 This is the last night of our forums. And so before we get to the last talk, we want to thank some people who make this happen. And I first want to thank the county agents for what they do. I hope everybody out there in the counties in the offices appreciate how hardworking their county agents are in serving them. They are a very impressive group of people. And it's been such a pleasure and honor to work with those county agents this year again. You know, I also want to thank the Department of Aeroculture Communications for making this happen. We have Stacy Wang, who really helped us a lot in promoting the forums this year. We have Bob Burch, who's been with us from the beginning and Bob helped design our new website. And Bob's the one who always posts the handouts and the presentations, the recordings for us. And we want to thank Bob. And of course, we got to thank Scott, the guy who makes it all happen. You know, that Scott is, we just appreciate all the hours you put into the forums. We're going to wrap up tonight with a talk about long care during and after a drought. Now, long care during a drought? Well, that's the western half of the state. We've still got a drought going on, at least until tomorrow when we get a historic blizzard. Long care after a drought? Well, that sounds like the eastern half of the state that was blessed with a lot of snow this winter. And it looks like they're coming out of the drought. So this talk is going to appeal to all of us across the state. And here to share his expertise on turf is Dr. Alan Sook, Alan's an associate professor in the Department of Plant Sciences. He's been at NDSU since 2008. Alan is a teacher. He teaches so many courses on campus. He does a lot of classes on turf management, landscape management, as well as horticulture therapy. And in his research, he focuses on low input turf grass management and ornamental grasses. Alan, welcome to the forums. Well, hello, everybody. Thanks for sticking around. This final presentation is on long care during and after a drought. But as I was putting it together, I really should have went with a different title because I want to talk a little bit about what you can do before the drought sets in during the drought and a little bit afterwards. Okay, so I changed up the title a little bit or the content a little bit to cover all three angles. Okay, so let's start off. First slide here, maybe a little out of place, but what I want to tell you is that during a drought, you want to minimize traffic as much as possible. Here we see some vehicular traffic damage. I'm also talking about foot traffic too. During a drought, the turf is stressed out. The cells aren't very turgid and they are under stress and just weight pressure can actually kill the plant and doesn't take the weight of a vehicle. I've seen footprints across a drought stressed lawn, bicycle tracks, lawn mower tracks and so on. So try to minimize traffic as much as possible. And the thing is, you're not going to realize the damage until the drought subsides and everything starts to green up again. So good luck if you're a parks manager. That's not going to happen, but maybe you can control things in your backyard. If there's too much damage, well, then you just have to oversee after the drought subsides, all right? Let's start off and talk about nutrition. This is something that we can certainly, or something that we certainly have control of before the drought occurs. And I'm assuming that most of us know when a drought is going to come on, the weather person is going to say, you know, we're in for a rough summer. Well, that's a good time to be on top of turf nutrition. Okay, make sure you fertilize properly. Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium are three target dates are the three big summer holidays. Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day where you apply typically one pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet. Now, but I want to tonight, I want to focus on potassium, okay? It's the last of the, when you buy a bag of fertilizer, you see those three numbers, that's the analysis, the fertilizer analysis. And the last one is potassium. That's what I want to focus on. It's important that of course, the lawn is in a healthy state and we achieve that through proper nutrition. But in the lead up to a drought, it's always a good idea to spoon feed potassium to your lawn. Potassium, and what I mean by spoon feed is just a small amount, very small amount, maybe a 10th of a pound per thousand square feet. They do this on golf courses all the time. And you can do it in your lawn too. Potassium is primarily used as a cofactor, a catalyst to allow chemical reactions to occur. It also regulates the model aperture. And that's very important during a drought. The stalemates on a plant open and close so that the plant can carry out or complete gas exchange. When the stalemates are open, the plant releases oxygen into the atmosphere and it also takes in CO2. Well, CO2, we hear that that's a pollutant. Do you believe that? Well, first of all, life could not exist on this planet without CO2. Plants take it in and turn it into sugar, carbohydrates and that's what they use for energy. So maybe CO2, maybe pollution isn't the right word for CO2. But