LAWN CARE SIMPLIFIED: How to get the BEST lawn – WITHOUT THE HYPE

Renovation or Overseed?

• Full renovations are recommended rather than overseeding when a major upgrade is desired.  Overseeding yields comparatively poor germination rates and can cause crowding issues which can encourage disease.  With overseeding, the original (generally less desirable) grasses will tend to survive and that will water down your results... overseeding is easy, but don't expect major results compared to a fully reset lawn with 100% modern genetics.

How to Use Glyphosate Effectively

• Most herbicides work by growing a plant to death... feed the lawn (urea or any nitrogen fertilizer) and make sure the lawn has enough water to be fully green prior to spraying a glyphosate application.  DO NOT SCALP OR DETHATCH BEFORE OR AFTER GLYPHOSATE APPLICATION UNTIL THE WHOLE LAWN IS THOROUGHLY DEAD.  Mechanical stress can stunt growth which means a less effective application.
• Mow first to produce lines in the lawn (but keep grass as high as possible)... this acts as a walking reference for spraying passes.
• 50% overlapping passes to ensure no spots get missed... 1 good application is better than 2 sloppy applications.
• Blue sky and don't spray to close to dawn or dusk to ensure product will be able to properly dry.  After product has dried on the plant rain is fine.
• Gly should be sprayed with a fine droplet spray tip... a TeeJet DG11003VS is our recommendation for the Goldilocks droplet size for glyphosate.  If you don't own a backpack sprayer, we recommend a FlowZone Cyclone.

Seed Germination Basics

• Bare dirt is ideal (or at least no thatch).
• Adhere to proper seed rate... very important.
• Rake seed in w/ a Groundskeeper II rake (or slit seed on low setting).
• Keep soil moist (never dry or soaked) until germination... if the soil is damp at all to the touch, water is not needed yet.
• When seeding mixes, water for enough days to germinate your slowest germinating grass family.  Fall seeding tends to germinate faster than a spring seeding.
• Contact your local turf extension office for logical seeding windows specific to your climate... avoid downpour risk or high disease pressure (night temps over 60º) as the main considerations.
• In lawns with shade, high leaf litter, or harder winters consider seeding in the spring.
• In unirrigated lawns or in areas with high disease pressure, seeding in fall and cutting higher is recommended to maximize pre-summer establishment, maximize root depth (largely influenced by height of cut) and minimize stress, but in accurately irrigated lawns spring seeding isn't an issue.

Early Care Tips

• For fast establishment and less issues apply approximately 1 pound of nitrogen around the time of seeding.  Apply nitrogen loosely in line with growth potential or as is needed to meet your quality and color standards.  Not allowing any major nitrogen deficiency is especially important when the lawn is young and most grass families will deplete nitrogen in a matter of months during mowing months.
• Avoid heavy nitrogen applications whenever night temps are approaching 60º+ or whenever drought or temperature causes dormancy.
• After germination the grass only needs to be watered to the point of survival but establishment may occur faster if there is adequate water in the ground.  If you see the grass start to wilt more water is needed... if it is raining, it's best not to water at all.  Touch the dirt... a bit dry is ok after germination (but not bone dry).

Regular Nitrogen

• Regular nitrogen is not optional for a lawn to do well... premium grass seed is not a replacement for correct cultural practices.  Urea can be broadcast spread (a Solo chest mount spreader works great) at a rate of around 2 pounds of product as needed (should last 6-8 weeks for most grass families) and it can also be sprayed.  For a video on how to spread urea click here.

Mowing Recommendations

• Cut often enough or high enough to observe the 1/3 rule... remove no more than 1/3 of the grass height per few days.  If you don't enjoy mowing, mow as high as possible.  Besides encouraging thinning (which invites weeds and moss) scalping  causes uneven growth which actually makes the lawn look like it needs to be mowed much sooner.
• Sharp blades are an asset.  An All American style sharpening jig is great if rotary mowing, and a flat file can be used to push the burr off for that last bit of sharpness.  The 1/3 rule is per day or two... not per pass.  If you can't mow frequently enough to observe the 1/3 rule, bringing the height of cut up allows more time between mows.  1/3 of 4" allows more growing time than 1/3 of 2".
• If the ground is mushy to the touch, try to wait for a dryer day to mow if possible.  Most compaction happens when traffic is imposed on ground that is too wet.  The easiest way to cure compaction is often to prevent it, but of course, sometimes compromises have to be made to keep grass height under control.

Phosphorus and Other Nutrients?

