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| Hi,
We have a medium/big sized lawn (6000 sq ft) that is on overage 50% weed. So after reading here, I have come up with this plan. Please help me with some questions and give any suggestions to make it work. I am thinking of doing this for about 2000 Sq ft of the lawn and if it succeeds do it next year for the remaining. goal: Create a lawn that is 90% grass and will continue to be that way without sprinklers/regular watering (will water if no rain occurs in couple of weeks) and with mostly organic materials once the lawn is established plan:
Anything else I should consider? Thank you very much .. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| I will be brief, and you can ask follow up questions. In the Boston area seed should be going down now, the beginning of October is too late. The weed killers you want to use take time, and you don't want to seed before the time they say it is safe to do so. Since you don't want to water, the best bet would be for you to dormant seed. Once you get your soil tests back, use from that point till late fall to get your soil in shape while you kill weeds. You will be seeding in late December-February, preferably before a snow fall. In spring the grass will germinate when the soil warms up. This approach uses minimal water, but you will still need to water more often than once every couple of weeks if there is no rain, and during the summer when it is hot. |
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| Thanks tiemco .. Sometimes we have snow-cover on ground from late Dec to Feb. I assume that I should not put seed down when there is snow on the ground? Also, would pre-emergent treatment create problems for this dormant seed? |
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| You should seed before the first snowfall if possible, but you can seed directly on snow, as long as it's not too deep. Don't worry about the ground being frozen, just seed with a broadcast spreader. The snowmelt cycle will work the seeds into the soil. A preemergent might have some effect if applied in the fall, and it will definitely have an effect if you apply it in the spring. If you are going to dormant seed and use a preemergent this fall, use the shortest duration one, which I think is Halts. |
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| For preemergent .. I was thinking of using corn gluten meal .. Does that help in fall? or is it a spring time pre-emergent only? I googled around for fall pre-emeregent treatment and found that it is useful where ground does not freeze. So is it useful in MA? So If I put down corn gluten meal around 2nd week of March, it will hamper growth of grass seeds? In that case, should I not do pre-emergent treatment at all? Also, I am overseeding with pennington smartsead northeast mix. For one of the areas that gets only couple hours of sun .. I need to use some other shade seed. Any recommendations for shade seed? sprayed with triclopyr today and packaged samples of soils to send for testing today .. How long before I see any effects of triclopyr on the violets and charlie? |
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| CGM has some preemergent effect, but from anecdotal evidence I have heard it's very slight and some say nonexistant. It's a great organic fertilizer, although a bit pricey. You shouldn't use any preemergents in the spring if you are dormant seeding, and I would be hesitant to use long duration preemergent now as well. CGM now would be fine, as it is short duration and might help with any winter annuals that haven't germinated yet. Again, nothing in the spring. For the major cool season grasses, fine fescues (creeping red, hard, chewings, sheep) are the most shade tolerant. Tall fescue is next, it can get by with 3-4 hours of good sun a day (most cultivars, some are very intolerant of shade). KBG is after TF, but you have to use proven shade tolerant cultivars. 4-5 hours is usually enough for these cultivars, although the more sun the better for KBG. Perennial rye is the least shade tolerant of the major cool season grasses. Fine fescues are generally part of most shade mixes, but they often have PR rye as well, which is only included because it germinates so quickly, but it has no business in a deep shade mix. There are some specialty grasses that do a little better in shade, but I wouldn't use them unless fine fescues fail. It usually takes a week or two before you see the effects of triclopyr on your weeds, and sometimes you have to do another app for it to take out the tough ones. You want to make sure the weeds are getting enough water so they are actively growing. So if no rain is due in the forecast it would help to water them (and the lawn), but wait a day or two after application. |
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