[supa]

Hope you get a break from the heat soon. That feels way too hot for almost October, but I'm also ~250 miles north

 

[PlanetBeen]

Hope you get a break from the heat soon. That feels way too hot for almost October, but I'm also ~250 miles north

It's why we don't do seeding as early here. My renovation date was pretty early considering. It's kind of normal for September. Albeit annoying...

 

[PlanetBeen]

9-25-25

I took a not very long break after finishing the stepping stone section then I moved to the back to continue the immense project out there.

I was so hot which makes me feel exhausted so much faster. I was trying to get everything to the back in as few trips as possible so I was pushing the SunJoe with one hand while the heavy extension cord was hanging on my shoulder. With my other hand I was holding my water bottle, hat, phone, cooling towel and I'm not even sure what else. When I got to the sidewalk the SunJoe caught up on the hose that goes to the front for the front sprinkler zones. I was tired and stupid so instead of stopping and getting a second hand free, I tried to get it unstuck and over the hose.

Instead, it ended up poking a freaking pinhole in my $150 3/4" 100' hose that supplies the entire front yard and is always on. Now I have to figure out how to repair it. It's hexagonal on the outside so I'm not sure if that's going to cause an issue with hose clamps. I was so mad at myself. I was also pretty mad at the SunJoe and it's a good thing I have a decent grip on my frustration because what I wanted to do was to kick and beat it and then throw it at something. I just went back to the garage cried for a little while instead. It was such a discouraging way to start. I'm already having to psych myself out to try to get this done and that was the last thing I needed.

Now my front yard watering will have to involve first walking all the way to the back to the well to turn on the hose zone... Then I'll have to water the zones in front and remember to turn the hose back off at the pump. At least until I fix it. It's just annoying and more of a time waster.

I only took 2 pictures and they are both at dusk when I stopped for the day. The camera makes it look much lighter out than it was.

I did 3 sections moving along the back of the house just behind where I did yesterday. The piles are at the edge of what I did (everything to the right of the piles) It's done up to the far side of the deck stairs. If I hadn't stopped to mow the new renovation, I definitely would have gotten to the far corner of the house. I'll start there in the morning.

It's funny how small the piles end up looking in the pictures. They're massive but I did manage to shove them all into 2 of my giant home depot bags.

I tested a couple of things today trying to make it easier / faster.

The first was an attempt at picking up the debris with the zero turn instead of raking it into piles with the leaf rake. That was a colossal failure. It didn't pick it up like I hoped, it probably chopped some it into smaller bits and it threw it around the edges when I turned. Sooooo obviously that isn't going to happen. It's actually pretty easy to rake with the leaf rake but then I still have that extra step of bagging it. For the most part I'll be leaving the bagging until last which will give me more time for raking in the daylight.

The second thing I tried was lowering the SunJoe to the zero setting. I kind of forgot I could do that. I was using the 5mm which is the lowest official rake setting but the book does say 0 can be used for raking.

I thought maybe I would do one pass at 5mm, clear and mow and then do a second perpendicular pass at 0. I tried it on one section and it did make it easier to rake but I feel like it's just too much damage. I can't stand it.

The final test was with the third and final section of the day. I just did the one pass at the 0 setting. Then the usual clear, mow and rake.

I felt like it worked pretty well. It wasn't a lot more difficult to fake than the previous section and from what I could tell in the dusky light, it didn't look as hideous at the end.

I'll look at it again tomorrow and that will be the process I start with in the morning. (after the renovation fertilizer + fungicide application)

As far as finishing and overseeding - I have absolutely no idea how and when that's going to happen. First of all it's taking forever as usual. I was doing the same exact thing on this same exact day last year. (except the grass looked a whole lot better)

Tomorrow there is a pretty good chance of rain in the afternoon and that just increases as the weekend goes on. As it stands the first day that doesn't show a high chance of rain is next Thursday. If I want the Pylex to continue to do it's thing I need to wait until it's not going to rain immediately after seeding and spraying.

I will most likely not be doing it until next Thursday.

That gives me plenty of time to rake except - it's going to be raining every day. I'll rake in between rain and I'll even do it if it's wet. I did the front 4k in that mess of misty weather on more than one day so if I have to, that's what I'll do.

The "other 2 lawns" will have to get moved around to whatever day I can get to them. Maybe Friday. I don't care.

