I didn’t post any pictures of the bunny nugget carpet. I’ll get that out tomorrow. I thought it would be a fertilizer, so I wasn’t too concerned. I’m assuming that the acidity comes from the urine?
I found this posting, which says that healthy rabbits shouldn’t have crop-dangerous droppings:
@AzJazz Unfortunately I don’t have a clue about the lime. It’s probably worth some research there. As you’re well aware with our extreme heat what applies to other areas of the country might be a bit different here.
What you posted is interesting. I suppose one issue is we don’t know much about the diet of these desert rabbits, other than that I guess we know they eat Bermuda. I’m not sure if you saw it yet, but I started that other thread with more information. It will be easier to reference as a separate thread.
Share with us whatever else you find. I’ll keep looking too. Of course you still have the catch cup test to do, and the insect or fungus potential is still out there.
@AzJazz I found this. It looks like you should pH test first, which you can buy yourself locally, or take a sample to get tested. The link talks about application, which doesn’t seem to be too big of a deal.
Also, I would not do anything to the soil in response to the rabbits. I had tons of nuggets, but with proper watering and mowing, they slowly went away.
@Modawg2k The thing that’s weird here is that @AzJazz already had what seemed like dead on settings for her lawn. @AzJazz, I had the impression that those initial lawn settings you had posted have been running for a while. Is that true? The only thing that would throw things off with regards to watering seems to be uneven coverage or a bad overall pr. The catch cup test will tell us.
So there is no way have a fungus that is attacking the epidermis above soil.
So, we have not seen any real indication of insects, but you state you could not find a root canopy.
This lack of root canopy is troublesome. If the grass was under watered, bermuda will convert its carbs to startches and store them in the root beneath the ryzome then go dormant letting the tillers and blade induce cellitous which makes them crispy and not very noticeable after a week, you would see the stem and sheath still. None of your pictures in my opinion show that.
Help me understand a few things that may be in this thread but lost in the noise…what time do you start watering? Is your awc still at .2? That seems high but not impossible.
I also need you to do something else, and sorry in advance. Dig up a grass section that is not healthy looking. Soak it in some water for a couple of minutes and delicately remove the dirt to expose the roots. Take it out and shoot some pictures. I’m hoping to find black on the ryzome or roots. Im beginning to think this could be Pythium root rot. Maybe Pythium spp.
It would be really cool if you could do this very soon.
Now, after you take the picture, damp a paper towle (not dripping, but like you were going to microwave a biscuit) and place it in the bottom of a Tupperware container. Place what you dug up on top of the towel and close the lid. Put this container outside but not in sunlight. I’m hoping the following morning you have cotton candy in that container.
Hi, @plainsane - Is the root canopy the mesh near the surface that I had to cut through when I was digging up the soil the other day? If so, there was some sort of root canopy in the “dead” area.
I have attached a snapshot from my latest grass settings. Next watering is scheduled for 12-AUG. Not sure about the upcoming 5 day gap:
I tried taking the capture cup test today. I think I got a “C -”
I realized that with some areas being hit by two zones, that I didn’t capture everything correctly. I will need to run the test again. FWIW, I ran the sprinklers for 11 minutes (it was supposed to be 10 minutes, but I got back late). The cups ranged from as low as 28 ml up to as high as 70 ml for 11 minutes. The average was probably around 40ish for that time frame.
I’m not entirely sure how to get accurate capture cup readings with some areas getting double-zoned.
Unfortunately, I am leaving town for about a week, and I won’t be able to run any more tests until I get back.
@plainsane - I will do your suggested turf/root tests when I get back.
Thanks again, everybody, for your great support! My wife and I really appreciate it!
There shouldn’t be a problem with the double zoned ones as long as you ran each zone for the same amount of time. I treat my overlapping zones as just one giant zone and just do the calculations together then use the same settings for both.
@plainsane - I forgot to mention … My watering is usually pretty early in the morning. It is set to start around 5:00 AM or so. I think that Rachio modifies that somehow. The sprinklers don’r always start at the same time.
@Modawg2k - I guess the forecast has changed … My next lawn watering is supposed to occur on 09-AUG now.
The only way the controller would modify the start time would be if there is another schedule running when the sprinklers are scheduled to run I think.
Rachio won’t change the start time of your schedule unless there are multiple schedules running that morning. I have my grass set to start at 5am, and drips to run at 5:01am, becaue on the days they overlap, I want my grass zones to water first to minimize evaporation. So on those days, my drips might not start until after 6am while waiting for my grass schedule to complete
@AzJazz, I found that my pH was high, possibly due to rabbits. I’m not sure that the comment above about adding lime is necessarily in play. I had to add sulfur. Here’s some more info. in case you’d like to get a soil test to find out for sure.
Thanks, @azdavidr! I will try a soil test to see if the rabbit pellets is the problem source.
However, I am also adding my sprinkler results in my main grass problem area to see if there are tweaks to be applied to my Rachio settings (Sprinkler time: 11 mins per zone):
) My catch cup results will be up later today.
