparison, my lawn a month ago.




On 7/28 (Thu), I put down an application of the BL Soil Conditioner Substitute...Good ole White Rain Shampoo.
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Will scalp early next week and then begin fallowing for a good few weeks. I had about 2" of rain last night to begin the process.

My next step is to call and order my seeds from Williams Seed, which I finally decided on my cultivars after a lot of research and going back and forth. Kind of like preparing for a fantasy football draft

Anyway, I have decided on Midnight II, Prosperity, Moonbeam, Blueberry, Bewitched and Boutique. There are a lot, but I made sure to incorporate strong disease coverage and very dark, as well as some bluish components.

Wishing everyone a successful and fun renovation. Please remember, patience is paramount.

Dave

MorpheusPA wrote:Are you going to use a fungicide next year to make sure THAT doesn't happen again? That was one beautiful lawn, destroyed...

+1 Morph - With my well documented shade issues, i would get lawn fungus every year, and I would be reactive. this year i was PROACTIVE and used Lesco Eagle Fungucide, and I had no fungus issues at all (with shade and 6+ inches of rain in June)

i swear by this stuff, and it will be an annual treatment

Sorry about your lawn, it looked beautiful

P.S. I KNOW how you feel brother
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MorpheusPA wrote:Are you going to use a fungicide next year to make sure THAT doesn't happen again? That was one beautiful lawn, destroyed...

You're not kidding

I actually applied Immunox Spectracide at a curative rate when I first suspected something (2 apps w/i the guidelines). Since it was pythium, this had no effect. I later (after the fact) applied phosphITES.

My plan, as suggested by Andy, is to purchase serenade and incorporate a a regular routine with that. I was going to put down corn (meal or cracked) this week, but I read about some inhibition to new seeds germinating, so that will have to wait.

Baking soda was also brought to my attention as a quick hit. Will this affect new seeds or no?

In any event, I will be very proactive and in lieu of having a reactive approach.

CTShoreGuy wrote:

+1 Morph - With my well documented shade issues, i would get lawn fungus every year, and I would be reactive. this year i was PROACTIVE and used Lesco Eagle Fungucide, and I had no fungus issues at all (with shade and 6+ inches of rain in June)

i swear by this stuff, and it will be an annual treatment

Sorry about your lawn, it looked beautiful

P.S. I KNOW how you feel brother
Click here for more information

Dan,
Appreciate that. Good luck with your battle!!

Smaller amounts of cracked corn (or meal) will be no problem at all. I was ditching corn all thorough my reno and noticed absolutely no issues at all.

But if you want to wait, go ahead. No harm no foul on that. Milorganite and soy and whatever else you can get is perfectly good for starting a new lawn. So are synthetics.

I think I'll put some done then...What rate do you think??

In retrospect, I should have done the same. Anthracnose fungus is now endemic on this property and I doubt there's much I can do about it now. I lost a dogwood and the tulip tree is slightly impacted by it (but won't be fatal to that). I now have to be careful to choose non-susceptible things for the garden.

I don't know if I could have stopped it (probably not), but it would have been worth a try.

It really is a shame when the people who really care have these issues, whereas the ones who don't have never encountered a fungus...Such is life, I guess.

As lawns age and mature (and the soil gets better if you're tuning it), they tend to have fewer problems with fungus and other diseases, so these things do get better.

My first year, powdery mildew, red thread, rust... Now, nothing.

I also think a good organic base seems to help as well. There's more competition in the soil, the plants have all their protective armoring from helpful fungi and bacteria, and hunters of fungi and bacteria are everywhere.

Eager to see my soil results...One thing for sure, I will do anything I can to allow my lawn to mature (unlike this year).

Ten pounds per thousand per month wouldn't be unreasonable at all.

Checking my records, I used a grand total of 200 pounds per thousand of cracked corn during my renovation months (August/September) and saw absolutely no germination issues. On top of copious soy and Milorganite.

Perfect. I will put some down after I scalp in a couple days....Thanks
I will keep you posted of the soil results.

Starting to see some killing off of the grass after in day 4

Question about Soilmoist....Did some reading up on it last night and was intrigued. When watering the new seeds, since there is so much retention of the moisture, should we still use the same watering schedule/output, or would this reduce that need so we do not overwater, or rot the seeds.

I do not have an irrigation system (hose and sprinkler) and when I did my reno last year, I went about 20 minutes 3X/day during the establishing process, which worked well. Should that be tweaked with the Soilmoist? My front is in dead full sun all day.

I didn't change my schedule at all. I used the SoilMoist as an "insurance policy" in case it dried out. It's pretty new to us, so depending on it for moisture is not documented yet. I experienced no rotting.

I saw faster germination - I'll be really interested in whether others have the same experience or not.

andy10917 wrote:I didn't change my schedule at all. I used the SoilMoist as an "insurance policy" in case it dried out. It's pretty new to us, so depending on it for moisture is not documented yet. I experienced no rotting.

I saw faster germination - I'll be really interested in whether others have the same experience or not.

Thanks. I'll have to compare it to last year's reno and post my obs as I se them. Certainly more tools in the arsenal for me this year, with tenacity also on the wish list to be bought.

Dave, I was just reading your thread and from a distance that looks like Brown Patch or Summer Patch to me. I'm surprised the Bedazzled didn't hold up better. Are you sure you had Pythium? That was be extremely rare on a KBG lawn.
Greg

gryd wrote:Dave, I was just reading your thread and from a distance that looks like Brown Patch or Summer Patch to me. I'm surprised the Bedazzled didn't hold up better. Are you sure you had Pythium? That was be extremely rare on a KBG lawn.
Greg

Pythium is rare in an established KBG lawn, but since it was still under a year old, it was susceptible. The giveaway to having pythium was the greasy, dark matting the preceded the dead turf & roots. I agree that summer patch came later when we were away for the week. The week that was 100+ all week. No dormancy either, since the roots were shot.

Sorry to see that happen. The lawn was beautiful! Good luck with this year's renovation!

Busy day getting all in order.

Scalped the lawn this evening. 98% is brown.
Ordered my seeds this morning through Williams Seed. Dennis was not available, but Michele took care of me. Very pleasant and helpful. Expected to be shipped out today.
And ordered the Soilmoist and Tenacity from EH Griffith as well. Has already been shipped.

Just waiting on my soil results, which were expected to be sent over to me this afternoon. Oh well, what's another day.

When are u planning on seeding?

silver8ack wrote:When are u planning on seeding?

Somewhere around the 20th (give or take a couple days).
Last year I started a little later (9/5), but lucked out with an extremely warm Sept & October.

Couple pics from today after last night's scalp. First round of RU was last Wed.

looks good, looks just like my front lawn, i still got one more notch to go before completely scalping it and im waiting for the remainder of the green stuff to turn dead before i completely scalp. When u seeded before, was the dead grass mat that thick too?

When u seeded before, was the dead grass mat that thick too?

A little thinner than that. I used one of those POS dethatching blades (w/ orange plastic strings) to get it a little bit shorter last year. Will do the same again on my next scalp. Not enough to disturb the soil, just enough to thin it out a little more....Worked great for the seed.