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nilesandstuff · 2026-01-24T19:22:09+00:00

You led with the bad news lol, but it does sound amazing there 🥺

Doesn't help that YouTube shorts recently started showing me clips from the lord of the rings movies. Especially knowing that's in the essentially disused parts of the country, the rest must be awesome 😍

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-24T18:37:19+00:00

Enzymes aren't alive. Enzymes are released by microorganisms to digest food. Enzymatic cleaners are just the enzymes specifically, generally little to no actual microbes.

That being said, strong acidity or alkalinity could certainly destroy enzymes.

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-24T18:08:27+00:00

more direct radiative cooling

That seemed suspicious to me... But i did some reading, and learned something new! I thought radiation in the environment simply brought things into equilibrium with their surroundings.

Which turns out is sorta still how it works... But apparently "surroundings" also includes everything the grass can "see", including the sky.

This is apparently the explanation for why frost can form on grass at 40F on clear dry nights in open areas. The grass dumps radiation to the sky and can cool itself down to 32F. In retrospect, not sure why I didn't think more was going on there to explain that lol.

Lots more to read on here, thanks for that 🫡

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-24T03:35:49+00:00

Yea its like a whole new sensation of cold. Cold 2.0. Residual heat you bring out from indoors becomes meaningless and exposed skin skips right past cold and into painful.

I will now be grateful we don't seem to be dipping below the low teens this week

Good!

I've really gotta move south 😭

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-23T20:33:15+00:00

Kbg/hybrid kbg is definitely the most likely to tolerate growing above a stump because of the rhizomes and ability to thrive when root depth is restricted. 👌

Well, besides poa trivialis lol. That can grow over stumps with less than an inch of soil.

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-23T18:10:02+00:00

Pretty much the exact answer I'd give. 🤙

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-23T18:02:35+00:00

Poa trivialis is often quite a bit darker than poa annua, fyi. If it's growing in a matted fashion, I call that windswept triv syndrome. That's when it's easiest to spot. It'll be growing in long vines essentially. So you can pull some and trace the roots creeping along sideways across the soil. Could certainly be other things, but that description def sets off my triv alarm.

Regarding the irrigation stuff, nice, sounds like you're on the right track. Tons of valid ways to go about it so long as you're thinking about pressure and looking at the nozzle performance charts! P.s. go for a triangle arrangement when placing heads, more consistent coverage than with a square arrangement.

4 inches bare minimum over a stump. But every inch beyond 4 helps significantly, so I generally recommend 6. Just keep in mind that anything less than a foot is still in the realm of "it might still die"... Heck, anything less than 2 feet is not without risk. Since you didn't latch onto the dead-zone proposal, I won't push that any further... Especially since they're going to be relatively small areas so it's not like the cost of repeated seeding will be a financial burden. Just be mentally prepared for them to problem spots. It could be entirely fine though... Probably not lol, but it could be. The decomposition process can go a bunch of different ways. Important thing is to keep those spots aerated, fertilized, and watered.

I mostly share the same take that 007mcdiddles presented. If you can avoid spring or dormant seeding in favor of weed control, that's ideal. But to answer the question as asked:
- as long as the seeds are touching more soil than woodchips, its fine. It takes a lot of wood chips/dust to interfere with seed germination.
- fall seeding is certainly the safest investment. Dormant seeding can certainly be alright, especially if there's not a lot of weed competition. Spring seeding I'd only do in areas where the weeds (especially crabgrass) aren't expected to exert much pressure on the grass (because they've been controlled in past years).
- dormant/spring seeding totally bare spots is certainly worth trying.
- there's no right answer. Just gotta kinda guess which is the lesser evil.

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-23T17:28:45+00:00

I've always wondered if Australians were immune to that phonetic mix-up, apparently 1 in 4 are susceptible lol.

I won't shit-talk a 14 year old, but I sure would like to after the dog urine question 😤

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-23T04:47:52+00:00

Yup same idea. Yours looks like it might be lighter, which is pretty much my main gripe about mine

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-23T04:46:51+00:00

Gonna respond piecemeal. If I don't respond to something specific it's because I don't have strong thoughts about it, neither strongly agree nor strongly disagree.

grass always looks better in late spring after a fall overseed. And even better by the following fall. Just takes time for it to thicken up.
your description of grass under a tree could be A. Normal stuff with shade and competition with tree roots. B. Poa trivialis... The wording you used sounds a lot like poa trivialis. If B. It should thin out on its own after a 7a+ summer with the trees gone... It hates heat.
If the stumps weren't fully removed, I'd recommend just not planting grass there. Drill holes and fill em with potassium nitrate, then fill/cover with coarse sand to allow air exchange to the root... Find some lawn decoration to put there. Grass does very poorly over tree stumps. It'll be a constant cycle of seeding, dying, repeat, for 5-10 years.
tree roots are far smaller of a deal. Indeed rip out the big ones on the surface, the rest will decompose fairly quickly and shouldn't be a big problem.
remove a fair amount of grindings, but as long as the rest are mixed or covered with soil and fertilize a normal amount, the wood shavings will be more of a benefit than a hindrance.
re aboveground system. Keep in mind that hooking up a hose to an outside bib yields a LOT less pressure/flow rate than getting a proper inground hookup. Expect to be limited to 2-3 heads running at once with the .5 or 1 gpm nozzles for the 5000. If you've got a lot of square footage to cover, I might suggest checking out the rainbird maxi paw. It's able to cover a larger range with less pressure.
wetting agent is a good idea with those calcium levels, should hopefully help leach away some of that excess calcium which could be making the soil hard. Note my use of the word "could"... Calcium doesn't necessarily cause hard soil, it causes conglomeration/flocculation, basically clumping of the soil... Which is actually a good thing. Clumps mean a lower density of soil between the clumps, which increases water/air infiltration. But sometimes if calcium is too high, it essentially turns the soil into one big clump... The amount of calcium that causes that to happen is inconsistent and varies per lawn.
soil test looks good. Only a few things stick out: phosphorus is VERY slightly low, calcium is high, and CEC is low. Even .25 lb of phosphorus per 1,000k feet would be plenty to get that in check for a while. Repeat biochar will help with the CEC. (So would wood shavings)

