Atrazine sent Centipede into dormancy?!?

volabroad – posted 03 June 2004 11:01

Just had a new centipede lawn sodded, it was dormant when put down and began to green-up.

At the same time, some onion or nutsedge began popping up ALL over the yard. I sprayed the lawn with Atrazine at the suggestion of my local Ace lawn guy. . . this was two weeks after it was put down.

Also, on the 2nd day after establishment, I added some scott’s starter fertilizer, which I found out might be a no-no.

I’ve been watering like crazy, but since the 2nd week, no more green up. I have lots of dead-looking grey/white areas.

Another friend said I may have sent the lawn into dormancy and need to add a little ironite, lime and water for 2 weeks.

Any thoughts? Parts that were green have not died, it just hasn’t “taken” really.

HELP!

volabroad – posted 05 June 2004 19:23

Anyone? Anyone? Really need some help. . .

cohiba – posted 05 June 2004 19:47

My biggest concern was the atrizine spray when the lawn wasn’t established. Ouch!As for the ironite and lime….I have no idea what that Friend is talking about. The ironite will only help green up what is already green. It will do little for grass that is “dormant”. I don’t feel that there is any grass anywhere in the lower 48 states that isn’t out of dormancy by now. Lime would only help the plants utilize the nutrients in the soil while it is growing. Pardon the expression but you may be screwed. The local ACE guy should be called “ASS”.

I have thought about replying to this post a few times before but was hoping someone had better news for you. HOWEVER, Remember that I am not a warm season grower. And I could be (and hope)totally wrong and therefore might be the ASS.

I’m sorry in advance if I have offended anyone. Good Luck and Take Care…….

ted – posted 05 June 2004 21:37

you really need to be more precise in your evaluation of the yard. onion or nutsedge? there’s a world of difference! different chems for each. starter fertilizer? probably ok, but did you soil test first? never , never get info from the Ace ( or Ass) guy. stick to pros in the industry or co-op agents or local university research.

volabroad – posted 05 June 2004 22:06

Thank you for the responses!

I knew that the iron would green it up (which centipede doesn’t do well with. . .) and that the lime just brought down the acidity so that more nutrients were available. . . but hey, I figured why not give it a shot.

As for the sedge vs onion . . .I do not know. The plant guy at ace said it was an onion, the guy who laid the grass called it nutsedge. BTW-The atrazine didn’t do crap to kill it. . .

The weed is a shiny fast growing plant with green grass like leaves. It kinda looks like 1 blade coming out of 3 blades that fold over — star like shape. It spreads slowly . . .when I pull up the entire plant, there is a hard ball attached (seed like I guess). I have not seen any seed heads though. Any thoughts?

I’ll take the bad news .. . we are talking 4 pallets at the most for the whole yard. If I have to rake it up (the dead parts) and replace a pallet then I’m out $150-$200. . . not a great place to be, but not the end of the world. I just want to get it right and done. . .

My problem now then, is the weed, which is still in the yard despite my hand-pulling and atrazine attack. How can I identify it? I can post a picture if possible. . .

volabroad – posted 05 June 2004 22:08

oh, and as for the fertilizer and no soil test. . .the backyard has been in disrepair for probably 25 years with no lawn and lots of pine needles. I figured the centipede could handle the acidity, but thought to give it a small boost with the phosphorous. . .OOPS!

The atrazine, it appears, was the big no no. Any way to “clean it up” other than wait?

cohiba – posted 07 June 2004 12:57

The weed you describe sounds like yellow nutsedge. To be sure you can peel away the blades from the central stem, if the central stem is triangular in shape it is nutsedge. Manage works best on nutsedge. Roundup doen’t do too well a job, I think it may be the waxy coating and the thin blades. to be sure that your atrizine is gone you could use activated charcoal and water in. Messy job! but will nutrilize the atrizine, and anything else, in the soil.

Take Care……

volabroad – posted 07 June 2004 21:19

If you don’t mind, could you be more specific with the charcoal. As you can tell, I’ve had a bad run with advice, so please tell me exactly what to do . . .spreading rates, product, etc etc.

I’ve heard that about atrazine before, but never heard the specifics. The more basic you can be, the better. Thanks for you help, as well. I just want the green stuff to start growing again . . .then I’ll manage the nutsedge.

cohiba – posted 08 June 2004 14:00

Volbroad, I found this site that explains alot more than I know. I used it once in 1993 and we sprayed it on the turf with a 300 gallon turf sprayer. I’m sure you could do it with a small, hand pump sprayer. The key would be to properly calibrate the hand pump sprayer to your coverage. Start by filling the sprayer with plain water. Pressurize the sprayer and keep it pressurized while you are spraying. Measure out a 500 sq.ft. area of pavement. This way you can see your coverage of the spray. Time yourself spraying the 500 sq.ft. Now spray into a bucket for the same amount of time. Measure how many gallons you spayed in that time period. Double your gallonage and that will give you how many gallons per 1000 sq.ft you will be spraying. Next find out how many gallons are in the tank. Divide the gallons in the tank by the gallons per thousand sq.ft. and that will give you how many thousand sq.ft you can spray with one tank of chemical. Then read the label to see how much material you will need per thousand sq.ft. Add enough to make a full tank or only add enough chemical to enough water to spray your entire yard. Or in a partial tank how ever works best for you.It may be three tanks, I don’t know? Alot of sprayers are calibrated to around 1 gallon per thousand. I know this sounds like alot of work but it really is important. It could help you use less chemical, avoid over applications, ect.

http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/publicat/wqwm/ag442.html

Let us know how you make out. Also know that it will render all pesticides in your soil useless. Ie: Preemerge, fungicides, insectides, ect. Not Fert though.

Good Luck and take care…………….

cohiba – posted 08 June 2004 14:11

Oh and one other thing: You are cleaning up a small amount of pesticides not a major spill. You don’t have to till or anything crazy like that. I would imagine you could go at a low rate but the beauty of it is that you can go at the heaviest rate and not cause a problem. I would not recommend using the lime spreader. This stuff is a mess to clean up, itself. While mixing you should do it off the pavement and away from areas that could get stained. A tarp might be a good idea. Think of it as paint and treat accordingly.

Good Luck……………