anyway, when the stalemates are open, gas escapes into the atmosphere and the plant absorbs CO2. And the plant also loses water. Every time the stalemates open, the plant loses water. Well, that's a bad thing in the middle of a drought. But at the same time, that increases transpirational pull. As water is leaving the stalemate, the roots absorb water into the plant. Just like you're taking a sip of a straw. Water's lost to the stalemate, but the roots are also pulling in new water. So healthy stalemates are essential in a plant's survival, especially during a drought. And again, like I said, stomatal aperture, the opening and closing of the stalemates is regulated by potassium. That's why it's so important that, again, there's enough potassium in the plant during these stressful periods. So that the plant can survive. And like I said, when we apply it, we're only applying a small amount. Again, that may be a 10th of a pound per 1,000 square feet every two to six weeks. So let me show you the graphic here of stalemates. When the stalemates need to open, potassium is pulled into the guard sails right here. And since potassium's a salt, water goes in with it. When the guard sails become turgid, they open. Now the plant can get rid of oxygen as a waste product and take in more CO2 to convert into sugar. Okay, when the plant has enough CO2, potassium leaves the guard sails, the water files it out, and the guard sails collapse, closing the stalemates. Okay, so that's how it works. Potassium, again, is the regulator and it's very important that there's enough potassium available to the plant, especially when the plant, in this case, the turf is under stress. Okay, here's a real picture of a stalemate, a microscopic picture here. And you see it, it's a St. Augustine grass. This is well-watered. This is, again, a hydrated or turgid guard sail and it's open, allowing oxygen to leave the plant, CO2 to enter. And here's, after eight days of drying, you see how the guard sails have collapsed, shutting the stalemates, closing it off, all right? Well, let's move on from there. This is the package of fertilizer, you all seen these before, those three numbers are called the analysis. This is a 2733, and again, in order, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, in order. Now these numbers represent a percent of bag weight. Okay, so nitrogen, so let's say this is a 50 pound bag, this is 27% nitrogen, that's 13 and a half, that bag contains 13 and a half pounds of nitrogen, okay? Phosphate and potash. Now these two are packaged in the oxide form, okay? We'll talk about that in a minute. We need to account for that oxygen molecule or the oxygen atom to apply the right amount, in this case, potassium, okay? So good sources of potassium, if you are gonna spoon feed your lawn before enduring a drought, mirror a potash, mirror is a French word, that means chlorine. So what we're looking at, or this product is potassium chloride. There's sulfate and potash, okay, then go back up here to mirror a potash, it's 0060, okay? We're focusing on the last number in the analysis. These are, again, good sources of potassium, sulfate and potash, and there's even potassium nitrate, 13, 044, the thing is here, if I'm gonna spoon feed phosphorus, I want a clean phosphorus fertilizer. In this case, if we're using potassium nitrate, we're actually applying a little bit of nitrogen, and that could be kind of risky during a drought. In that case, I wouldn't wanna apply any nitrogen at all. If I wanna spoon feed phosphorus, that's all I wanna put down, okay? But these first two are certainly great sources of potassium, okay, as you're spoon feeding. Now, like I said, phosphorus and potassium are packaged in the oxide form. We wanna account for that oxygen atom in order to get the right amount applied, okay? So this molecule right here is actually only 83% actual K, and we need to account for that. So let's do a little math, and I don't mean to confuse anybody. Well, first of all, okay, I got ahead of myself. Let me back up. Spoon feeding there, again, means to apply a light amount, very light amount in this case, potassium, about 10th of a pound per 1,000 square feet. Now over application, what happens if we apply a full pound? Well, here, let's take a look at a soil particle. Soil holds nutrients in place for a short period of time in order for the roots to absorb them. And we refer to that ability as a cation, cation exchange capacity, CEC. The soil's ability to hold nutrients in place. In this case, cations, elements that have a positive charge, okay? The soil particles are negatively charged, and they will hold in these cations in place, long enough for the roots to absorb them. And there are different cations out there. Notice that in potassium is a cation. If we apply too much potassium, that potassium is gonna take up all of those active sites which will allow those other nutrients to just flow away, to leach away. We don't want that. That's why we apply such a short amount or small amount of potassium. In other words, we spoon feed, okay? Again, the plant needs a certain amount in order to maintain vigor, but we don't wanna apply too much because we're gonna lock up all of those active sites, allowing these other atoms to just leach on through the