We have been building our house for over a year. We are getting ready to lay sod. Never done it before, maybe once when I was a kid. Our yard is
sand right now with a small patch of grass, and then alot of weeds. The weeds are mostly loners, not too bunched up. I have pulled alot but
the roots go deep. If we sod over them im afraid they are going to grow right thru the sod.
Thought about weed killer. Also I have a backhoe on the job for a few days, Thought about scraping the sand down a few inches. Not real thrilled about either. Also thought about rototilling, but would need to rent that.
What is the proper way to prep for sod???
Thanks,
Robteed
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Use a RoundUp type of product.
The fry any plant that the gets the chemical on their leaves, but is neutralized when it contacts the earth.
The pattents on RoundUp have expired and there are a number of similar products out their own.
Roundup is not a bad idea. It must be applied on a calm day if you don't want to kill everything around your yard, too.
For a smaller area, you can cover it in plastic for a few weeks. That will kill most things.
It is important to prepare the soil now because it is your last chance. If you can cover the area with an inch or two of organic matter (compost, peat humus, composted manure) then till it in to the top couple of inches of soil, it will help a great deal. Bring it in by the truckload. Also an application of a starter fertilizer tilled in, too. A power rake can do the tilling for you. A roto-tiller goes too deep, and the soil will settle unevenly afterwards.
Midsummer is a lousy time to sod unless you plan on watering often and deeply. You have to get the roots to grow down into the soil.
Thanks Guys,
Some of the weeds are broke off at the ground. Will roundup still
kill them if I spray on the protruding stalk?
I dont mind killing eveything in the yard,mater of fact the neighbors
cat can go to<G>.
I bet I hear alot of flak over that last remark.
It would be nice to kill off all the vegatation as Im really woried that those weeds are going to become a major headache.
The RoundUp needs to be taken up by the plant.You might try a a heavy dose on the broken off end, but if it has been some time and it had sealed up then it won't take up the chemicals.But whatever you do, you will probably still have some weeds poke through.But if you do a fair job and "keep up with it" you won't have many and they can get taken care up.I have no idea what area you are in or what kind of grass you have, but contact you county extension office and get a flyer on the types of grasses that work in your are an the best scheudle for treatment.They can also run soil test for very little money and tell you what admendments are best for your soild and type of grass.
A couple of thoughts to add. Roundup will kill weeds all the way to the roots. But it has to be taken in through the leaves of the plant while it's actively growing. Sod won't "take" if it's on top of something other than dirt. I put some on top of existing grass one time, and it died. The existing plants hold the sod up a bit, so it dreis out too easily.Make sure everything is at final grade before you lay the sod. It's easy to slope the ground away from your house now. But not so easy after the sod is laid. There are an awful lot of people here that post about having wet basements and crawlspaces. Now is the time to get the drainage done right.I don't water as much as most people. I think if you water sod/seeded grass constantly, the grass has no reason to grow roots and seek out water. I water heavily every couple of days rather than constantly. Don't know if that's technically right or not, but it seeems to work.
I was thinking that women should put pictures of missing husbands on beer cans.
A section of chain link fence, folded up once or twice, with a rope on the end makes a good final grader, and pulls away any debris on the surface. If it seems too light (skips over the surface too much) add a few timbers to give it some weight.Make sure you don't have any low spots after you grade. They will fill with water and weed seeds.Adding some organic matter is a must if you really have sand. You might even need to add something the will stop the water from running out too fast. Can you get a soil analysis at the agricultural extension service near you?One caution about tilling the ground. You can 'wake up' dormant weed seeds by doing this. Ideally, prepare the ground then wait two or three weeks to see if you get any new weeds. If so, spray them, wait 7 to 10 days, pull, and then sod.Also, if you use seed instead of sod, the watering schedule is much different. With seed you must keep it moist at all times, which means you need to mist them 3 or 4 times a day until they germinate (about 14 days). If you get really hot sunny days, you might even need to mist 3 or 4 times just in the afternoon. After they germinate, revert to watering 1" once a week until it is reasonably established.
