Lawn Care

[Tobias]

sys is in california, fwiw

[puniraptor]

maybe! ever had it? any good? worth the effort?

[kso_FAN]

maybe! ever had it? any good? worth the effort?

I haven't, it would be interesting though. I just know some old guy that was friends with my dad when I was a kid used to make wine/moonshine from about anything; corn, dandelions, wild berries, etc. But I was like 7 so I never had any.

[Dr Rick Daris]

im not a lawn guy but having read through this thread at a visceral distance, the answer, it appears, as it is with most things, is the more chemicals, the better

and water. lots of water. I do the bare minimum to not be "that guy" in my neighborhood and have the bad yard. ten minutes per zone every other day in the summer if no rain. crabgrass preventer and then later spot spray. not that tough but still annoying.

40 minutes once per week is MUCH better than 10 minutes every other day.

my yard has a pretty decent slope so this is the worst possible advice that you could give me. but thanks for the bad advice as always, mikey.

[Cire]

what is that.

[Cire]

also, that god for the rain.  Ya know us grass farmers need it.

[Cire]

ku fans are probably all "uhg it's wet outside and I can't ride my bike"

Kstaters are all "boy we could sure use the moisture"

[slobber]

im not a lawn guy but having read through this thread at a visceral distance, the answer, it appears, as it is with most things, is the more chemicals, the better

and water. lots of water. I do the bare minimum to not be "that guy" in my neighborhood and have the bad yard. ten minutes per zone every other day in the summer if no rain. crabgrass preventer and then later spot spray. not that tough but still annoying.

40 minutes once per week is MUCH better than 10 minutes every other day.

my yard has a pretty decent slope so this is the worst possible advice that you could give me. but thanks for the bad advice as always, mikey.

Water 4 times a day for 10 minutes each time. Then take a couple of days off. Do not water every day, no matter how hot it is. Every other day is not horrible, but the idea is that you want to push the water deep to get the roots to grow deep so when you have a full profile of mositure in the soil the roots are able to use all of it. Roots don't grow when it is hot, so you have to establish the roots early in the spring and in the fall.
This also depends on the type of sprinkler head. A small fan sprinkler head will water the hell out of the same area in a 5 min period. A large rotating head is just getting things started after 12-15 minutes.

[Cire]

how do you go about watering in july when it is HAF and DAF?

seems like you wouldn't want to do it in the afternoon.  Is morning better than evening?

[Emo EMAW]

Mornings are better, but evenings are more practical (if you don't have a sprinkler system).

[Tobias]

i need to investigate trenching in a sprinkler setup for the backyard.  hand watering

[Dr Rick Daris]

im not a lawn guy but having read through this thread at a visceral distance, the answer, it appears, as it is with most things, is the more chemicals, the better

and water. lots of water. I do the bare minimum to not be "that guy" in my neighborhood and have the bad yard. ten minutes per zone every other day in the summer if no rain. crabgrass preventer and then later spot spray. not that tough but still annoying.

40 minutes once per week is MUCH better than 10 minutes every other day.

my yard has a pretty decent slope so this is the worst possible advice that you could give me. but thanks for the bad advice as always, mikey.

Water 4 times a day for 10 minutes each time. Do not water every day, no matter how hot it is.

bluevillenurserycat tells/told me that i should do each zone for ten minutes two times a day every other day and that i should do it around 4am. like cycle through all the zones and then immediately cycle through them again. my problem w/ this is that i am lazy and don't know how to program my programmer so i just manually turn them on in the morning if it hasn't rained for a couple of days. indoor related story to show my laziness- my thermostat suddenly started automatically going to 65 degrees at about 5pm late last summer. i'd get home from work and just mind my own business and then all of the sudden it would be really cold in the house and then i'd be all oh god darnit, guess it's 5pm. time to go manually adjust whatever the thermostat just automatically did. anyway, that went on for a month and then it got cold so i stopped using the AC. well the other day it was warm so we turned the thermostat to cool instead of heat. then around 6pm i'm all gosh darn it's kind of cold in here. guess what? the darn son of a gun was back at sixty five. have i figured out how to make it stop? no. no i haven't.

[Emo EMAW]

i need to investigate trenching in a sprinkler setup for the backyard.  hand watering

Me too. 