• If grass is not capable of dark green despite nitrogen application, you may have a sulfur deficiency.  Apply 1 pound of gypsum per 1,000' if a sulfur deficiency is confirmed (Test: Mehlich-3 sulfur below 10PPM).
• With rare exception, avoid potassium, micronutrients, and phosphorus and apply only nitrogen (and gypsum/sulfur in some cases).  Phosphorus can encourage poa and potassium can encourage disease.  Potassium usually does not benefit a lawn in any way.  One exception can be notably cold areas where soil K of at least 120-140PPM Mehlich-3 may reduce winter kill on perennial ryegrass or above 60-70PPM Mehlich-3 for KBG (as implied by the poa annua winter kill paper... similar grass family).
• There is little evidence that phosphorus will do much good at all during establishment.  If you see a purple/maroon coloration after about day 20 phosphorus might do some good but chances are good that the root will go down and find plenty of phosphorus even in low phosphorus soils.  Phosphorus deficiency is very rare and because of poa annua considerations (much more poa with phosphorus applications in multiple studies) we recommend avoiding phosphorus unless the lawn turns purple/maroon... a soil test saying that you're low on phosphorus doesn't count as a phosphorus deficiency, especially if the "soil test" was mailed to the "laboratory" in water.
• Before you purchase any product to improve your soil, we recommend taking a cold shower and then binge Turfgrass Epistimology study reviews on YouTube (the live tab is best) until the urge to purchase a given product subsides.

Shade & Traffic Considerations

• Where there's lots of shade, consider TTTF (Avenger III and Xanadu are a few solid options) but only plant fine fescue if absolutely necessary.  Not all fine fescue does well in shade.  Slow growth seems to be correlative to shade survival but slow growth is also correlative to poor turf quality, poor disease performance & poor traffic performance.
• Where there's traffic, more nitrogen is needed.  Where there's shade, less nitrogen is needed.
• KBG can self-repair minor traffic damage, but keep in mind that the rhizomes responsible for that self-repair are the same rhizomes that make KBG far more prone to thatch vs. PRG or TTTF.  Dethatch regularly or run nitrogen below about 2.5 pounds annually for KBG lawns.  Some rhizominous fine fescues also have this tendency toward thatch and should have nitrogen applied at only 1 - 1.5 pounds annually (≈2-3 pounds of urea per 1,000 sq. ft. per year).

 

Disease Considerations for PRG, KBG and TTTF

Most diseases have the commonality of excessive water... after that diseases can loosely be classified as low growth diseases (usually caused by lacking nitrogen) and nitrogen loving diseases (encouraged by excessive nitrogen - especially when night temperatures exceed 65º).

      Low growth diseases

• Dollar spot can be reduced by clearing dew in the morning and is associated with low nitrogen.
• Red thread can indicate the presence of debris beneath the canopy (rake with a Groundskeeper II rake or gently dethatch) and is commonly associated with low nitrogen.
• Rust is associated with low nitrogen but the biggest risk factor tends to be infrequent mowing.  Rust can be diagnosed by rubbing something white on affected grass or walking in the area in white shoes.
• Pink snow mold can be reduced by mowing as deep into the fall as possible.  Pink snow mold is encouraged by prolonged snow cover, but does not require any snow cover at all.  Cool & wet conditions are required.  A late fall application of azoxystrobin or propiconazole can help prevent the pathogen if pink snow mold has been an issue in the past.  Not very common.
• Gray snow mold may occur in climates where persistent snow cover beyond 30-45 days occurs.  Azoxystrobin or propiconazole in the late fall before persistent snow cover may reduce gray snow mold.  Mowing as deep into the fall as possible can greatly reduce the severity of gray snow mold.

      High Nitrogen Diseases

• As a rule of thumb, nitrogen loving disease also love heat and diseases that love heat tend to attack the roots and be more destructive... summer nitrogen rates should be kept low in warmer areas. (especially in the eastern USA since 3-4x more summer rain is typical in the east)
• Melting out can occur on KBG and thrives when nitrogen and moisture are high and temps are moderate to warm.
• Brown Patch can hit hard on TTTF and is most common when nitrogen is high and night temps exceed 65º for about 5 consecutive days.  Brown patch pressure is lowest on TTTF with a higher height of cut, which is a bit counter-intuitive... one study had the lowest incidence of brown patch at a cutting height of 6 for tall fescue!
• Gray Leaf Spot is common on perennial ryegrass but has largely been rendered insignificant... higher quality perennial ryegrass will generally have adequate gray leaf spot resistance for most areas, but deeper in the transition zone breeding may not be enough.  This disease prefers high summer nitrogen and is most prevalent when night temps exceed 65º.  Chlorothalinyl is one effective chemistry.
• Pythium blight is one reason perennial ryegrass is not recommended deeper into the transition zone.  Like most nitrogen loving diseases, higher temperatures and too much water are the main triggers.  Not common until night temps exceed 70º.  Breeding has not successfully reduced pythium performance in PRG.  All cool-season grass families can be targeted by pythium under the right conditions but PRG is the most susceptible.  A good 'if it hits the fan' fungicide to keep on hand for pythium (especially in the transition zone) is Thiophanate Methyl.  Pythium blight is one disease you really don't want because it can do a lot of damage in a matter of days.

