Typical February weather so far. High temps in the mid 70s, lows in the upper 20s. Rain at 4.28".

Grass has been sprouting in spots that went dormant early in the renovation last fall. We have grass in areas that NEVER had grass before (in the areas to the left of the greenhouse).

Expecting 8-13 inches of snow over the next 24 hours, so that sucks. Hoping the grass isn't hit too hard.

 

Just about a foot....

 

February Summary:

Typical NE North Carolina February with temps ranging from 17.9° to 75.5°, with an average temperature of 44°F.

Rain accumulation: 4.63".

Snow accumulation: 11.4" (likely approximately 1" of rain).

I'm due for the following maintenance: Spreading Grubex to help minimize mole population (I've killed 6 in February alone).

Tomorrow (01 March) I'm spraying Barricade 4L at the 4x rate (2 ounces in 4 gallons over 8000 ft²).

Grass is looking really good considering the beating it's had over the last couple weeks (snow, tractor etc).

 

March 1, 2025

Applied Scott's Grubbex - 14 lb bag over back yard in grassy areas.

Applied Barricade 4L - 2 oz in 4 gallons

Beautiful day, 74°. Tomorrow will be 40°.

 

Got 1.7 inches of rain between 3/16 and 3/17. Applied .2lb/k of Urea before the rain. Noting some weeds popping up. I'll hit it with mesitrione on 3/22.

 

Got in a quick mow today at 2¾. I've been cutting at 3¼ and it just looked too thin...

 

March Summary:

Temps ranging from 28.8° to 79.8°, with an average temperature of 53°F.

Rain accumulation: 2.77".

Its green. Dry. Poa Annua and Poa Triv are the worst I've seen, and I don't wanna do blanket apps of post-emergents to battle them, so hoping the heat kills it, and then the Pre-M apps will lessen it next season.

Mowing every 4 days, previously at 3¼ inches but it looked thin, so hoping that mowing at 2¾ will help it fill in.

Planning no irrigation, and will mow it longer during the super hot months, but I may change my mind if I see too much stress.

Will apply meso on 3/30 (first application).

Will apply .2lb/k nitrogen 3/30.

Rain expected 3/31 (15%).

 

Blew a bunch of leaves out of the adjacent flowerbed and wanted to mulch them, and it was getting a little shaggy. Praying for rain tonight!!!

 

Did a double cut, not sure it was worth the extra effort. Looks nice, but it's hard to capture the pattern on camera...

 

April Summary:

Temps ranging from 36.5 °F to 90.6 °F with an average of 63.9 °F.

Rain accumulation: 2.61 inches.

It's dry. Already in a drought - I had REALLY hoped to not have to irrigate this year, but that isn't going to work. Already had a patch of grass die / go dormant to the left of the greenhouse.

My wife stopped at the state co-op and picked up some soil sample kits, so I'm going to take several cores and send them in for analysis.

I must've hit something with the Timemaster - had a large bang and upon inspection saw the blades had hit each other. After pulling the belt shroud I discovered a thrown synchronous belt and a completely missing idler pulley! Replaced with Exmark parts (hopefully an upgrade).

The POA is kinda sorta dying off. I'm planning on overseeding this fall, so I only have one more app of prodiamine to lay down. I doubt I'll catch the POA seeds with that - Something to deal with next year.

 

On Friday (5/2) I mowed the yard at 3¾". I've been watering again. 0500-0700 with impact sprinklers. The dead patch to the left of the greenhouse is beginning to recover. I wish I had noticed it going so quickly, because there are some pretty beaten areas (just in front of the greenhouse) where the grass was thick and lush - it dies so quickly. It isn't even "hot" yet!

Also, my HVAC went out. So that's 10 grand I wasn't planning on spending. Exactly 1 month after I spent $1700 to have a leak repaired and coolant added. UGH!

On Sunday (5/4) it rained 0.96". I'll start watering again on Wednesday.

 

May 6th was a beautiful day, so I decided to get in a quick mow. Took the HOC down to 3¼, figuring that now that I'm watering it, might as well enjoy the shorter look.

The grass revival is happening on the left side of the greenhouse - I was curious if it was dormant or dead, because I've never seen this grass go "dormant" since it was planted. Maybe it did die and the other grass is just spreading? I dunno....

The place smells amazing, all of the privets are in full bloom!

I have a few clover living in the yard. I could spot treat, but I don't see it really hurting anything.

 

May 12-18 brought 1.2 whole inches of rain, so I was able to turn off the irrigation for a few days, but will resume tomorrow morning.. Mowed twice last week to 2¾ inches, both time removing way more than a third of the blades. With the majority of rain falling from Wednesday thru Friday, I had roughly 3-4 inches of growth in 4 days.

Ordered T-Nex today (5/19)

I have perfectly round dead spots I attributed to my dogs, which is possible and most likely, but I read on Supa's journal about deer, which I know pass thru the yard. Now, if I can figure a way to get the grass back in those areas. You can see the dead circles from in the pics..

The "dead" area to the left of the greenhouse is recovering. I watered that area VERY heavily. I believe a lot of the dead grass was Poa, and the heat knocked it down.

 

May Summary:

Temps ranging from 51.3 to 93.8, with an average of 70.5°F.

Precip: 3.35 inches, mostly the last 2 weeks of the month.

