T-minus 10 days before the first glyco application.

 

It looks amazing! What made you want to make the switch to Tiftuf?

 

It looks amazing! What made you want to make the switch to Tiftuf?

I have an unknown cultivar that is mixed with a different Bermuda, and I think there is Common in there as well. At the peak of the season around July/August time frame the color and texture differences is very noticeable. It also causes issues when I use PGR with one cultivar taking an off color and is more sensitive than the other.

It looks great right now, but there are very slight differences in color that will be more pronounced later this summer.

 

6 days after the first glyco application. I watered it heavy yesterday then hit it again with a ammonium and glyco mix this afternoon. My sod arrives mid May.

 

Tomorrow I start the clean up prior to leveling with Soil3 compost and sod installation on Friday. I did a total of three rounds of glyco to get all of the different cultivars of Bermuda dead.

 

What does the ammonium do? Are you mixing sand with your soil3 or using it alone. I was considering adding sand to mine, not sure why.

 

The ammonium gives the glycosphate a boost, and kills it off a little faster. At least that is the theory. The label for the glyco gave instructions for mixing, and application with ammonium.

I am not doing sand for the sod installation. I want all organic for the sod to root. I leveled with sand last year and the year before, so I have a nice sand layer already. I know the soil3 will cause some leveling issues as it decomposes, but I'd rather have all organic for the sod to root, then level later as needed. I am pretty level already, so I do not think I will have much of an issue.

 

Today was prep day, and I underestimated how much prep had to be done.

I started by mowing with my rotary mower on the lowest setting to get as much of the dead grass bagged as possible. Then I went over the lawn with my reel mower. Afterwards I used my Vonhaus dethatcher set on the lowest setting to get the stolons and rhizomes that the mower left behind. Then a lot of raking followed by leveling the lawn. At this point I thought I was done, however while taking a plug for a soil sample I noticed the soil was root packed with dead Bermuda roots. I am sure the new grass would be okay and would root well, but the OCD in me didn't like it, so I put the aerate blade on the VonHaus and set it at its lowest setting. The blades went a good half inch into the ground and tore the heck out of the roots. Afterwards I had another round of raking and leveling. Just as I was making the last pass with the VonHaus it smoked itself and stopped working.

Enough narrative. Pics:
I took at least ten wheelbarrows of stolons and Rhizomes out of the lawn


And another 15 wheelbarrows of dead grass



One in progress pic (rest in peace VonHaus dethatcher. You served me well)



Ready for leveling with compost and sod installation

 

The first 90 degree day of the year and what am I doing? Those rolls are heavy!

 

Done with the majority of sod install. Tomorrow I will work on details, such as cutting around the irrigation heads, rolling it and working on edges (they are not straight). I plan on filling some of the seams with the little bit of leftover Soil3 compost as well.

Lastly I bought from SuperSod and not too thrilled with the quality of the sod. It seems to me that they cut this sod days, if not a week or more before they delivered. They stuff on top to halfway down the pallet was bone dry and yellowing. No doubt that it will rebound quickly since it is a Bermuda, but the instant gratification of a nice green lawn ain't happening today. My lawn is at least 5 shades of green right now. The stuff nearer the bottom of the pallet was the greenest.

Pics tomorrow afternoon.

 

How many bags of the soil3 did you end up using?

 

I only used one bag of Soil 3. Just to amend what was already there and to give a little more organic material for the new sod to root in. The day following install, ALL of the sod turned yellow/brown. As stated before, I am positive this was not fresh cut. The sod near the bottom of the pallet was in horrible shape... It is starting to rebound nicely though. I will start feedings of about 1 pound nitrogen biweekly tomorrow to give it the kick it needs to get the runners out.

I want to level it before the summer is over, so I am hoping for aggressive growth.

Edit: The sod farm apparently has a nutsedge problem. I had a LOT of nutsedge springing up in my sod. Anyone know how long before I can spray Celsius?

The sod was also infested with brown spiders. I will put some insecticide down early next week.

This is from the day I put it down.


This is today

 

Today was the first cut since laying the sod last week. I used my rotary and cut it at about 1.25 inches. As anticipated there was some scalping. Afterwards I put down 1 pound of nitrogen per 1000'.

 

Good stuff. Enjoyed reading about the prep process. I have 419 with a few strips of Celebration and have contemplated nuking it and going with TifGrand or Latitude.

 

:thumbup: Looked good before.

Supersod sucks, we need a hashtag or something, your not the first on here to experience quality control issues. Soil3 and their leveling mix is ++. good thing it's Bermuda, fast repair.

 

Haven't been on the internet much, but the lawn has been doing great. I've Reel cut it at least half dozen times since the first cut. I can't get lower than 1" as it is right now due to all the lumps that need to be leveled out. Since the growth has been great, I plan on a round of leveling next weekend, weather permitting.

On to pics
May 26th




Jun 1st


Jun 3rd



Jun 8th

 

@reidgarner the hardest part of this entire renovation was killing my a perfectly great looking lawn. I had neighbors asking what happened to the lawn. When I explained I purposely killed it the disbelief was epic. No doubt that once o get it level and back to .5" HOC, it would have been well worth it. Just the uniform color and blade size makes it look better to me. Just be ready for the disbelief if you go this route.

BTW, the wife is pretty sure I am certifiably nuts.

Good stuff. Enjoyed reading about the prep process. I have 419 with a few strips of Celebration and have contemplated nuking it and going with TifGrand or Latitude.

 

Cut at 1" today. Put down FAS and insecticide yesterday. The brown spiders that came in the sod were getting out of control. I still need to put some Celsius down, but putting it off for a few more weeks while the sod establishes itself.

I also decided to wait another month before leveling.

 

Mixed up a batch of Humic Acid, And Celsius for a blanket application. Time to start taking care of the nutsedge that came with the sod. It is growing in great. I decided to wait until August before leveling, so I think I will do PGR and FAS soon.

 

When I first killed my old lawn, I was full of regret, but hopeful that the new lawn would look better.

The day after I put sod down I regretted it even more because there was no instant gratification.

Today the regret is starting to subside.

Cut at 1" HOC.

 

Im really trying to get stripes as wide as the swardman, but the overlap kills it for me everytime. Are you double passing the same direction to get it wide or just lining it up on the way back?

Loving the progress in your journal.

 

The most recent pic is a single pass. I just line up and make sure I am not overlapping by more than an inch or two. When I double cut I will cut diagonally across the vertical cut seen here.

 

Looks great!

 

Going down with PGR today and 1lb Nitrogen today. The grow in is sufficient and it is fully rooted. I'd like to go a few days between mowing. I've been pounding the Nitrogen, and as a result have been cutting every day to every 2 days.

 

Looks like the PGR is starting to kick in. Gave the lawn a double cut after work and barley took anything off.

We have some pretty hot weather coming so daily or every other day mowing can be pretty tough.

Evening pic, the sun is past the horizon so the pic is sort of dark.