Striping in the South

[brettreeves]

I am curious why a yard will not stripe in the south as well as it does in the north. I cut many different types of grass including Zoysia, Bermuda, Centipede, and St. Augustine, but I cannot get any of them to stripe like the lawns in Eric's pics. I can get faint lines on zoysia and bermuda but that is all.

[odin00]

BRETT
All tHE GRASSES YOU LISTED ARE WARM SEASON GRASS
I dont know but that might be the reason
Rye bluegrass fescues stripe great and they are all cool season grass.

[brettreeves]

That was my assumption

[SLS]

After much discussion at other websites about this very subject it would seem to be the general concensus that your assumption is correct.

Cool season grasses stripe much better than warm season grasses.

[65hoss]

I too cut warm season grasses. I can get pretty decent stripes. I just got some film developed today. I have some pretty good stripes on zoysia. As soon as I figure out how to get them posted I'll do so.



I have a scanner, anyone want to help?

[SLS]

Zoysia in Tennessee. Cut with Lazer Z 60''. 3 inches.

http://members.aol.com/hifiparty/zoy3.jpg


Cut at 2 inches:
http://members.aol.com/hifiparty/zoy4.jpg

[65hoss]

The following is a picture I took in the spring. Its cut with my 36" metro.

http://members.aol.com/hifiparty/hosszoysia1.jpg
Thanks to SLS for picture help!:)

[65hoss]

I finally learned how to put this in the thread.

http://members.aol.com/hifiparty/hosszoysia1.jpg

[HOMER]

Some of Erics pictures are cut at 4+ inches. This is long enough to actually bend the grass over to some degree with each pass. The one going away will be a different shade than the one coming back, they are bending 2 different ways. Warm season grasses are cut shorter than cool season and I guess are too rigid to "bend". Ball fields are done the same way...........it's mainly a light thing.

I have planted some fescue on one side of my lawn. I can't wait til it sprouts..............stuff sure is slow to germinate.:mad:

[65hoss]

Originally posted by HOMER

I have planted some fescue on one side of my lawn. I can't wait til it sprouts..............stuff sure is slow to germinate.:mad:

Homer, I hate to tell you this, but this far south you will still not get good stripes from the fescue. The reason is, you must plant it in heavy shade or it will not last the summer. But with all that shade you don't see much stripe. I get better stripes by cutting zoysia at 3.25". The fescue looks good, but without the light on it you can't see the stripes very well.

[Ricky]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by HOMER

I have planted some fescue on one side of my lawn. I can't wait til it sprouts..............stuff sure is slow to germinate.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I planted some in Sept. It was a blend of three different fescues. I had germination in 6 days with some new grass still coming in 3-4 weeks later. What kind of fescue did you plant?

[HOMER]

It was a tall fescue...................I can't remember exactly. I bought it at Walmart.

I'm not that worried about how well it stripes and I know it'll probably wither away come summer................I just wanted it here for the winter. I figured with all the mild weather we've been having that it would germinate without any problem. I watered it for a couple hours last night and again tonight. Maybe that will help it along. The rye I planted at the same time has come up but even it is pretty slow. We really haven't had enough rain to get it going.

[odin00]

Homer

Tall fescue useally is real tough and handles drought fairly well

[LawnKeepers]

Simply stripes are caused by differences in the ambience reflected by the light. To understand this first, let me explain the core diffence between "northern" and "southern" grass.

Norther grasses have long, slender, straight blades of grass. They basically stand on end and grow up to the sun.
Southern on the other hand generally are low lying creeping grass. They tend to by viny and have short, dense sprouts of grass. Because of their structure, southern is cut lower than norther because it grows outward in addition to upward.

To get good stripes, you need good lifting blades, the front pitched lower than the back properly, and pull behind rollers and chains.
When mowing, the pitched deck and high lift blades suck the grass forward while cutting. Then the chains or rollers follow and lays the grass down farther. When the mower makes the next stripe the grass is layed in the opposite direction.

Now when you look at stripes, the lighter ones are the ones going away from you. This is because they reflect more light than the ones toward you. The grass bent away from you provides more "up-top" and uniform reflection area. The darker stripes going away are darke because you more of the end/top of the grass than the surface of the blade. Also more light makes it "inside" or inbween the blades, closer to the soil where light is reflected in more random directions than a flat surface and is dispersed. Therefore less light reflects from the sun off the grass and into your eye from grass pointing toward you than the "flat wall" of grass, which relfects more light, therefore appearing lighter.

