OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Lawn Care & Maintenance Santa Ana - Melbourne - What to do in Winter?

Hi All,
My Santa Ana turf is 5 weeks old today and as I live in Melbourne, Dormancy seems to be approaching.
To all the aficionados here, what do I do over Winter to ensure that it jumps to life in Spring?
Or do I just sulk with my nose pressed up against the glass looking forlornly out across a Dormant yard over winter?
Mondays (Joe)

Hi Joe,

Autumn is the prime time to gear your lawn up for winter. The better you can get your lawn looking in autumn, the better it will be in winter. Once we arrive in winter its all too late to do anything. We�re not talking about a lot of work here either � most of its just understanding how your lawn works.

I would have to say that the most important thing that you can do in autumn is to fertilise your lawn, but not with just any old fertiliser. You�ll need one with high potassium and high phosphorous and that generally means a mineral type fertiliser rather than an organic one. I can recommend one called Paul Munns Emerald Green.

These two elements do very important things for your lawn, namely

Phosphorus (P):�Promotes strong root development and winter hardiness. It helps grass withstand environmental stress. Grass well supplied with phosphorus is less likely to become diseased.

Potassium (K):�Reduces transpiration (loss of water through the blades), so grass needs less water when it has enough potassium. It strengthens leaf blades, enabling grass to recover from heavy foot traffic, and helps grass withstand cold stress.

Lawns that are well supplied with nutrients are better able to cope with the rigours of winter. They will stay greener longer and stand up to frosty conditions better. They will also fight off some of the common fungal diseases more effectively.

Prior to applying you fertiliser, spray out a liquid wetting agent. Not only is it helpful in delivering the nutrients to the roots of the lawn, it will help you best take advantage of Autumn rains. When your soil dries out over summer, it often becomes non wetting meaning it repels water. This means that when the rain does come, it rolls of or doesn�t soak in evenly. Wetting agents solve that problem immediately making your lawn a happy one when the sky opens up.

The next thing to pay attention to is the way you maintain your lawn. It is important to raise your mowing height by about 10mm after Easter. By doing this you reduce the likely hood of scalping your lawn through winter. Scalping is where you dis-colour your lawn by mowing it too short. While this won�t pose a problem during spring summer and autumn, if you scalp your lawn during late autumn and winter it won�t regain its colour till spring. Remember, what ever damage you do in winter wont repair till spring. On that note try to avoid heavy traffic on your lawn during late autumn and winter.

Hi Virus66
Thanks for all the info. I actually replied with a couple of paragraphs but for some reason it booted me when I tried to post it. Any Mods know why perhaps? teething issues with new section? or user error on my part?
Mondays (Joe)

G'day HM
I can't explain that.
If the problem persists just let us know.

--------------------
Jack

Hi Virus66,

Where do you source Paul Munns Emerald Green from ?

Cheers,
BB

Hi BB,

As you live in Adelaide head down to Paul Munns Instant lawns, 358 Brighton Rd, Hove. It is their own product but anything rich in Potassium and Phosphorus is good for Autumn fertilizing.

Hope this helps
V66

Hi V66,

Munns have their Golf course green and starter fertilisers in Bunnings but I'm sure that they don't stock Emerald, thus why I've ask you.

Thank you very much.

Cheers,
BB

Thanks Virus66,

I didn't think this forum would be of much use to me but your post is of assistance in confirming what I do leading up to winter with my Canberra grass- I won't dare call it a lawn!

I use Scotts Autumn & Winter feeder however I have been unable to source it as Bunnings haven't stocked it for a few years and my small bag is running out. Any idea where I may get it?

Otherwise I'll keep Munns Emerald Green in mind.

Thanks,

Hi Patrick,

Myself living in Adelaide I am not sure where you would get it in Canberra. If you can locate a garden store or something the like you may be able to ask for something rich in Phosphorus and Potassium.

Sorry I couldn't be more help.

V66

Thanks for the reply V66,

a few garden stores around here (forgot about them in the Bunnings/Mitre-10/Home advertising whitewash, would you believe!) so I'll have a look. Big turf place (Canturf) too, can always ring them I suppose. And of course, can always ring head office.

In the meantime, is applying Seasol/powersol of any value to grass?

Thanks

Hi Patrick,

By all means. This product is really good as it has a soil conditioner in it for those sandy or clay soils.

V66

Many thanks V66!

Hi all,

Well I've just come back from making the trek down to Brighton Road to pick up a 10Kg Bag of Emerald Green.

I'll post up the results of what I think of it. I must admit that Paul Munn (not to be confused with Munns) is not cheap by any standard and at $34.95 for a 10 Kg bag it better be worth it.

Paul Munn only sells from his 358 Brighton Road address, while "Munns" is a breakaway part of the family which is more of a distributorship to places like Bunnings etc.

Anyway that's it for my Scotty for this season. It's now been mothballed until next season when we'll do it all again.

In saying that, it couldn't be a better time to start a ground up restoration on a Model 45 for the beginning of next season.

Cheers,
BB.

Wow I've noticed "no more mowing" too, Kind of moping around scuffing my boot on the lawn and scratching my head. 2 mows of a newly purchased machine and that seems to be it till September? might I suggest? I did however go out and acquire another unit a couple of weeks back. I'll post that to another part of the forum in the next couple of days......
Mondays (Joe)

Hi Joe,

I know exactly how you feel.

Sadly Santa Ana Couch is probably one of the worse looking lawns through the winter period, that's why sporting venues that use this lawn over throw winter Rye grass seed into it so as to keep the play-ability of the surface viable.
eg. Adelaide Oval has had this done and that's why it's looking reasonably good at this time of the year, but it looks far better over the summer season when SA Couch is in full flight.