It looks like it's going to be a mess next week anyway with the possibility of Imelda turning into a storm that ends up stalling over us and dumping a ton of rain. It's too far out to know so I just have to watch the weather as it gets closer. Gotta love hurricane season.

Ok... Front 4k.

7 DAS 0 DAG

I didn't take pictures. I suppose today is germination day. It's hard to see because it's growing amongst the dead stuff. Even in the bare spots it's not very obvious but I was able to see it without getting down on my knees and using a microscope so I guess I can call it. I even managed to see some little seedlings popping up through some of the dead stuff.

The existing grass is getting long. I should put that in quotes. Considering it was cut at 1.75" on seed day my guess is that it's probably over 2.5 l" by now. I should probably cut it especially since it's going to rain. (supposedly)

I just spent a few minutes reading my journal from this time last year. I was checking to see when I first mowed the overseed. It was at 10 DAS 4 DAG so... Maybe I'll try to put off mowing the front 4k a little longer.

Speaking of last year's journal. It's almost identical to this year in terms of worry and timing issues and the God forsaken raking and if I had remembered to check it sooner I would have seen what settings and process I settled on last year instead of having to do a bunch of testing today. BUT.... the lawn looked absolutely unbelievably wonderfully amazingly incredibly so very extremely much better than it does now.

What a hot mess. This year looks ridiculous and disgusting. Last year the side yard was a mess. I thought it was so horrible. It's so much worse this year!

I'm not going to look back any more for now. It is very depressing.

I think I'll stop typing for the night. It has gotten late. I have to get to bed so I can get up in the morning and do all the things.

 

[jonny5]

 

[PlanetBeen]

9-26-25

Exhausted after another long day and ready to go to bed.

Today I -

Spread fertilizer in renovation

Sprayed Azoxystrobin in renovation

Finished raking the row in the back that I started yesterday

Ran the SunJoe over a massive section

Raked half of that section

Stopped to pick up raked grass due to light rain (didn't amount to anything but I had to clean up just in case)

Cut everywhere in the back that I didn't just finish raking even though it hasn't been very long since it was cut. It's supposed to rain and I'm trying to keep it short to make SunJoe and raking easier and eventually for seed.

Cut the front 4k at 2.5" for the same reason. I didn't want to have to walk on it this early (1 DAG) but the existing grass was probably close to 3 inches from the 1.75" I cut it at last Thursday and it's supposed to rain for days. I didn't want to wait and hope I'd be able to cut and end up with a jungle. So it's done.

Ran the SunJoe over another massive section and finished at dusk. (just finished running the machine - nothing else)

Finally ate "lunch" at 715pm.

Raked the massive section into rows then piles in the dark with the leaf rake and the assistance of a spotlight.

Bagged everything - thankfully with help from my husband.

Put everything back in the garage including the 25lbs seed that came today.

Finally came inside sometime after 9 pm

Pictures :

Last section of row that was started yesterday.

That same section completed

First massive section

Massive section raked with leaf rake

Working on raking half of the massive section. This is where I had to stop to bag in case of rain getting worse.

Even bigger extra massive section. All the way to the corner flowerbed.

Same section.. Slightly different picture lighting

Raked into rows in the dark.

Raked into piles in the dark

Seed delivery -

Out of space - continued in next post.

 

[PlanetBeen]

9-26-25 continued

Front 4k 1 DAG germination picture

Front 4k overview after mowing. Still pretty ugly. Couldn't get a better picture. No time.

That's it for pictures.

Tomorrow's plan is all dependent on the weather.

If it's not raining I will run the SunJoe over the last section of the back. That is along the fence on the street side and the small side yard "master bedroom section".

If it's not raining I will cut everything that got the SunJoe - the massive section I finished after dark (BTW that is probably close to 4ksqft) and the final section.

After that my plan is to walk around and rake random sections starting with the biggest problem areas. I don't think there's any way I'm going to rake everything.

If it's raining, I guess I'm not doing anything.

I think there's only about a maybe 20% chance that I will be seeding on Sunday as originally planned. The weather is not going to cooperate for Pylex so I'll just have to wait.

With the weirdness going on in the tropics I'm probably going to have to wait until Wednesday at the earliest. The fun part about that is that when the rain finally stops, the forecast is saying winds at 15-25mph. Day and night. I'm hoping that is due to not knowing what the storm is going to do and it will change. Otherwise Pylex is going to be a real challenge.

I'm beyond exhausted. I'll be going to bed soon.

