– pick a different broadleaf killer other than weed stop. Its a truly awful product. The full explanation is long, but basically: there’s a reason it’s seems so cheap. Genuinely any other product would be better… Weed b gon, for example, would be better. But there are too many options to list… Just look for anything with 2 or more of the following active ingredients: 2,4-d, dicamba, mcpp (mecoprop), mcpp, fluroxypyr, triclopyr
– seperately, buy quinclorac or sulfentrazone seperately if you get crabgrass or nutsedge in the summer. Spot treat as needed. You can combine the products in the tank if needed.
– don’t buy simple lawn solutions products. That company is an outright scam and anyone shilling it is a scammer. The “soil loosener” is simply a wetting agent… An aggressive (in a very bad way) wetting agent (sodium lauryl sulfate), it will not alleviate compaction, it will make it worse by causing soil particle dispersion… PLUS SLS is an anionic surfactant, which in short means it can harm grass and do some nasty things to soil. Wetting agents can be useful in specific circumstances, and there are far better wetting agents
– humic acid is indeed a decent thing to apply to lawns, but again, you pay an exorbitantly high markup by buying from simple lawn solutions. Bioag ful-humix and the powder from powergrown.com are both far, far, far better deals.
– your timing for the grubgone is off. Grubgone is BT, a bacteria. It needs to infect existing grubs in order to become established in the soil. The recommended time to apply is around the time that the adult beetles are laying their eggs, which should be about june-july, depending on your exact location.
– while BT can be effective at controlling grubs, its very unreliable. Instead, I’d recommend a grub preventative containing chlorantraniliprole (grubEX or acelepryn). Its just way more reliable. You’d apply chlorantraniliprole in April to early June, depending on your exact location.
– again, Spectracide is just a bad brand. The active ingredient is myclobutanil, which is not a particularly good fungicide for lawns… It can be useful for some specific diseases… But not most.
– I highly caution against the use of fungicides by any homeowner. Fungicides are extremely complicated tools that address EXTREMELY complex issues. The soil microbiome is a very complicated thing, and fungicides absolutely obliterate it. The vast majority of fungi in a lawn are beneficial, but the fungicide doesn’t care. 99.99% of disease issues can be solved and prevented with good cultural practices (mowing high, watering deeply and infrequently, and good fertilization)
– that’s too many prodiamine applications. You’re limited to 2 per year. Consult the label.
– also consult the label for the list of target weeds. Prodiamine is not a general purpose weed preventative… It **reduces** the successful germination of **specific** weed seeds. And needs to applied with deliberate timing to reduce those specific weeds… Not a lot of the target weeds will be germinating in the latter half of summer. Even fewer will be germinating in the fall. Poa annua is practically the only one.
– humichar would be better in fall and/or spring. But if you’re already buying humic acid, just apply biochar. It would especially be effective if applied immediately after core aeration. Note: don’t keep applying biochar indefinitely. It is a soil amendment. There will reach a point where you’ve applied enough… Hard to say exactly what that point is, but I’d say you might be reaching that point after 4 or 5 applications in a 10 year period.
– fall seeding and prodiamine are mutually exclusive. Prodiamine will prevent grass seed from germinating.
– the most effective way to prep soil for overseeding is by using a slit seeder. See the overseeding post in the side bar.
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Oh boy do I have some feedback!
– pick a different broadleaf killer other than weed stop. Its a truly awful product. The full explanation is long, but basically: there’s a reason it’s seems so cheap. Genuinely any other product would be better… Weed b gon, for example, would be better. But there are too many options to list… Just look for anything with 2 or more of the following active ingredients: 2,4-d, dicamba, mcpp (mecoprop), mcpp, fluroxypyr, triclopyr
– seperately, buy quinclorac or sulfentrazone seperately if you get crabgrass or nutsedge in the summer. Spot treat as needed. You can combine the products in the tank if needed.
– don’t buy simple lawn solutions products. That company is an outright scam and anyone shilling it is a scammer. The “soil loosener” is simply a wetting agent… An aggressive (in a very bad way) wetting agent (sodium lauryl sulfate), it will not alleviate compaction, it will make it worse by causing soil particle dispersion… PLUS SLS is an anionic surfactant, which in short means it can harm grass and do some nasty things to soil. Wetting agents can be useful in specific circumstances, and there are far better wetting agents
– humic acid is indeed a decent thing to apply to lawns, but again, you pay an exorbitantly high markup by buying from simple lawn solutions. Bioag ful-humix and the powder from powergrown.com are both far, far, far better deals.
– your timing for the grubgone is off. Grubgone is BT, a bacteria. It needs to infect existing grubs in order to become established in the soil. The recommended time to apply is around the time that the adult beetles are laying their eggs, which should be about june-july, depending on your exact location.
– while BT can be effective at controlling grubs, its very unreliable. Instead, I’d recommend a grub preventative containing chlorantraniliprole (grubEX or acelepryn). Its just way more reliable. You’d apply chlorantraniliprole in April to early June, depending on your exact location.
– again, Spectracide is just a bad brand. The active ingredient is myclobutanil, which is not a particularly good fungicide for lawns… It can be useful for some specific diseases… But not most.
– I highly caution against the use of fungicides by any homeowner. Fungicides are extremely complicated tools that address EXTREMELY complex issues. The soil microbiome is a very complicated thing, and fungicides absolutely obliterate it. The vast majority of fungi in a lawn are beneficial, but the fungicide doesn’t care. 99.99% of disease issues can be solved and prevented with good cultural practices (mowing high, watering deeply and infrequently, and good fertilization)
– that’s too many prodiamine applications. You’re limited to 2 per year. Consult the label.
– also consult the label for the list of target weeds. Prodiamine is not a general purpose weed preventative… It **reduces** the successful germination of **specific** weed seeds. And needs to applied with deliberate timing to reduce those specific weeds… Not a lot of the target weeds will be germinating in the latter half of summer. Even fewer will be germinating in the fall. Poa annua is practically the only one.
– humichar would be better in fall and/or spring. But if you’re already buying humic acid, just apply biochar. It would especially be effective if applied immediately after core aeration. Note: don’t keep applying biochar indefinitely. It is a soil amendment. There will reach a point where you’ve applied enough… Hard to say exactly what that point is, but I’d say you might be reaching that point after 4 or 5 applications in a 10 year period.
– fall seeding and prodiamine are mutually exclusive. Prodiamine will prevent grass seed from germinating.
– the most effective way to prep soil for overseeding is by using a slit seeder. See the overseeding post in the side bar.
Alright, that’s it. 🫡