[nickvig]

Hey guys, found the forum through Youtube Videos by Connor Ward which lead me to John Ware and eventually here.

On May 23 I had a landscape contractor install new irrigation, borders, forest floor mulch, drip line for my plants and Hybrid Tifgreen Bermuda Sod!

Before sod install:

After sod install:

So they told me to leave it alone for two weeks. Keep the dogs off of it. Don't walk on it. Water it 3x per day 5 minutes per cycle. So I did that and here's a pic before my first mow yesterday (sorry about the pic, it's from my wife's iPhone....)

The grass measured approximately 2" here:

And here's the pic after mowing about 4 times, reducing the HOC each time by one notch on the mower. Started at about 1.75" and went down from there. I ended right at about 1" here:

So I've read the Bermuda Bible and will start following the recommendations there, but have a few questions. How long before the lawn is truly established? The landscape contractor originally told me to cut the watering schedule after two weeks but was here this week before I mowed and told me that my 3x per week 5 minute schedule was cutting the water back too much as the sod is still too new. He's got me at 5x per week 7 minutes per station. I don't see a lot of information about fresh installs in the bible so I was hoping you guys could point me in the right direction.

Second question: The lawn has ended up quite bumpy after the sod install. I'm suspecting I really need to level it with sand at some point, but I'm not sure when I can do that after a fresh sod install. I'd really like to start off right so I want to do whatever I need to get the best looking lawn with at the right height.

Lastly, I have two lawn mowers. My father's 40+ year old McLane 17" 5 blade reel gas engine push reel mower which I just added a Reel Roller to and had it adjusted and tuned up. I cut the sod with this mower because I figured it would be better on fresh sod (lighter weight) and doesn't have self-drive wheels. My other mower is also a McLane 20" self drive gas engine with a 7 blade reel. It's also been recently adjusted and runs great. I was afraid I'd dig into the new sod with the drive wheels so I used the smaller mower. I'm looking to replace these with something better and I was hoping for some suggestions. I don't mind spending some money but the Swardman is a little out of my price range. I'm thinking a used Toro for somewhere in the 800-1200 range.

Sorry for the long post. I really dig (no pun intended) how into your lawns you guys are and am hoping to learn as much as I can from you all. We're moving on to the other side of my yard later in the month and my goal would be to have a part of my lawn setup like a putting green and I'm willing to put in the effort to get there.

 

[Ware]

Welcome to TLF! Glad you found us! :thumbup:

I would call the sod established when it is rooted enough that you can no longer easily pull up the edge of a piece of sod and the seams are starting to grow together.

I wouldn't have any problem doing some leveling once the sod is rooted well and is not visibly stressed.

 

[Ecks from Tex]

Awesome first post. You know a new member is going to be hardcore when they've already read the Bermuda bible before their first post :lol:

I would definitely go for a used Toro in your shoes. It gets great reviews and if you're patient you can find a good deal.

 

[nickvig]

Thanks for all the kind words, guys. So a couple of things happened this last week. After checking both my mowers out I got a little frustrated with how they were cutting. So I ended up checking the bedknife/reel on both and they're not cutting well at all. Rather than keep throwing good money after bad I decided I really needed to step up to a different mower. I went ahead a picked up a Tru-Cut H20 last weekend. It made a very big difference when mowing. I really like the independent controls for the reel and drive.

So, I know I kind of asked this before, but what's the consensus on watering after installing sod? The grass looks good after almost a month with 2 weeks of watering 3x per day and 2 weeks of watering 1x per day for 5 days per week. I can't pull up any of the sod anywhere so I'm fairly certain it's completely rooted. I'd like to water it a little less frequently only because it stays very wet even into late into the afternoon. For instance, it was about 99 degrees today and I watered for 7 minutes at 5:30 a.m. and at 5:30 p.m. it's still wet enough that your shoes get wet stepping into the grass. It's my thought process that the grass doesn't need that much water after a month and being fully rooted. Thoughts?

 

[Ware]

Yeah, I would probably cut back on the water.

 

[nickvig]

Cool, I see some tuna fish sandwiches in my future. I appreciate the help.

 

[erdons]

Thanks for all the kind words, guys. So a couple of things happened this last week. After checking both my mowers out I got a little frustrated with how they were cutting. So I ended up checking the bedknife/reel on both and they're not cutting well at all. Rather than keep throwing good money after bad I decided I really needed to step up to a different mower. I went ahead a picked up a Tru-Cut H20 last weekend. It made a very big difference when mowing. I really like the independent controls for the reel and drive.