BEER IS THE ONLY ANSWER11
KILL THE CAT, PROTECT THE RAT111
How bout putting in a sprinkler system now while you have a blank slate. Its a pretty easy and inexpensive DIY job. Cost me about $1,000 to do my yard, you'll never regret it.
Basically, prep for sod the same way you'd prep for seed. Then skip the sod and seed it.
Rob,
Roundup is a great product, the name branded stuff, not the knock-offs. It's a little pricey, I but 2 1/2 gallons at Tractor Supply Company for about $120.00. I farm a little, so I buy in the larger quantities.
You can buy as little as a pint. The dilution for what you're doing is about 1:50, so even a pint will go a long way.
Roundup only has a 7 day residual in soil. You might want to forego the weed killers entirely and just run a tiller lightly over the area. That'll kill the weeds and help aerate the soil for the sod.
Greg
Running a tiller over the weeds is unlikely to kill them, more likely to just spread them around. Roundup is the way to go.
highly recommend a couple tools indespensible for prep work
the extra wide landscape rake ( maybe 36" wide )might turn out to be one of the most useful tools you've ever used and the water drum roller wil help determine how your soil / amendments really settle
Thanks Guys for all your input. We are going with sod because we are getting it dirt cheap as in free! I dont have a sprinkler system in the budget right now. I do plan on putting one in tho...someday.
I sprayed roundup on the weeds today. Will wait a few days and see what
turns up.
Been reading thru this post, Roundup is the way to go. Roundup is a systemic chemical it will kill living tissue ie weeds grass or whatever it comes in contact with. Apply with a window of no rain for 24 hrs. after that apply water to accel;erate the intake of the chemical into the plants tissue.
Another trick to clean up weeds in planting beds that have plants that you would't want to lose, is to put a pair of rubber gloves on and a pair of cotton jersy gloves over and wick roundup solution onto the weeds without damaging the other plants/
spray "round up" as been mentioned after which if soil is ok lay sod and roller to give it grip.
If soil is any good all sorts of weeds will want to grow in cluding ones blowing in from other peoples property
these are easy to get ridoff by spraying "par-3" this is what golf courses use
I buy mine at the farm supply in concentrate form and mix it at 100 to 1 with water then apply with a pull-behind sprayer on my lawn mower.
I do this usually once a year in may
This is the best thing since sliced bread IMHO
Rob,
Round-up will not kill the millions of weed seeds that are present in the soil. You need to use a pre-emergent herbicide, like Surflan, with the Round-up.
Surflan needs to be watered into the soil after applying so it can find the seeds below the surface. It can also be mixed with the Round-up son you can apply both at one time.
After apply the Surflan-Round-up mixture, leave it alone for 7 days. Then water generously the get the Surflan to soak in.
That should work for you.
" You need to use a pre-emergent herbicide, like Surflan, with the Round-up. "WARNING, WRANING, WARING!!!!!http://www.montereylawngarden.com/products/weeds.htmlThat site two differen Surflan products and their labels.The one says NOT TO USE ON GRASSES.The other one has;"WEED IMPEDE may be applied as a preemergence treatment for control of annual
grasses and certain broadleaf weeds in established warm season turf including bahiagrass,
bermudagrass, buffalograss, centipedegrass, St. Augustinegrass, zoysiagrass and
established tall fescue growing in warm season areas. Established turf is defined as ####dense turf having a well-anchored root system and healthy, vigorous top growth. Use
WEED IMPEDE only as a part of a total turf management program that includes good
fertilization practices."First the lawn IS NOT ESTABLISHED!And second we don't know if they is WARN season area or COOL season area.I will repeat get you COUNTY EXTNESION SERVICE recommendations. They will be specific to your climate, type of grasses grown, and products that are available.You are vary limited in what you can use on lawns UNTIL they are ESTABLISHED.I don't know about other types of grass, but a well established cool area grass, properly maintained will shade out most weeds and need only minimal treatment.
could you say something more of "par 3"
so you have an established lawn and you can spray this and it does not harm the lawn but kills weeds?
