CaffeinatedLawnCare Lawn Renovation (Midnight, Mazama, Bewitched)

So as the winter finally comes to an end and the snow melts away, I can tell a drastic difference in the color of the strip by the road vs this time last year. The old picture below (top) was taken on roughly the same day last year. You can tell how much more straw colored the grass was near the edge at that time. It definitely just looks like it is dormant instead of dead this year, we also had a lot more snow/salt put down this year. I think the grass was too immature last year to handle the winter and salt, the gypsum probably made a difference as well but whether or not that is the reason there seems to be a lot less damage this year I'm not entirely sure. I wish I would have left a portion untreated so I could compare, I personally think the gypsum helped, and it was cheap, so I see no reason not to apply it if you're having similar issues.

Unfortunately, since we had a lot more snow and some warm then cold weather, it was the perfect conditions for snow mold to develop and pretty much everyone in my area has snow mold damage, myself included. I have read articles correlating increased snow mold damage to potassium applications rate and timing and I did apply ~1lb of potassium last year, and have more snow mold damage than the previous year. Again, I can't be sure whether it was the potassium or just the weather this year that caused the snow mold to be more of an issue. I did some digging and found some research suggesting that lower potassium levels than were previously suggested could be optimal for turfgrass (i.e. 50-100 ppm vs previously suggested ppm of 200-400). The test I used suggested a range of 161-201. Since I was already at 159 ppm last year, using the guidelines from the article, I should have been fine to forego the potassium. I plan to use the 50-100 ppm target going forward since I didn't see any noticeable benefit from the potassium and ended up with more snow mold (again, not necessarily blaming the potassium as we did have ideal conditions for it to grow and EVERYONE in my area has damage, but I see no reason to apply more since it didn't seem to result in any benefit in quality, vigor, etc.).

I'm not too worried about the snow mold damage since it is mostly just small spots that should recover easily but there is one spot that got hit the worst and had the biggest patch of it that may not completely fill in until almost the end of the season, we will see. All the mold spots do have green growing back underneath them already though, so hopefully the recovery is quick. I did some additional reading suggesting that gray snow mold doesn't kill the roots and only really affects the foliage (cosmetic damage mostly) so I'm hoping that it grows out of it when we start getting warm weather and it comes out of dormancy.

Here is the article that I referenced about the potassium levels and timing:

Pictures of the curb edge last year vs this year:



Picture from today that shows the snow mold damage a little better now that everything is melted off fully:

Great Winter summary, and good to see you back and glad the edges are doing ok this year.

Did you happen to see any of the recent videos with turf/soil researcher Travis Shaddox yet? His and other colleagues' recent findings from the past 10 years or so roughly match what you mentioned seeing in articles you read...that Potassium levels from MLSN (37ppm, I believe) up to about double that, should be sufficient most of the time for turfgrasses. I, too, am guilty of not knowing this until recently and just following test recommendations to apply more than was actually necessary. I, too, have decided to target the 50-100ppm level or so for now, since that reflects my current soil levels. This is twice the level he and Micah Woods generally recommend as being sufficient. Shaddox takes it a step further and says he has concluded that applying Potassium is not necessary even if it's below 37ppm...unless the grass isn't performing as well as it should...as long as the soil has some in it. That sounds a bit extreme, but I guess I could cut my application amounts by half since I have more than enough in the soil already. More than about 50-70ppm apparently won't do much or anything beneficial. So 50-100 should be more than enough extra. Now I'm curious about my earliest soil tests...was it below the MLSN level? I know I have used a lot of SOP over the past decade.

@santhony1231 Thanks, it doesn't surprise me with the amount of snow several areas have gotten this year and the fluctuating weather patterns. Hopefully it isn't too bad for you!