soil. Okay? So, as I said, we want the spoon feed potassium, approximately one pound per thousand square feet. So, how do we figure out how much I need? Well, here I have an example for you and a little math for you, okay? Let's say we use a murator potash, 0060. And we want to apply a 10th of a pound per thousand square feet to a 12,000 square foot lawn. How much do I need? Okay, I'm gonna run through these examples for you, but I don't mean to intimidate you by this math, but if you look at it for a while, it'll all make sense to you, all right? First of all, we need to solve for X. So, we want to apply a 10th of a pound per thousand square feet. How much of this product do we need to cover 12,000 square feet? Well, solve for X, 0.1 times 12,000 divided by 1,000. And X equals 1.2 pounds. Well, we need 1.2 pounds of this particular product to cover 12,000 square feet, okay? I'm sorry, we need 1.2 pounds of potassium, I'm sorry. But in order to determine how much of this product we need, we need to divide 1.2 by 0.60. And that turns out to be two pounds. So, using this product, we need two pounds to cover 12,000 square feet. But remember, potassium's packaged in the oxide form. So, let's account for that oxygen, okay? And how do we do that? We take two divided by 0.83. We actually need 2.4 pounds of this product to cover 12,000 square feet. Now, your walk-behind spreader, your drop spreader has to be calibrated properly. And I can spend the whole hour on that. So, we're not gonna do that tonight. But if you'll have me back, I'm glad to talk about calibrating or any of these topics tonight. I don't have time to cover them tonight, but we don't have to wait till next year. If Tom puts on another event, I'm glad to speak, all right? So, a little math for you. That's how you determine how much you need depending on which product you purchase, okay? But again, we're focusing on the last number in the analysis. Okay, as far as watering goes, this is something we can also handle before a drought sets in. Proper irrigation, proper watering. The right way to do it is to apply water deeply and infrequently, okay? Hopefully we get this done in one session once a week. And what I mean by that is, again, water once a week, but apply about an inch, three quarters of an inch to an inch of water per session. You're gonna do that once a week. By applying one inch of water, it should infiltrate into the soil about six to eight inches, and that will encourage deep rooting, okay? Now, opposed to that, deep infrequent is shallow frequent. And a lot of people, unfortunately, a lot of people use this in proper cultural practice. They'll come home from work, they'll go outside, maybe after a hard stressful day of work and water their backyard or something, and it's relaxing. But let's say you have a $5,000 square foot lawn, you're out there watering it before dinner or after dinner, how much are you actually watering? You're not gonna cover the entire lawn, you know you're not. And even if you do, what are you applying? Maybe a tenth of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch, that's certainly not gonna encourage deep rooting. So we recommend deep infrequent watering done once a week, all right? So like I said, deep infrequent irrigation promotes deeper extensive rooting, more extensive rooting, and acclimates that plant to survive a drought, even a severe drought, okay? So when do you start watering? Well, when things warm up, maybe here in other three weeks or so, it's hard to say, start watering, but when? Well, you want the turf to, again, you want it to stress out a little bit. That in itself encourages deeper rooting. So look for kind of a purplish areas in your lawn, bluish areas, maybe spots the size of a hubcap. Okay, that tells you that your lawn is under stress. And if you notice the turf blades curling just a little bit, that tells you that, well, that blade's wilting. It's under slight stress. This is the time of water. And pay attention, I say water once a week, but maybe you can get by once every eight days or nine days. But let that turf go under slight stress before you water. Okay, again, allowing the turf to go under slight stress encourages deeper rooting. Okay, and then when you water, try to apply three quarters of an inch to an inch of water once a week or whenever, whatever, once every seven days, once every nine days. Now, let's say you notice the water flowing out into the street. Well, stop, okay? Maybe stop after four hours or, and then water again, maybe in four hours. I'm sorry, if it's running out into the street, stop the water again, maybe four hours, but try to get it done in one day. Okay, and try to do this early in the morning before everybody gets up, takes their showers to head off to school and work, or maybe after everybody leaves, but try to get the watering done in the morning before the wind kicks up. Okay, and how long should you let your sprinkler system, irrigation system run? Let me go and pass that. I already shot my 15 minutes here, it looks like. So you'll need catch cups. Most homeowners don't have graduated cylinders, but coffee cans will do just fine as long as they're the same size. Let your irrigation run for 15 minutes or for an hour, and then go out and check it out. Maybe have it come on