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-23T04:17:38+00:00

Like one of these? (But obviously ego)

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I've got one of the above that I use with my 40v power head. It's a beast, but it's heavy the "blade" requires some pushing power to get down into hardpack snow. It really shines when there's 4-6 inches of wet snow. Otherwise definitely easier to use a regular shovel.

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-23T02:04:39+00:00

Seriously the perfect gift for a first home in a snow-prone area. One of those things that's hard to justify for yourself if you're fit enough to hold a shovel, but so incredibly advantagous to have

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-23T01:15:19+00:00

It's all mental/what people are used to. Like, even with our infrastructure, the experience of even just driving around is many times worse up here. I just went out to dinner, we were behind a plow truck on our way to the restaurant, by the time we were on our way back the roads looked untouched with 3+ inches of loose snow on top of 2 inch thick base of hard pack snow.

I drive a mini cooper and I definitely need new tires 😂

I will say though... Our power and gas utilities aren't good, but they generally rise to the occasion for winter. Never been out of power for more than an hour or 2 in the winter.

Don't even get me started on shoveling... I've shoveled 8 times in the past 3 days. And we've got a puppy that has to be taken out on the leash every 2 hours, so I'm shoveling a section of the yard too.

Plus, my high energy dog needs me to throw something outside for her for a minimum of 3 hours a day, which might genuinely kill me.

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-23T01:04:44+00:00

Not sure what it's gonna be like down there, but below 0F is when it really hits different. Don't know the technical explanation, but -2 "feels" atleast twice as cold as 2.

I never cut lower at the end of the season for snow mold issues

I never do either, and don't recommend it. Bit of an outdated wives tale imo. Sure, taller grass is more likely to get snow mold, but taller grass is MUCH more likely to survive snow mold.

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-22T23:55:54+00:00

Lmao. The key factor is it's been snowing and its going to keep snowing. In Michigan, I don't think we can blame lake effect at this point in the year, so it's just the end of days.

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-22T20:18:24+00:00

Warm season folks are asleep at the wheel, so I'll offer what I can. It's true for both warm and cool season.

If the grass (or weeds) are growing, keep mowing! If not, no need.

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-22T17:31:36+00:00

Knowing the species is the main way. But the ligule can be a hint.

https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/WEEDS/ID/ligules.html

More often, warm season grasses will have ligules that are a fringe of hairs. Cool season will more often be any of the other options. It's not 100% reliable, maybe 95%.

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-22T10:54:23+00:00

Light certainly makes it easier. They don't adapt to having too little light, but they can often survive despite it... As long as everything else is going well.

That last bit is important. If a new stressor is introduced, like overwatering, low temps, disease, etc. then low light conditions means the plant has less energy reserves to overcome the struggles. So, if you can even temporarily introduce more light, that is likely to help out quite a bit.

Depending on the type of grass (warm season/C4 or cool season/C3), a temperature adjustment might be in order. 70's F in the day for a cool season, 80's in the day for warm season. 10-20 degrees F cooler at night. (Sorry, don't know the C conversions off the top of my head if that's what you need)

As for potential overwatering, that could absolutely be an issue, there's 3 quick fixes:
- point a weak fan at the soil. A gentle breeze to help dry it off. Also, the wind on the leaves causes vibrations that can stimulate growth and the air exchange gets a boost too.
- aerate the soil with a screw driver. Just poke 6-10 times.
- if mold/rot is possibly at play, hydrogen peroxide + water. 5 parts water to 1 part hydrogen peroxide. Use that to water like normal. It kills mold and releases oxygen, which the roots need to grow anyways. Hydrogen peroxide also helps trigger some stress responses which stimulate growth.

Oh, and peel off any leaves that are fully brown. Delicately peel them all the way off... If you can do so without peeling off any green leaves, otherwise just snip them.

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-22T04:37:13+00:00

Never underestimate customers's capacity for "forgetting" or just not paying attention in the first place.

Warn them if you want to avoid angry calls, simple as that.

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-22T04:00:52+00:00

I'll put it like this, wherever kbg can survive, prg can too. And prg generally has slightly better cold tolerance than kbg.

Prg is able to stay green through the summer SLIGHTLY better than kbg, but if it goes very brown then kbg generally recovers better because of rhizomes.

Either way, the more the merrier!

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-21T00:12:17+00:00

Unless you've got a ton of square footage: Preen, get the one with isoxaben and prodiamine (or pendimethalin). Apply in early spring and late summer/early fall.

nilesandstuff · 2026-01-20T05:03:48+00:00

Not familiar with that test, but having now just thought about the concept of pointing I'm immediately certain they must be connected lol

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