Par 3 is a "selective herbicide" that comes with a list of plants that it is effective on .
bassically it kills all broad leaf plants eg. dandellions ,quack grass , swamp grass,clover,etc,etc.
it is used by nearly all the lawn maintenance people
1 litre (us qt) of concentrate + 100 litres of water will do about 1 acre
you spray it on when there is low or no wind and wait about 1 week the weeds seem to disappear as if by magic and the lawn starts to grow as if it had been fertilized which i do also each year
If you have animals keep them off the lawn for a couple of hours till it has dried
I have used par 3 on lawns that were so full of weeds the owners figured there would be nothing left after the weeds were gone and were amazed at the resulting grass , however it works best if done yearly
pulling weeds is for idiots as all it does is make new ones grow faster
on my acre of lawn i did not have more than 10 dandelions this year and those were in a line so i must of missed them with the sprayer and this is a area of the country where dandelions grow better than grass
o.k. YOU HAVE MY ATTENTION, WHAT DO I USE TO KILL BRAMBLES OR STICKER BUSHES? I've tried Round-up and Ortho's total kill product, it makes them mad! I tried to buy Agent Orange, but the gov. will not sell it to me!! If you have any ideas, let me know. Thanks.
I'm sure that 'par 3' is a fancy (market) name for '2-4D', a common broadleaf weed killer - - 2-4D is particularly effective on annual broadleaf weeds and will 'cleanup' an infested lawn pretty impressively - - it is weak on some perennial broadleaf, such as Canadian thistle and some clovers (tho is will 'knock them down') - -
there are different formulations, should you get some for use, I'd suggest the 'amine' formulation, as it is less volatile - one problems lies in non-target damage, grapes are particularly sensitive..."there's enough for everyone"
I guess I wasn't clear enough. I meant that he applies the Surflan/Round-up mixture before rolling out the sod. Ttrust me, it won't hurt the sod at all.
I got my information from a licensed professional.
" got my information from a licensed professional."As he used it before laying cool weather grasses?
Yes. He's a chemical applicator for the ag industry for 30 years.
It won't hurt either warm or cool grass sod to treat the soil before rolling the sod.
It likely will inhibit somewhat the "rooting" of the new sod, but probably not enough to represent a problem.On a separate note, someone should point out that, if you want a nice thick, well-established lawn as quickly as possible, seeding is far superior to sodding. Sod will be green right away, of course, but the seeded lawn will be better a year later.
Sod will be green right away, of course, but the seeded lawn will be better a year later.
a good point - - tho I believe the word 'free' was used to describe the sod in the first post...(hmmm....free?....wonder what the catch is?)
either sod or seed will require religious attention to watering thru the rest of this season, if happiness is to be achieved....
"there's enough for everyone"
Because of different types of grasses, I'd also consider removing the existing small patch of grass and replace it with the sod.
You also might want to rake/till into the sand a inch or two or three of some organic matter such as composted leaves and grass cuttings, around here it's commonly sold as leaf-grow and can be had by the truck load from gravel and stone yards that also sell topsoil.
Besides adding nutrients, the compost will hold moisture which the sand won't.
Maybe run a roller over the mix to flatten it out and see what the final grade will be.
There's also a product called compro which is made from composted sewage but it's not something I'd use.
Because sand is so porous, when it's time to fertilize you might also consider using an organic fertilizer, they're typically slow release so they won't get washed away thru the sand as quickly as the typicall fertilizer.
Most organic fertilizers can be ummm, errr, fragrant so I try to apply them when rain is forcasted.
"It's not easy being green" (Kermit the frog)
Mike
It's O.k. to think out of the box, Just don't walk off of the plank!
Edited 6/9/2005 7:11 pm ET by Mike S
Edited 6/9/2005 7:13 pm ET by Mike S