at five in the morning, but you'll go out there afterwards and measure each can to give you an idea how long it takes. And what you can do to determine whether you watered enough is to get a long screwdriver and see if you can push it down six to eight inches with little effort. Of course, the soil is gonna put up some resistance, but with little effort. Say you can push it in four inches, then it gets really hard. Well, you haven't wired enough, okay? But if you can push that screwdriver down six to eight inches, that's good enough. Okay, and this graphic kind of explains what's going on. If we water shallow frequently every day, this is all we're hydrating, maybe an eighth of an inch. This is not gonna promote deep rooting, and that canopy is gonna get weak, okay? Over here, if we water once a week deep infrequently, that's gonna promote deep rooting. And down six to eight inches or so. That lawn is ready to take on a severe drought. Okay, let's go back to this graphic. If we do water shallow frequently, the only thing happy out there are the weed seeds in the top of the soil horizon. This canopy's not happy, the roots aren't happy, but those weed seeds certainly are. They germinate, they take off, they get established, they typically grow taller than your lawn, cast shade on it, and that's what wipes out a lawn. Over here, let's say again, we water once a week. Look, the soil surface is dry. It might even be dry a couple inches below the soil, but these turf roots are happy because six to eight inches down, it's still wet. These weed seeds have no chance. They might germinate, but this thick, vigorous canopy will not allow them to survive. Okay, it's too much competition, okay? Tom, can I go on for a bit? Or should I stop? No, keep going, Alan, no problem. Another thing you can do is syringe your lawn during the drought. Syringing, this is done quite frequently on golf courses. You're not watering as you see here, but you're actually just cooling down the blade. Okay, you can syringe a 10,000 square foot backyard in 15 minutes. You simply get that hose and walk backwards at a rapid pace, waving that hose back and forth, getting the blade wet, that's all you're doing. You're not watering, again, to saturate the roots or anything, you're just cooling the turf blades. By doing so, you cool them down. And in some cases, the heat might even reach lethal levels during a drought. So you're just cooling the blade. We've all jumped out of a swimming pool on a hot August day and we get cold, right? That water is evaporating off of bodies and it's pulling heat out of your body in order to evaporate. The exact same thing is going on right here. We're cooling the blade and that might allow that turf to survive during a hot day, or in many cases, it does, okay? It allows that canopy to survive, okay? And basically, this is what I just told you. Okay, it's not the same as watering. It's just provides that cooling effect to allow that turf to survive that hot summer day. Okay, in this, and when water evaporates off of our bodies or a turf blade, a turf leaf, that's called latent heat of vaporization. It's that cooling effect even on the hottest days, all right? Usually done during the hottest part of the day, okay? And on golf courses, they might do it twice, but this is something you can practice in your backyard too, okay? Now, let's say you weren't practicing the proper cultural practices and you notice that your lawn is getting pounded during this drought. Well, we don't recommend that you start watering deeply at that point. You don't wanna pull that lawn out of dormancy because that takes a lot of carbohydrates, reserve carbohydrates out of the roots. What you can do at that point is water a quarter inch to half inch every two weeks. By doing so, you're gonna keep the crown tissue hydrated, the crown tissue, that's where roots and shoots emerge from. So by doing that, providing a quarter to half inch, every two to four weeks, we do a lot to allow that droughted turf to survive without pulling it out of dormancy. We don't want that to happen until environmental conditions improve. Okay, thatch management is something we can do before before the drought sets in, managing thatch. Thatch is an accumulation of living and dead organic matter above the soil line, but below the canopy. Like I said, right here, this is living and dead organic matter. Unfortunately, turf roots tend to grow in that area and that can be very detrimental if we allow that thatch to dry out. We want those turf, we want those roots down there in the soil, but a lot of them will grow in that thatch layer. And if we allow that thatch to dry out, well, the turf canopy goes under stress, okay? Problems with thatch. Turf becomes puffy, especially out in a golf course. You walk across a green, it gets real puffy. The problem with that is it pushes it up and then the mowers start to scalp it. Not much of an issue in a residential lawn, okay? But like I said, roots and crowns can grow in it, subjecting it to drawing out, especially if you don't water properly. Difficult to wet. When peat moss dries out, it tends to repel water. We've all seen a pot in a greenhouse that wasn't watered properly. Then you try to water it a week later and the water just sits on top of that dry