General Cultural Practices for Less Disease

• For lowest disease pressure and best turf quality, irrigate at a 2-3 day watering interval.  "Deep and infrequent" watering (such as once a week) DOES NOT align with best turf quality or less disease for watering interval research.  Shallow and frequent watering (such as every 2 days) consistently outperforms watering less often in larger amounts (such as 1" once a week).  Deep and infrequent watering is not ideal and has been thoroughly debunked by approximately 10 studies.
• If resorting to fungicides - which are more necessary in the east and in the transition zone - it is important to select an active ingredient known to be effective against your target disease.  To diagnose the disease, start by Googling what diseases are common for your grass family and research the temperature triggers of this common diseases and known contributing factors such as dew, thatch, high nitrogen, low nitrogen, irregular mowing, etc.
• Too much water can do far more damage than not enough water in most cases.  Avoid overwatering and avoid water before precipitation is expected.  When in doubt, do without... pulling a few soil cores in good areas vs. bad areas can be a trick to learn what your grass prefers for soil moisture.

Accurate Watering

• Water accurately at Evapotranspiration x Crop Co-efficient, or 1/2" of water every 3 days during drought works well for most areas (more water may be needed in the Southwest and certain other areas).  Cake pans work well to get the irrigation rate per minute in each zone and an more automated irrigation calculator can be found here: Sprinkler Runtime Calculator: https://bmonticello.github.io/sprinkler-calculator/

Watering Math

• For best turf quality, irrigate at current reference evapotranspiration multiplied by an ideal crop co-efficient to match your cutting height and grass family.
• For up to date refreshable reference evapotranspiration, click here.  >>> Tip: to customize this map, zoom into your area and then click "Create a bookmarkable URL"... make sure you set the drop down box to WEEKLY FRET.

Approximate crop co-efficients for ideal turf are as follows (please be advised that these are loose numbers off the top of my head and are based on modern genetics... starting point numbers.  In shade, less water is needed... in sections of the lawn with more wind or near concrete more water may be needed.

• Perennial Ryegrass
  • 3/4" Height of Cut - x 0.80
  • 1-3/8" Height of Cut - x 0.75
  • 2" Height of Cut - x 0.70
  • 3"+ Height of Cut - x 0.65
• Kentucky Bluegrass
  • 3/4" Height of Cut - x 1.00
  • 1-3/8" Height of Cut - x 0.90
  • 2" Height of Cut - x 0.80
  • 3"+ Height of Cut - x 0.75
• Turf Type Tall Fescue
  
  • 1.5" Height of Cut - x .80
  • 2" Height of Cut - x 0.70
  • 3" Height of Cut - x 0.65
  • 4"+ Height of Cut - x 0.60
• Fine Fescue
  • All cutting Heights - Approximately x 1.0

Seedhead Reset Procedure (recommended annually FOR PERENNIAL RYEGRASS ONLY)

Perennial rye has unusually nasty woody seed head stocks that can leave a yellow hue to your lawn for months and months if not addressed.  An annual "seedhead reset" can greatly reduce the effects of this undesirable trait of ryegrass (see below).  A seedhead reset is moderately stressful to the lawn and ideally should not be attempted under times of high disease pressure or other major stresses.  In areas with higher disease pressure (east especially) a less intense scalping height would probably be prudent.

1. Once the seedhead stage starts each year, mow at the usual mowing height for about a month
2. Then, mow often (with very sharp blades) and gradually reduce the mowing height over the next few weeks down to approximately half the preferred cutting height.
3. About 1 week before the lowest mow, apply approximately  .5# of nitrogen and make sure the lawn is receiving around 1" of water per week via rainfall and irrigation (early AM water is efficient and may minimizes disease pressure... around 1/2" of water every 3-4 days is an approximation for most areas during drought.)
4. Return to your original cutting height.  The seed head stocks should be hidden below soft new blades of grass and the straw colored  seedhead stocks should be hidden from view.