How to grow grass seed. Preperations tips to growing grass

the truth is it all starts with water and proper watering will account for 99% of your success in the overseed process as a general rule we want to keep the seed wet for about 2 to 4 weeks depending on the species of grass now the germination period at which the seed goes from a seed to buting out and attaching itself to the ground that can range between 7 and 14 days depending on the species it is a delicate process where you want the soil to stay damp if it gets too wet you're going to have surface runoff and it will choke the seed out if it gets too dry the germination can occur and then the seed dries out and it dies setting the sprinklers for smaller increments of time more frequently during the day will be the key to your success of keeping it nice and damp without surface run off now the average sprinkler recommendation that I would say is 3 to 5 minutes 3 to 5 times per day depending on how hot it is and how much evaporations is occurring now in the beginning of this process just watch the dirt if the dirt ever dries out you need to add more time understanding that the seed should never dry out during this process I cannot put enough emphasis on the fact that you need to prove that your sprinkler coverage is right now grass seed is an important investment and it can be a costly one depending on the variety of seed that you have so you want to make sure that you get the best germination possible one of the biggest complaints that I hear is my seed didn't germinate and I'm pretty sure that I just got bad seed now I understand this excuse is really convenient to use but at the end of the day lack of seed germination 99% of the time will come down to improper watering a water output cup test can solve all those problems now I purchased these cups off of Amazon they're technically rain gauges but they're really easy device to use they come in a pack of 10 they've got spikes on them and you just simply put them in the ground in a grid pattern I'll put some of the cups in the brown areas some of the cups in The Greener areas and then we're going to run a 20 minute cycle after the 20 minutes is up we're going to check each and every single one of the cups now if every single one of the Cups has the exact same level for example in this instance most of the cups are coming back at 0.1 of an inch now we do have a couple of cups that are coming in at less than 0.1 almost bare now those are the areas that we have to focus on fixing the sprinkler coverage in now keep in mind if we don't fix and proove the sprinkler coverage in these areas regardless how many times we overseed it the seed is not going to take now it's important to prove your sprinkler coverage because if you don't you're going to try to get creative and crank the water up so that way the drier areas get more water now what ends up happening is is in all the other is you put too much water down the seed washes out or it gets too wet and you saturate it seed dies you lose your investment now that we've proven our sprinkler coverage it's time to move into another important subject that often goes overlooked and that is a shorter than usual mow once we put the grass seed down we are going to stop mowing for a period of 3 weeks now during that 3 weeks the average lawn's usually going to grow somewhere between half an inch and 1 in per week which means that by the end of the 3 weeks your grass is going to be an additional inch and 1 half to 3 Ines higher than it was when you left it now I prefer to get the grass down to about an inch now most of you will be in a safe spot somewhere between an inch and a half to 2 in now if you're good at planning you can gradually bring the grass down but if you choose to scalp it you're going to lose some color and stress the grass out a little bit but in my opinion it's not a big deal now if your grass ends up growing way too long you run the risk of choking out the grass seed and also choking out other areas of your lawn because it can't reach the sun now if you've gotten yourself in a pickle and the grass is getting above 4 in and it hasn't yet been 3 weeks yet my opinion is it's better to mow the grass so the new grass can find the Sun but just be sure to leave the bag on your mower if your lawn is consistently looking tired like this one you may have a debris problem now by debris I mostly referring to lawn mowing clippings that have been sitting stagnant in the lawn for years and years and years that aren't decomposing the most inexpensive way to remove debris is with a thatching rake but it does come at a price your body this is the worst job in the world by the way if you have very small Lawns this is a extremely useful tool uh you can pick these up for about 35 bucks and they work fantastic at removing debris now over time this matter builds up and makes it impossible for New Growth to occur now you have to remember if the seed cannot get proper soil contact and access to sunlight it is not going to grow to remove this debris you can use a thatch rake which is a very difficult device to use or you can use the sjo Thatcher and scarifier which commonly sells for about $150 online and is one of the Ginger's top preferred products for homeowners to have just remember you're not going to be able to get 100% of the debris in one pass or even one job I recommend going over the lawn three different directions and removing the debris you can use this device weekly monthly or twice a year for general maintenance one huge frustration with the seating process you get all this new grass