Aerator/Seeding/roller use and procedure?

[Rock Crawler]

I have about 3 acres, 0.5 acres of 28 year old SOD that is treated 2 times a year by a company I pay $85 each time, and then 2.5 acres of what once was a hay or straw pasture. I keep all mowed short and tight. What I want to do is convert the 2.5 acres less into broad leaf and wild grass and more into a thicker grass typical of a home yard.

Do you plug and then seed and follow with a roller?

I'm looking at renting a large Woods 3-point plugger ($95 for a day) and then I have a 435 LB 42" roller, but I have access to a 950 LB 66" roller. I want to run my 2.5 acre pasture and try to get more grass rather than the naturally occurring grassy stuff that inhabits the old straw field. You can still see the difference 28 years later between the sod around the house and the transition to the wild grass.

I'm also thinking of fertilizing the 2.5 acres with Scott's fertilizer with the broad leaf/weed control, and mixing in grub control as well. I have quite the mole city that I would like to chase back into the 12 acres of woods behind the yard.

My fear with the Scott's product is... what if I spread that out here in the next month and essentially kill the entire 2.5 acres and end up with a dirt yard!

Photos of the 2.5 acres are attached.

I'm not well versed in lawn care. In my life I have simply paid the fellow to spray, I cut/trim and it is what it is.

 

[Turbys_1700]

Your landscape is beautiful. Mine is pathetic. Most folks around here plug and reseed in the fall. Usually here that is in mid September until mid November. Without water the seed will not do much of anything.

Never tried the Scott's products. I am sure they are excellent but pricey. We just stick to regular triple 17 and lime. The soil around here needs lime.

My mother has a professional landscaper take care of her place. That is his procedure. He does use slow release fertilizer but I don't know the specific product. Her place is immaculate.

 

[Old Red]

WOW....that is some steep terrain to mow.

Go out right this minute and put down some pre-emergent fetilizer. I put down about 200lbs per acre of the crabgrass preventer that can be bought at rural king.....do it now and again in April. Keep the broadleaf sprayed all summer.....then in the fall aerate and overseen in September with a tall turf type fescue.....that is about it...get soil samples and amend according to analysis.

Theo there option is to do nothing.

I have been doing this lawn fertilization and overseeding for years.....roller is NOT necessary. I have a 1st products aeravator.....look it up....it is hands down the best aeration tool on the market....watch for Craigslists adds in your region....several states and see if you can't find one....good way to make some extra $$ as well. I sold my first one and had a guy drive 6 hours one way to buy it.

 

[Rock Crawler]

I'm not familiar with "Triple 17", and I just attempted a google search and did not turn up anything. Can you expand on that product, you peaked my interest by noting that it is likely less costly than the Scott's. Scott's is pretty pricey with 15,000 SQ/FT coverage per $60 bag.

 

[Old Red]

I'm not familiar with "Triple 17", and I just attempted a google search and did not turn up anything. Can you expand on that product, you peaked my interest by noting that it is likely less costly than the Scott's. Scott's is pretty pricey with 15,000 SQ/FT coverage per $60 bag.

It is just a blend of fertilizer....triple 17, triple 10, triple 19 and what not. It is the percentage of Potash, Nitrogen, etc. of the three fertilizers that are blended in that bag. For your purposes and what you are wanting to do it doesn't mean near as much as the advice I gave you.

 

[Rock Crawler]

WOW....that is some steep terrain to mow.

Go out right this minute and put down some pre-emergent fetilizer. I put down about 200lbs per acre of the crabgrass preventer that can be bought at rural king.....do it now and again in April. Keep the broadleaf sprayed all summer.....then in the fall aerate and overseen in September with a tall turf type fescue.....that is about it...get soil samples and amend according to analysis.

Theo there option is to do nothing.

I have been doing this lawn fertilization and overseeding for years.....roller is NOT necessary. I have a 1st products aeravator.....look it up....it is hands down the best aeration tool on the market....watch for Craigslists adds in your region....several states and see if you can't find one....good way to make some extra $$ as well. I sold my first one and had a guy drive 6 hours one way to buy it.

LOL, that is the "flat" part of my property. It's steeper down into the woods.

That machine your referring to.... WOW! $7,400 for the 60". That is more serious than I am willing to buy in to! That is one bad to the bone machine with the vibration on top of the plug knives. But the expense is far past my imagined budget to try to improve my yard.

Is there a way to buy bulk (non retail) pre-emergent? At your recommended rate, I would need around 500 lbs, at $60 per 40 lb retail bag of Scott's that would be $780 per application in Scott's. That seems really excessive.

 

[Old Red]

LOL, that is the "flat" part of my property. It's steeper down into the woods.

That machine your referring to.... WOW! $7,400 for the 60". That is more serious than I am willing to buy in to! That is one bad to the bone machine with the vibration on top of the plug knives. But the expense is far past my imagined budget to try to improve my yard.

Is there a way to buy bulk (non retail) pre-emergent? At your recommended rate, I would need around 500 lbs, at $60 per 40 lb retail bag of Scott's that would be $780 per application in Scott's. That seems really excessive.

I bought my first on for $600. It was a 60 inch model that attached to my grasshopper. The one I use now I paid $3,500 for. Bought it brand new. You can do a similar job with an aerator for the back of your tractor...probably can rent one somewhere...I used to rent a bluebird that had 5 gallon water jugs you filled up for weight and put it behind my Honda four wheeler......and it did a good enough job. Do not buy Scotts. Rural King has 40lb bags for $17.99 a bag. If you have a sprayer you can use Dimension. It can be purchased at domyownpestcontrol.com. I actually do a granular application now and then my second application I will use dimension spray mixed with 24d. Dimension is the same chemical that can be found in the bags of pre emergent fertilizer at rural king...It works great.

