Enjoy

TW

Take a gander at Lowes or Home Depot, see what a bag of Scotts is going for this year.

Then your salesman does not know what he is talking about, and selling you a bag of 8-10-10 proves it. Any grass, I don’t care what kind it is except Centipede requires 1 pound of nitrogen per 1000/ft2. Bermuda is a nitrogen hog and with 39-0-0 means you have to apply 2-1/2 pounds of product per 1000/ft2 to obtain 1-pound of nitrogen. With 8-10-10 you will have to apply 12-1/2 pounds of product per 1000/ft2 not to mention poisoning your lawn with way too much phosphorous and potassium.

I have been very consistent in my advice on Bermuda lawn care. For the first application I always recommend a 3-1-2 or 4-1-2 (15-5-10, 20-15-10) ratio fertilizer, followed up by straight nitrogen (39-0-0) for the rest of the season.

pkapeckopickldpepprz said:
I thought you said the Lesco stuff was cheap?
Texas-Weed, didn't you say you bought the Lesco 000-777 (39-0-0) for $9.00 for a 50# bag?

Never said it was cheap or $9 per bag. You can search the forum all you want, you will not find anywhere I ever said that. What I have said Lesco 39-0-0 is the best value for your money a 50 pound bag of Lesco 39-0-0 fertilizer will cover 20,000/ft2. So if it cost you $27 comes out to about $1.35 per 1000/ft2. So compare that to any other brand you find at the box store.

What you bought is the wrong stuff and will cost you $6.75 per 1000/ft2, or using 12.5 pounds of product per 1000/ft2

pkapeckopickldpepprz said:
Oh and I was right, I remember one thread I mentioned I thought I remember seeing Lesco fertilizer in Home Depot in what looked like generic white bags. This is a basic white generic looking bag with the lesco logo.

So what is your point? I have always told folks you can buy Lesco 081964 at Home Depot. It is a 15-5-10 the product you should have used for the first application in lieu of a soil test. Then follow up with 39-0-0. I know the thread you are talking about, and it was not me who said that. Look for yourself, its still on the first page.

So how much does the 39-0-0 cost? I don't want to get sticker shock when I take this bag back. Hopefully I don't have another hour wait today exchanging this bag.

He also mentioned a product I am curious about. It is a moisture manager liquid that will work down into the rootzone and take water from the air and will work up to 3 months. Anyone have any experience with this? I am interested in it mainly since there are severe water restrictions here and only 1 day a week watering and with the sand down here, (and no rain in the near future) that isn't cutting it.

He also recommended the bag of Milorganite but I told him the lower content of actual nitrogen was my concern and would probably negate any cost savings.

One key thing is that originally you said TW advised you to get the fert with slow release so you want to make sure that whatever you get has some slow release N in it.

I agree, a more balanced fertilizer is great to help get it to spread. Then once it's going, switch back to a mainly nitrogen product. You don't want the 46-0-0 urea because it will create a feast/famine problem - you want something with some slow release nitrogen so it slowly feeds the turf instead of jacking it and then starving it.

I have used the moisture manager, and it is a great product. They sell it in a hose-end sprayer and I use it when summer comes around.

A bag of 39-0-0 100%slow release will run you around $30/bag.

I have not use Ecosetial Moisture Manager, but I am familar with it. It is a copy of something called Nitron-35. Basically home brewed beer, soap, without the alcohol, and some simple sugars. There is no specified application rate. Its made for heavy clay soils and I suspect you have sandy soils? You just apply it until you see it accumilate on th eground with some suds.

The general application rate is 9 oz per 1,000sqft, but you don't have to be all that accurate, especially if you water it in. In a perfect world, that quart would cover about 3500 sqft. I make mine cover about 4300sqft. If you use the container that it comes in, it will come out a little fast, so you have to move quickly. Spray a little bit in your potted plants on your porch as well.

Denverdude, I tried the Moisture Manager this morning at 7am. I watered the area pretty well first and allowed it to soak in and then 10 minutes later I applied the moisture manager. You're not kidding it foams/suds up pretty fast. I only sprayed each plug area for like a second and then turned off the flow. I wanted to err on the side of caution. Then as it soaked in I sprayed off the grass as I was told if it stands on the grass it will burn it up real quick. Hopefully I will notice a difference within a week or two.

As I mentioned in previous posts the plugs that are in mostly shade are doing GREAT! Nice deep blue/green and healthy as can be. The full sun areas with the plugs they are 50/50 tan straw colored mixed with green/blue. When I get home from work the full sun areas look very heat stressed water stressed as the green/blue color is very dull. I am glad I found out about this product as this will help during this drought along with the severe water restrictions.

By the time you've created a jerry baker recipe that you think might work, you've wasted a 12 pack of coca-cola and a bottle of baby shampoo and a host of other products and spent 30 bucks anyway, and you still don't know if it will work or burn your turf. Why not just buy stuff that is intended for turf and used by professionals for the same price and less work? That's my 2 cents on the jerry baker school of thought, but i'm sure others on here totally disagree.

Contrast to that are my other Bermuda plugs that are in 80% shade, (they might get 1 hour tops of direct sun) they are lush and a vivid green. Same plugs and same treatment, so it;s not like a lack of iron or some micronutrient. It is heat/drought stress on those in full sun. Who was it here that said Bermuda thrives in full sun? It may be too early to tell but I am willing to bet by the performance I see so far the shaded plugs are totally kicking the a$$ of the plugs in full sun by color and vigor.

Sorry to be a smarta** but it's the truth.

The reason your plugs in shade is still vivid green is because there's more moisture in that ground. The ones in a lot of sun is dying for water. You need to get water in there.

The reason your plugs in shade is still vivid green is because there's more moisture in that ground. The ones in a lot of sun is dying for water. You need to get water in there.

Hence the problem of Florida sugar sand and the reason I am incorporating OM to the soil and today the plugs didn't look AS heat/drought stressed so perhaps the moisture manager is working?

Texas Weed, you do recall these Bermuda plugs are Celebration which has the best shade tolerance of any Bermuda hybrid.

Yes I do recall, however I don't think it means what you think it means. Celebration Bermuda can tolerate some light shade, not heavy shade, no Bermuda grass can tolerate heavy shade.

If your Celebration is in as heavy of a shade as you described (90% 1-hour of sun per day) It will die off, mark my words.

Here is a picture of the full sun area and you can see spots of Bermuda but nothing like the other picture in the shady area. I used plugs in both areas but the shady area took off much better more consistently.

Granted there are spots of weeds, but this is February and I guess with Bermuda, I'm lucky it's still green and not dormant at this point this time of year.

So what do you put in the water for the plants? Any liquid fertilizer?

I want to mention the area isn't in full shade but only gets indirect sun with little to no full sun. It is nearest to the 6 foot tall fence on the west side of the property. In the morning it gets sun but afternoon shade, plus there are two large palm trees providing much afternoon shade.

Are you a model railroader? Where do you see any grass?

All I see is lichen - the stuff they use to make a model RR scene look like it has grass/weeds/bushes, in between some weeds, in this picture

Any latest news over Tifgrand's supposedly "shade" tolerance? Since you're a big fan of other tif cultivar, it must be good enough. you got shady area where other bermuda is thinning out to do an experiment on Tifgrand?