[livelawnandprosper]

Hi guys, a handful of you helped me identify the problem grass I was noticing in my lawn earlier this year as BENTGRASS. I stopped watering my lawn Sept 1st, and we have had only two days of rain since then, so most of the lawn has gone dormant. We still have little rain on the books for the next two weeks. I am located on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

As things went dormant, it became very obvious where and how much bentgrass I was actually dealing with. In the back yard, I'm guessing it could be any where from 25-35 percent of my entire crop! I have been reading about Tenacity, and because I live in Canada, it is not sold here unfortunately.

I may be able to get my hands on an 8oz bottle, which should do just over an acre (my entire lawn, front back and side, is just under 7000sq ft) but knowing that so much of my lawn is bentgrass, is it worth me using the tenacity over the whole lawn, or should I just nuke the entire thing and start fresh in the spring?

Also, if I cannot get my hands on Tenacity (aka it gets stopped at the border) is there anything else I can do besides nuking the entire thing?

The desirable turf is primarily Perennial Rye and Kentucky Blue.

Thank you very much for your time.

-Rob

 

[g-man]

There is someone with a source for tenacity in Canada. Either snowbob11 or Sinclair, I don't recall.

 

[SNOWBOB11]

You can order tenacity from www.seedworldusa.com. They are the only place I've found that is willing to ship to Canada. Tenacity is pricey especially when you add in the shipping costs but you use such a little amount (1/2 tsp per gallon per 1k for 4oz acre rate) that the bottle will last you a long time. It's difficult for me to advise either way on whether to nuke the hole thing and start again or not. It's probably too late to do this now even though you guys on the west coast have a much warmer climate than the rest of Canada. Maybe if you wanted to try the tenacity this year and try to get rid of the bent grass and then overseed in the spring. If you don't like how things turn out you can do a full reno later next year. I believe p rye is the preferred turf grass in BC but I could be wrong on that.

 

[SNOWBOB11]

Also if you are ordering the tenacity remember to pick up a bottle of surfactant as well. I don't have a source for surfactant locally so I order it from seed world too.

 

[ken-n-nancy]

Tenacity does a great job of selectively eliminating bentgrass from a lawn with perennial ryegrass and Kentucky bluegrass. Personally, unless you have other reasons for wanting to do a complete renovation, I'd be inclined to first eliminate the bentgrass by a couple applications of Tenacity -- unless there are sections that are really exclusively bentgrass, the bluegrass should spread back into the areas with prior bentgrass.

 

[livelawnandprosper]

Thank you very much for the reply's. I think I will be waiting for the spring, as from what I have read the bent grass needs to be actively growing in order for it to be treated effectively. I would really like to not nuke the whole lawn as I have worked so hard to get her to where she is now. I had lots of great comments on her during the spring, I think I should save her.

Would it be smart (or a waste of money) to over seed this fall in order to help thicken up the lawn, and prepare her for battle in the spring?

I will post some pics of the state she is in once she comes out of dormancy and is easier to tell via photo what is and what is not bentgrass.

 

[ken-n-nancy]

Would it be smart (or a waste of money) to over seed this fall in order to help thicken up the lawn, and prepare her for battle in the spring?

Given that Tenacity is safe to apply at seed-down for PRG and KBG, I'd be inclined to do both at the same time -- get watering on that ASAP, and then within a week overseed with PRG (not sure you have time for KBG to get going before winter any more) and do a Tenacity application at the same time.

 

[livelawnandprosper]

Thanks for the reply! This is much appreciated!