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Discussion starter · #1,981 · (Edited)
Started digging drainage trench (the second one this time) in flood prone area. Very hard work and slow going due to rocks, buried large debris that are 50-100 lbs, etc. And apparently I have "black layer", too. Wonderful...

Neighbor next door mowed/cleaned up leaves with lawn tractor and blower today. This is good. Other side neighbor was done yesterday. New neighbors still have quite a bit of leaves, but have worked on them a couple of times since moving in (end neighbor who is adjacent went over and helped them for a couple of hours once, bringing both of his blowers).
 
Discussion starter · #1,982 · (Edited)
Today:

Mowed low input 3.25*, lower back* / adjacent side*, main front, side front / hellstrip areas (3 in, 2-3x mulch and bag; front hill double mowed at 90 degrees, some areas triple mowed), upper side (added some of the leaves and clippings from previous area and mulched in, double mowing again), garage side (3.3; blew leaves first), lower upper back (3.25 mulched) and upper back overseed (3/2.6; final mow; blew leaves first, and mulched in a few). Everything except 1K flood prone area (which was done and got its final mow last time, but blew leaves there). Side discharged many areas.

Last mow for a while due to cold temps next 2 weeks into Thanksgiving timeframe. Main lawn areas except for garage side and upper back and parts of low input area will need another mow or two eventually, but I can't think that far out. The forecast is for highs in the 40s, with 30s and mostly 20s at night for the foreseeable future after the weekend (with tomorrow / Friday night's low only going down to 64 as the hurricane remnants come through). I'm not going to mow during that cold period.

The mowing and rain with mild temps (60s to 70) the next two days should stimulate one last major burst of topgrowth and recovery before it cools down.

New neighbors had sprinklers blown out today by my technician (who the previous owner also used).

90+ % of leaves that are going to come down are probably down. Mulched a good amount today. Still more left to come down, though. This is super early. I feel 90% done with mowing and fertilizing, too.

When it warms up, I'll mow again. And after that, once I see rain in the forecast, I'll look at dropping my last fertilizer app.
 
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Discussion starter · #1,983 · (Edited)
Got 1.6 in of rain yesterday and last night. 70F today. Will be mostly in the 40s/20s next 2 weeks. Rest of the leaves in front pretty much came down as the wind from the hurricane remnants came through. 95% of leaves are down. Will need to do a leaf cleanup at some point in the next few days. Zero need for any further irrigation this year.

Trimmed in back and blew clippings (walkway, drain area, etc.). Trimmed near utilities.

Used edging tool to push back damaged side-front driveway edge again. Looks better now.

Took in 2 hoses, one from back and one from front while it was still warm out. Back hoses welded together. Tried a hair dryer. No go. Got some CLR and worked it into the threads for 5 min with q-tips. Then, a pipe wrench with a paper towel in it on the hex female fitting, locked down, and a channel lock pliers on the round Male fitting with a nitrile glove inside. Pushed them in the correct directions and the hoses disconnected. Apparently the metal color fitting on one hose (zinc? Aluminum?) welded to the brass fitting of the other hose over the last few weeks as the weather got cooler. Left one hose in each location. Capped the front one to keep debris out. Need to remember to shut off the water tomorrow due to cold air coming.

Back neighbor did final mow today. What a mess. Hadn't mowed in like 6+ weeks. Lawn tractor could be heard almost stalling due to too much grass many times.
 
Discussion starter · #1,984 · (Edited)
Highs are in the mid to low 40s for the next week and a half, possibly even under 40 one or two days. 10 degrees below average. This is December weather a month early. Hopefully we'll see a bit of a warmup at the end of this month.

Today, I went after invasive vines. I used my foaming herbicide kit purchased from Greenshoots last year (first time trying it out). I'm not sure if it'll work given how cold it is. I put 70mL of 8% Triclopyr Amine into the bottle and added almost 10mL of their surfactant with blue dye, and filled to 140mL, shaking the bottle frequently. I walked through the natural area, cutting vines near the ground and applying the herbicide. I wanted to do this yesterday when it was warm, but didn't get to it. The owners of the company said that Triclopyr Ester would not work with the system, and to only use the amine formula. Ideally, I'd have done this a month ago. At the very least, cutting the vines will slow them down.