The Poa is all dead now, which is positive, the flip side is where the Poa was active, I now have some patchy/thin areas. Shortened my HOC for the last 2 mows to 2.75" to promote tillering, and to help the grass dry out. Started getting mushrooms in the yard, typical of this time of year when it starts to get hot & humid.

 

June 1 - Spray day:

Applied the following cocktail to the backyard (K31):

T- Nex - 8 oz
Barricade 4L - 2 oz (quarterly app)
Azoxy - 3 oz (preventative rate)
Chelated Iron - 64 oz
Bifenthrin - 4 oz

(Unrelated front yard for info purposes)

HOC: Raised to 1" from .75"
Applied to front yard (Zoysia):
T-Nex - 1 oz
Azoxy - 2oz
Barricade 4L - 1.25 oz
Iron - 44 oz
Bifenthrin - 3 oz

 

Mowed the back at 3¼" Saturday June 7th, took off maybe ¾ inch in the places the PGR was sprayed. The front was mowed at 1", and took off less than ¼".

Mowed again today after 5+" rain over the last 10ish days and the grass is still on regulation, but just barely. Back yard mowed at 3¾" because the 95°+ days have arrived.

Found a small patch of Virginia buttonweed and hand pulled. Never had it before and surprised it's growing despite two applications of prodiamine, which tells me that pro-d isn't effective against VB, as I suspected.

Considering mixing some of the concentrated weed-b-gone for spot application, because MSM Turf just scares me in this heat! Open to suggestions...

I'll start irrigation again on Monday to maintain 1.5" a week.

 

6/19-6/20: The "light shower" put down 1½" of rain last night, and I had errands this morning that prevented application of T-Nex.
According to littlleaf.com, I'm at 233 days since application which doesn't come close to Greencasts's calculation of 431 days. Obviously the numbers are calculated differently. Makes it difficult to decide what to do, but I don't want to experience rebound, so I'm going to re-apply this evening at the same rate as last time (1oz/M).

I'm also adding Main Event 6-0-0 dry iron at the 1oz/M rate.

 

6/19-6/20: The "light shower" put down 1½" of rain last night, and I had errands this morning that prevented application of T-Nex.
According to littlleaf.com, I'm at 233 days since application which doesn't come close to Greencasts's calculation of 431 days. Obviously the numbers are calculated differently. Makes it difficult to decide what to do, but I don't want to experience rebound, so I'm going to re-apply this evening at the same rate as last time (1oz/M).

I'm also adding Main Event 6-0-0 dry iron at the 1oz/M rate.

What GDD @ Temp do you have your threshold setup on Greencast? Mine were only off about 1 day between the two tracker.

 

@supa I can't login to Greencast. I created my account, got my welcome email and the first time I tried to get in it locked me out. No responses from their support team either, so I just use the generic tracker.

For base temp on Greencast I use 0°C, because that's apparently what one should use for cold season grass. I'm not certain what littlleaf uses, as I don't recall an option for base temp, however he stated on this forum that anything with a base of 400 GDD was automatically assumed to be cool season turf.

All that being said, I'm basing my applications on both the cool season and the warm season PGR threads, and it looks like 2 weeks is a happy rotation with my minimal app rates.

I definitely appreciate only mowing once a week, but I can see some minor rebound happening now (I'm at almost 3 weeks due to rain). I'm applying tonight fo shizzle!

 

That's very odd with the lockout. I think from what I saw Greencast was using zip code temperature and LittleLeaf may be using closest NWS station? Unsure.

 

@jdmcquerry Any chance when you put in your zipcode greencast dumps out some completely incorrect location? When I put in my zip I get a city in Finland. I have to double check against some nearby towns to make sure I’m getting the right numbers.

 

@Carlson it's using the right one, I did double check that, I know at work the default zip codes are crazy random...

 

Wow, small world. I lived in Hertford ~30 years ago.

 

My NWS station is my backyard, if they're using the weather underground algorithm. But who knows??

@Powhatan were you prior military?

 

@Powhatan were you prior military?

CG stationed in E-City.

 

Zoysia is looking sweet !!

 

Thanks!! I haven't really done anything with it, it's so resilient! There are some spots of weeds but it all stays green, so I'm good with it. All from 6500 plugs put down in 2007, lol.

 

That’s a lot of plugs!! Around here zoysia is like a tank. Thick, dense, green all summer. Only draw back is it is the first to go dormant in the winter while others are still green. I would think down by you though it would stay greener longer If it goes dormant at all. How far into fall do you get out of it?

 

Usually the 2nd frost sends it into dormancy. I was mowing late into December last year. This was the first year I ran scarifier over it, scalped it, and had green up in March.

 

My soil reports came back and just like everyone else's, I need to apply lime. Quite a bit of it, so I took the opportunity to grab this 100lb spreader while it was on sale. If it falls apart after the lime is put down (around 1300 pounds), at least I won't ruin my "good" spreader.

 

My soil reports can't back and just like everyone else's, I need to apply lime. Quite a bit of it, so I took the opportunity to grab this 100lb spreader whole it was on sale. If it falls apart after the lime is put down (around 1300 pounds), at least I won't ruin my "good" spreader.

View attachment 70541

The price is right on the vevor spreader! Looking forward to hearing how it works for you.