Do y'all have any tips for newly laid sod? Just bought a new build house and the sod is practically brand new. Sprinkler system is watering it, but is there anything else I need to do to give it the best chance to catch?

Ok great, what day will you be over? Referring to our conversation a month or so back about how you would come spray my yard since I’ve only got one leg working now I’ll be anxiously awaiting your reply No seriously though what day?

What kind of turf? With the winter rains we've been getting you probably don't need to be running irrigation. If they did a good install they would have rolled it and you have good soil contact. My concern would be how well did they butt each piece of sod together. If there are gaps or dips you'll want to level those out with sand. It's dormant so wait until it wakes up in a month or so then go full throttle on it. Dialing in your irrigation is key. You need to know how long each zone takes to put down a 1/2" of water. Pretty simple deal. Figure out your fertilizer program, mow your arse off and have fun.

Lmao, I would love to if you didn't live 4 hours away. I gotta spray mine and two neighbors Saturday morning. I haven't looked at the latest timing on rain yet,and trying to stay ahead of it.

Once you're on watering restrictions you will never be off of them. At some point it's coming for all of us. Maybe not as harsh as your stage from last year but a twice a week deal is pretty standard for mos. Luckily we are one of the cities/areas that aren't under any and never have been, yet. Your lawn looks pretty sunny. I'd clean that up and go with Bermuda. When the drought hits bermuda will go dormant and bounce back with rain or when you can water. I'd also push the restriction limits. Granted watering in the middle of the night isn't the best option but if your only option, do it. Water so anything that's on the concrete is dry before the 5am Karens are driving around and will report you. Have a buddy in San Antiono that did this all last summer and never got busted. If the first pop is a warning, push it until you get the warning.

Believe it's bermuda. I turned off the irrigation because we have quite a few rain chances the next couple weeks. There are some gaps in between the pieces of sod. This may seem dumb, but is there a certain kind of sand I need to get? Also what's the best way to spread it?

Mason sand. Should be able to find bags at the box store or mason supply place. Just cut a small hole in the bag and walk around and fill in the gap. Run some irrigation to settle it. Once your grown in or next year if you have some low spots you can do a full sand level if needed. I'd get the gaps filled now while you can see them.

Put out the “Derek” recommended Lesco Stonewall yesterday to take advantage of this rain today. Perfect timing. Hoping for good results.

I put mine out also. Good soaking rain since late last night.

Got mine and two neighbors done this morning while it was raining

Since you’re not going to come do mine Derek what needs to be put out right now?

for the Bermuda, would you go with seed or sod? any specific type of Bermuda?

we have one small patch in our back yard that has thin soil that I put out 20-25 squares (not sure why they call them squares, rectangular in shape) several years back, I believe it was TIF, very fine blade that grows pretty low but doesn't seem to take traffic very well.

I just have nightmares regarding Bermuda from the house I grew up in, front yard was solid Bermuda but riddled with grass burs and infested with red bugs (chiggars), I swore I would never have that in any yard I had. maybe that's not a thing now?

PKM. To be honest. I wouldn't do anything this year besides good cultural practices. Mowing, watering, fertilizing and see what happens. Lawn care isn't just buy xyz product or watch a youtube and you're good. It's mowing more once a week watering properly when you can and fertilizing. A passion a lot of us enjoy. Basic agronomy. I'm not talking chit here, but your lawn and practices are a hot mess. I'd scalp and bag it soon and start the season fresh and see how it goes. Your past bermuda nightmares can be fixed. But start with the cultural. Don't throw money at the problem, lets figure out what the problem is and put money into the cure.

Pre emergent. Run it at label rates. I can't remember if you're spraying but I think you are By weight 0.41oz or prodiamaine and 0.50z of Isox per 1000.

Derek do you recommend fertilizing the new sod? If so, what kind do you recommend and when should I start?

Thanks! will give this a shot and see how it goes.

What fertilizer did you use last year and how often? What was your mowing schedule like and did you bag your clippings? We pretty much know the watering part lol. Lets see if we can put together something simple this year and see what you think before you take drastic measures. Doesn't have to look like Agusta but something that looks good to you.