Plan is to do the final major leaf cleanup in the front tomorrow (with the blower, since I'm not mowing currently). And to put down final winterizer fertilizer on certain areas: the back, garage side, near end of low input, the area behind the shed through to most of the KBG reno area, and the very lowest part of the side. I'd also like to spray FAS on the front.
 
Discussion starter · #1,985 · (Edited)
Did final major leaf cleanup in front, garage side, and upper back using blower, and even a rake, broom, and tarp.

Did not get to spray FAS. No time. Did not get to fix tree or dig.

Soil temps: mostly around 50, including lower back which was 49-50. Colder areas (see next section below) were as expected 45 to 50.

Put down final winterizer fertilizer application on those areas using 0.50 lb of N from Scotts 27-0-2 Green Max: garage side (0.25K), upper back (1K), lower back (1.16K), flood prone area (very light on the innermost area), area behind shed and additional 1K of low-input behind that to square off with flood-prone area (about 2K in all), very lowest part of the side (0.10K). and shaded near end of low input (0.25K or so). Applied to lower back even though it's technically not ready (soil temp is 50, but it will likely get cold fast this week due to being on North side, and I've often wished I'd done it a week earlier; plus no more rain in the forecast after tomorrow).

Used Green Max, which is mostly urea (and only 30% AMS--which is immediately available after getting watered in) because I'm a bit on the early side and plus still had it from last year. The urea will take a while to hydrolyze in these cold temps...maybe 2-3 weeks...not sure exactly, but will take some time and give more of a trickle feed, which is what I want.

The Wizz handheld spreader lost voltage and slowed down (and even stopped once) a couple of times, maybe due to cold temps. (I just changed the batteries for the first time several weeks ago, so they should not be low yet.) Grabbed the Scotts mini push spreader to continue, but had the usual trouble with the agitator detaching.

Got the fert down, anyway. This is the earliest I've ever started winterizing. Maybe technically too early in the lower back, but again, it should be fine as air temps will go into the 20s at night in a day or two and it's on the North side. Better a bit early than too late.

~4.5K of area fertilized in all. About 30% of the total. The rest of the yard, which has solid 50+ soil temps right now, will get Scotts Pro 26-0-3 with 50% AMS at a later date.

Propiconazole halted rust disease progression nicely. Not seeing anymore powdery brown stuff flying everywhere in treated areas (main lawn), and grass looks green from a distance unlike last year. (Or the year before when it thinned out.)

Lots and lots of Triv in the main front. A few large areas; many medium and small ones too. Going all out next Spring with a program of apps of glyphosate, Anuew, Certainty, Velocity, Tenacity, Sulfentrazone, Triclopyr, and MSO surfactant.

Jackpot KBG seeded late is not really developing faster than expected. May cover some areas with fabric to insulate.

Neighbors were mowed / leaves cleaned up today, too.

Oil man walked and dragged hose on upper back and garage side overseed this AM when there was probably still frost. Hopefully no dead spots will appear. Maybe the fert and rain tonight will help.

First snow of the season started around 8PM and quickly changed to freezing rain and rain.

Front hill and parts of main front look a bit Nitrogen deficient. We'll see. Also noticed that where there is no Triv, the Perennial Ryegrass and to some extent KBG dominating over the Tall Fescue as it gets colder. Ryegrass seems to come into prime time in mid Fall...and hold its color for a long time. With it taking center stage, the front lawn looks fairly fine-bladed right now. In the late Spring and Summer when the TTTF and KBG dominate, the lawn has a different look.
 
Discussion starter · #1,986 · (Edited)
Got 0.6 inch of rain last night. Flood prone area is flooded again, so I won't be able to work on it for a couple of days. Hope the soil doesn't get so frozen that I can't continue digging.