@Green I haven't seen those videos yet, if you have the links you should post them here. I did see the previous research from Micah Woods and Doug Soldat, and some of the information in there suggested that above 50ppm growth really starts to taper off/plateau until around 100pm where it flatlines and you don't see much additional benefit at least in terms of growth. The article I posted also mentions they wouldn't be surprised if the recommendations/target level is actually revised lower in the future. Additionally the testing by Doug Soldat seems to indicate that plots that received no additional K perform just as well as plots receiving regular K applications (with the benefit of reduced snow mold damage come spring). I'm assuming the plots that received no additional K were not deficient to begin with. Another good paper I saw from Micah Woods examined several studies done in the context of the MLSN recommendations and came to the same conclusion that there was almost no measurable benefit to applying additional K above the amount the plant can use. The main benefit comes from correcting a K deficiency and little to no additional benefit is seen after the soil deficiency is corrected. The one exception mentioned was the suppression of Anthracnose in a study at Rutgers showing reduced anthracnose at application rates 3x what the plant can use, however, I don't think this is a valid reason (at least for me on my home lawn) to pump it full of K. You can read that paper below if you want (unless you already have).

I'll just be glad to get back in the lawn and give it its first mow this year .

I applied 2.5lbs/M of Elemental Sulfur 5 days ago to help keep the pH down and for the potential benefits against fungus/NRS (will test the pH again at some point to see where I'm currently sitting at with the 6.8 result from last time), they only recommend 1-1.5lbs of S and I'm not sure how aggressive I want to be on the pH until I get my next soil test done (so that's why only 2.5lbs/M). I have some pictures below of one of the snow mold spots from about 3 weeks ago to now, you can see the progress of it filling back in which is kinda cool.







These are some of the most recent pictures and it is almost completely repaired from the snow mold damage, just a few little spots that are still filling in but not very noticeable.









And then these are all from today, a good picture of the checkerboards before I laid the diagonals into it:



And here it is with the diagonals, not too bad for not really being burned in .







Thinking of maybe hitting it with some ammonium sulfate tomorrow since it is actively growing again after the cold weather we just went through the last two weeks, it even snowed lol. I'm thinking I'll do some humic coated urea in another couple weeks when the soil temps are up a bit, the 5 day average is like 45 degrees currently but we will be seeing some 60s and even 70 degree weather over the next week or two so I'm sure it will be growing like crazy again. I do need to knock out some clover that is popping up around the edge between my neighbors strip and mine too, might hit that soon as well. Lots of stuff to get done coming up! Glad to be back in lawn season.

Made my first application of PGR plus the first app of N for the year on the 5th, went with 0.2lbs N/M via AMS and the 0.3oz/M rate of the Tnex. Since we had a week of rain + 70 degree weather forecast I went ahead and did the first preventative app of fungicide using Talaris 50 WSP (thiophanate-methyl/clearys). I was planning to use the Gunner 14.3 MEC (propiconazole) but realized that I just put PGR on it and didn't want to do a DMI fungicide lol, glad I thought about it.

I do still have the Azoxy to rotate as well but would like to be able to use the Propi I bought. I was thinking instead of doing another dose of Tnex when I hit 280 GDD I could apply a dose of Propi instead, that way I know the grass is coming out of regulation from the Tnex and the DMI will kind of take the place of the PGR suppression at that time? If that is the case, how long after the propi dose would I want to wait to apply my next dose of Tnex. I would be aiming to keep the grass under regulation the entire time, or if anyone has any information about mixing tnex + propi (like a 1/4 rate of tnex + full rate of propi for example or something like that) let me know as well.

Hopefully the PGR kicks in shortly, this stuff is growing like crazy!

jskierko said:

That's a good find! I'm honestly shocked at the length of suppression from PPZ. I mean that's a longer duration of suppression than the max labeled rate of T-Nex.

Click to expand...

