Tifton 85

[hurleyjd]

Missed the window for spraying the Tifton 85 with pre-emerge. I now have some germinating grass seed proable crab and bahia. Any thoughts on what to spray with now. The grass was sprigged on April 23. Some has cleared the ground and has runners a foot or so long. Will any more come later as it seems to be pretty thin. I sprigged 25 bushels to the acre. At what growth stage should I apply the additional N. P and K was applied before sprigging at the rate per the soil test.

 

[Jogeephus]

At 25 bushels/acre I would expect it would be a bit thin. I put 125 an acre but with no rainfall yours is sounding better than mine. Personally, if I thought the stand was sparse, I would forego any extra N for fear of fertilizing the weeds. I'd just let it grow and mow it occassionally to keep the height down and the grass spreading. Once the runners get out there a bit more and begin pegging down, I like to run coulters across the field then again in a perpendicular direction so as to create more mother plants. This is all I would do - if it were me.

PS. I once sprayed a liquid fertilizer on some I thought was sparce. I don't remember the brand but it had a rooting hormone in it to accelerate root growth. It was cheap and seemed like it worked well.