What kind of weed is this?

#51
#51
1972 Grad said:
I use to do the whole 9 yards on the lawn, adding tons of lime to get my ph right on nothing but red clay, pre-emergents, herbicides, fungicides, fertilizer, adding organic material, reseeding with the best turf type fescues, dethatching, aerating, etc. and I did it all myself. I had a little over an acre that I did all that to, and let the other acre down the hill do whatever it was going to do.

After a couple of really dry Summers, a lot of my yard died, to be replaced by weeds, and I said to hell with it. I mow whatever comes up. I decided that without irrigation, it was pointless, and I wasn't going to irrigate. We are also in a transition zone between cool weather grasses (like fescue) and warm weather grasses (like Bermuda and Zoysia) here in East Tennessee. You have to decide if you want your lawn to look nice in the hot months or in the cold months, unless you have water.

It is really hard to get fescue to germinate and live in such a small window of time. You sow it in the Spring, and it germinates, then dies in the Summer heat because it isn't well established. You sow it in the Fall, and if you are a little early, it gets dry in October and dies. You sow in late Fall, and it turns cold early and freezes it before it gets established. I also have never had luck with dormant seeding either. In my opinion , you need to get lucky with the rain and the temperatures to establish a nice fescue lawn, or you have to irrigate.
Click to expand...

You're 100% right in everything you said above. I came very close to installing the irrigation system myself. I changed to zoysia and havent looked back. Embrace the winter golden brown....its worth it for a nice summer.
 
#52
#52
jp1 said:
You're 100% right in everything you said above. I came very close to installing the irrigation system myself. I changed to zoysia and havent looked back. Embrace the winter golden brown....its worth it for a nice summer.
Click to expand...
My brother changed his to Zoysia many years ago. It looks fantastic this time of year.
 
#53
#53
jp1 said:
You're 100% right in everything you said above. I came very close to installing the irrigation system myself. I changed to zoysia and havent looked back. Embrace the winter golden brown....its worth it for a nice summer.
Click to expand...
I will say that you can do much better with fescue if you have really good, deep topsoil. You are not as dependent upon a lot of rainfall. I had red clay. I have since moved from that house and yard.
 
#54
#54
Ultimately, it's not the kind of weed you can make any money on, but on the good side no jail time is involved either!
 
#55
#55
1972 Grad said:
I use to do the whole 9 yards on the lawn, adding tons of lime to get my ph right on nothing but red clay, pre-emergents, herbicides, fungicides, fertilizer, adding organic material, reseeding with the best turf type fescues, dethatching, aerating, etc. and I did it all myself. I had a little over an acre that I did all that to, and let the other acre down the hill do whatever it was going to do.

After a couple of really dry Summers, a lot of my yard died, to be replaced by weeds, and I said to hell with it. I mow whatever comes up. I decided that without irrigation, it was pointless, and I wasn't going to irrigate. We are also in a transition zone between cool weather grasses (like fescue) and warm weather grasses (like Bermuda and Zoysia) here in East Tennessee. You have to decide if you want your lawn to look nice in the hot months or in the cold months, unless you have water.

It is really hard to get fescue to germinate and live in such a small window of time. You sow it in the Spring, and it germinates, then dies in the Summer heat because it isn't well established. You sow it in the Fall, and if you are a little early, it gets dry in October and dies. You sow in late Fall, and it turns cold early and freezes it before it gets established. I also have never had luck with dormant seeding either. In my opinion , you need to get lucky with the rain and the temperatures to establish a nice fescue lawn, or you have to irrigate.
Click to expand...

We have some century plus old stands of Bluegrass covering a lot of the acreage around the old house. more then thick and well established. Like a beautiful carpet. Not much of anything grows up in it. We are on the Plateau around Cookeville.
 
#56
#56
MR_VOL said:
Ultimately, it's not the kind of weed you can make any money on, but on the good side no jail time is involved either!
Click to expand...

I knew guys in school that would have tried to smoke it anyway, just to see what it would do.
 
#59
#59
My cousin just bought a house in Phoenix. It's kind of cool that they don't need a lawnmower despite having a half acre of so.
 
#60
#60
Anyone had to treat for sod webworms? Recently I’ve mown my grass I’ve been dive-bombed by birds snatching up these little whitish moths that fly up from the grass as I cut it. Based on my research seems the webworm is the likely culprit.
 
#61
#61
This is one of those trap threads, isn't it? I opened it half expecting to be met with an intervention.
 
  • Like
Reactions: distrovol
#62
#62
golfballs said:
Anyone had to treat for sod webworms? Recently I’ve mown my grass I’ve been dive-bombed by birds snatching up these little whitish moths that fly up from the grass as I cut it. Based on my research seems the webworm is the likely culprit.
Click to expand...
You can usually see the webs on top of the grass in the morning dew if you have them..
 
#63
#63
GVF said:
We have some century plus old stands of Bluegrass covering a lot of the acreage around the old house. more then thick and well established. Like a beautiful carpet. Not much of anything grows up in it. We are on the Plateau around Cookeville.
Click to expand...
Cooler temps and good dirt.
 
#64
#64
1972 Grad said:
You can usually see the webs on top of the grass in the morning dew if you have them..
Click to expand...
Only webs I’ve seen are on my boxwoods. But I’ve read they are evident moreso on section of the yard that get warmer and more sunlight like along curbs and sidewalks. Which is the case for me - along the curb at the street my grass is slightly browned compared the the rest of the yard.
 
#66
#66
golfballs said:
Only webs I’ve seen are on my boxwoods. But I’ve read they are evident moreso on section of the yard that get warmer and more sunlight like along curbs and sidewalks. Which is the case for me - along the curb at the street my grass is slightly browned compared the the rest of the yard.
Click to expand...
Grass near pavement gets brown and/or dies from the heat.
 
#69
#69
Go aeiou said:
Is the bluegrass visable all summer? How long during the year.

Do you have any wild Bermuda grass?
Click to expand...


Yes. The bluegrass we have in that area does very well. It's the only grass in that area. Prob pushing 2 acres. In my yard I have a little of everything. Bermuda, centipede, weed.
 
#71
#71
golfballs said:
View attachment 211368
Like this?
There are more in my beds and on my yews and boxwoods
Click to expand...
Yep. Are there any damaged/dead patches yet? The larvae are what causes the damage. Near dark on warm nights, the adults fly around . They are poor flyers and only go a short distance. The adults are small pale brown moths that fly up out of the grass and land not too far away.

To see how infested (or if you are infested) you are, put a couple of tablespoons of dish soap in a gallon of water and spray a 2 by 2 foot area of the grass around a damaged spot in the grass. This will irritate the worms /caterpillars and they will come to the surface. If there are just a few, it's no big deal. Just rake them out. If there are a bunch of them, get back to me.
 
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top