Many that know me, know that I steal concepts from others & claim them as my own. The following would fall in that category.
A gentleman called me today to make sure he was doing everything he could do to keep his grass alive. Now many of you have seen the list of articles that tell you or your customers why grass has died so far. I like to be a little more proactive. Below is what I know can be done to continue to keep grass alive (again, thank you to those I am stealing these ideas from).
1. Keep even water in soil profile
Recently, I received a Soil Moisture Sensor from Decagon Devices. This allows me to find out Volumetric Soil Moisture (VSM) Percentage, Soil Temperature & Bulk Density of the soil 2 inches deep (where the roots are). What this is showing me is handwatering and/or Cascade & Duplex are working & watering with overheads is only a recipe for failure. Too much water means boiling the plant, too little mean instant wilt. Shoot for 24%-15% VSM right now.
2. Provide the plant the energy to fight through this (& I'm not talking about Nitrogen)
-Provide air (spike, solid tine, ProCore, pitchfork. I don't care how, nor does the plant.)
-Skip mowing during hot weather
-Feed the microbes with dynamic carbon sources (fights disease, fixes nutrients, improves soil structure, etc)
-refer to paste & other soil tests to identify deficiencies & spoon feed them
-use dynamic granular organic fertilizers (that are not spiked with synthetic N) to rev the system up to start the recovery
3. Avoid using products with high to medium burn potentials.
For years we've seen granular fertilizers & amendments put out to address deficiencies (especially in sand). What people forget is many of them have significant salt indexes. If you can feed with low salt products & water them off the leaf blade, you will be better served until the weather breaks. Avoid DMI fungicides no matter what diseases they cover.
4. Stay on tight spray programs. Do not let a disease get a foothold!
That being said, if you are still loosing grass with no evidence of disease, refer to 1 & 2 again. Also, are you keeping your spray pH around 6-6.5 & buffering the tank? More than usual, this will impact your success or failure.
5. Have or can you flush your greens?
If you can, do it! If you haven't, why not? Getting bicarbonates & salts out while replacing them with what the plant wants will be like taking a deep breath to relieve stress (Along with cool water replacing the hot stagnent water "stuck" in the green. Ask me about our Kick flush program to get the full effectiveness of flushing your greens.
I know there are more. Please feel free to add. Good Luck!