[Tobias]

oh man daris, are we brothers?  i don't let my sprinkler run on auto anymore because one month my water bill was like $350 and i think it was just running 24/7 whenever i'd sleep or something

[slobber]

im not a lawn guy but having read through this thread at a visceral distance, the answer, it appears, as it is with most things, is the more chemicals, the better

and water. lots of water. I do the bare minimum to not be "that guy" in my neighborhood and have the bad yard. ten minutes per zone every other day in the summer if no rain. crabgrass preventer and then later spot spray. not that tough but still annoying.

40 minutes once per week is MUCH better than 10 minutes every other day.

my yard has a pretty decent slope so this is the worst possible advice that you could give me. but thanks for the bad advice as always, mikey.

Water 4 times a day for 10 minutes each time. Do not water every day, no matter how hot it is.

bluevillenurserycat tells/told me that i should do each zone for ten minutes two times a day every other day and that i should do it around 4am. like cycle through all the zones and then immediately cycle through them again. my problem w/ this is that i am lazy and don't know how to program my programmer so i just manually turn them on in the morning if it hasn't rained for a couple of days. indoor related story to show my laziness- my thermostat suddenly started automatically going to 65 degrees at about 5pm late last summer. i'd get home from work and just mind my own business and then all of the sudden it would be really cold in the house and then i'd be all oh god darnit, guess it's 5pm. time to go manually adjust whatever the thermostat just automatically did. anyway, that went on for a month and then it got cold so i stopped using the AC. well the other day it was warm so we turned the thermostat to cool instead of heat. then around 6pm i'm all gosh darn it's kind of cold in here. guess what? the darn son of a gun was back at sixty five. have i figured out how to make it stop? no. no i haven't.

That story made my smile and feel good inside that you shared it. Thank you!

bluevillenurserycat knows what he is talking about. I said 4 times in refernce to the 40 min vs. 10 min. Also, if you really have a steep hill, you might want to water it more than twice a day, but you get the idea. Have a buddy program your thermostat and sprinkler. There are a bunch of people that get off on doing that for others. I never volunteer, but I have programmed a few sprinkler systems for some of my neighbors and friends. I ask them if they want to learn how or if they just want me to do it for them. Make certain to tell them that you don't want to know how to do it..."here are the keys to the house, make my thermostat work right. The beer is in the fridge." I have seen some people get really adament on wanting to teach somebody how easy it is to program a thermostat. IF I DON'T WANT TO LEARN, THEN DON'T EFF'n TRY TO TEACH ME is what I always say. (dobber 3:16)

[Mikeyis4dcats]

3:   http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/earwigs-c-147.html

that's a great list of stuff that kills insects, but it doesn't provide any information about how they measure on the two criteria i specified - good way to kill lots of earwigs and safe for vertebrates to eat.

sorry I assumed being a KSU fan you could a) read where it states those are the best products for earwig control and b) weren't so lazy you couldn't review the products recommended for those compatible with a vegetable garden.  carry on!

[Dr Rick Daris]

bluevillenurserycat would probably do it for me if i asked. he already blows out my lines every fall for free. 

[Mikeyis4dcats]

im not a lawn guy but having read through this thread at a visceral distance, the answer, it appears, as it is with most things, is the more chemicals, the better

and water. lots of water. I do the bare minimum to not be "that guy" in my neighborhood and have the bad yard. ten minutes per zone every other day in the summer if no rain. crabgrass preventer and then later spot spray. not that tough but still annoying.

40 minutes once per week is MUCH better than 10 minutes every other day.

my yard has a pretty decent slope so this is the worst possible advice that you could give me. but thanks for the bad advice as always, mikey.

happens that my yard also has decent slope, and I also used to think the every other day thing was better until my friend the KSU grad landscape architect told me to do once a week.     In the very extremes of summer you may want to add more waterings to avoid heat burnout but the rest of the year she told me it was not promoting root development which will help AVOID the heat burnout.

[IPA4Me]

im not a lawn guy but having read through this thread at a visceral distance, the answer, it appears, as it is with most things, is the more chemicals, the better

and water. lots of water. I do the bare minimum to not be "that guy" in my neighborhood and have the bad yard. ten minutes per zone every other day in the summer if no rain. crabgrass preventer and then later spot spray. not that tough but still annoying.