Hopefully I can get this done this week.

I skipped work this week. I am neglecting other things. I definitely need to chill out on the lawn. I hope I will soon.

 

[PlanetBeen]

9-27-25

First I mowed the huge section I finished raking after dark last night.

Then I ran the SunJoe on the last huge section. That concludes the SunJoe portion of the prep work.

Final section -

Final section -

I raked the grass into piles and then cut that section at the 2.125". After mowing I bagged the piles.

The rain was a threat all day. It had a few false starts so I had to complete each step and not leave a bunch of stuff around because I knew at some point it was going to start and rain for hours. The forecast was for rain with locally heavy downpours 100% chance.

After mowing that final SunJoe section I continued with my plan to hand rake the worst sections and rake until I got rained out.

I got the back flowerbed corner done and another section which is between that and the hedge.

This is after hand raking and re cutting the corner.

I got this whole area done. In sort of an "L" shape.

Next I moved to the section just past the flowerbed towards the front. I did along the fence starting at the flowerbed x 4 sections. Not quite as far out as the bag is sitting. Maybe to the next lighter stripe.

While doing that section my husband went to get lunch for us. It was close to 4 and the forecast was pretty much saying the rain would start any minute and the radar was matching up. I decided I needed to finish the section and bag and cut before stopping to eat because I had a feeling it was going to be the last section for the day.

I was right. The rain started when we were almost done eating. We were in the gazebo on the deck. I had to stop eating and go put everything away.

Here's the bags so far. There are more in the front.

It rained until after 11pm.
2 inches in total.

I guess I'm canceling the roller rental for tomorrow. I was supposed to be putting seed down.

#1 - I'm not finished raking. I'm not even trying to rake everything anymore but I wanted to rake out any dead areas since they actually need seed and it won't get to the dirt if it's on top of 2 inches of dead stuff.

#2 - I completely did forgot about the incredibly inconvenient 2 day Pylex mowing sandwich. Every time I rake I have to cut again and Pylex isn't supposed to go down within 2 days before or after cutting. So I give up on tomorrow I guess.

It's too bad because the weather ended up perfect as far as just enough time without rain to get the Pylex down. But the raking isn't finished and the Pylex needs 2 days after whenever I finally "finish" raking.

So now I'm looking at Wednesday for seed down. There isn't too big of a problem there except I have to pick up the roller myself and be alone all day to work on it without help available until after 6pm.

AND -

Starting Tuesday there is not one minute of wind speed less than 10-15mph with most of the forecast days and nights calling for 20+mph winds. I honestly have no idea how I'm going to spray the Pylex + Mefenoxam + Propiconazole + Bifen with that much wind. But I guess I have no choice but to figure it out or not overseed. There's no other time to do it so I guess I'll just pray for a wind miracle.

I'm very tired and most likely spending at least all day tomorrow raking. It would be nice if I could at least feel like that is "finished" otherwise I'll be out there all day Monday again.

I'd like to spray the Pylex the night before the overseed just to get it out of the way but if it's extremely windy I'll need to "make" my husband help and he won't be home early enough on Tuesday.

If by some miracle the wind looks to be lower on Tuesday evening I'll do it without help.

I guess the main take away is that I have had to officially give up on seeding this weekend and have to now hope it works out for mid week.

Front 4k 2 DAG closeup

I think everything is going to be happy with the rain. Unfortunately it'll also be growing like crazy and that means the back yard overseed with its stupid 2 day mowing sandwich is going to be a jungle by the time I can cut again. (after seeding and germination)

I need to sleep.

Oh yeah how could I forget? When it rains, it pours. Literally.

When I finally came in to get out of the rain I discovered it was also raining in the living room.

One of the skylights started leaking and there were several dripping areas around the perimeter of the opening and even a nice drip from the can light below it.

I now have a small bucket, three 5 gallon buckets and a large plastic bin in the living room to catch the drips.

Tomorrow my husband will go on the roof to check it out and see what we need to do to fix it.

Yep. That's what we needed.

 

[supa]

That sucks about the skylight. We had 3/4 that would leak every time it rained. The three that leaked were installed without the flashing kit, the one that didn't had the flashing kit installed. We ripped them all out and put shingles.

 

[PlanetBeen]

9-28-25

Once again I found that the grass is easier to rake when it's wet. It seems counterintuitive but I found the same thing last year. I raked this entire section in less time than it took me to do the stepping stone section.

