Same thing is happening to me near Philly. Complete reno last fall with TTTF I bought from SiteOne. Had premium cultivars that scored well on NTEP trials. I do remember researching on of the cultivars and it said it had a "dwarf growth" habit. Not sure if that is effecting things or not. We've had cold weather as of late, maybe that is causing issues.

 

Hi dport. I originally thought dwarf referred to height and was "low growing". Found out that "dwarf" refers to the growth rate and is "slow growing" but will grow tall and dense enough to crowd out weeds.

https://www.thelawnforum.com/posts/653301/

I used ST1 LS this year and plan on switching up next year to JG BBO in the hopes of quicker weed blocking from a seed that doesn't grow at a dwarf pace.

Super Turf I LS Tall Fescue Blend

Super Turf I LS is a mixture of the very best of the new lower-growing turf type tall fescues. Varieties selected score at the very top in the NTEP trials for turf quality, wear tolerance, low maintenance performance, leaf texture, endophyte enhancement and disease resistance, especially brown...

unitedseeds.com

Good luck!

 

What is dwarf growth?its just weird man. Like I see other TTTF lawns in full bloom and here I am with a half baked one.

 

Not sure what dwarf growth actually means. In my Lesco All Transition Pro Mix (pure TTTF) I bought last season it has three cultivars: temple, reunion, restore. See the attached PDF for temple tall fescue. It touts it's dwarf growth habit.

 

I have the same issue here in S. Jersey. I overseeded with Firecracker SLS TTTF in the fall and it has been very slow to wake. I hadn't fertilized yet so I threw down .5/1K Milo about 10 days ago. I'm hoping that, with a rise in soil temps, it will wake up and stimulate growth.

 

This is interesting guys. We are all located in the same general region (lower-middle mid Atlantic). If you remember last season, we had extreme heat and drought well into October. A front came through the night of Halloween and the temps dropped significantly. We struggled to ever get back to 60 degree air temps the rest of the season.

I have to imagine the weather really hurt us. Perhaps the root growth just never got to where it was supposed to be?

 

@spmurph @dport

Guess time will tell. Hopefully as it gets warmer it will start to even out otherwise I am not sure it can stay short forever?

 

I'm also hoping my app of prodimaine didn't stunt growth. I put this down in mid march. My grass looked excellent coming into march. Slightly worried that if the plants didn't have much root growth due to the horrid conditions last fall, that the Pre-Em actually hurt them.

 

I've got this going on as well in 7A down in Richmond, VA. I think @dport might be on to something here with the weather.

I had a large oak tree removed from my back yard which ended up killing off most of the grass during the summer heat along with compaction of moving it out. Wonder if they soil ended up being too compacted and baked from the heat wave in August/Sept last year and then the roots stunted by that early freeze.

I went out today and tried to top dress two of the spots that are looking a little stunted, with some of this being from the bad soil where the trees used to be. Hoping that some extra nutrients/soil will help establish the roots a bit more.

 

I've got this going on as well in 7A down in Richmond, VA. I think @dport might be on to something here with the weather.

I had a large oak tree removed from my back yard which ended up killing off most of the grass during the summer heat along with compaction of moving it out. Wonder if they soil ended up being too compacted and baked from the heat wave in August/Sept last year and then the roots stunted by that early freeze.

I went out today and tried to top dress two of the spots that are looking a little stunted, with some of this being from the bad soil where the trees used to be. Hoping that some extra nutrients/soil will help establish the roots a bit more.

This is concerning as you all have been several degrees warmer than us here in Philly the last couple of weeks. We just couldn't get that push of 70 degree temps up this far.

The only lush areas of my yard are where the dog has peed (we keep him to one area in most of the time). That piece of the yard is dark green, growing. 5 days ago I put down a 25 pounds of 18-24-12 fert from Lesco. Will see what happens after the rain the next few days. Something is going on here in our region. Too many of us struggling with our newly planted TTTF from last fall.

 

Yeah we have had some warm days down here and most of the lawn is looking lush, but areas from the fall overseeding aren't all as hot. Some are though but it tends to be where it was closer to established grass.

You can also see how there are spots that are 4 inches next to the dwarf looking tttf. Some of this I am probably attributing to the dog fertilizing spots of the yard. But those areas are also matching the growth in my good areas.

I'm still planning on aerating and overseeding again in the fall since I know the soil is still very compact in those areas.

 

Must be the weather. Very wet weather (all rain, a couple dustings of snow) during winter and only 45-50 soil temps over the past 2 weeks here in the northern part of South Jersey. I had frost 3 mornings over the past few days.

 

dwarf growth is just that....that particular cultivar has a low growing height habit...probably in the 2"- to max 3" range...

 

I'm having the same problem here in Saint Louis. Aerated and overseeded on April 1st. Watering like crazy. If I did a mow, only 10% would actually be cut.

What's the point of the Dwarf growth?