For the final winterizer fertilizer on the side front next week, I'm going to use a slightly higher N rate: 2/3 lb, because it looks a bit deficient. Next Spring, I'm going to manually rake out any dead grass again, manually aerate the upper front hill again, and start Tenacity applications for weedy grasses (Bentgrass, and maybe others) on the front hill.

Neighbor's lawn looks good (a few do). I wonder if he used some of the Carbon-X. Kind of has that AMS look, but it could also have been a urea fertilizer. Neighbor 11 lawn is another. His shade fence line overseed from May looks good; he supposedly used my seed for some of it. Some Triv in the area that he didn't remove, but it'll work. Speaking of Triv, it looks like the drought may have killed some of his Triv. I don't think he watered much this Summer (lawn went dormant), and he ended up having to reseed some areas after. There appears to be less Triv now, so maybe that was actually the main casualty of the drought (it was in partial to full sun). The real test will be next Spring. But even if some of the Triv did get killed, it only takes a small amount to survive to allow for a comeback at a later point in time, as it spreads so readily. Neighbor 10 adjacent to him, who is into yard stuff, lawn is suffering. Looks N deficient (he uses the fertilizing company), and he's mowing very low. It's light green and a bit thin looking...not typical for him. I know he has collected and removed the grass clippings all these years. Maybe it's starting to catch up..?
 
Discussion starter · #1,987 · (Edited)
I'm not seeing any low temps above freezing in the two week forecast, let alone above the potential frost point of 37-38. I'd prefer to mow when the chance of damage is lower. But holding off for 3 weeks probably isn't the greatest idea, either. The longer I wait, the less chance of higher temps, and the grass will get a bit longer, which requires cutting more off, which increases the chance of browning even more. The average temp is supposed to be 50 during the day and 37 at night. Instead, we are getting more like 42 day and 28 night now.

Glad I dropped my final (mostly) urea-based fert on the shaded back lawn the other day before it started to get this cold. Soil temp is/was still 50 in the lower back as of then, but not for long. Any lower, and urea hydrolysis--which relies on soil bacteria, as it's an organic molecule--will be extremely slow (maybe taking 3+ weeks for most of it to become available...just a guess based on graphs I've seen). The fertilizer had 0.15 lb of N from AMS that will be readily available now, as well. I could have gone 50% AMS instead (0.25 lb N from AMS), but didn't want to trigger any growth.
 
Discussion starter · #1,988 ·
Soil temps relatively close to edges around 4:30PM:
Upper back: 40
Lower back: 42-43
Front: 43-50
Air temp around 38

Hopefully there will be enough rain next week to finish fertilizer, as conditions are going to be about right. Definitely was the right decision to do the back, etc. the other day.
 
Discussion starter · #1,990 ·
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Discussion starter · #1,991 · (Edited)
High temp was 35F today, and going down to 19 tonight. And fairly windy. This is normal for late January, the coldest part of the year, not mid to late November.

To-do list:
Clean mowers
Mower blade
Clean spreader(s)
Oil change?
Car
Tree
Lights
Digging project
Final Trimming in front and prune
Final mow
Final Fertilizer
FAS
snowblower and generator test
Mouse repellent in shed
Rodent spray
Vole repellent
Patio
Garage
Buy fert for Spring
Order pre-M
 
I'm not seeing any low temps above freezing in the two week forecast, let alone above the potential frost point of 37-38. I'd prefer to mow when the chance of damage is lower. But holding off for 3 weeks probably isn't the greatest idea, either. The longer I wait, the less chance of higher temps, and the grass will get a bit longer, which requires cutting more off, which increases the chance of browning even more. The average temp is supposed to be 50 during the day and 37 at night. Instead, we are getting more like 42 day and 28 night now.
Looks like Thansgiving around here is the best day to cut which might be tricky while hosting! Do you have any hard-and-fast rules for when absolutely not to cut?
 
Discussion starter · #1,993 · (Edited)
Looks like Thansgiving around here is the best day to cut which might be tricky while hosting! Do you have any hard-and-fast rules for when absolutely not to cut?
I know! I've been thinking the exact same thing for the last few days. And it might be the last good opportunity. It also might be the last good opportunity for applying the final fertilizer...as long as it rains 0.25 inch or more starting the next day.

