[ryeguy]

Most of the reno "playbook" is based on full KBG renos. Does any of that change when doing a PRG reno, given that it can germinate within a week and mature quickly in general?

For example, what if you roundup day 1, then on day 2 scalp and put seed down, skipping fallowing? The weeds get a significantly smaller headstart with PRG compared to KBG, but I'm not sure how much of an impact that will have. I was considering experimenting with this on a tiny section of the yard next year just to see what would happen.

 

[pennstater2005]

If you're just doing a small test plot I say go for it. Good experiment. I didn't skip fallowing with a 50/50 mix of KBG/PRG. I fallowed for 2 weeks, used Tenacity, and still had some weeds to hand pull.

 

[g-man]

I saw this question on the other site. The playbook for a reno doesnt change much between PRG and ***. The fact that the PRG germinates sooner only means that you could have a lawn sooner.

Round up and following is done for two reasons. 1) Get rid of your current lawn and 2) get rid of grassy weeds. The idea is that you apply round up, let it be absorb by the leaf into the roots and kill the plant. This normally takes a week (depending on fertilizer, water, sun, etc). A second application is done to catch the grass or weeds that either survived or did not get any round up applied (mistakes from application). Scalping is then done to remove the dead material and allow for seed to soil contact.

At seed down, weeds will either grow from roots that did not get killed (ie. Poa T) or from seeds transported by air/mower/kids. The weeds will start growing as soon as the environment for growing is favorable. So when you apply fertilizer and irrigation to your PRG seeds, you will also encourage the weed seeds to grow.

If you want to limit the weeds that could grow after seed down, then there is a miracle product called Tenacity. Tenacity allows for new grass seeds to grow and prevents most weeds from developing.

 

[fusebox7]

The point of fallowing is to deplete the seed bank. If you don't fallow there are still seeds there that can (and will) germinate when the conditions allow. Good cultural practices, including using pre-emergent herbicides during and after renovation, not overwatering, etc. are the recipes to keep undesirables at bay. See your project/experiment through and report back on your findings. Do you plan on using a control plot for comparison purposes?

 

[ryeguy]

Yeah I did post it there too, just wanted to widen the responses a bit even though there's quite a bit of overlap in membership between the two sites

It's a shame PRG doesn't help much in that regard, I was looking for a way to reno while minimizing ugly lawn time. It makes more sense when you mentioned that fallowing really helps with grassy weeds. If it was just broadleaf weeds that I could spray in a month or so, I would take that tradeoff. But if it helps with poa triv and annua and others, I can see why it's smarter for me to suck it up and do it the right way.

 

[ABC123]

You could also do a growth regulator 5 days before seed down. That's what I'll be doing

 

[ryeguy]

You could also do a growth regulator 5 days before seed down. That's what I'll be doing

For what? Are you talking about overseeding without killing the existing turf?

 

[ABC123]

You could also do a growth regulator 5 days before seed down. That's what I'll be doing

For what? Are you talking about overseeding without killing the existing turf?

It slows down the weeds and helps battle poa

 

[ryeguy]

How does that work? It's my understanding PGRs are a foliar application, so how would it slow down weeds that haven't germinated yet?

 

[g-man]

Abc123, I think that only works on overseed. Do you have any links of using pgr in a reno?

 

[ABC123]

I can't find the study, it was mostly targeted for people that battle poa. Saw it last week though.