 

I'm in the Northeast and I'm having the same issue with my Fall 2019 Overseed/Reno with SSS TTTF. The bare spots that I applied seed too are yellowish and really slow going. I applied SOP and TSP this weekend, very tempted to hit those spots with urea but can't see how it will help since I'm still dealing with freezing night temps and high 40's
During the day. This weather has been complete garbage up here so I'm assuming that once we get actual spring weather and not the crap we have now, that growth will start.

 

I'm in the Northeast and I'm having the same issue with my Fall 2019 Overseed/Reno with SSS TTTF. The bare spots that I applied seed too are yellowish and really slow going. I applied SOP and TSP this weekend, very tempted to hit those spots with urea but can't see how it will help since I'm still dealing with freezing night temps and high 40's
During the day. This weather has been complete garbage up here so I'm assuming that once we get actual spring weather and not the crap we have now, that growth will start.

I'm in the Northeast and I'm having the same issue with my Fall 2019 Overseed/Reno with SSS TTTF. The bare spots that I applied seed too are yellowish and really slow going. I applied SOP and TSP this weekend, very tempted to hit those spots with urea but can't see how it will help since I'm still dealing with freezing night temps and high 40's
During the day. This weather has been complete garbage up here so I'm assuming that once we get actual spring weather and not the crap we have now, that growth will start.

Add me to the list. Central Jersey here. Newly seeded TTTF areas last fall are coming in with low growth habbit, And yellow green color. It's not poa annua, but just unhealthy looking TTTF. We've had colder temps recently, and it's hard to remain patient this time of year. We have a frost warning tonight and tomorrow night which is unusual for this time of year here. My hope is once we start getting in the mid 60s on a regular basis the growth will start to pickup. Looks like we have one more crappy week of weather to get through before we turn the corner.

 

I have not really had any warm temps yet. Maybe 40 degrees on a good day, but areas where I renovated vs overseeded the TTTF grass looks like it took a beating this winter. It is supposed to finally start hitting 50F tomorrow and stay warmer so I am anxious to see how the new grass handled the winter.

 

March was one of the warmest on record here in the DMV. Granted we had some cold days but more warm than cold. I think April has been colder than March was.

Fingers crossed all of our lawns green up soon.

 

Would anyone put down a small dose of urea on the spots that are struggling? Would it make a difference with the weather being cold and all?

 

I did. Spoon fed my yard this week. Seemed to help the good stuff but can't really tell if it did anything to the younger stuff. Hard to really gauge that brighter shorter grass.

 

I'm going to give it a try and spray a low app of urea. Probably thinking .15 oz per gallon? I'm thinking that might be safe just in case there's some overlap.

 

Another RVA-er here
Overseeded every fall & this past fall gave the worse results come March of 2020.
Lawn had large swath of yellow everywhere.
I had another post on here asking for help & thought it was disease.


Front yard had no growth & pocket of overgrown mounds making that area look lumpy.

So desperate, in late March I laid down some fertilizer (24-0-4 Carbon X) after my Pre-M in mid March.
I also started taking the yellow areas also.

The pictures below are from 1st weekend of April.
With warmer temps things are waking up.

Indicates that in addition to the weird mild winter & even with the 5 weeks of spoon feeding urea last fall, an early spring fert app was needed.

You can still see some yellow but after this last weekend, those areas are mostly gone & so are the cherry blossoms.




Monday:

 

Another RVA-er here
Overseeded every fall & this past fall gave the worse results come March of 2020.
Lawn had large swath of yellow everywhere.
I had another post on here asking for help & thought it was disease.


Front yard had no growth & pocket of overgrown mounds making that area look lumpy.

So desperate, in late March I laid down some fertilizer (24-0-4 Carbon X) after my Pre-M in mid March.
I also started taking the yellow areas also.

The pictures below are from 1st weekend of April.
With warmer temps things are waking up.

Indicates that in addition to the weird mild winter & even with the 5 weeks of spoon feeding urea last fall, an early spring fert app was needed.

You can still see some yellow but after this last weekend, those areas are mostly gone & so are the cherry blossoms.




Monday:

That's quite the difference. Did you notice an immediate difference when you added the fert or was it a combo of fert and warm weather you think?

 

Have you guys had much for rain? We have had none and I noticed that when I move my sump pump hose around the grass will grow better in those areas after. I don't expect much since its been so cold, but today it's supposed to get in the upper 40's finally! fingers crossed.

 

Have you guys had much for rain? We have had none and I noticed that when I move my sump pump hose around the grass will grow better in those areas after. I don't expect much since its been so cold, but today it's supposed to get in the upper 40's finally! fingers crossed.

It's been raining every or every other day. Add that with sub par temps, not ideal. My backyard is saturated

 

I have same story here very slow start spatially with over seeded areas. It just crazy whether low 30 at night. Along street, house and curbs lush and green but yellowish on middle. But most disappointing point a lot of my 4th millennium ttf seeded last fall didn't make it over winter.