I used to mow regardless of night temps, a couple of years ago. My only rules were no lingering frost and air temps of 38 or higher while mowing. But I've come around more recently and gotten more conservative because it really seems to help to not do it before freezing temps. The higher the night temps following, the better it probably is. And a nice sharp blade, too.

Lawn was still green as of yesterday, so I think the strategy is working. I'd hate to have it all go brown by mowing before another freeze. My string trimmed areas all went partly brown from freeze damage, as expected, despite it not freezing that night (since the cut quality is terrible with a trimmer, it makes freeze damage much more likely).

Somehow, I'm determined to get everything done. But we can only mow so early on Thanksgiving due to the lingering frost/cold in the morning. It should really be above 38-40 air temp to mow. And the problem with the day before (Wed.) is that it's going into the 20s again that night. And then Friday is supposed to be wet. Plus, having two nights above freezing after mowing definitely sounds better than just one, so Thursday would really be ideal for mowing, as you mentioned above.

I'm going to keep reevaluating this forecast as it gets closer and continues to be revised.
 
Discussion starter · #1,996 · (Edited)
@Green i too have been watching daytime/ overnight and soil temperatures. I’d love nothing more than to fertilize one last time, especially the reno.
All I really care about is the average. If you take the soil temp on a cool day in the middle of the day, or in the early evening in the hours soon after sunset on an average temp day, it should give a decent average. Mine were still above 40 where I've yet to fertilize as of the other day (and were still as high as 50 in some areas). Remember 4 inch temps don't change quickly from one day to the next. Last time I checked them, the 2 inches versus 4 inches made no real difference, either...they were the same at that point in time. Peak temp highs can be useful too, but aren't the full story of course.

Now forecasting low of high 51 low 30 on wednesday. Might go for it
For mowing? I'm looking for higher night temps the day of mowing, especially if it's my final mow. We'll see. 51/28 for my area Wed., so a bit colder than yours.
 
Discussion starter · #1,997 · (Edited)
Looks like Saturday is going to be ideal for final mowing and fertilizer here. Warm temps that night, and a good amount of rain the next day.

This video from GCI is very close to my current philosophy on final mowing:

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Another interesting piece of news: My tweaked Fall fertilizer program, which is only 4 applications, is working very, very well. I'm getting blitz-quality results with fewer applications this year. I'm going to share some knowledge of what is working now, refined over 10 years! Here are the current Fall program details (note this is for fully irrigated, high-income areas, and my low input area does not receive the full late Summer application listed first below):

-Going into Fall, I've already applied a late Summer fertilizer application in early to mid August at 0.50 lb N and K rate. I used Protene 19-0-19 this time with phenomenal results. This stuff has a 2-4 month release (for both the N and the K!). It kept the grass looking good. Prevented a lot of late Summer decline.

-At the very beginning of Fall (mid to late Sept):
I apply another 0.50 lb rate N fertilizer, using something that has a slow or controlled release component of 30 to 60%, but that is not quite as slow as the Protene. Currently, my top choices are Screamin' Green or Anuvia, but anything similar will work, if it has a 4-8 week release duration. Soil temps are likely in the high 60s to low 70s at this point. Latest research indicates this may be the most important app of the entire year, and that it should not be overdone to produce too lush a turf. In Tennessee or NC, where the months are offset by almost plus one from mine, sometime in October would be ideal.

-Several weeks later, during the first part of October:
I repeat the previous app again, 0.50 lb N, same type of fert. Peak daily soil temps should be in the mid 60s. This app holds everything together and serves as a bridge between early and mid Fall.

