SEEDING A NEW LAWN

[W5FL]

duster,

Thanks for the detailed description of the seeder. I really would like to have a no till seeder, but will probably have to keep searching for a used one as they are too high for just occassional use. It doesn't have to be over 6 ft wide to be useful, although most are much wider.

I have an old converted horse drawn one row coastal sprigger (or corn or anything else that has seeds) but the ground has to be soft to get it to open and cover the sprigs or seeds. Someone has to ride the thing and drop the sprigs down the chute, but it works pretty well for sprigging a few acres on a Saturday afternoon.

 

[Bird]

Yeah, Wen, and I suspect what you and I consider to be a drought, and what folks in Michigan consider to be a drought, are two different things. My last little bit of rain was 6/19/00, and with 90 degrees in the shade, and most of the grass in the sun where it's much hotter, you can already see the effects of summer./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Bird

 

[JimBinMI]

Bird,

Don't know if our definitions of drought are anywhere close, but I've had a lawn before that was all brown! Last summer, I got my TC18 in late June and only had to mow three-four times the rest of the summer and fall.

I've never been to Texas but some folks that I met at a conference in Providence, RI about 5 years ago, wonderful ladies from the education profession in Texas had no clue what Michigan was like. The humidity in Providence was terrible and they were very uncomfortable and we told them it was like that in Michigan too, when they saw the beatiful boats at Newport beach, we told them it looked like that along the western coast of Michigan at Lake Michigan too. I think we still have more registered boats than any other state too...at least last I knew. Michigan is definitely a "true" four season state!

Hope you had a great neighborhood get-together and fourth!

JimBinMI

We boys and our toys!

 

[W5FL]

Bird,

You talking North past the Great Wall of Mason Dixon? /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[EddieW]

I have a fescue lawn and have never spread any straw on it. Probably the only person in AMerica stupid enough to grow fescue soth of the MAson-Dixon Line. I do make sure to cover the seeds with dirt and keep it really wet for about a week. I wouldn't dream of seeding this time of year but it does great in the fall and spring when tempatures are cooler.
Now for my question, I filled in on old pond that wouldn't hold water, I need to get some grass or seeds on it and it is too far from my house to water so I am going to have to depend on rain. Normally it stpos raining in July and August around here with 100 degree tempatures pretty common. Has anybody ever tried bermuda sprigs this time of year? If I till them under will they have a chance at staying alive or even prospering?

 

[W5FL]

I sprigged about 7 1/2 acres in Coastal Bermuda Sprigs about 2 months ago. That was really too late for this area (N. Texas), but due to nice rains, it is spreading nicely and pretty well rooted now. The best time to sprig is in January and can be sprigged through April. I tilled my land about 7 inches deep with rains between tilling and then after a rain, sprigged it about 3 or 4 inches deep. Took a couple of week ends to get it ready, but only about 2 hours to sprig the bermuda.

I would think any planted now would not survive the hot summer heat; however, this has been a strange year. If you are feeling lucky and can order your rains about 21 days apart, stranger things have happened. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif All this **** Johnson Grass came through the glacial periods.

 

[Bird]

JimBinMI, I got my new tractor and finish mower last year on 8/12/99 and it was so dry I didn't need to try out that new mower until this spring. When I lived in the city and watered a lawn, I did my last mowing of the year two Saturdays before Thanksgiving (went to Port Aransas for the week of Thanksgiving to visit my parents and do some fishing).

Only visited the southern end of Michigan briefly in the Fall of '90 while traveling, and had to fly to Flint on business for a week several years earlier, so I haven't actually seen much of that state. Before I retired and left the city, one of our neighbors and good friends was from farther north in Michigan so I heard a lot about it for about 10 years./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif And from what little I saw, it's a pretty state, but I believe (don't really know) that you get a little more rain than we do. Last year, I got 20.7 inches for the year, although the "normal" is a little over 30 inches.

Bird

 

[Bird]

I don't know a lot about grass, and I only learned fairly recently that there are several kinds of "fescure", so maybe some of them are all right, but after my experience with a next door neighbor with "fescue" in the city, I think I'd be tempted to shoot anyone who dropped a fescue seed on my property. I'd rather have Johnson Grass; at least I know how to get rid of that!

Bird

 

[jyoutz]

Alan, your post is very accurate, but I don't necessarily agree regarding seed mixes. The turf growers do it all the time. Quite often, annual ryes are seeded as "nurse crops" for bluegrass. It is true that a single species mix is overall the most beautiful, but multi-species mixes tend to be more disease resistent overall, and therefore more durable for the long term. Still-bluegrass is very tough and barring any disease problems is very tough to kill. Also another reason for mixes is the situation of varying sun/shade areas. With a mix, the most adaptable species becomes dominant in its own niche.

 

[EddieW]

Bird, Fescue can sure be a nuisance if you don't want it. The way to kill it is wait for the bermuda grass to go dormant in the fall and put Round-up or Finale on it. You can also just take a shovel and turn it over. Unlike bermuda grass, it won't grow upside down. The stuff I have is so fine bladed I can't tell the difference between it and U-3 bermuda grass. I have some native fescue in my pasture and it looks like Johnson grass compared to the lawn fescues I use. I suspect that's what you had in your lawn and you are right, It looks terrible mixed in with the fine bladed grasses in the lawn. I use a hybrid called Crossfire II and it does good here in the heat. I have tried Cambridge, Aztec, and a couple of other hybrids but they don't seem to do as well or have the great dark green color the Crossfire II has. If you have any shade trees where bermuda won't grow, try some of the hybrid and I guarantee the only time you will know it is there is in the winter when the bermuda goes dormant and it stays green. If I didn't have fescue, my lawn would be brown from November to April. As far south as you are you probably don't have as long a dormant period for bermuda grass. Another problem with fescue is it gets a fungus that will cause mares to abort if they eat it. I think some of the newer strands are resistant to the fungus but if I were still raising horses, I wouldn't be raising fescue.