[DA Quality Lawn & YS]

When would be the optimum time of year to go after Quackgrass in a KBG lawn here in the Upper Midwest? Using Certainty.

I plan to treat 1k sq ft or so (front lawn) for a customer who's lawn has been infiltrated with the stuff. Too much to dig out.
I have made this customer fully aware of the ramifications of using Certainty on his lawn (namely loss of fescue). He says fine.

 

[Young Bros]

We have a couple customers we sold certainty apps. I told we should do a core/seed afterwards. I plan on hitting them as soon as the quackgrass and tall fescue is green and growing. Then a 2nd app 2 weeks later. My rep at agruim said that should work.

 

[DA Quality Lawn & YS]

Thanks Young. I DID NOT advise my customer we would aerate/overseed as part of this app. He would never go for it. I just made darned sure that he knew his lawn would look like crap for a bit until the KBG fills in.

 

[FdLLawnMan]

My advice would be to wait until May sometime when after the first flush of growth. I would also tell him that a followup application might be needed next spring. Also, you should fertilize the lawn before you spray and about 4 weeks later to promote the KBG to fill in the bare spots. Also, mix some iron with the Certainty mix, it stains the grass a little bit so it doesn't look so bad. How are you going to apply this, a backpack with a flat fan nozzle on the wand.

 

[DA Quality Lawn & YS]

Yep, backpack.

 

[FdLLawnMan]

Have you ever used it before? It is a great product but calibration and application coverage is critical.

 

[Young Bros]

This will be my first time using too. Any tips FdL would help. I was planning on 2 apps 2 weeks apart with a shurflo electric backpack.

 

[DA Quality Lawn & YS]

I too have never used it. Looks like as per the label, need to be using 2 gal water/K. Higher vol of h20 with the AI. I have my walking speed down with my shurflo to do 1 gal/K. Looks like I'll need to practice halving my speed.

 

[Young Bros]

We have 2 tanks on our GMC so we could mix it up in there if a t-jet gun would work better.

 

[FdLLawnMan]

Ok. I have used for tree years now. It works very well on tall fescue, ok on quackgrass. You will probably have to hit the quackgrass two years in a row to get rid of it and then do followups every 2nd or third year. Use the correct amount of sticker and get your calibration down to within 10%. I highly recommend using flat fans on your backpack. The normal adjustable nozzles are way to variable. It will wipe out any fescues in the lawn and really ding the KBG and rye grass's. The lawns cannot be under ant drought stress or you cannot apply it. I always had the best results in the fall but late spring worked ok. It is a great product but expensive. You need to charge accordingly to cover your costs and time. Also, do not mix more than you need.

 

[Grandview]

I too have never used it. Looks like as per the label, need to be using 2 gal water/K. Higher vol of h20 with the AI. I have my walking speed down with my shurflo to do 1 gal/K. Looks like I'll need to practice halving my speed.

A gal/K is plenty. I use around 15 gal/acre. I use higher pressures to get better coverage. 80 gal/acres I think half is washing off. Try to hit when the grass is 4-6 inches. The more leaf surface the more product makes it to the roots.

 

[Greenery]

I've experimented with certainty a little bit. I wasn't able to get results that I was happy with at all. I tried about 4 different strengths and when it finally seemed to be working a little bit it also severly stressed all the grass not just the quackgrass. And in the end the quack didn't die. I'm sure some follow up apps would have helped but I was a little worried about it killing everything. From my limited experience it is somthing I will not apply to a customers yard until they make it work better or I figure out EXACTLY how to apply it and get good results.

 

[ernieknows]

what about using corn meal gluten ? 2 applications 2 weeks apart as a preemergemt

 

[SeedPro]

When would be the optimum time of year to go after Quackgrass in a KBG lawn here in the Upper Midwest? Using Certainty.

I plan to treat 1k sq ft or so (front lawn) for a customer who's lawn has been infiltrated with the stuff. Too much to dig out.
I have made this customer fully aware of the ramifications of using Certainty on his lawn (namely loss of fescue). He says fine.

Why don't you just round it up and machine seed? For about the same price, maybe less the guy could have a brand new lawn in 3 weeks.

Why do people make this job so difficult.

 

[SeedPro]

what about using corn meal gluten ? 2 applications 2 weeks apart as a preemergemt

Oh get outta here. Corn gluten wont do anything to quakgrass. It doesn't even kill dandelions and if you knew anything at all you would know that the friggin quakgrass is a perrenial and already there.

Jesus christ you organic guys make me laugh out loud.

 

[RigglePLC]

Roundup followed by sod if the area isn't too large. You don't have to worry if the seed will take and it is almost instant. And the quality of the grass will be a huge improvement. I am not sure if you can apply new sod within a week--but perhaps others have done this and can comment.

Also--Certainty will kill ryegrass dead:
http://www.monsanto.com/ito/layout/turf/certainty.asp

So if there is any ryegrass mixed with the blue (and there probably is a lot) the lawn will look dead. Are you positive you can distinguish ryegrass from KBG?

 

[SeedPro]

Roundup followed by sod if the area isn't too large. You don't have to worry if the seed will take and it is almost instant. And the quality of the grass will be a huge improvement. I am not sure if you can apply new sod within a week--but perhaps others have done this and can comment.

Also--Certainty will kill ryegrass dead:
http://www.monsanto.com/ito/layout/turf/certainty.asp

So if there is any ryegrass mixed with the blue (and there probably is a lot) the lawn will look dead. Are you positive you can distinguish ryegrass from KBG?

That too. You can probably strip the area and sod it for less than that small container of Certainty will cost you retail. You can seed or sod right after a roundup treatment but you will of course need to wait a week to ten days for that quak to die off.

I've sprayed roundup on lawns and machine seeded the next day and it's cool to see the swap in progress.

And if you don't have a machine seeder a verticutter will suffice if you can set the blades deep enough....1/4-3/8ths of an inch.

I mean we are talking about an area the size of a bedroom.

I'm quite sure that certainty is one of those god awful expensive products they sell by the pint too. Yeeks.

 

[Grandview]

Certainity is about 40-60.00/acre. Not to expensive.

 

[Young Bros]

Round Up and reseeding gave us headaches and almost lost a good customer. I dont know if the customer was watering too much or late in the day, but the tall fescue never really died off good. Took 3 tries to get most of it out that way.

 

[SeedPro]

Round Up and reseeding gave us headaches and almost lost a good customer. I dont know if the customer was watering too much or late in the day, but the tall fescue never really died off good. Took 3 tries to get most of it out that way.

Quak and Tall sometimes takes a second roundup app to knock out. I've had it happen.