So, I know I kind of asked this before, but what's the consensus on watering after installing sod? The grass looks good after almost a month with 2 weeks of watering 3x per day and 2 weeks of watering 1x per day for 5 days per week. I can't pull up any of the sod anywhere so I'm fairly certain it's completely rooted. I'd like to water it a little less frequently only because it stays very wet even into late into the afternoon. For instance, it was about 99 degrees today and I watered for 7 minutes at 5:30 a.m. and at 5:30 p.m. it's still wet enough that your shoes get wet stepping into the grass. It's my thought process that the grass doesn't need that much water after a month and being fully rooted. Thoughts?

I'm also in SoCal, per west coast turf which is probably the biggest sod supplier in the west coast, hybrid Bermuda will root within 14-21 days. Watering in the 3rd week should be 1 time per day between 8-11 am. Once you hit a month cut back to watering every 3 days for 10-15 min, You could get a more precise measurement with some tuna cans and adjust the watering times. If you're watering after 5 pm your sod is going to be moist all night and could run into fungus problens, I've heard tifgreen is prone to getting fungus.

 

[nickvig]

Sorry for the confusion. I'm not watering at 5:30 p.m.; I was just concerned that the grass is still wet enough to get my shoes wet 12 hours after I've watered, especially since it was close to 100 degrees today in the valley.

After the first two weeks my landscape contractor came by to fix one of the drains he put in and he said the grass wasn't ready to be cut back to a 3 days per week watering schedule yet. My plan is to mow again Saturday morning and then check the water with the tuna cans. I think it's ready for the correct watering schedule now. It's holding up very well, even with the dogs going a little crazy running around on it.

 

[erdons]

I have tifgreen and been at 3 times per week since the 4th week and this lawn was started as stolons which are weaker than sod. As long as you water deep enough your lawn will be stronger with less frequent watering. I would say to follow your landscape contractors advice though since his guarantee is probably dependent on you doing what he tells you. Within a couple more weeks I would say you can start doing some leveling with sand if you have lumpy or uneven areas. Good luck everything looks great so far!

 

[nickvig]

So, if any of you have seen the news for SoCal lately we've had a bit of a heatwave. I cut my yard on the morning of July 4 down to about 1.25". Then Thursday it was 118 degrees! So I've been watering a tad more to supplement the new sod in the back yard.

I have been cutting every 3-4 days so I decided to give it an extra day and mow today instead of yesterday. Here's where the grass was this morning:


I set the mower to about 1.25" again and did a straight pass and an angled pass.



Disregard my brown spots...the dogs got out during the day and I didn't catch where they peed to water it down with soapy water. The two other spots are where my front wheels got locked and I didn't realize it and they dug a couple of holes. I haven't had a chance to go to Home Depot to pick up some sand to fill with as of yet. Here's after the cut:



And a shot of the new mower, thanks to Mr. Ware for the awesome stickers....I have a couple of hats he did for me as well but I don't typically post my mug on the internets...





And the obligatory golf ball shot. I consider this 1st cut of rough. LOL



So here's what I'm thinking....due to the heat it's probably not a good time to do a leveling job. The sod is not quite two months old yet and with this heat wave I'm afraid I'm going to burn up the grass. Thoughts?

In the interim my plan is to order the front roller for my mower to get it a little more level. As you can see from my ruler shots above it seems like the grass is kid of all over the place. Since the ground wasn't leveled very well it's very lumpy and the mower cut tends to reflect that. I'd really like to get down to at least a 1" HOC but I just don't think that's a possibility until I get some type of leveling done. That, and my wife really doesn't like it when the grass gets scalped so I'm cutting it a little taller than I'd really like to keep her happy.

I also need to do a little more reading on fertilizing because I've just been using some Scott's Turf Builder I had laying around and it seems to keep the grass quite green but I know it's not really enough of what I should actually be putting down on the lawn to keep it really healthy.

 

[DesertLawn]

So here's what I'm thinking....due to the heat it's probably not a good time to do a leveling job. The sod is not quite two months old yet and with this heat wave I'm afraid I'm going to burn up the grass. Thoughts?

I'm also a new member here from SoCal but I'm out in the desert (Imperial County). I too want to level and I'm also worried about the heat not playing nicely with sand on the turf. We'll be well into the triple digits for a while so I will most likely wait at least another month before I go ahead and level. I'm interested in hearing other's opinions on leveling in this heat.

 

[PHXCobra]

I want to level my yard but have a similar heat problem. It's been 112-117 this week and I have been reluctant to go outside to mow, let alone to do any actual work. I'm waiting til spring to level just so I don't have to do it in the real heat.