turfgrass

Need help identifying ugly coarse grass that came up after seeding…

Need help identifying ugly coarse grass that came up after seeding…

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cledford – posted 26 April 2004 09:32

Hello,

I really need help identifying a ugly, course, very fast growing grass that came up everywhere I seeded last year.

Basically the story is, last August I received sod for the lawn on the new home I purchased in July of same year. I was advised to put a mix of annual rye/tall fescue down to “knit the sod together with the rye which will then die and not come back, and then the fescue will grow in behind filling in the gaps.”

Based on this information I went out and found a Scott’s product called “classic” that was exactly what was described – a mix of annual rye a tall fescue and put it between the sod rows. Oh, and a lawn care specialist had come out and told us that we had fescue sod before I put the seed down.

Now, I’ve got a hideous latticework (between each and every row of the original sod) of ugly, coarse, very light (almost lime in color) colored grass coming up that grows at a rate of about twice that of the sod.

The yard looks terrible and I’m wondering exactly what the heck I did and how to fix it. I called Scotts and they really weren’t sure based on my description over the phone what was coming up.

Aside from the rate of growth, the light color, and the coarseness (very thick, single, or couple of “stalks” – the other most unusual feature of the bad grass is that it has a “reddish” bottom. From the side it looks like the bottom of my yard is red, because the first 1/4 inch of the stalk above the soil is reddish/purple.

The other unusual thing is that where my neighbor over sprayed my yard with weed & feed the “bad” grass is magically eradicated – but you can see a perfect line when the over spray stopped.

Anyone have any ideas what I ended up with and have to get rid of it? Is the grass coming up the rye that wasn’t supposed to come back, or is it a nasty, crappy looking version of fescue? I didn’t expect fescue to be as dark as blue grass, but everything I’ve read says it’s fairly dark – so I have no idea what this stuff is.

Thanks,

-Calvin Ledford

ted – posted 26 April 2004 15:05

need to post some pics, first of all. also where do you live? helps alot. it sounds like you were fed a load of garbage regarding the “cracks” in your fescue sod. properly installed sod does not have “cracks!” You were given an old farmers tale of using rye grass as a “nurse grass” – it’s still a load of crap. the grass you’re describing may very well be ryegrass- ryegrass has red stems, and depending upon your temps may be growing faster than the fescue. also depending upon where you live, you may have sodded too early in the season. glad to help, need more info!!!

cohiba – posted 26 April 2004 15:57

Ted is right to say that properly installed sod should be “practically seamless” after grow in. Do you still have the seed bag or the label from the seed bag? We sometimes maintain an inventory, of seed labels, when we use a different seed than usual. This helps us determine whats good, bad, or in your case, ugly. Get some pictures to us I would love to see them. If you are looking at a grassy weed, you could have Paspalum. We cannot tell for sure without pics.

Good Luck…..

cledford – posted 26 April 2004 23:00

Where should I post pics?

Thnks for the help!

-Calvin

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