media, but thatch is gonna do the same thing. That's what's one of the problems with allowing thatch accumulation to occur, okay? And it also harbors insects and pathogens, okay? Now, after saying that, a half an inch or less is considered beneficial because it conserves soil moisture. It's just like mulch, provides cushion against foot and vehicular traffic, good media for beneficial micro-macro organisms, macro and micros, okay? And it moderates summer heat. In other words, it keeps the roots cool, filters water before it reaches the ground table and again, a source of slow release nitrogen and it does tend to clean water, reduces the movement of pesticides into the groundwater. Half an inch is beneficial, more than half an inch is detrimental. You wanna get rid of it, hopefully before the drought sets in. Now, how do we go about doing that? Well, for instant removal, we can rent a power rake, okay? It's gonna rip that thatch out, but there's a lot of raking to do. The easy way is to core airify and stimulate the soil microbes. By core airifying, we can allow water, air and nutrients down to the turf roots. They're gonna be happy and so will the soil microbes. We're gonna stimulate soil microbial activity. However, you do not want to cultivate your turf. Power rake or core airify during the heat of summer. Never ever do that. If the temperature's over 75, you will injure your turf and during a drought, you will kill it. I'm telling you right now, you'll kill it. This should be done in the spring and the fall or here, this far north, we can do it in the summer if the temperature is below 75 degrees. But like I said, when we core airify, we also stimulate microbial activity. Let them do the work. It's the easiest way to control thatch. Now, it might take six weeks for them to degrade. Man, the microbes to degrade the thatch, but it's a lot easier than power raking because there's a lot of raking to do afterwards. And when we power rake, we severely injure our turf because we're essentially ratting that thatch out of the canopy. And it does injure the turf. If you do a power rake in the fall, make sure there's a month of growing weather left on the calendar, okay? You can also, another thing you can do during the drought is raise mowing height, a quarter inch to half inch. By doing so, we allow the turf to increase carbohydrate synthesis, increases growth rate, root and shoot growth, also stimulates the growth of lateral stems and also increases turf bigger. Think I have a couple more slides, that's it. Over here, we see the effects of raising the mowing height on bed grass. This on the left is mowed at 1 eighth of an inch or 4 30 seconds and look at the effects. Look at the improvement by raising the mowing height just 1 30 second to 5 30 seconds of an inch. Both sides were wider equally, but look at the improvement just by raising this bed grass, bed grass mowing height, 1 30 second of an inch during the summer, okay? We can do the same, raise our lawnmower a quarter inch to half inch during the summer months. All right, and after the drought subsides, continue proper cultural practices that you started at the beginning of the growing season and it might be a situation where you have to reseed. Okay, that's a whole different topic right there. I'll, like I said, I'll be glad to come back and talk to you if you wanna set up a different time. We don't have to wait till next year, but that's up to Tom. I'm glad to help out there. I am done with my presentation. Sorry, it looks like I went over. I thought I'd get done at 15. But anyway, Tom, I'll take questions if you still have questions out there. Yeah, we got time out there. Yeah, they're still, and they got some questions already for you. You know, one thing just to clarify on one of your early slides, you talked about what, is it potassium or is it phosphorus that regulates stomato aperture? That's potassium. Did I get that one wrong? Yeah, there's a typo there. It says phosphorus, but you need potassium. I'm sorry. It was allowed one mistake. No, no, no problem, Alan. We just wanna make sure we care. Phosphorus regulates root formation, but potassium regulates the model aperture. Sorry about that. I think you were just trying to make sure we were paying attention. Well, you did a good job. You got past me. I'm sorry about that. How about, is there, where would you buy a potassium fertilizer like 0060? I would try a grain elevator or a co-op elevator. Yeah, sounds good. And another thing, if you're trying to get these oddball fertilizers or pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, whatever, try Amazon. A lot of times they sell those obscure chemicals on Amazon. You might get a, why buy a 50 pound bag if you just need 10 pounds. So I always go to Amazon first and check them out. I'm not shilling to them, but you might find that obscure pesticide or fertilizer out there. How about for mowing height, how tall should it be? Should it be about three inches? Or what do you recommend? Okay, for Kentucky Bluegrass, that's a good height. It depends on species. If it's fescue, I'd bump it up to four inches in the summer, three and a half to four, if you're mowing at three during the spring. Kentucky Bluegrass, if you're mowing at two and a half in the spring, bump it up to