Let's talk Grass Seed

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Krich

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With today's "high technology", do they have grass seed that has a coating around it so you can just throw it out on top of the ground and water it and the coating fuses each seed to the ground after being watered so it can sprout and start taking root?

I'm hoping that have grass seed now that is designed to be thrown on top of the ground and will start taking root after being watered in.

If they do have such a thing, is there a type of grass seed that is produces grass that works well in the extreme summer temps?
 
Spring is a terrible time to reseed with a "cool season" grass like fescue or blue grasses. They won't have time to develop deep roots before the heat of summer kicks in. If you're going to use a warm season grass like Bermuda, Zoysia or Augustine you seed or plug in the spring as they go dormant in the fall after the first frost.

Around here (central NC) we over-seed in the fall. You start by aerating the yard with a plug aerator. This pulls a plug of soil out and drops it on top of the lawn. This allows air to get down the roots and loosens the soil, but most important for reseeding the plug breaks down and provides loose soil for the seed to germinate in. You can also rent a slit seeder that has spinning cutters like you'll find on a lawn edger to score the top of the soil to provide a place for the seed to get in contact with loose soil.

Last fall I raked out my yard and then top dressed most of the front yard with bulk commercially produced compost from the local mulch and soil place. I then reseeded. You could tell exactly where the compost did and didn't reach as the composted area was deep green, the rest not as much.

The coated seeds help, but they can't overcome a compacted yard, at least not here where clay soil predominates. It gets like concrete in the summer sun.
 
I'm using Tru Green this year and in the fall they will be aerating the yard so that should be a good time to throw out some coated seed then right?
 
I'm using Tru Green this year and in the fall they will be aerating the yard so that should be a good time to throw out some coated seed then right?
I used Tru-Green up until this year, but I never used them for aeration and seeding. It was usually a package deal and not cheap. I've used some of the guys that hit me with a flyer taped to my mailbox and seeded it myself. But fall would be the ideal time and right after it gets aerated.
 
In my area they will not do seeding, but this fall they will be aerating the yard
 
In my area they will not do seeding, but this fall they will be aerating the yard
They wanted $300 for aeration and seeding here. I don't know if Tru-Green is a franchise or how their business model works. I switched to a local company that my neighbors were using with better results. In the past we used to rent an aerator and do a bunch of yards over a weekend. We're all getting older now and the interest in muscling an aerator around our yards has waned.
 
I'm sure they'll have robots to do this before long :woo hoo:
 
Are you doing patching, or starting an entire new lawn from scratch ?

If you are doing patching, you first need to figure out what kind of grass you have, and buy the same type, or it can look poor to have a patch of different type of grass. You have to read the label on the bag to see what kind of seeds you are actually getting.

There is no magic pixie dust coating for grass seeds. When you see "grows 50% quicker" on the label, that just means they threw in some seeds of a fast growing variety of grass. Unfortunately, a lot of those fast growing varieties are ugly (IMHO), and I consider them more of a weed than desirable grass.

Starting and maintaining a nice lawn is a lot of work. If you don't want to put in the work to start new grass, buy sod. That takes a lot of work out of starting the grass. Where are you located ? New grass doesn't like the July/August dry heat.
 
I have rental property with a large yard that has carpet grass in some spots, some other grass in other spots, and another type of grass in other spots - and there are sections where it's just dirt with no grass at all.

So, I really don't care what kind of grass I'm putting down - I just want to be able to throw out some seed and have it start growing and it has to be OK for open sunlight and drought resistant so I can get the yard covered in some sort of grass that is green which will look far better than what I have now.

I've noticed several grass seed companies offer product they say is better to be put out in spring,/ early summer so I'll decide on one of those that is available at my local Lowes and do the deal, probably today or this weekend
 
You don't list your location. That makes all the difference in the world. Throwing seed on the lawn in the Southeast in May-Aug is a waste of money. YMMV.
 
I'm south central and Scotts as well as some other the other companies that sell seed say they recommend putting their product out in spring / early summer.

Should I take their advice as being un-true?

If so, maybe I can launch a lawsuit to get a settlement for all the emotional pain and suffering their false advertising is causing me cause I'd really like to have my lawn covered in some sort of grass :eyeballs:
 
I wouldn't hire anybody, but I have several patches I need to repair and I like to learn how to do everything myself. I contacted the local Agriculture extension in Montana, and they told me what kind of grass seed to get, to put it down in early Spring or late Fall after the August heat, water it, then cover it with Straw while still watering every day. The Straw protects the seed from any Heat and Cold and naturally composts.

It's still in the 30's at night here and nurseries don't open until mid May, so the only advice that would be valid is from your neighbors that have excellent grass. As far as "coated" seed, I would think that's just an expensive gimmick.

Tru Green will try to sell you their whole system of lawn care, but I have never used them, and Satellite imagery shows that other people's yards that do use them are no better than mine. They relentlessly spray their lawns, but we live in the High Desert where lawn is as natural as concrete.
 
I'm using Tru Green this year and in the fall they will be aerating the yard so that should be a good time to throw out some coated seed then right?
Yes the fall after airation is a good time to put down almost all grass seeds but make sure they do not fertilize with a regular lawn fertilizer! Ask them if they could put down a "starter fertilizer" at the same time they reseed. This will help the new seed get a good, fast start before the cold winter months arrive.
The only seed that you should NOT put down in the fall is annual ryegrass.
 
With today's "high technology", do they have grass seed that has a coating around it so you can just throw it out on top of the ground and water it and the coating fuses each seed to the ground after being watered so it can sprout and start taking root?

With or without a coating it has always been possible to just sprinkle grass seed on the ground and it will grow, IF you get rain like weekly and/or sprinkle it with water. Of course, mixing the seed in with some top soil works even better. Soreading the seed as soon as a rain stops is also good. Grass seed can be spread any time of the year, even on top of snow, and it will grow when the snow melts. Worst time to seed is if you are in a drought, because the sun will just kill it, unless you water heavily.
 
you need to check out Titan RX grass seed. they've developed it to have larger roots than normal grass seed and it stays greener in drought conditions. I put it down at my last home. I ordered it from our local co-op and they told me the farmers found out about it and loved it for their pastures
 
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