Next day with some sun on it!

And why we do all this!

https://youtu.be/LOXNMim5jKg

 

Here's a week and a half later. A good amount of growth, and I can't pull the turf up. There is a bit of bumpiness that I want to level out since I plan on reel mowing it. Think I can roll it out? Worried about compacting the soil and messing with the rooting process. The soil is pretty smushy since I'm watering it so much, which is probably why it's getting bumpy.

 

Alright so next steps while I let this sod grow in a bit is to buy a mower. Anyone got any thoughts on the route I should go? I plan to hopefully keep this cut a little less than an inch. Well, shorter would be cool, but I don't know how realistic it is.

I've read it's not recommended to top dress sod in its first season. Does that mean a reel mower is out of the question this growing season?

Would you all recommend one of the following plans?

1. Get the sunjoe electric reel mower straight away, hope for the best. Maybe set the HOC higher until I can level the lawn
2. Look for a used reel mower (california trimmer or mclane) with front/back rollers to avoid scalping, and plan to stick with it for the long term.
3. get a used rotary mower until I can top dress the lawn and get it flat enough to upgrade to #1 or #2
4. some other option (manual reel mower?)

 

Alright so next steps while I let this sod grow in a bit is to buy a mower. Anyone got any thoughts on the route I should go? I plan to hopefully keep this cut a little less than an inch. Well, shorter would be cool, but I don't know how realistic it is.

I've read it's not recommended to top dress sod in its first season. Does that mean a reel mower is out of the question this growing season?

Would you all recommend one of the following plans?

1. Get the sunjoe electric reel mower straight away, hope for the best. Maybe set the HOC higher until I can level the lawn
2. Look for a used reel mower (california trimmer or mclane) with front/back rollers to avoid scalping, and plan to stick with it for the long term.
3. get a used rotary mower until I can top dress the lawn and get it flat enough to upgrade to #1 or #2
4. some other option (manual reel mower?)

If you wanna just start off with something cheap and decent you can get a push reel mower. Check out this guy’s journal, he is mowing between .8”-1” Tif Tuf and it looks great for push reeling. https://www.thelawnforum.com/threads/tiftuf-sod-in-s-louisiana.55863/page-5

 

You won't be sad with #2 I promise if you have the budget. Despite the myths reel mowers are slightly more forgiving than rotary and unless you have massive dips you will be fine. Worst case scenario you raise your HOC over an inch. Look for a revolution as well as the two you mention.

 

hi why did you pick tahoma 31 and where abouts in Socal? I am here near LAX and in market for a new lawn as well. any advice is much appreciated. thanks

 

We're near La Mesa in San Diego. hmm long story. Generally our priorities were:

1. handle the amount of shade we have (somewhere around 4-5 hours of sun)
2. low water usage
3. fine leaf texture and ability to cut short

So going with bermuda is a little bit of a risk given #1, but we got a sample of tiftuf and it was growing great in the shadiest spot so we have a little confidence. We got a tahoma sample but didn't have it long enough to see how it'd grow really. Honestly the tiftuf is a beast, that stuff grew so fast and rooted quick. Really liked the color of tiftuf too, probably more than the tahoma (we're weird with this, most people like the darker green but we like bright green). We ended up going tahoma because supposedly it handles shade better and is more water efficient. Additionally, the sample we got of tiftuf came in pretty rough shape and with lots of seed heads. It didn't feel soft honestly, it felt spiky despite the fine leafs. I don't know if this was just cause it was a sample and was in rough shape. The tahoma came looking pure and much softer to the touch.

We avoided St Augustine and tall fescue because of the leaf texture. Tall fescue is the favorite in the area cause there's no worries about it going dormant, but it needs a pretty penny of water to do that.

We probably would have gone with a sodded zoysia if we could find it, but it's not grown in socal. There's probably a reason for that, but I think with our shade it would have been our best option.

So yeah, it's a little bit of a wait and see game about if we get enough sun. If it starts struggling we might plug zoysia and let it take over slowly.

 

What I'm seeing on facebook market place so far is a fair bit of mclanes. Nice ones are in the $850-$900 range. Rusted up and older ones in the $200-300 range. Don't see too many cal trimmers in the area. The ones I do see are very old and go for about the same as the old mclanes.

There is actually a JD 220E cut hybrid for sale for $550. It's a little rusted up but generally looks like it's working well. My first impression is that is quite a deal. Second thought is it might be a bit more than I need. Not sure if it'll fit through my gate (a mower that is 30" wide or less would be ideal). Kinda feels like I'd be learning to fly in a fighter jet. Is that the right way to think about it?

 

Consider a Revolution 20”. It is a great mower and easy to maintain.

Also I would figure out how to thin out that tree a bit. The grass will thank you.

 

haven't seen any on the used market.

Yeah that tree... man it's a love hate relationship. We're raising the canopy to get some more evening light. Don't feel like paying a trimmer to come out unless we have to. Honestly looks like a pretty easy tree to climb but I don't wanna kill myself 😂

 

I’ve heard mcclanes are a bit tough to adjust. I had a cal trimmer and it was very easy to adjust. I think most in here would tell you a greensmower is where you’ll end up so just jump into it. I don’t have one, so I’m not a good resource. If you’re not in a hurry, I wouldn’t settle. Yard looks great. Don’t worry about compacting things. The yard will do well in that respect.