three. But it does depend on the species. There's no set perfect height, but it depends on the species. But try to raise it at least a quarter inch. Half an inch is better during the summer months. When you do mow the lawn, is it good to leave the clippings on the grass or is it better to bag the clippings? No, it's good to return to clippings. When you mow, you shouldn't take off more than a third of the blade, a third of the canopy. Return those clippings. Clippings do not add to that accumulation because clippings are comprised of about 70% water. Okay, there's nothing there that's gonna add to your thatch problem as long as you're not taking off more than a third of the canopy. If you do take off more than a third, now you're taking off stem tissue. Stem tissue contains a lot of lignin, and that will increase add to thatch accumulation because accumulation will now exceed degradation. Okay, if you take off a third, you have nothing to worry about. And by the end of the growing season, those clippings equate to one pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet. So you can skip one of the three application dates, the first or the second one. The third one's very important. So don't skip that one. But it's important to return those clippings. Okay, it's actually beneficial. Mow tall and let the clippings fall. That's right. That's right. There you go. You can copy that. You can just come up with that one. No, I copied it from somebody, I'm sure. All right. 20 years ago. How about, Ellen, what kind of core airifier do you recommend? A spike type, a slicing type, or a score? Okay. Oh yeah, the core airifier, that's a hollow core. That's gonna spit out a core. And that's not a problem. That's not gonna hurt your lawn at all. You don't have to rake it up. Next time you mow, you're gonna chop up most of it. The problem with the cores left behind is that if it's rainy out, your kids are gonna drag those cores into your house. All right, but the cores left in place do not hurt at all. Solid tine will not produce a core, but extended use, using a solid tine every single year is gonna create what we call subsurface compaction. Right below that tine, you're gonna get that pan layer formation. And we don't want that. So if you use solid tine, you don't get a core, but don't use it continuously, okay? Switch out the hollow tine every other year or something like that. But they're both beneficial. But again, the solid tine will lead to a pan layer formation, subsurface compaction with extended use, okay? Okay, how about, how are these practices you describe differ depending on whether you have a light soil or a heavy soil? Good question, good question. The nutrients, let's consider fertilization with a sandy soil, again, the larger the soil particle, the lower the CEC. So those nutrients are gonna tend to wash through a sandy soil quicker than, say, a clay soil, okay? We need to consider that. You might have to fertilize more often instead of three times a year, maybe four times a year if it's a sandy soil. Clay soil, and of course that's gonna affect watering too. You might have to water more often or longer once a week if it's a sandy soil. So you might consider an inch or an inch and a quarter, maybe an inch and a half if it's really sandy soil. But here in the valley is clay soil, so that really, that's not gonna affect our watering regime much, okay? But yeah, soil texture is something you need to consider when it comes to nutrient levels and irrigation. And of course, clay soils tend to compact more. When a soil is compact, our turf is more susceptible to diseases because it's under stress, okay? But sure, soil texture is important to consider. Okay, besides soil texture to different grass varieties require different amounts of water per week or is it always about an inch of water per week? That's true. Now there's an exception, Kentucky bluegrass. Most of those roots, about 80% of the roots are in the top three inches. So you really wouldn't have to hydrate down eight inches. Let me throw an example out there for you. Bermuda grass, we can't grow that up here. You ain't got a hard time growing that north of Lincoln, Omaha. But Bermuda grass can root down six feet, okay? Fescue, tall fescue, which we can grow up here can root down three feet. But bluegrass, most of those roots are in the top three inches. So you might consider four inches of infiltration or five inches rather than eight, okay? But sure, species will differ. But even though fescue can root down three feet still, eight inches of infiltration once a week is gonna be enough to keep that lawn in good shape. And tall fescue is the most drought-hardy of the cool season grasses, okay? However, it is the weakest when it comes to recovery, okay? So it's important, if you have a fescue lawn here in town and they look beautiful up here, it's important that that lawn goes into a drought in a very vigorous state. Because once it goes dormant, it does not recover. You're gonna have to reseed that lawn, okay? It's like the schoolyard bully. It's the toughest there is, but once it goes down, it does not get up, okay? But you're right, it's the species does. I mean, we do need to consider the species when it comes to, again, irrigation. How about since you're talking different