Why wont the grass grow.

[piperboy84]

The strip has a thin grass covering but just does not seem to have thickened or really taken despite this now being the end of the 2nd full summer it’s been in, I bought proper seed, had the field professionally drained put fertilizer on but its still not coming thru right. I understand it not being right last summer as it was planted late but it’s had all this summer and just isn’t growing, I have not needed to cut it for the last 3 months as it appears to have stopped growing and remains sparse, on a very few times I did cut it I was hoping to keep it short and hopefully it would thicken. The only thing I can think of is I use a heavy roller on it and that may be “capping” the surface and stunting growth or is it the case nobody’s grass is growing due to the unusual weather. I noticed where the drains cross the runway the grass has barely grown at all and is brown in colour, and now we are here in late September it looks like this is as good as its going get till next year

Any green finger types out there got any ideas

[Echo Romeo]

Brown would suggest it is to dry, but thats unlikely given this summer!

I would Roundup it, scarify the surface and start again come spring, though I'm no expert.

[xrayalpha]

Our grass, in central Scotland, is brown where it has been "drowned".

Too much water, as well as too little, will kill it off.

Suppose that is why golf courses etc have professional green keeers with years of experience.

It doesn't "just grow"!

[dont overfil]

I would suggest a weed surface for next year. Works in my garden!

D.O.:)

[Echo Romeo]

Thats an idea, nip down your local golf club find the green keeper and ask for his input in exchange for a pole round.

[phiggsbroadband]

Hi Piperboy, even 'down south' we have had a late season for grass growing, and the rain and lack of warmth has lead to less grass cutting this year. Some farmers have only just got their grass harvested, three months later than normal, with the corn harvest also delayed.

I would think you could try not using the roller, to give the worms a chance to move around, and only cut to a depth of 2 inches. Wait till April/May next year to see if it improves.

btw. What are you using for the cutting... Pasture Topper, Rotary Mower, or cylinder gang mower? A Tractor Pasture Topper set at 2-3 inches, is usually sufficient for runways and parking areas.

Pete

[FullWings]

In general seed bed needs to be firm but not hard. If the ground is hard you probably need to subsoil, then plough or disc, then power harrow, seed and then a cambridge roll.
Sounds more like an aerobatic sequence than horticulture...

[mikehallam]

We roll the strip just twice a year.

Spring as soon as the tractor ncan go on the surface & Autumn, before the top gets too softn again.

mike hallam.

[Sir George Cayley]

Y'know that artificial grass round posh swimming pools........


Oh, is that my hat n coat?

SGC

[piperboy84]

Y'know that artificial grass round posh swimming pools.

I'll tell you, I have spent so much draining, working, levelling, sowing, resowing, patching and faffing about, i could have tarred the bugger cheaper

[Pilot.Lyons]

I dont know much about it all but someone i once knew was doing a farming course and said things like ph in the soil can affect growth?

I maybe be way off with grass but maybe not?

Roundup the whole lot and start again may be a good solution

I may have bumped into some boxes of grass seed in pound store and it grew everytime within 10 days!

[Maoraigh1]

Talk to your neighbouring farmers. Here on the south coast of the Moray Firth the ground has been much drier all summer than it was the last two. And there's been a mix of cold and very warm weather. Next year's cereal crop is already well sprouted, sowed the same week as the 2012 crop was harvested.

[Willy44]

You should not heavy roll it, the seed should just make contact with the soil, scarrify it, re seed it then give it a very light roll. This roll should be to just make sure the seed makes contcat with the soil. Loads of people make this mistake.If you heavy roll you can compact the seed, compact the soil & if too heavy the soil cant absorb water. Also try not to use it.

[piperboy84]

Yeap looks like heavy rolling was the problem, I scored a loan of a 2.5 meter grass slitter today, done the whole field with slits down to seven inches deep and the ground was hard all they way down. Will get some lime on it and hopefully will see some results. The guy from the machinery manufacturer that loaned me the slitter says if the ground is heavily compacted the worms cant work near the top and create there own little drainage network and the grass roots don't get a chance to bed as deep as they should and the ground does not get a chance to breath.

Fingers crossed

[rogcal]

When I put my strip in 9 years ago I looked around at the various grass seed combinations available and was tempted by the amenity grass mixes but then looked at the set aside grass mixes used for stewardship schemes and opted for that and have never had a problem with maintaining a good sward despite droughts, flooding and areas of soil with poor nutrient content.

I have never applied any fertiliser and during the peak of the growing season I'm cutting twice a week.

My advice is apply glyphosate to your existing strip, scarify when all growth dead, re-drill with a set aside mix and lightly roll. I did mine during November 2003 and it was up and usable by January.

[peterh337]

We used to have a gardener who used to like making money off "higher value" jobs, rather then just weeding and such.

At one stage de recommended that he rotovates an area of our garden, which had previously been mangled and then compacted by builders doing a job nearby.

Hundreds of pounds later, with the soil having been churned up down to the sub-atomic level, and mixed with fertiliser to perfection, and seeded with grass, nothing would grow on this patch (about 20x5m) for a couple of years... It is OK now but god knows what he did to the soil. Normally, with half decent soil and a bit of sun and rain, grass is coming up within days...

[Crash one]

We used to have a gardener

I like it:ok:

[piperboy84]

One of the problems is the field was previously a sand and gravel quarry and after the aggregates were extracted it was used as in unregulated dump, this was prior to the Scottish Environmental Protections Agency (SEPA) really starting to enforce rules, there was every kind of good awful **** imaginable dumped in there, then it was covered back over with a thin layer of topsoil. When I had the draining plough in it was pulling up sheets and sheets of malteser chocolate wrappers and polypropylene rolls from a nearby factory, the old plant manager told me that one weekend some truck pulled in with full sized tanker trailer and backed it into the hole, unhitched and drove off with a bunch of putrid yellow crap leaking out, they never did figure out what it was and just covered it over with gravel.

So taking into consideration what "lies beneath" and a thin layer of graveley top soil the grass growing properly was a crap shoot.

[7AC]

It seems to me, you just need a generous application of good old fashioned farmyard manure and time. Keep away with the roller, they do more harm than good.

[Lone_Ranger]

Grass on long term overly wet ground can appear the same light brown-straw colour as grass that is underwatered and heat damaged. Compacting the soil will enhance the problem, roots need air as well as water to remain healthy .............Scarify it, dont use a roller this year