Oh...and PS...lawn maintenance is not cheap...but I have found the least expensive ways you can to do it well and do it right.

 

[Rock Crawler]

Is there an advantage of granular over sprayed? I can buy a sprayer or a broadcast spreader, since I have not made that call yet, I am flexible.

 

[Old Red]

Is there an advantage of granular over sprayed? I can buy a sprayer or a broadcast spreader, since I have not made that call yet, I am flexible.

Really need both. Need a spreader to spread your fertilizer and sprayer to spray weeds. What I have found as the only decent weed control in a granular application is the pre-emergent. Only reason I didn't spray pre emergent this weekend is my lawn was too wet. So I spread with a push spreader.

 

[Rock Crawler]

When you say spray weeds, are you talking about spray my entire yard or are you talking about going around and picking and choosing individual items to spray with something like a garden sprayer? I was sort of planning on buying the pre-emergent style granular and buying an Agri Fab spreader for around $200 at Rural King and basically covering the entire two and a half acres with that. While I was doing that I was going to mix in the grub killer to try to get the moles to move out of the yard and Into the Woods. So essentially I planned on mixing it in the hopper a combination of the pre-emergent weed killer and the grub killer and putting that slurry out over the grass.

 

[oldballs]

Sounds like to me that Old Red is giving good advice. I can only add that I cover 3 acres walking behind an Earthway Even Spread rotary spreader. It seemed like the cheapest, overall easiest way to spread fertilizer and weed killer/preventers. But I am retired and a pretty healthy old gizzer. It holds about 100 lbs if full and you are man enough to push it uphill.

Converting an old pasture to a decent lawn will probably take a couple seasons and then it gets easier to spot spray invaders. But it is costly as opposed to just mowing whatever grows.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Old Red]

Sounds like to me that Old Red is giving good advice. I can only add that I cover 3 acres walking behind an Earthway Even Spread rotary spreader. It seemed like the cheapest, overall easiest way to spread fertilizer and weed killer/preventers. But I am retired and a pretty healthy old gizzer. It holds about 100 lbs if full and you are man enough to push it uphill.

Converting an old pasture to a decent lawn will probably take a couple seasons and then it gets easier to spot spray invaders. But it is costly as opposed to just mowing whatever grows.

Cheers,
Mike

Thanks....and you just gave some amazing advice yourself. Everyone want to use their tractors to spread fertilizer....but I spread 200 lbs of fertilizer in this spreader Sunday over an acre in 20 minutes from start to finish....that included cutting open bags pouring in etc. etc. This thing is a fantastic spreader.....and I mean fantastic....it has had 1,000s of pounds of fertilizer and pelletized lime and tall fescue grass seed run through it. Can't say enough good about this earth way spreader. The only place where I differ is that I like he 50 lb capacity hopper....however.....I could fill up the 100 lb spreader only half full and I would have the same thing I reckon.

That is not me pushing it....I am much healthier than that feller. I bought mine April 4, 2012 from Amazon.

 

[Streetcar]

Rock crawler
Have your soil tested. In Cincinnati I apply balance fertilizer 17-17-17 in spring with pre- emergent in it, in fall apply 24-3-3 near Labor Day and Halloween. Seed in September.
Moles eat all types of insects, only apply grub killer if they are heavy in your yard. Otherwise you are wasting money.
I get fertilizer and seed from landscape supply company.
This is for sports fields
I roll only the areas that the teams tear up.
As others have said lawn care is not cheap, but least expensive way is to do it right the first time

 

[oldballs]

As to Moles, I've become good as a mole trapper with the old Victor plunger spike traps. One Mole to a newbie can look like a whole army. It takes some experience to set the traps and get a kill right away.

 

[Rock Crawler]

I'd say half of my 2.5 is extremely tunneled. My dog hunts them and kills them, but she's no match to the numbers.

 

[sixdogs]

For the projects I do, I spray 2,4-D amine in the fall when it's cold and the leaves are gone. The product is less volatile then and you kill broadleaf weeds with less collateral damage of bedding plants. It works great and make sure to do before a hard freeze. I use a 20 ft wide boom spryer but you can buy a 10 ft wide version from the farm stores that works great.

Spraying fertilizer sounds great but does not work in confined areas like edges and corners where a sprayer can't reach. I use a Vicon, now Kubota 1000 lb dry spreader and it takes just a few minutes do a beautiful job. The Earthway model posted earlier is also an excellent idea, does a good job and is perfect cardio exercise. It just takes a while. I would not be afraid of the Earthway model and use one occasionally.

For fertilizer, the best idea is to do a simple soil test and do what they say. Likely it will be a 21-2-10 or similar. You don't need the middle number--phosphorus--because most of it runs off and it's a severe pollutant in waterways. Best time for fertilizer is early summer and late fall. If you going to do it only once, go for mid November and something like 31-6-10 @ 250 lbs to the acre or whatever the soil test says.

Spring fertilizer invites disease so if you want to do it, put it on after the flush of spring is gone, say late May or early June and any fertilizer is done immediately before a soaking rain. If the ground is dry you could "burn" the grass. On gophers, moles, etc, you need plan to get rid of the grubs that are their food. A few cats does a good job too, just don't poison the cats.

 

[Streetcar]

Ohio State extension service did study that was online for turf maintenance. The Fall feedings are the most important for good turf growth. Summer is worst time to feed

 

[Old Red]

Yes, I only do fall feedings except in the case of a pre-emergent in late winter....February is a good time. Then I will usually switch to spray. You can also get granular pre-emergent without any nitrogen in it.