Over the last three years I've been spending a lot of time reviving my
lawn. With all of the rain that we're having in the Northeast
(Connecticut, United States) this spring, everything is green and
lush. While my work has been paying off, I've got a few questions.

1) Two days ago, I reseeded about 700 sq ft. The area had become
overgrown with moss over the last three years, and seemed to require
the reseeding. I tested the PH level, and it was neutral, so I didn't
put any lime down. What would be the ideal watering schedule? Someone
is home most of the day, so we could water it a number of time a day,
as opposed to one big watering. Basically, I'm wondering how wet I
should keep the newly seeded area. I put down a little Scotts Starter
Fertilizer the day I seeded. Was that ok to do? Is it usually
necessary?

2) As I mentioned above, we're getting loads of rain this spring. I
can't remember a spring that rained so much. I'm assuming as a result
of all of this rain, the lawn has developed spots of Red Thread
fungus. I'm seeing this fungus on a lot of lawns around my area. Will
the Fungus die out on it's own, once things start to dry out a little?
If so, does it take very dry weather to die out, or will it do so once
it's not raining every other day. I had some fungicide, so I spread it
in the area that had a lot of spots. Is it a good idea to use
fungicide? If so, should I apply it on just the spots (about 8-12
inches in diameter), or the whole area? Once the Read Thread dies out,
or becomes dormant, will these spots disappear, or will I need to
reseed them?

3. Are there any good books or websites on lawns? Anything in general
I should be doing to the lawn? I fertilize about 5 times from early
spring to early winter. I apply pre-emergent crabgrass in early
spring, and a weed killer around mid to late spring.

Any help you can give me would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

For newly seeded areas, you want to use the mist setting of a hose nozzle,
and water until the surface just glistens. A heavier stream will wash seed
around. It'll fill in eventually, but it may be annoying to see the seed get
knocked around, after all your work.

A neighbor of mine found some sort of sprinkler that had a mist setting,
perfect for new grass seed. But, if there's any breeze at all, the mist just
blows away. Still, there were enough times when it was useful for an hour or
two at a time.

For very small areas where you repair the grass, you could lay burlap on top
of the seed, and weigh it down with baseball-size rocks. Water right through
the burlap. The grass will grow through it, and at that point, you can lift
it off without hurting the grass. Rinse the burlap, hang it up to dry, and
save it for the next time, like when snow piles damage small areas, or your
neighbor's stinking dog picks a spot and won't leave it alone.

First, it's generally poor practice to be seeding anything now. The
best time is early fall, second best in early spring. Now you have
heavy competition from weeds and also it's difficult to keep the soil
wet in warm weather. You will also need to keep watering it thru the
summer hot weather to get it established. This means you need some
kind of automatic sprinkler.

The starter fertilizer is fine, thats what its for. You need to keep
the area constantly wet, so light frequent watering until it's
established, then reduce frequency. You can lightly spread either
weed free straw or peat moss to help keep it wet.

Red thread rarely kills a lawn, its more of a nuisance. It's claimed
that low nitrogen is a factor, but I have some on my lawn and it has
plenty of nitrogen. It goes away as the weather warms up. Unless
it's extensive, it's not worth it to use the fungicide and you
shouldnt have to reseed, the grass comes back. If you do use
fungicide, then you should do the whole lawn.

I apply fertilizer with pre-emergent in late april. Then fert again
in Sept and Oct. During the summer, I leave it alone as excessive
nitrogen can help promote disease.





(Yorgle) wrote in message . com...
Over the last three years I've been spending a lot of time reviving my
lawn. With all of the rain that we're having in the Northeast
(Connecticut, United States) this spring, everything is green and
lush. While my work has been paying off, I've got a few questions.

1) Two days ago, I reseeded about 700 sq ft. The area had become
overgrown with moss over the last three years, and seemed to require
the reseeding. I tested the PH level, and it was neutral, so I didn't
put any lime down. What would be the ideal watering schedule? Someone
is home most of the day, so we could water it a number of time a day,
as opposed to one big watering. Basically, I'm wondering how wet I
should keep the newly seeded area. I put down a little Scotts Starter
Fertilizer the day I seeded. Was that ok to do? Is it usually
necessary?

2) As I mentioned above, we're getting loads of rain this spring. I
can't remember a spring that rained so much. I'm assuming as a result
of all of this rain, the lawn has developed spots of Red Thread
fungus. I'm seeing this fungus on a lot of lawns around my area. Will
the Fungus die out on it's own, once things start to dry out a little?
If so, does it take very dry weather to die out, or will it do so once
it's not raining every other day. I had some fungicide, so I spread it
in the area that had a lot of spots. Is it a good idea to use
fungicide? If so, should I apply it on just the spots (about 8-12
inches in diameter), or the whole area? Once the Read Thread dies out,
or becomes dormant, will these spots disappear, or will I need to
reseed them?

3. Are there any good books or websites on lawns? Anything in general
I should be doing to the lawn? I fertilize about 5 times from early
spring to early winter. I apply pre-emergent crabgrass in early
spring, and a weed killer around mid to late spring.

Any help you can give me would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.