After doing along the side fence and master bedroom section I worked on other random sections. I raked until around 6 and then stopped for "lunch". After lunch it was getting too dark to see what still needed to be raked so I worked on cleaning up.

Here's the piles from the random raking.

I had to start going vertical with the bag pile.

Tomorrow they'll go to the street for pickup on Tuesday. We'll have to use the truck. They're mostly pretty light but there are way too many to carry or to use the cart.

I am hoping I may actually "finish" tomorrow. There was no time to cut after today's raking. Tomorrow I'll walk around and rake more random damaged areas. Maybe I can get to a point where I feel like I've gotten everything.

Everything needs to be cut again. It's growing very quickly. I will mow the whole back yard area at 2.125" when I finish raking. Then I will wait the 2 stupid days for the Pylex and attempt the overseed on Wednesday. I may attempt to spray the Pylex on Tuesday evening. The forecast says winds 10-15mph overnight Tuesday. That's the lowest until Friday. I really don't want to have to wait until Friday to overseed.

Tomorrow I will also have to cut the front side yard / ditch etc areas. That stuff is overgrown especially since I didn't end up getting to the ditch the last time I cut that section.

I will be taking a close look at the renovation to see if it's ready for another cut. It's been fertilized now and we got 2" of rain so I have a feeling it may be ready again.

The Pylex thing is frustrating. Today would have been a perfect day to overseed. Tomorrow too. Both would be perfect for spraying with nice low winds. Instead I'll be spraying in the wind...unless I wait until Friday. :-( I don't want to keep changing my plans. I already hate that I've had to change it because I wasn't ready.

I'm ready to stop thinking about it for tonight.

 

[PlanetBeen]

9-29-25

Late update - exhausted, busy, stressed and I even got randomly sick.

I didn't feel good when I got up so I got a late start. I wasn't feeling much better after time went by so I figured I might as well just get started.

I raked this huge section in about 1.5 hrs.

Then I moved back over to the side fence and "finished" this large section.

I bagged it all and walked the main part of the back one last time and decided the raking was "done" and it was time to start what should have been the final cut.

I decided I would do the edging which I've been skipping. It's going to be a while before it gets cut again so I figured I'd get everything 100%. I started edging at the driveway side yard as usual and that was when I realized I had forgotten to finish the raking over there.

It was the first section I did and I only brought the SunJoe to just before the shop. The grass next to the shop was way too nice to beat up. So I had decided I would hand rake a little beyond where I stopped with the power raking just to be sure there was no disease overlap. There are a couple of small bare spots towards the back corner but not from disease. They're probably just some other type of grass that didn't survive summer or maybe even spots that never grew in.

So after I finished edging and before I could start the final mowing - I did this.

It took up what little extra time I may have had after mowing to get the front side etc cut and I had to give up on finishing all the mowing before trash day.

I got the back cut which was, at that point, the most important thing since I wanted to seed Wednesday and I needed 2 stupid days for the Pylex waiting period.

By the time I was finishing with the mower I was feeling really sick. I still have no idea why. But I was sick all night until after 5am.

My husband was home for work by the time I was mowing and he pulled the truck to the back driveway to get started on loading up the bags to bring them to the street. After the first trip he came to me and said... "hey, isn't there a limit of like 30 or 40 bags?". I had completely forgotten. So we stopped and looked it up. 30 is the limit until November. Then it goes to 50 through the end of December because of fall leaves. So in the end it didn't matter that I didn't have time to get everything else cut because I already had close to 50 bags!!

He brought 30 out to the street while I tried to stay upright to finish putting everything away.

Here's a picture from Tuesday morning. It was dark by the time the bags were put out on Monday.

On Tuesday 9-30

After sleeping in and taking a nap after an exhausting night of being sick, I finally felt better and was able to get out front to cut the front side, ditch and sidewalk strip. Then I cleaned the mower and gave the renovation it's second cut. Those pictures are in the renovation thread.

The Front 4k overseed is doing its thing. The new grass is growing but isn't "big" enough to overpower the brown so the overview pictures don't really show anything yet.

Here's a closeup from Tuesday 5 DAG

It is due for 14 day followup fungicide - Tomorrow 10-2. I will do the same as I did for the renovation Azoxystrobin at the preventive rate watered in immediately.

I will probably cut it back to 2.5" first. I haven't decided yet. I've already cut the existing grass once since overseeding so this would be the second time with 5 days between. The other option would be to wait until Sunday. Friday I will be too busy and Saturday I'll be in Richmond for my sister's birthday.