-Several weeks later, my final mid Fall app:
Around Halloween in my area. I try not to string this out into early Nov. This app uses 46-0-0 urea. The rate is between 0.25 and 0.50 lb of N, and the exact rate in that range is subject to adjustment at the time of application due to factors like cumulative N, grass condition, weather, etc. This can also be considered part 1 of the Winterizer ("initial winterizer app"), which is something I just learned, but that is what it's doing. I aim to apply it 4 or so weeks before I expect growth to stop. Soil temps should be solidly in the 50s. Tree leaves are in Fall color, and dropping. This app ensures enough N gets to grass roots before late Fall, but while soil temps are still fairly ideal for topgrowth and repair. Remember: soil-applied granular urea is an organic compound, and its N is not immediately available to roots**. It requires soil bacteria (microbes) to process it and convert it into plant available N, and this process takes longer the colder the soil is / the later in the season it is. Below 50F, it's very slow, and the urea is stable once watered in assuming there is not excessive rainfall or overwatering occurring. **Currently accepted science of N uptake by roots in plants, but there may be more to the story, as newer research suggests.

Then a pause of 3 to 5 weeks until growth slows/stops.

-And the final app (or part 2 of the Winterizer, or "final winterizer"):
For me, this occurs sometime between mid Nov., and early Dec. The trick here is to wait for growth to stop or at least be at a crawl, but (and this is the new part for me) to also make sure soil temps are still as high as possible (40-50F). The other key element is use of either ammonium sulfate, or a mix of that and urea of at least 30/50. I also like to have methylene urea (MU) in the blend for this app. (This is a very stable form of urea, a true slow release N source that primarily activates in the very late Winter when soil temps are on the climb toward Spring and reach approx 50F again, but some of it may also be available at the very end of the Fall, too). Mistakes I made in the past were: waiting too long until soil was too cold to apply this app, using only urea for it, and using too high an N rate*, all wasteful and not environmentally sound so late in the season. My N rate is once again 0.50 lb, but can be adjusted up to 0.67 lb N if needed. 1/4 to 1/3 of the total N is from "high-activity methylene urea" (e.g. methylene diurea and dimethylene triurea). Scotts 27-0-2 Green Max (30% AMS, 40% U, 30% MU) and 26-0-3 PRO (50% AMS, 25% U, 25% MU) are my products of choice here. Note: If you're using 100% fast release AMS/UREA, 0.25-0.333 lb. N should be sufficient, but I get better results from an AMS/Urea and MU blend in my area. This app helps rejuvenate late Fall color and like the previous app, helps promote Spring Greenup. *Studies show that only around 0.2 to 0.3 lb of N is uptaken by turfgrass so late in the season if a full 1.0 N rate is applied. The rest likely leaches. Don't knowingly be wasteful if you're going to apply a final winterizer; please keep the soluble N rate low!
 
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Looks like Saturday is going to be ideal for final mowing and fertilizer here. Warm temps that night, and a good amount of rain the next day.

This video from GCI is very close to my current philosophy on final mowing:
I decided to do more leaves and wait till Saturday as well. Thanks for the posting that video. Happy Thanksgiving!
 
Discussion starter · #1,999 · (Edited)
Washed out Toro mower, took the default blade off. Sure enough, it was getting dull again from all the leaves and some sticks despite being last sharpened 3 weeks ago (with no mowing over the last two weeks). Sharpened it, put it back on. Took out the air filter, cleaned it and put it back. Ready for the final mow.

Trace amount of rain this morning.

Zone 7a CT family member front lawn looked fine yesterday. Recovered from Summer. The fertilizer last month obviously helped a lot. Back is a different story. None of the new grass from seed this past Spring appears to have survived the drought. Neighbor's Zoysia is still green, believe it or not. Just the very tips are kinda starting to brown a tiny bit. Around here in 6b, it's all dormant.
 
Zone 7a CT family member front lawn looked fine yesterday. Recovered from Summer. The fertilizer last month obviously helped a lot. Back is a different story. None of the new grass from seed this past Spring appears to have survived the drought. Neighbor's Zoysia is still green, believe it or not. Just the very tips are kinda starting to brown a tiny bit. Around here in 6b, it's all dormant.
May I ask where in 7a. Thinking about a test plot of zoyosia here at the 7a/6b border.
 
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