types of species, what's your opinion about buffalo grass and its tolerance to drought? Okay, very excellent drought tolerance. Now, buffalo grass is a warm season grass. It's native range is from central Mexico to the Canadian border. There's only, and buffalo grass is the only native turf grass to the United States and it's native to North Dakota. So we're kind of famous about something. It'll grow this far north. However, it does not produce a very decent looking lawn all by itself. If you mix it 50-50 with Blue Grammar, specifically Bad River Blue Grammar, you get a quite decent looking warm season grass this far north and it has excellent drought tolerance. After all, it survives out on the prairie during the extreme heat of summer and extreme cold winter. Again, large, long, big native range, central Mexico up to the Canadian border. So now that you like buffalo grass, where would you buy that seed? Oh, you can get buffalo grass from any seed supplier. The thing is, find a cultivar that's suited for the upper Midwest. The University of Nebraska did a lot of research and again, there's a wealth of information out there. As far as cultivars, I recommend that you go to ntep.org. ntep stands for National Turfgrass Evaluation Program. ntep.org, not .com, but .org. Go to your region and then pick any turfgrass, any species and it'll tell you which cultivars do best. You would pick the northern Midwest and see what's out there. And as far as buffalo grass goes, I think the furthest north they tested was Mead, Nebraska. So give that a shot. ntep.org, so many cultivars out there. I can't really recall what cultivars do best where. But there are some buffalo grass cultivars that do really well this far north. And a lot of them were developed by the University of Nebraska. Some of those buffalo grass cultivars are female and very clean appearance. If they're male or a mixture of both, you get that shabby appearance, that orange seed head. Okay, some people like that. Some people don't. But if you want a clean buffalo grass lawn, get a female cultivar. Again, they can only be established by seed, but they are out there. Okay? And there are some that do well here in North Dakota. Okay, so there got several new questions here. You're just generating so many questions. This is what happens all the time, Alan. When you start answering a couple of questions like right on, they know, wow, this guy knows what he's talking about. And then the questions get flooding in. So now you got to keep your answers short. Okay, I'll try. Okay, how often should you aerate? Should you aerate every year? Oh, golf course does aerate every year to alleviate compaction. Well, and again, it depends on compaction in your yard. Yes, if you have a compacted soil every year, you can aerate twice a year, in the fall and in, I mean, in the spring and in the fall. Again, most homeowners aren't gonna do it, but golf course managers do it all the time. If it's just a moderate aerating to stimulate root growth, maybe 20 holes per square foot. If you're trying to alleviate compaction, you want to go for about 40 holes per square foot, which means you're gonna have to go over your lawn two or three times. Okay, is that short enough? That's good, Alan, you've got it down. How about a very sandy soil? Should you still irrigate only once per week on a sandy soil or should you water that twice a week? Well, I would water, that's a good question. Golly, that's a hard question. Yeah, I would water longer. I would go for deeper infiltration. Still, we recommend once a week. That's better to stimulate deeper root growth. I wish I could get back to you on that. That's not a simple answer. Unfortunately, we don't have really, really sandy soil here in the valley, but then again, some of your audiences from outside the valley, they do have sandy soil. Maybe out in the West, we worry that maybe the soil can't hold the water. So it's being leached out of our bluegrass lawn, where you say like, maybe twice a week. Yeah, let me do some research. Can I get that answer? Is there a way that you can get the answer out to them? They can contact you directly, Alan. Okay, here's another thing about that. I was told by extension not to take phone calls anymore. That's okay. Just a couple of people gonna send you an email. That's all of this. I promise they won't flood you. Well, I like talking to the public, but it's just they want those county phones to ring. Anyway, if you call, I'll answer it. Alan, do you recommend hand raking a lawn right now and mowing low to clear up the debris from the winter? Yes, right now it's important because there are patchy outbreaks of snowmold. It's important to rake those leaves, to turf leaves, especially the ones that are matted down to let air through. Now gray snow mold will stop in his tracks. Once the snow melts off, but pink snow mold can still advance without snow cover. So what you want to do is rake that lawn, stand that turf up, especially the matted turf, so the air can circulate through the canopy and stop snow mold development in his tracks. So yes, that's a good question. Rake that lawn, just a light raking with a leaf rake. You don't need to get out there with a garden rake and scratch the soil or anything. Just stand that turf up, get those