I don't recall the percentage on the fertilizer I used, talked to our local nursery and bought there. It was applied several times (early spring and early summer) before restrictions hit. It looked great and I was mowing about once a week to two weeks, leaving it fairly tall once it greened up (like highest or next to highest setting on my mower, per your instructions a year or so back). Once restrictions hit, the frequency dropped to every 2-3 weeks at the highest setting (mainly cutting the weeds that grew thru). I always mow in a single direction to end up with all the cuttings to the side where I can dispose.

We can deep dive into this many ways. We've(In general not just you) talked about it many times on here but will discuss it again for a refresher. First is irrigation. Knowing your irrigation is #1 for me. You need to get that dialed. The ole 10 minutes a zone is garbage. You can get catch cups on Amazon for cheap. Place them in a zone and run that zone for 20 minutes and see what you get on avg. Goal is 1/2" off irrigation per run without much runoff. You might have to make some adjustments so it's not spraying all over the sidewalks and driveway and wasting it. So if your pattern is good and you run it for 20 minutes and you get 1/8" on avg you know to run that zone 40 minutes to get 1/2" down. I have a couple zones that take 45 minutes or so to get down 1/2" and I have a few that take about 10 minutes. These are what I use.
https://www.amazon.com/Transparent-...mp;mcid=24510d1e55af389c9e841dc7aaab9413

Fertilizer is subjective. Lots of ways you can run it on different types of turf. Bermuda I like to do 1/2lb or less of Nitrogen every 4 weeks. St. Aug about 1/4lb, Zoysia depending on the type can be pretty low inputs. I've seen some decent private labeled fert at some nurseries and some garbage over priced stuff. I'm guessing you're in a high soil Ph area so you want to be looking for Ammonium Sulfate as your Nitrogen source vs Urea. Without a soil test you won't really know what your P/K needs are. Lowes is carrying a decent Ammonium Sulfate 13-13-13 at a good price. You could run that for a while then switch to something like Scotts Turf Builder.(Scotts actually makes a couple/few decent ferts) The subjective part I mentioned goes back to Scotts. If you apply label rate that will put down 0.90lbs of Nitrogen per 1000. I don't remember how often they say to put it down. It's a bulk feed the grass and wait. I like to divide it out and feed less but more often so you have a constant and balanced feeding/delivery. It's a little more work but worth it IMO.

I'll ramble more later. Tired of typing. Last thought. Do not bag/trash your clippings unless you have to for some reason.

great information!!! thank you

Alright I got about 3/4 of the gaps filled with sand and I'm finishing the rest after work tomorrow. Ran the irrigation yesterday evening and it seems to have settled nice. Now I'm trying to figure out what kind of fertilizer to get

Lot's of ways to go on fert. You seem pretty dedicated so far and great job sanding the corners. What's your sq footage lawn? Assuming it's Bermuda, which you think it is. If you started fertilizing the first weekend of every month starting April 6th" Sept 6th this year that would be 6 applications. I don't find that unreasonable to ask someone to do. New sod, high soil Ph, Just keep it simple and unsexy. Stay away from youtube on "what you need" and other BS products. You can rock a nice lawn on the cheap. First your cultural practices. Covered it a couple post ago. Mow your [censored] off. Keep it simple NPK this year. Granular, go Sta Green 13-13-13. Ammonium Sulfate Nitrogen which you want. Round this up to 4lb pounds per 1000. This is good fert that will bang and cheap,

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Sta-Green/5013295007

You sanded already?

Awesome, thanks for the recommendation Derek. Our yard is not very big so a bag of fert will go a long way. Superduty, my wife and I just bought our first house and the sod they laid had some gaps in between so I'm just sanding those gaps to make it even.

Razor you can push your N rate a little harder if you need to for fill in.See what it looks like come June. I know people running 1lb of N per month. Some even over that. Totally unnecessary for the most part imo. You're probably going to have a rough year with weeds as builders grade bermuda typically ain't the best and they take what they can get. In NTX it's probably common or maybe 419. If/when you have some/a lot of weeds this summer don't stress over it. If you're planning on being a full on DIY guy. We will work on getting those weeds killed and starting a good pre emergent program this fall. You just gotta work the whole process and stick with it.