It's possible that they're talking about the entire duration of effect (actual suppression of clipping yield + rebound phase) but just called it suppression? For instance when I was reading slides from UNL they list duration of effect for tnex at 800 gdd, but reapplication interval as 230 gdd that they have as ideal (I'm assuming on bent greens) and if you look at the graph for the clipping yields you see the suppression and then rebound. Similarly if I look at the gdd models for other class B pgrs they go out to around 1000 gdd but the reapplication interval is around 300 to avoid rebound.

I would think that they're almost using the word suppression synonymously with regulation and saying the length of regulation was 800-1200 gdd (which includes the rebound phase). I would imagine that Propiconazole has a similar duration of actual suppression close to other class B pgrs (since like the article states DMI fungicides are class b pgrs and vice versa), with the link that Green posted showing it as 3 dots for duration I think it would be in the middle of that range probably in line with Paclobutrazole around 950 just with less actual clipping yield reduction(10-25% instead of 31-53% for trimmit).

Thanks @Green I'll be watching that one. I went ahead and made an app of Azoxy instead of the Propi about 3 days ago and then an app of the FAS (plus a little extra AMS bringing me to about 0.1lbs N/M for the app).

I also ordered some Zinc Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, and Manganese Sulfate from Alpha Chemicals to add in to the FAS mixture, I tested it with about 1/4 tsp Zn/Mn and 1/8 tsp of Cu per gallon of FAS. I noticed the Zinc didn't want to dissolve so I'm planning to test that in some regular water (and pH adjusted water using the CA). The Mn/Cu seemed to dissolve easily and I'll have to play with the rates, my plan was to make a mixture similar in strength to the Ferti-Lome Chelated Liquid Iron + micros:

Copper 0.05% Manganese 0.15% Zinc 0.16%

I believe 0.15% of 1 gallon would be about 0.197 fl oz or ~ 1.1 tsp of Mn.

Let me know if I'm thinking about this correctly (obviously I need to adjust for the concentration of the powder since for example the Manganese powder is 32% Mn) so I would have to do about 3 tsp to get 1 tsp (0.197 oz) of Mn.

@CaffeinatedLawnCare

Have you looked up solubility of those compounds to see how much you can add to water at a given temperature and have it stay in solution? That's what I would do. I would probably mix the solutions separately in enough quantity for your entire treatment, and then treat them like stock solutions and add the correct fractions for each area into your sprayer. That way you're not exceeding the solubility.

You also have to make sure you're not exceeding recommended amounts for lawn application when you do this.

Order of combining dilutions from stock solutions might matter, too.

Finally, I'm not sure about potential interactions between different metals. There might he some.

If you need more technical help, you could probably mention macattack.

The craziest I will be getting this year will be mixing and spraying Potassium Carbonate plus urea for a warm weather foliar boost. And maybe some FAS if it turns out that it's effective/ok to use when there is Summer chlorosis (but I'm not sure). If so, I won't be combining that with the Potassium/urea. Potassium carbonate can raise surface pH, so it's not something to overdo. I'll probably keep my percent to no more than 2/3 the strength of the ready-made products, just in case.

Thanks that's a good idea, I was planning to experiment with something similar to what you're suggesting, mixing each in it's own separate container and then combining them afterwards, testing the order as well. I'll give it a shot in another week or so and see how it goes.

I went ahead and did the second application of TNex today, upped to ~0.35oz/M from my first application of 0.3. I'll lower this back down as I get into summer so that I'm not reducing growth too much then go back up as I head into fall. I'm thinking the following schedule will be close to what I need, this is based on last years GDD data so these dates/timespans will change but this just shows the general idea of my plan for anyone who is curious:

Rate Date (Amount of days it took to reach 280 GDD target)
0.30 May 5 (first app)
0.35 May 25 (20 days)
0.35 June 13 (19 days)
0.30 June 26 (13 days)
0.25 July 9 (13 days)
0.25 July 22 (13 days)
0.25 Aug 4 (13 days)
0.25 Aug 18 (14 days)
0.30 Sept 1 (14 days)
0.35 Sept 16 (15 days)
0.35 Oct 3 (last app) (17 days)