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I wasn’t quite happy with the lawn color in the Thanksgiving Day photos, so I’ve added iron twice since then for a grand total of 12 ounces per thousand. That would be very high for a non-elite bluegrass, although elite bluegrasses just turn very dark greens. That’s the last for the year, and this shot should last right into early spring. As always, click on any photo to make it larger. The standard shot: Across the back: The lawn’s doing very well for November, although I have a feeling that a lot of my winterizer washed through and got lost in the 2 1/2″ of rain we got. If I see evidence of that, I’ll do a partial re-winterization over the next few weeks. As always, click any image to embiggen it. The standard shot, with extra leaves. I sent the mower out to take care of it just after I took this shot:
A shot across the back, including the last of the trees that’s currently de-leafing all over the lawn. Myrtle (the robotic lawnmower) had just chopped through these:
The southern face:
Bonus Image! My Christmas cactus decided to bloom a little early this year:
I winterized the lawn today with Vigoro Super Green, which contains enough slow-release nitrogen to keep my lawn green over the winter (as it doesn’t tend to go dormant). This marks the last addition for the year. This year’s total organic amount is well down from last year’s 450 pounds per thousand, and far down from the 1,200 the year before. Updated December 4, 2011: I winterized for a second time and I’ve added some foliar nitrogen as well. I added the extra line and updated the information.
This will be the last update for the BTEP until spring 2012. I might get one more mowing in and will apply urea winterizer at the appropriate time in November. This fall my lawn had issues with rust and possibly some other fungus (might be leaf spot). The BTEP plot was not immune, but it is also not uncommon for new KBG to have rust issues in its infancy. Some cultivars did better than others, but none were affected to the point of noticing any diseased blades or discoloration from afar. Here is a closeup of the worst affected area in the Midnight Star plot:
The following are my subjective and unscientific observations regarding Leaf Width, Color, Effect of Tenacity (2 sprays 7 days apart in October at 5oz/acre), and the presence of Fungus (rust and perhaps leaf spot). Keep in mind that the grass is only about 10 weeks old, so these results should be taken with a grain of salt (or potassium LW: Leaf Width – Fine, Medium-Fine, Medium, Medium-Coarse, Coarse
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The grasses are all grown up and have had a couple of haircuts! However, as you will see from the pictures, the weeds have moved in and I’m having a heck of a time trying to control them. The weeds I am getting span from broadleafs, to clover-like, to chickweed-like, to grassy. I first used Quinclorac w/ MSO. No effect. Then I used plain Weed-B-Gon. No effect. Last weekend I brought out the heavy artillery and sprayed Tenacity with a NIS at the spot spray rate. I’m hoping for some white weeds in the near future, and will be interested to see how the individual cultivars react to the Tenacity. I will report on that once I start to see results. 60 day pictures Full Plot Compact America. Clockwise from Top Left: America, Bedazzled, Prosperity, Boutique.
Compact Midnight: Clockwise from Top Left: Blue Velvet, Midnight, Midnight II, Midnight Star.
Aggressive: Left to Right: Julius, Emblem.
Big Box Blend: Top half: Schultz (mostly Barrister, a Compact Midnight), Bottom Half: Scott’s (mostly Abbey, a BVMG type).
Compact: Diva.
Compacts: Clockwise from Top Left: Bewitched, Blueberry, Moonbeam, Moonlight SLT.
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I’m already done with the gardens’ feeding for the year, so I guess it’s time to add the amounts for the year. In addition to the Milorganite, I fed with Miracle Gro 24-8-16 from May through early July at a bit under half rate weekly through my EZ-Flo irrigation system. From early July to mid-September, I used K-Gro from K-Mart 15-30-15 to encourage flowering. That was also at about half rate weekly through the EZ-Flo system. Organic additions were about 100 pounds per thousand less than last year, until you consider that 19 cubic yards of mulch went onto the gardens this year for an additional amount of 3,000 pounds per thousand square feet. That was an extraordinarily heavy addition of mulch.
The weather’s been pretty bad for the last two months with nearly constant rain, so color and density have suffered. Fortunately, the weather temporarily cleared, so hopefully things will improve. First, the standard shot. As always, you can click on any image to embiggen it. The gardens are still doing pretty well for October: The Impatiens don’t seem to mind the weather:
I was out doing some yard work today, and it was overcast, so I felt the conditions were good for a photo update. The colors showed up well on camera. Once again, I took pictures according to type. Compact America. Clockwise from Top Left: America, Bedazzled, Prosperity, Boutique. Compact Midnight: Clockwise from Top Left: Blue Velvet, Midnight, Midnight II, Midnight Star. Aggressive: Left to Right: Julius, Emblem. Big Box Blend: Top half: Schultz (mostly Barrister, a Compact Midnight), Bottom Half: Scott’s (mostly Abbey, a BVMG type). Darned if I can tell the difference. One of the lightest. Compact: Diva. Couldn’t fit all 5 Compacts in the same frame, so Diva fits its name and gets its own picture. I really want to like Diva because of its purported water-miser tendencies, but man is it bright green, almost neon Compacts: Clockwise from Top Left: Bewitched, Blueberry, Moonbeam, Moonlight SLT.
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Here is an 30 day overview picture, and my subjective opinions on color: Dark Green: Prosperity, Midnight Star (lightest), Blue Velvet (lightest), Moonbeam, Bewitched, Blueberry, Emblem (darkest) Medium Green: Boutique, Midnight II, Midnight, Moonlight SLT Light Green: America (darkest), Bedazzled, Diva, Julius, Schultz/Scotts
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I took some photos to show how the cultivars “look” and so you can get a better idea on germination progress. I can’t think of a good way to measure the time at which 100% germination has taken place since some of the “laggards” may have been caused by bad seed, washout, erratic seed distribution on my part, etc. I’ll just let the photos speak for themselves. Whole Plot Compact Americas – Clockwise from top left: America, Bedazzled, Prosperity, Boutique. All are doing quite well and are at or near full germination. A corner of the Bedazzled got washed out and germinated “outside the box”. Compact Midnights – Clockwise from top left: Blue Velvet, Midnight, Midnight II, Midnight Star. Aggressive – left to right: Julius, Emblem. I’m just waiting for day 50 to see if Emblem really takes off like Andy says it does. Regardless, Emblem would not be a good cultivar to use to overseed. It would not get established quickly enough to oversome the existing grass and the mowing. Big Box Store Mix – Hey it looks great right now. Can’t complain. We’ll see next year. Compact – top row, left to right : Bewitched, Blueberry. Bottom row, left to right: Monlight SLT, Moonbeam, Diva. I really don’t know what’s going on with Blueberry. It took off like a rocket, but ever since day 7 or 8, it has looked pretty much the same. Bewitched and Moonbeam have been slow from the beginning. I have been impressed with Diva. If it ends up being dark enough, I will seriously consider it, assuming the claims that it is a water miser are true.
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