leaves off the ground, stand the turf up, allow the air to blow through the canopy and stop that pink snow mold in his tracks. Okay. And we don't expect a lot of that snow mold or any mold like this early out in the West, but I agree like you don't want to be digging into the dirt in the early spring because you can stimulate weed seeds to turn that way, right? And that's the problem with air rating in the spring is that you're cultivating the soil, you're providing a nice seed bed for the weeds, a nice seed bed for the weed seed. You can't aerate in the spring, but fall is better. Alan, do you recommend like out in the West here, should we sprinkle grass seed on our lawn every year to reseed and thicken it? Well, only if needed, only if needed. Now you just can't sprinkle it. That's called feeding the chickens. You want to provide seed to soil contact. So you're going to have to cultivate the turf in some way, either verticator or aerator, okay? So when you do broadcast that seed, you provide good seed to soil contact. Okay, I would only do it if the lawn's thin. Now we had a hard drought last year, maybe, maybe that's right. Get it done this spring. And there are different seeding rates that you should use depending on species. When you oversee, you cut those rates in half. Don't oversee, don't put down too much seed because you're creating a stressful situation where the canopy is so thick that the seedlings are competing for a limited amount of water, nutrients and sunlight. So thick that air can't blow through the canopy. And so thick those plants are not going to reach maturity before the summer heat arrives or the winter cold arrives. Okay, if you're seeding in the fall, use the prescribed rate, but if you're overseeding, cut that rate in half. And those rates depend upon the species. So there's not one set rate per 1,000 square feet. Okay. How about, what was that website you mentioned for regional grass cultivars? Yeah, that's Ntep, N as a nick, T-E-P, Ntep.org. They're located in Eltsville, Maryland and they have data all across for all regions across the US. You want to grow finally Fescue in central Vermont, they know what it is. That site will tell you. Okay. The best Fescue for Northern North Dakota, they will tell you. Okay. Maybe this'll be our last question. Maybe it's appropriate, I don't know. For the forearms, what is the best way to treat doggie spots this spring? Yeah, that's a tough one. Nothing beats a good cyclone fence. Most towns have leash laws, but sometimes they get loose. You can use brewers yeast in the diet of the dog. That neutralizes the acidity of the urine. We're not a lot you can do about feces. You just got to get it picked up real quick. Because both urine and feces are sources of nitrogen that will cause lush growth. Then that lush growth dies in the summer heat. And then again, that allows weeds to encroach. Nurseries sell a synthetic urine and synthetic cougar urine. Okay, that's going to scare off the biggest, baddest dog in the neighborhood. Is that right? We've got to get cougars. How about the spots themselves? Let's say you already got the spots. I didn't get to treat that. Well, that's tough. I've never had luck. Just leech them out with water. Those burn spots. Try to pick up the waste as soon as possible. If you catch it urinating, maybe water. Water soak it in right away. But how often can you do that? Okay, we'll get the cougar urine. It's hard to say. Cougar urine. Yeah. You know, when a dog, when a male dog urinates, it urinates on vertical objects. He's marking his territory. It says, stay out. But like I said, if it's the biggest rottweiler, smells cougar urine, it's not going. Is that right? That's how it works. I've never heard that one before. Okay, you learn a lot at the forums. Alan, thank you for all that you taught us tonight. We really enjoyed that. Thank you. And I'm sorry for going over my time. I thought it was. No worries, Alan. We're in great shape. Thank you. You did a great job. Okay, everybody. Lastly, I just want to say a few words. I want to thank our audience of everybody who attended the Spring Fever forums. And would you do us a favor, people out there? Would you evaluate the forums for us? Will you do a survey for us? Will you let us know what we're doing right and let us know how we can improve the forums? Maybe you can suggest some topics you'd like us to cover in the future. So those of you who are out in the county offices, you may be receiving a written survey and we'd ask you to complete that survey. If you're too busy tonight to do that, it's totally understandable. There's a link at the top of the survey page where you can take an online survey anytime in the next couple of weeks. It'd be great. We'll just have a few questions and then rate the speaker so they can learn and see how they're doing too and how they can improve. And for those of you who registered to attend online, I'll be sending you the link shortly after tonight's forum. So if you could please complete that survey, we really would appreciate it because we want to give you the best quality product we can. So with that, I want to thank everybody for attending the forums and we all hope you have a wonderful spring. Good night, everybody. All right, thanks, Tom. Thank you, Elon.