Cheers,
BB.

Holy Moly didn't realize I'd been away for so long.
Work has been a little crazy and been having late nights. Hopefully that's done with now and I can get back to what really interests me lol

This post started in April and we are now heading out of winter that was very cold and wet. I've noticed a lot of santa Anna lawns going really dormant with not a sign of green except for weeds. Some of these lawns are long and not very thick. The green ones are well looked after and I suspect have had regular fertilizer and mowed low. I'm not a great fan of santa Anna because of its poor state and appearance in winter but the turf company's really promote it as a good lawn.

I have SA in my south facing back yard. It was only laid on 1 March this year. I had a fairly stringent Potassium and Phosphorous fertilising regimen through April, may and the beginning of June along with the occasional urea (nitrogen) use also. I have managed to keep it relatively green for a newly laid santa ana. I'd say that just under 50% green at the moment. When ever there was a sunny day or two after a bit of rain I did hit it with some granulated urea for a quick green up (just before the rain as Urea will burn if not watered in) and I also would dissolve urea in water and spray the lawn with that mixture directly after mowing (don't have to water that in).

I think next winter, when the lawn is a little more established I'll be able to keep it fairly green (for Santa Ana in winter that is)

Here is my SA lawn a couple of nights ago straight after mowing add spraying with the Urea mixture. As you can see the lawn is still wet



This is the brownest it has looked all winter. As you can see, it doesn't look the best, and I've cut it a bit low on the left side so it's a bit brown there, but all in all I don't think it's too bad for a 5 month old Santa Ana that has copped a fairly wet and cold Adelaide winter.

Hi Cirillo,

I must admit that your biggest mistake was to plant it so late in the season and as such the roots have not had a chance to firmly penetrate into the ground. Roll out lawn is sliced way to thin and as such the lawn has to struggle to survive and then try to replenish itself, something its not going to do in March. It really should've been planted in November.

The lawn farms slice it so short for a number of reasons,

1, good root system left in their ground so they just top dress and in 12 months they have another lawn to slice out.

2, Less weight per roll and more lawn on the transporting trucks per load.

One other thing I'm seeing is that your lawn will spend way too much time in the shade and won't be in full sun until mid summer and from there onwards it's all downhill again for the season.

Cheers,
BB.

Yea I knew it was too late but I really had no choice. It was just when the renovations happened. As my house isn't facing perfect north the lawn gets more sun than most south facing aspects but I know it's not perfect.

Hi Cirillo,

You are in the similar situation to me and that is that the house shades a major part of the lawn during winter and over a period of years the lawn just won't be able to handle it. What will happen is that you'll end up with fungal type issues within the root system and that's basically cancer of the lawn. I know that in time I'm probably going to have to deal with it also but until then I'm going to do my best to keep it's health in the best shape.

It would be good to have sun tracking mirrors that reflect light back onto the lawn, but hey this James Bond technology isn't going to happen for me.

Cheers,
BB.

Hey Cirillo and Bonnar Bloke,
Dormancy sucks particularly if you love looking after turf. You guys should start looking into zoysia matrellas for some more shade tolerance, the only problem is I'm not sure if they handle the cool all too well. ShadeTuff is sold commercially up here (in Brissie) for about the same price as Sir Walter. I know Lawn Solutions Australia (the Sir Walter group of growers) have brought in a number of zoysias from the states. I reckon Zeon Zoysia which is on the Olympics golf course in Rio will become the next Sir Walter in Australia in the next 5-10 years. Zoysia japonicas can also handle shade (50-60%) although don't have the fineness of leaf that the Matrellas do (they are much similar to Tall Fescues) but you can still mow it low. I have seen Empire Zoysia mown at 11mm being used on tees before. I know they have some cool tolerance though as wild genotypes grow as far up in the latitude zone as Korea. You can buy a seeded zoysia japonica cultivar zenith online from seed stores and I think Viro cells (plugs) of empire zoysia online too. Might be worth a trial in a small section. As far as more cool tolerance and shade tolerance in couch goes I know some growers have Northbridge and Latitude 36 up here in trials (they aren't for sale yet). Lat 36 was bred for cool tolerance and grows high up in the transition zone in the states. The LSA growers have TifGrand and TifTuff on trial and were bred for shade and drought tolerance. You probably wont see these around for a few years though. Your other option is just have 1 week of dormancy (if that) and grow grass all year round by moving up to Brisbane, you can grow the stuff on a rock up here .

I feel that people in southern Victoria have been conned into thinking santa Anna couch is a good domestic grass. Some years ago I was talking to a turf supplier in geelong and he said it was initially only used on the Bellarine penis ulnar as the climate was more suited to it, and then the suburbs of geelong begun to order it. It really looks crappy in home situations when the home owner plants it in the wrong areas, let's it grow long and fails to fertilize, scarify and generally look after it.
Ooh after it.

Well no time for me to sulk with my nose pressed up against the glass cos I been super tied up with work. Great to check back in however. An update on my March laid turf which is on the south side of a 2 storey home, I was surprised by a couple of things.
Firstly, It didn't brown off over winter as I have been led to believe and witnessed as well. Don't know whether that was because it might have been a warmer winter. There appeared to be a little greying of the thatch in some not so robust turf mats, but other than that held up super well
Secondly I haven't had the mower on it since late May or Early June and it is just now starting to send out some creepers around the edges. I have had some winter weeds that I have spent the winter picking out by hand
Pleasantly surprised on both counts ....but am now ready to get it cracking for its second season. looking forward to mid to late October to get it knocked down and top dressed with sand to smooth it out some more
Will post some pics as I go through the process.