Can we talk grass seed? I'm a newbie.

I bought a sun/shade mixture with kentucky bluegrass and fescue, no problem there.

We raked, tamped, spread some fresh topsoil down, tamped again. We plan on laying some fertilizer first with the spreader and then laying the seed. I'm reading 16 seeds per square inch. Ok.

We have some cloth that will allow light and moisture through but not allow birds to eat the seed. We'll put that on.

My questions... We have clear weather today and tomorrow with 60% showers on Thursday. The ground is level so I don't have to worry about washing away - not for this section at least - and we have to water daily for the new seed right? So unless we have torrential downpours Thurs/Friday, the seed should be ok, right?

I mean we have to water anyway, I figure a little rain is just doing the job for us. It's the big soaking rain for days I should be worried about.

Anything you could share (cough Jen cough) would be helpful.

Re: Can we talk grass seed? I'm a newbie.

I thought soakings were good? it pulls the seed down into the soil?

Re: Can we talk grass seed? I'm a newbie.

We put new seed down, with topsoil, watered, it grew. lol

We didn't do anything special, and had some rain in the midst of it all. Not sure if that helps.

Re: Can we talk grass seed? I'm a newbie.

You don't have to water it every day, not good for it to sit in too much moisture.

If you watered yesterday or today you would be fine till Thursday.

If today was 85 and sunny then you might want to consider another watering but with this weather your ground is probably a little moist to start with.

Re: Can we talk grass seed? I'm a newbie.

Re: Can we talk grass seed? I'm a newbie.

You really should water every day, but very short amount of time. Too much water is bad, but the seeds can't be allowed to dry out. For the first week or so, I had the sprinklers going for about 5 minutes every 4 hours (on a timer, of course... ). If you have some sort of ground cover (mulch, straw, fabric, etc), you won't need to water as often. Once it starts to sprout, you can drastically cut down on the amount of watering. You want the roots to go down deep, so watering infrequently forces the roots to dig down looking for water. (Also, if you water less, you have to cut the grass less, and it's better for the environment... )

A lot of new grass will burn out if you overfertilize when they are seeds. You should probably wait until the grass is started before shocking them and forcing them to grow too fast.

I'm planting grass now, so I've been doing a lot of research lately.

Re: Can we talk grass seed? I'm a newbie.

Posted by GoldenRod

You really should water every day, but very short amount of time. Too much water is bad, but the seeds can't be allowed to dry out. For the first week or so, I had the sprinklers going for about 5 minutes every 4 hours (on a timer, of course... ). If you have some sort of ground cover (mulch, straw, fabric, etc), you won't need to water as often. Once it starts to sprout, you can drastically cut down on the amount of watering. You want the roots to go down deep, so watering infrequently forces the roots to dig down looking for water. (Also, if you water less, you have to cut the grass less, and it's better for the environment... )

A lot of new grass will burn out if you overfertilize when they are seeds. You should probably wait until the grass is started before shocking them and forcing them to grow too fast.

I'm planting grass now, so I've been doing a lot of research lately.

Re: Can we talk grass seed? I'm a newbie.

Thanks everyone!

Shawn, you don't fertilize before you put the seed down? I haven't bought fertilizer yet, I guess that will be this afternoon's task before I leave. Figuring out what combination fertilizer is best and how much to put down... Unless you just tell me, that is.

Re: Can we talk grass seed? I'm a newbie.

Posted by greenfreak

Thanks everyone!

Shawn, you don't fertilize before you put the seed down? I haven't bought fertilizer yet, I guess that will be this afternoon's task before I leave. Figuring out what combination fertilizer is best and how much to put down... Unless you just tell me, that is.

Re: Can we talk grass seed? I'm a newbie.

Posted by greenfreak

Thanks everyone!

Shawn, you don't fertilize before you put the seed down? I haven't bought fertilizer yet, I guess that will be this afternoon's task before I leave. Figuring out what combination fertilizer is best and how much to put down... Unless you just tell me, that is.

Re: Can we talk grass seed? I'm a newbie.

Posted by annoyedTTCer

Posted by greenfreak

Thanks everyone!

Shawn, you don't fertilize before you put the seed down? I haven't bought fertilizer yet, I guess that will be this afternoon's task before I leave. Figuring out what combination fertilizer is best and how much to put down... Unless you just tell me, that is.

They sell special seed starting fertilizer as opposed to weed & feed or feed & grub killer.

Re: Can we talk grass seed? I'm a newbie.

it's tricky with rainy weather.

too much rain and the seeds will either rot, the seeds will all pool together, or the rain will tear at the delicate seedling roots....

you might want to wait until the weather report has a forecast of not more than a mist/drizzle for several days...

Re: Can we talk grass seed? I'm a newbie.