So, the back yard overseed. It was supposed to be done Sunday but I gave up when I couldn't get the raking done soon enough. The forecast was iffy because of the storms in the Atlantic which ended up doing nothing. So I had decided to get raking and mowing finished by Monday and seed Wednesday which was the next time my husband would be around in the early evening to help if needed.

I practically killed myself Monday getting it done. (as evidenced by being sick all night - although I don't really think it was related) and when all was said and done, I decided it was just going to be too freaking windy on Wednesday for the stupid Pylex. I am so over Pylex right now. It is really making everything twice as complicated.

Instead, I decided to wait for Friday when the wind would be gone. Of course that meant I had to mow again today (Wednesday) after just mowing on Monday!

So 10-1-25

A couple of pictures of the newest final cut today. Once again late in the day because I had to go cut the other 2 lawns first. Then I had to have lunch. At least when I finished it was still light out for a change. Even though it was just cut 2 days ago, I still filled a bag with clippings. I emptied the mower bag 3 times.

Then there's this unbelievable area. It's like walking into a different yard. It's as beautiful and untouched as ever. This is the one area that I didn't touch with the SunJoe. It doesn't need seed. It needs a blue ribbon for beauty. It's the only part of my lawn that looks this beautiful. One nice thing about it is that it's allowing me to get an idea of what the super turf seeded areas will look like if they are cut at 2.125". I'm already cutting it all at that height but it's all diseased and beat up and thin so I had no idea how it would look cut short while healthy until I cut this area to match. It's REALLY nice. I don't think it will die.

After cutting the back yet again tonight I pulled 2 more soil samples. I decided to give the side yard it's own sample and the main back yard a separate sample. Once I have all the results, I'll be able to see if I can combine them for next time.

I'm going to try to get to the post office tomorrow to send them out. It will be front 4k, back main and back side.

I would imagine that next year I'll be able to combine the 2 front samples and most likely the back 2. We'll see if the back side comes out extra funky. It is 70% death after all...

I got the garage straightened up a bit in preparation for spraying fungicide tomorrow and... After all the stupid Pylex timing fiascos, I am most likely going spray the Pylex tomorrow evening. 24hrs after mowing. And that just has to be ok because it's ridiculous otherwise.

I will spray tomorrow evening so that it can have close to 24 hrs to sit before I spray the other stuff and water after the seed goes down on Friday.

Then I'll be gone half the day on Saturday and pray it gets enough water to get through until I'm back home.

Another thing I need to do tomorrow is figure out how the heck I'm dividing the back yard for the seed and what the heck rate of seed I'm using. There are places none is needed. There are places some is needed. There are totally dead areas that need a full renovation rate. I need to get it all measured and divided so I can have some sort of plan for distributing the seed. There's no way I want to be trying to figure that out on Friday.

I don't want to spend any more time typing tonight.

 

[PlanetBeen]

10-2-25

Front 4k 14 DAS 7 DAG

Mowed at 2.5" Super Recycler. Cut for existing grass. The new seedlings aren't tall enough to be cut yet.

Sprayed Azoxystrobin @ preventive rate and watered in.

Back Yard / Pylex zones

Picked and measured 2 large areas for extra seed. All other smaller bare areas will just get done by me walking around randomly throwing/dropping extra seed. I can't figure out any other way to do it.

Calculated and measured seed. 5lbs / 1k rate for 90% of it. Sidewalk flowerbed strip and Nook will get 7lbs/1k.

1600sqft or so of the 2600 sqft driveway side will also get an extra 2lb/1k after the 5lb is done.
2070sqft along the back of the house, kitchen sidewalk, next to gravel parking area / driveway will also get the extra 2lb/1k after the 5lb rate is spread.

Sprayed final Pylex + MSO. That should give it close to 24 hrs to sit before the seed gets it's first water tomorrow afternoon / evening.

HD Roller reservation is at noon. I wanted to be able to get some stuff done first before having to leave to pick it up.

Tomorrow after seed I will roll everything then spray Mefenoxam + Propiconazole (both preventive) + Bifenthrin then I'll probably do 30 minutes water per zone as the first water.

All the seed has been weighed and separated and I calculated and wrote down the amounts for the spray application.

I'm as ready as I can be I guess.

Some calculations before writing them in the notebook.