40 minutes once per week is MUCH better than 10 minutes every other day.

my yard has a pretty decent slope so this is the worst possible advice that you could give me. but thanks for the bad advice as always, mikey.

Water 4 times a day for 10 minutes each time. Do not water every day, no matter how hot it is.

bluevillenurserycat tells/told me that i should do each zone for ten minutes two times a day every other day and that i should do it around 4am. like cycle through all the zones and then immediately cycle through them again. my problem w/ this is that i am lazy and don't know how to program my programmer so i just manually turn them on in the morning if it hasn't rained for a couple of days. indoor related story to show my laziness- my thermostat suddenly started automatically going to 65 degrees at about 5pm late last summer. i'd get home from work and just mind my own business and then all of the sudden it would be really cold in the house and then i'd be all oh god darnit, guess it's 5pm. time to go manually adjust whatever the thermostat just automatically did. anyway, that went on for a month and then it got cold so i stopped using the AC. well the other day it was warm so we turned the thermostat to cool instead of heat. then around 6pm i'm all gosh darn it's kind of cold in here. guess what? the darn son of a gun was back at sixty five. have i figured out how to make it stop? no. no i haven't.

I'd gladly program that thermostat for you but I think you might be a few states from me. Maybe you could push the HOLD button. Or you can just do whatever you've been doing.

[Dr Rick Daris]

im not a lawn guy but having read through this thread at a visceral distance, the answer, it appears, as it is with most things, is the more chemicals, the better

and water. lots of water. I do the bare minimum to not be "that guy" in my neighborhood and have the bad yard. ten minutes per zone every other day in the summer if no rain. crabgrass preventer and then later spot spray. not that tough but still annoying.

40 minutes once per week is MUCH better than 10 minutes every other day.

my yard has a pretty decent slope so this is the worst possible advice that you could give me. but thanks for the bad advice as always, mikey.

happens that my yard also has decent slope, and I also used to think the every other day thing was better until my friend the KSU grad landscape architect told me to do once a week.     In the very extremes of summer you may want to add more waterings to avoid heat burnout but the rest of the year she told me it was not promoting root development which will help AVOID the heat burnout.

well bluevillenurserycat has a degree in turf management and does this stuff for a living and thinks you and your little girlfriend are wrong, so there. looks like we have a kstate yard expert off on our hands. may the best man (or girl) win.

[_33]

DOBBER DO YOU THINK THIS IS A GOOD PLAN? WHY WON'T YOU LOOK AT MY PLAN DOBBER YOU SON OF A BITCH.  JUST KIDDING BUT SERIOUSLY LOOK AT IT AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT IT RIGHT NOW.  OR WHENEVER YOU HAVE TIME.

My Plan:

Spring
1.  Put down crabgrass preventer+fertilizer tonight (weather permitting)
2.  Spray lawn with orthro weed b gone broad leaf killer spray

Summer
1.  Weed and feed once in mid summer on a very dewy morning
2.  Spot spray as needed to control weeds

Fall
1.  Use my dad's gas powered dethatcher to dethatch lawn
2.  Aerate
3.  Overseed

Does anyone want to change or add anything?

[Emo EMAW]

I'd like for someone to tell me the pros/cons of aerate vs verticut.

[Institutional Control]

DOBBER DO YOU THINK THIS IS A GOOD PLAN? WHY WON'T YOU LOOK AT MY PLAN DOBBER YOU SON OF A BITCH.  JUST KIDDING BUT SERIOUSLY LOOK AT IT AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT IT RIGHT NOW.  OR WHENEVER YOU HAVE TIME.

My Plan:

Spring
1.  Put down crabgrass preventer+fertilizer tonight (weather permitting)
2.  Spray lawn with orthro weed b gone broad leaf killer spray

Summer
1.  Weed and feed once in mid summer on a very dewy morning
2.  Spot spray as needed to control weeds

Fall
1.  Use my dad's gas powered dethatcher to dethatch lawn
2.  Aerate
3.  Overseed

Does anyone want to change or add anything?

Changing your name to steve dave helps.  dobber is like my own personal landscaper now. 

[CNS]

I'd like for someone to tell me the pros/cons of aerate vs verticut.

Can't speak for everyone, but for me personally:

Pro: I own a verticutter

Con: I would have to rent an aerator.

[Emo EMAW]

What do those run?