coming in and you get all these new weeds popping up at the same time now it's important to remember that while we're germinating the grass seed any seeds in the dirt that are already there they're also going to be germinating weed control needs to begin before the seeding process unfortunately the way that the products are designed is they kill the weed but they don't kill the actual weed seed ideally we want to do two applications of herbicide before we start the overseed process now in the instance where we have grass and we have weeds we want to use what's called a selective herbicide that's going to kill the weeds and leave the grass alive now in the instances you guys have a lot of weeds going on in the lawn it's not uncommon to have to spray the lawn twice to ensure that the majority of the weeds are actually dead now the biggest issue with this is time you have to wait 2 weeks between each spray according to most labels and on top of that you should wait an additional two weeks after your previous herbicide spray to put the seed down which unfortunately for a lot of you warm season guys out there you're going to have to plan a month in advance before you do the over seating if you really want to get ahead of the weeds before you put the seed down I find that one of the most frustrating aspects of the overseed process is annual grass es like crab grass and fox tail coming up with your newly laid seed it is true that you can't kill the weed seeds with herb aside but what if I told you there were products out there that help with weed prevention now tenacity is classified as a selective preemergent now what that means is if you have a very specific type of grass seed that you're going to put down it will disallow other weed seeds and annual grasses from germinating with the specific type of grass seed that you're trying to grow now tenacity works best if you do two applications before putting your seed down one of the major benefits of using tenac not only does it act as a selective pre-emergent but it's got selective post-emergent properties for killing anual grasses like crab grass fox tail and it also kills other weeds like dandelion and clover really really fast now tenacity plays well with other herbicides like speed zone and T-Zone so if you guys have hard Tod do weeds to get rid of you can take the tenacity and combine it with speed zone or T-Zone while it's still not recommended to use an herbicide within 2 weeks of seeding you can use the combination of speed zone T-Zone and tenacity on your first application and then when you're going to seeed 2 weeks later you can use the tenacity as a standalone product while putting your seed down using this method is very valuable because it saves you two weeks of your life now tenacity is classified as a pre-emergent but it's it's not the best one out there I do not recommend using tenacity as a standalone application for a fertilizer pre-emergent there are far cheaper options out there like Prine and Diop to do a better job the only difference is if you use Prine or Diop here you cannot overseed because they are not a selective pre-emergent like tenacity is my opinion on tenacity as a pre-immersion is it lasts about 3 weeks at a time now considering crab grass only takes 5 days to germinate your lawn there is going to be a window where it is still possible that you're going to have other seeds germinating after those 3 weeks are up now that means if you're one of those lazy people that just refuses to pick weeds out you're going to need to wait 6 weeks to do another tenacity application and it's important to remember that tenacity is not the best Standalone herbicide to kill post emerging weeds I still recommend using T-Zone or speed zone but you're going to need to wait an additional 9 to 12 weeks from the time that you put the seed down to use products like speed zone and T-Zone because they're just too harsh for newly laid grass tenacity is a fantastic product for what it was designed to do and that's to act as a selective pre-emergent and to kill annual grasses such as crabgrass foxtail and POA tenacity is very satisfying to watch in action as it targets annual grasses and targeted weeds for the annual grasses and weeds that it affects it acts as a sunblock the targeted weeds visibly turn white because they can't process the sunlight one of the major disadvantages to using tenacity is it has a potential to bleach the entire area of where you apply it take for instance myON you can see the bleaching effect over my entire lawn it was completely green before I used tenacity and now it's not to be honest with you I still feel like the benefits outweigh the negative side effects since they are just temporary well guys this concludes my easy tips for over seating a lawn if you guys have any questions comments or concerns hit me up in the comments below you know I'd love to help you guys out till next time guys The Pest and Lawn J We're slaying lawns [Music]

Channel: Pest and Lawn Ginja

Views: 88,693

Keywords: preperation to growing grass, how to plant grass seed, how to seed a lawn that already has grass, easy way to seed grass, easy way to plant grass seed, how to grow grass seed, how to plant a new lawn, how to top dress, how to top dress lawn uk, growing grass seed, lawn care, compost spreader, top dressing a lawn, top dressing lawn, top dressing grass, lawn care for beginners canada, seeding bare spots, lawn care for beginners uk, fall lawn tips, easy way to seed lawn

Id: b23VSxYwqhI

Length: 11min 29sec (689 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 25 2020