Now the problem with southen is that it grows low and dense. The low viny grass would "lay down" like northern will becaue it has less to bend. Also the grass is dense which is not a plus for the contrast of stripes coming toward you.

[HOMER]

Uh...........ya..............that's what I meant to say!:D

[Ricky]

Great explanation LawnKeepers

Homer does Ky. 31 ring a bell? That's what Walmart sells around here.

[65hoss]

All the tall fescue I do for myself and customers takes right at 14 days. That is only if they water it correctly. If it doesn't get watered very much it usually takes a week or so longer.

[cclllc]

The lawns on my website are a mixture of bermuda and tall fescue
I seem to get decent stripes.Just remember to cut atleast 3 incheshttp://www.cclllc.homestead.com/files/lawn1.JPG

[awm]

just a comment to sls. that first picture was the way i try to makum look. really pretty.

[Williams Services]

The rye's striping well right now!

[Totallawn]

I used the transitional blend from Lesco on my front yard...I took nearly 3 weeks to start coming up!!

[tranum]

i do some contract work for our local golf club. bermuda greens & tees will show a faint stripe in the summer. when we over seed (ryegrass on tees & poa triv on greens) in the fall we get some pretty good looking stripes. must be the cool season grass because it's cut at 3/16" or less...

[LawnKeepers]

Mow it at 3/16 then mow it at 4" and see the dramatic difference. What I say is true

[tranum]

lawnkeeper
that was 3/16 of an inch!!!i'd have to let it grow all season to get to 4 inches:)

[HOMER]

I've been told by several people on forums not to use K31 because it is so clumpy in nature. The tall fescue I bought was tall fescue, not K31. I've been watering it every night now for nearly a week and I'm seeing some new growth but not what I expected. With temps in the mid 70's one would think that stuff would jump up pretty quick, I guess I'm thinking it's similar to rye. When it does finally show up I', gonna hit it with a little fert to help it along, cutting it will be no problem:D . I'm ready to start seeing green like I did in Indiana a few weeks ago.............made me sick I tell ya.................sick!

[65hoss]

K31 will clump. Fescue is usually slow. I did a neighbors entire front lawn on Oct 15. I will post a picture later. But, it has only been cut 1 time and that didn't take much off.

Put a starter fert down now that its starting to grow. That will help. It will be next year before its mature enough.

[odin00]

In 1999 my front lawn died so i used a turf type tall fescue at a high rate of seed about 10 or 12 lbs per 1000 square foot.
Planted it with a matteaway overseeder.I must say the tall fescue really resists a drought it takes a heck of adry spell to make it turn brown.And the fertilize requirement is much less than bluegrass..As tall fescue even the turf types has a tendency to clump it looks better planted all tall fescue,it does not mix well with finer grasses like rye and bluegrass and the fine fescues

[excel25]

Homer whats your ph at ? do you need to lime? avg. for fescue to germ. is 21 day's.

Dennis

[Flex-Deck]

Bluegrass here in Iowa and it probably stripes pretty good.

Nice Pictures guys. - In our part of the country, people just want it mowed level, most would not know what striping is.

How do you do the pictures 65-hoss - I guess I could talk to Eric also.

Thanks, Brad

[HOMER]

Lime?????????????????????? Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

You know................I don't know!

I guess it wouldn't hurt to put some out. Probably never been limed. I'll go and find me another ph meter and check it. Should be around 6.6 for grass right?

I'm seeing some sprouts now that I have been watering it every night. It's been nearly 2 months since I put it out and that was after aerating.............maybe my hopes were too high.


Would a light application of 10-10-10 hurt it?

[65hoss]

Nope, the 10-10-10 will not hurt. When I seed for customers I put the starter fert out when I seed. (10-20-20) For myself or neighbors I do, I put the fert down just after it sprouts. Fert is water soluble, so if you put it out with the seed and start watering the fert is being depleted before the grass gets started. But for someone that calls me I'm not going back in 15 days to fert.

[cclllc]

I too use triple 10.I get mine at coop for around 8 bucks a bag.I think 40 pounds

[HOMER]

I didn't wait too long for a reply yesterday so It's already out! Glad to hear that it won't hurt anything. I did make the mistake last year of putting 34-0-0 out on a small stand of rye at one of my commercial accounts. That mess went wild! Never seen anything grow like that in my life:o Iwas there every week with a 21" having to bail that hay.

It sure was purty though:biglaugh:

Nice & green too.

I will do it again.........but not there........here.............then I'll take a picture of it................and ya'll can laff yer azzes off at me fer doin it.ROTFLMAO