Seed ready

After finishing with the front 4k this afternoon I got the rest of my soil samples ready and brought them to the post office. They're on their way to VA Tech.

Going to get to bed now so I can get up "early". I honestly don't feel like losing too much sleep so I'm not sure how early of a start I will get.

Random renovation update - it continues to show the yellow to brown especially along the border with the front 4k. Oh well. Hopefully it won't be too much of it that dies. I'd hate to have a dead stripe between the 2 sections. Can't do anything about it but watch it happen. Thankfully it's 54 right now so maybe that will help. I assume even if it does help for a few days, as soon as it's warmer again overnight it'll just continue. I guess I'll find out in a few days.

Around here we just put seed down so we can watch it die eventually I guess. If not this fall, I'm sure next summer the Annual Root Disease Festival will be back.

Bedtime!

Oh speaking of phosphites - I haven't seen anything saying "they/it" can't be used on new grass...

Anyone know? I haven't bought anything yet... Plus it's definitely end of season. Just curious.

 

[Lauerw]

10-2-25

Front 4k 14 DAS 7 DAG

Mowed at 2.5" Super Recycler. Cut for existing grass. The new seedlings aren't tall enough to be cut yet.

Sprayed Azoxystrobin @ preventive rate and watered in.

Back Yard / Pylex zones

Picked and measured 2 large areas for extra seed. All other smaller bare areas will just get done by me walking around randomly throwing/dropping extra seed. I can't figure out any other way to do it.

Calculated and measured seed. 5lbs / 1k rate for 90% of it. Sidewalk flowerbed strip and Nook will get 7lbs/1k.

1600sqft or so of the 2600 sqft driveway side will also get an extra 2lb/1k after the 5lb is done.
2070sqft along the back of the house, kitchen sidewalk, next to gravel parking area / driveway will also get the extra 2lb/1k after the 5lb rate is spread.

Sprayed final Pylex + MSO. That should give it close to 24 hrs to sit before the seed gets it's first water tomorrow afternoon / evening.

HD Roller reservation is at noon. I wanted to be able to get some stuff done first before having to leave to pick it up.

Tomorrow after seed I will roll everything then spray Mefenoxam + Propiconazole (both preventive) + Bifenthrin then I'll probably do 30 minutes water per zone as the first water.

All the seed has been weighed and separated and I calculated and wrote down the amounts for the spray application.

I'm as ready as I can be I guess.

Some calculations before writing them in the notebook.

View attachment 78927

Seed ready

View attachment 78928

After finishing with the front 4k this afternoon I got the rest of my soil samples ready and brought them to the post office. They're on their way to VA Tech.

View attachment 78929

Going to get to bed now so I can get up "early". I honestly don't feel like losing too much sleep so I'm not sure how early of a start I will get.

Random renovation update - it continues to show the yellow to brown especially along the border with the front 4k. Oh well. Hopefully it won't be too much of it that dies. I'd hate to have a dead stripe between the 2 sections. Can't do anything about it but watch it happen. Thankfully it's 54 right now so maybe that will help. I assume even if it does help for a few days, as soon as it's warmer again overnight it'll just continue. I guess I'll find out in a few days.

Around here we just put seed down so we can watch it die eventually I guess. If not this fall, I'm sure next summer the Annual Root Disease Festival will be back.

Bedtime!

Oh speaking of phosphites - I haven't seen anything saying "they/it" can't be used on new grass...

Anyone know? I haven't bought anything yet... Plus it's definitely end of season. Just curious.

I think you want to wait with young plants based on the sail index of the product or a lower app. I did wait on mine for a month. It seems like as long as you are not P deficient it should help root and shoot growth.

If you are foliar spraying it looks like the root protection is stable over the 4 weeks due to the time it takes to translocate. I think there is a drop off for the leaf protection after 2 weeks but there is still value after 4 weeks. I will probably go with 4 weeks to keep it consistent with my spray schedule next year.

USGA Study

 

[PlanetBeen]

I think you want to wait with young plants based on the sail index of the product or a lower app. I did wait on mine for a month. It seems like as long as you are not P deficient it should help root and shoot growth.

If you are foliar spraying it looks like the root protection is stable over the 4 weeks due to the time it takes to translocate. I think there is a drop off for the leaf protection after 2 weeks but there is still value after 4 weeks. I will probably go with 4 weeks to keep it consistent with my spray schedule next year.

