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On 3/6/2018 at 6:35 AM, gleninjersey said:

Stage 1 / fertilizer with crab grass preventer should be going down next 2-3 weeks I would think.

Time to drop the lawn mower blades off for sharpening or YouTube how to do it myself and save a few dollars.

Okay, MAYBE this weekend or next weekend it will FINALLY really, truly be Spring and it will be warm enough to put down Stage 1? Maybe? :)

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Unless the lawn is completely trashed, It's generally recommended to overseed late summer or early fall.  By putting down Step 1 now you're giving the lawn a feeding AND putting down a pre-emergent preventor for crab grass.

Not saying you can't seed now BUT you WILL have crab grass later.  I would recommend feeding and knocking out the crab grass now.  In two months or so you can always do a light overseeing or spot treat problem areas.  

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One of the best ways I have found to overseed is to rent a aerator, which punches a whole bunch of holes in the lawn. When the seed is put down, it falls into the holes. This keeps the seed from drying out, like it does when it lays on the surface. Plus, it helps set the roots for the seed further down into the ground, making it more drought resistant for the Summer.

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1 hour ago, Handyman said:

How deep do you set the aerator?

It's usually pre-set on the aerator or adjustable on some. If I remember (it's been a while, I do sod now), it pulls out dirt cores that are like 1-1/2" - 2" long.

Lawn2-830x500.jpg

AGR-Aerator-TURF-Pull-FA600TW-4.jpg

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1 hour ago, bry@n said:

Seed in the fall. You can aerate early spring and in the fall. 

 

I have an aerator. Makes things easier. 

No doubt, fall is the best time of the year to seed, but it's not the only time of the year. 

The cooler fall season helps with germination as the soil does not dry out as fast.  The key to successful overseeing (re-seeding an established lawn) hinges on two things.  Soil contact and keeping the ground wet until the seedlings are rooted deep enough to draw moisture from deeper soil. While seed put down in the fall does germinate, I am also confident that a good percentage of seed does not actually germinate until spring.  When you seed in the fall the lawn will improve but the real magic happen in the spring.

I have seeded new lawns in the middle of summer and they came out great.  This was only possible by having a sprinkler system that could be programmed to come on for 5 minutes every 20 minutes until the seedlings were rooted.  Where there were not in-ground sprinkler systems, I used hoses and several programmable  timers on a water spigot manifold as a temporary sprinkler system until the seedlings were established.

Aeration serves one purpose, to loosen firmly compacted soil. Aerators are especially useful on soil with a lot of clay.  Aeration is often used when seeding or overseeding.  Think about this, how deep does one plant a seed?  Grass seed only needs to be a quarter or half inch or so under the soil so why would you want to bury a seed 1.5" or 2" under the soil. Core aeration loosens the soil so roots can grow more easily in looser soil, not for seeds to go down and germinate.

If you have bare soil or thin patches of grass or even weedy areas, you can still seed now. Spot kill weeds with roundup or if you have large areas, just carpet bomb the area. Roundup does not kill seeds (prevent germination)  and it is safe to seed 24 hours after application, though I usually wait a few days anyway.  Roundup is a systemic herbicide, meaning it only kills plants that already have leafs

As far as equipment is concerned, over seeders are the best but slicers are good too.  I would not depend on a core aerator alone to renew a lawn.

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4 hours ago, Handyman said:

If you put down Step 1 and then have Armageddon like rains (e.g. today) should you reapply it?

I’m thinking most of it is out by the Gulf Stream on the way to Spain.

I dunno. A good amount could have perked. On a slope? Gonner fo sure!

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Just now, Scorpio64 said:

Not if you use an overseeder.  They are a pain in the ass and expensive to buy or rent but they always work.  Seed does not wash off because it's a half inch under ground.

@Handyman not talking bout seed bro.. he talking bout chemicals.

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6 hours ago, Handyman said:

If you put down Step 1 and then have Armageddon like rains (e.g. today) should you reapply it?

I’m thinking most of it is out by the Gulf Stream on the way to Spain.

http://community.homedepot.com/howto/DiscussionDetail/Scotts-4-step-step-1-and-rain-9065000000008Z0

Product page says 1/4 - 1/2" of rainfall within 2-3 days of application... Dunno about overwatering - we got over 1" of rainfall...

 

https://www.scotts.com/en-us/products/lawn-food/scotts-step-1-crabgrass-preventer-plus-lawn-food

HOW TO USE

Apply when grass is dry. Set spreader: See spreader settings above for the appropriate setting for your spreader. For best results, use a Scotts® spreader. Product does not need to be watered in, but for best results, the lawn should receive 1/4 to 1/2 inch of water from rainfall or watering within 2-3 days after application.

 
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Got home from work at 7:15.  Got changed and ate a quick dinner.  By 7:45 was putting down Lesco Crabgrass Pre-Emergent with ferilizer.  Did my yard and my neighbor's back yard (we have small yards).

Suppossed to rain starting late tomorrow night into following afternoon.  Hopefully will be just enough to soak it into the lawn without washing it away.  

So get it down tomorrow afternoon or Friday afternoon.  40% for rain showers Saturday morning near me.

Buh-bye crabgrass! 

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I was mowing da lawn Sunday and I mowed over a couple of pine cones.  So now I'm hearing a strange noise, Kinda gear grinding ish.  I'm sporting a craftsman rear wheel drive mower. So I release the handle and the mower shut off,  I tilt the deck to one side and look at it and everything looks OK.  I restart the mower go about another 10'  and shut the mower off again  and i still hear n grind spinning noise.  I wait about 10 seconds and tilt the deck  and the blade fell off and landed on my sneaker. It fell off and was not spinning.  I think I got lucky !!!!   I  Put the blade back on and made sure it was tight and continued mowing.:good: 

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I think the instructions on the bag say 30 days.   It's quite a bit of time.    A lot of rain after application may reduce that, and if you are also putting down a thin layer of lawn soil on top of the thin spots before reseeding that will also help; it allows the seeds to germinate in untreated soil.

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I ended up buying a refurb greenworks 60v mower and 3 refurb batteries from the greenworks store on eBay.  I think total for all was about $350, I re-sold one of the batteries to my neighbor as his “buy-in” to use it.

So far it’s mowed my neighbor’s, my GF’s and my lawns.  I’m finding it takes ~1.5 batteries to get through a lawn.

I’m fairly happy with it so far - it’s chewed through thick grass as all of us were late for our first mowing.  Only con I’ve seen is that it has some kind of “sensor” that is supposed to adjust the blade rpm to match how tough the grass is.  As far as I can tell it just increases/decreases the RPM’s randomly between two speeds, but doesn’t seem to effect the grass cutting.

Also bought a greenworks chainsaw that uses the same battery.  Works surprisingly well, although I’ve dulled a chain already - was trying to cut through a “Y” in a small tree and noticed that the saw was spinning but suddenly stopped cutting.  Inspected the chain, all the teeth were battered.  Finally found a rock that was nestled in the crotch of the Y - must have been tossed there by a snowblower sometime in the past and the tree grew around it.

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1 hour ago, DirtyDigz said:

BTW, I’ve got some spots in my lawn that are bare with really sandy soil.  Is there a type of grass that will grow will in that I can get, or should I shovel it out and lay in some new topsoil?

I add a compost soil mix after I scarify the areas. I’m going KY blue all the way.

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