 

thanks for the reply! So you're saying I should try rolling it out?

 

About a week and a half ago I laid a little under 1000 sqft of tahoma 31 in my backyard. This was the culmination of a ton of research reading/posting here, and a LOT of manual labor. I can't fit any equipment through my side yard bigger than about 30", so a lot of moving of dirt was done manually or with undersized equipment. Thank god it's only 950 sqft cause our soil was heavily compacted and rocky. Anyway, after weeks and weeks of clearing and moving dirt around, here it is being laid!

View attachment 71247


View attachment 71248

We had contractors working on some DG in the side yard, so I left a walk way (this turned out to be fun later)


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Why do I always do things the hard way? LOT of cutting to do to fill in this zigzag

View attachment 71251

Sod all laid! Took about 6 hours with some breaks and chit chats with family as they came to see the process.

Please pray with me that we get enough sun 😆

Looks great, the DG border is a nice touch as well. That tree shade would annoy me hopefully it’s not an issue.

 

We need an update. You must have mowed by now...

 

Yeah, definitely due for an update. I actually haven't mowed yet 😬 I purchased a 20" mclane off ebay. It does not cut paper even after adjusting the reel to bedknife. I have compound and a backlapping tool on the way, unfortunately the adapter is backordered at reelrollers.com. I don't have a rotary mower, I might have to rent one to hold me over. Here's some close up pics of the growth. There are some areas where it's growing very fast/tall, to the point I'm concern it's getting "leggy". Hard to tell with new sod. Some other areas are still pretty short.

I might attempt to cut the tall stuff with the mclane despite it not being sharp. I think it'd probably cut like a rotary mower?

I'll try to get a photo of the yard when I get a chance.

 

Looking good. Fortunately for T31 from what I’ve heard it doesn’t top growth much after 2” or so. Hope you can get a reel cut soon!

 

Got a cut in with the mclane. This was before I did a little bit of edge work. Clearly I scalped it a bit. I cut at the highest setting of the mclane, so about an inch and a quarter. Some areas had really grown tall as you had seen in the other post.

I had planned on cutting it at 1". I think that means I need to scalp it lower (.75 inch?) and then let it grow into 1". Is that right? I fertilized the soil ~4 weeks ago prior to laying sod. Do yall recommend giving another round of ferts if I do scalp it lower?

 

I'm due for an update... I kept scalping on my cuts so I did a height of cut reset to the lowest setting of the higher/mid cut mode on the mclane. This was on the July 31st.

Got a cut in yesterday, here's a pic from this morning. It's grown in pretty well. Couple spots still growing in, and one area (back right) that looks like it needs more water.

unfortunately I have a gopher coming from the neighbors yard in the back. There's a concrete retaining wall, so I thought I was safe. I didn't realize how deep gophers tunnel. I'm regretting my choice to not put some sort of gopher barrier down before sodding. I didn't put one down mostly because the depth they should be placed would mean I'd have to dig up several cubic yards of dirt by hand (can't fit any big stuff down my side yard). I have a gopherhawk in one of the holes, we'll see what happens. Would love some advice though.

 

Couldn't resist! I have never dealt with so am zero help

 

yup, that's pretty much me now. you'd be surprised what crazy methods are on youtube to catch these

 

How's the Tahoma holding up? I'm looking at laying it down in my backyard as well in a few weeks, I'm in SoCal too... I have 4-5 hours of shade in one part of yard where sun moves over my house. Rest of yard is full sun, so I'm interested to see how this holds up. I'm pretty sure it'll be fine, I have common growing in the shady part right now, figure if the common is surviving in the shade, the Tahoma should do great. 😆

 

I think it’s still early for me. It’s hard to tell if it’s going to thin out in some spots that get less light. That said so far it’s been great.

 

Update?

 

Quick update. I think I'm starting to see signs of the lack of sun. Here's a video. It shows some "poofy" spots that look leggy. Still pretty dense though, and it grows fast there. It also shows some areas that practically don't grow, and stay very short. Not sure what is going on there, they get pretty similar amounts of light.

Here's a picture of the sparsest area.

It's still overall looking great. I had two people yesterday ask if it was artificial turf.

 

Yours look really good. Tahoma still seems to grow slow vertically. I just started another section of it with plugs. Hopefully it fills by mid October. I’m a few miles south of you.

 

Landscaper sodded Tahoma 31 yesterday... came from Desert and looks nice green color. He said they cut it really short at the farm, like quarter of an inch... I like it that height to be honest, looks like carpet. Turned out super good, really happy with it so far.

 

Looks awesome I’m jealous. Takes months for my plugs to thicken up into turf.
Are you keeping a lawn journal on this?

 

Day 10 post Tahoma sod laid down. Incredible growth! Lush !! I'd say it is about half an inch to 3/4 of an inch. Prob going to mow next weekend once it reaches an inch.

 

 

Quick update. Dealing with quiet a bit of browning/yellowing. It's worse in person than in the pictures. Seems to be a combination of dead grass, and some scalping. Scalping is despite being cut at the same height (just over an inch) twice a week. I think I might of been a little late on my fert application, I'm hoping that is it. Anything else I should consider looking into?

PS I scribbled out some areas to ignore where holes are being filled in.