USGA Study

It would definitely be nice if it could be a 4 week schedule instead of 2 week!

 

[PlanetBeen]

10-3-25

The overseeding is done. I did everything I outlined in my last post.

Seed 5-7lbs/1k depending on how thin or bare each section was.

Mefenoxam 0.5oz / 1k, Propiconazole 1oz / 1k, Bifenthrin 1oz / 1k

Watered each zone 30 minutes (4 zones)

I don't have time to get into timing details but I managed to finish with everything before sunset and had a few short breaks along the way.

The roller was the worst. Very tiring.

28,484 steps for the day.

The only picture I took during the process -

Tomorrow I will water once sometime around sunrise. (yuck) then I'll water again late afternoon before we leave for Richmond for my sister's birthday dinner. Then I'll pray really hard that it doesn't dry out before we come home tomorrow evening.

Hopefully it will turn out OK.

The front 4k is looking pretty decent. Today was 8 DAG. It's starting to look a little greener in the dead areas.

I need to get to bed so I can not sleep all day tomorrow.

 

[eschwartz]

Tomorrow I will water once sometime around sunrise. (yuck) then I'll water again late afternoon before we leave for Richmond for my sister's birthday dinner.

You know they do make these automated timer things... and sometimes they even work

 

[PlanetBeen]

You know they do make these automated timer things... and sometimes they even work

My setup mostly doesn't allow for timers to be added. I may be able to put 4 in the front but in the back I have poly attached to pvc and no room for a timer without a redesign and many odd adapters.

Someday maybe I will have real sprinklers...

 

[PlanetBeen]

Sunday 10-5-25

I ended up giving mom's lawn the full treatment.

Cut at 2.125"
SunJoe everything
Hand rake everything with groundskeeper rake
Pick up piles
Cut everything at 2.125"

Helped with pre seeding watering / sprinkler setup.

I was there until after dark. I didn't do anything in my yard except for watering the back yard overseed in the morning. Thankfully my husband stayed at home in the afternoon so he was there to water it later in the day.

So far it's just getting watered a couple of times a day for 15 minutes per zone. It doesn't seem to dry out much. Most of it has a lot of grass. I'm keeping a close eye on the bare spots and watering when I see those start to dry out.

Here are a couple of pictures from mom's yard. Much much smaller than mine. I didn't take many pictures. I was too busy.

This is the back. The fence on the left is the back fence - behind that is where she had the trees removed.

This is the side of the back yard.

This is my little snek friend. It's amazing how they can be in the grass and not visible at all until you rake them up!

This is the main part of the front yard. Dominated by Skippy The Wonder Bush™ (giant Pin Oak Tree)

This is the front side yard. Or part of it at least...

Lawn Doctor came this morning (10-6) and did the slit seeding. She took pictures and it looks like they did a really thorough job and definitely didn't skimp on the seed. I really hope she can keep it watered this year. Last year it was so dry and she just didn't water enough. It was not the best results.

I'm hoping this year will be better. There's rain coming on Wednesday and then on the weekend again. So that should help things too.

10-6-25

Today I cut everything in the front. 3 different sections at 3 different settings on 2 different mowers.

The Front 4k is at 18 DAS 11 DAG

I am one step closer to being ready to cut both front sections together at the same height. I have cut it at 2.5" two times. Today I lowered it back down to 2.125". My goal is to get the whole front set at that height and keep it there for the foreseeable future. The renovation is still at 1.75" but it'll probably be ready to go up after 1 or 2 more cuts. They won't match right away because the front 4k is established so it's got thicker "clumps" of grass vs the renovation which is much finer since it's brand new.

I didn't take any specific Front 4K pictures. I got distracted and forgot. The new grass seems to be coming in nicely and it is looking greener overall with the brown bare areas finally starting to shrink. It would probably not look right in a picture anyway. The cameras always seem to highlight the brown.

It looks "good" overall. It is due for its first fertilizer on Thursday. I will be using the Lesco starter for the first application the same as I did in the renovation (and I also plan the same for the back overseed)

I was so tempted to do it today or tomorrow for the rain on Wednesday but it's going to rain this weekend too and I'm still watering every day so I decided to make myself wait and not get ahead of myself. I'll do it Thursday at 14DAG.

I have a few pictures to post in the renovation thread so I'll go do that now.

Oops! Forgot to post the grass bags picture!

Another 25 bags at the street! That's everything including the bags from the grass cutting today.