# Your most dreaded step in Fall overseed



## Rolling Hills (Jul 21, 2021)

I'm embarking on my annual fall overseed prep and I totally forgot how much it sucks incrementally lowering your HOC leading up to it. I usually cut my predominantly TTTF blend around 4" during the summer and around early to mid August start dropping the HOC a half inch each week so that I can scalp to under 2" by time of seed down.

Surprisingly, a half inch is a friggin lot because I have such a high volume of clippings I need to go over again to pick up. My bagger gets full very quickly, so I'm having to empty it every 2-3 passes. I have an Agri-Fab lawn sweeper attachment for my lawn tractor, but it's definitely not the panacea I thought it would be as I have to make multiple passes to get the bulk of the clippings up.

Does anyone else find this phase as tedious and labor intesive as I do?

What step in your fall overseed prep do you dread?


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## BigBlue (Aug 27, 2021)

I aspire to have a lawn thick enough to have your problems lol &#128518;.

And I still find the cutdown stressful because although intellectually I know it'll be ok, I still feel anxious shocking the poor grass.

I suppose the only other thing I dread is an unforecasted deluge of rain soon after seeding, which in south NJ close to the ocean is not unheard of to have a popup thunderstorm that decides to hang what seems to be directly over your house for 60 minutes longer than it has any right to be there.

And finally I'm dreading top dressing with compost (this will be the first year I'll be hand chucking 10 yards onto 10K of lawn). We'll see if it's as bad as I think it might be.


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## Lawn Whisperer (Feb 15, 2021)

Have you tried a side discharge? And maybe doing a double pass with .25" lower each pass.


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## thin_concrete (Sep 11, 2020)

Ugh - I hate timing the stupid overseed! Do it too soon - massive heatwave; too late - massive snowstorm!!!


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## Rolling Hills (Jul 21, 2021)

BigBlue said:


> I aspire to have a lawn thick enough to have your problems lol 😆.
> 
> And I still find the cutdown stressful because although intellectually I know it'll be ok, I still feel anxious shocking the poor grass.
> 
> ...


Top dressing an entire lawn like that is rough if you're doing it the old fashioned way. I don't even bother with my 20k of lawn. I will dress over obvious bare spots, but not the entire thing. It would take me a week and a mountain of dirt just for that step alone.


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## Rolling Hills (Jul 21, 2021)

Lawn Whisperer said:


> Have you tried a side discharge? And maybe doing a double pass with .25" lower each pass.


75% of the issue is my mower. It's a run of the mill 21" push mower with not that much engine power. The HOC adjusts in .5" increments so I'm stuck with that. What drives me crazy is when the bag is only half full and the mower is already gummed up and leaving behind large clumps as you go. I'm definitely going to invest in a newer, bigger mower of the winter. Until then, I'm just keeping my blade sharp and powering through it


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Oh, I just overseeded last week and went from 3.75" to 1.5" in one pass. Didn't even think about lowering it incrementally :lol:


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## Rolling Hills (Jul 21, 2021)

spaceman_spiff said:


> Oh, I just overseeded last week and went from 3.75" to 1.5" in one pass. Didn't even think about lowering it incrementally :lol:


Jesus how quickly was your bagger filling up? Amazing your mower could handle that much cut at once. If I tried that my mower would stall out.


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## lawn-wolverine (Aug 15, 2021)

Rolling Hills said:


> spaceman_spiff said:
> 
> 
> > Oh, I just overseeded last week and went from 3.75" to 1.5" in one pass. Didn't even think about lowering it incrementally :lol:
> ...


I don't think his name is Jesus. I am a little surprised that you actually thought enough to type that. Or not.


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## jimmythegreek (Aug 7, 2020)

I dont know if you have the time but I just cut the grass every other day bagging as I go. Or even split it up into quadrants and cut every day some piece of it. I feel cutting alot off the last pass before seeding helps stunt it somewhat to give seedlings a better chance. PGR is worth the investment if you overseed yearly


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## Tsmith (Aug 11, 2017)

The raking is always the worst part of any overseed or renovation.

On the hand top dressing with Peat Moss is usually the best since it's so easy to spread and is the last step before finally sitting back and relaxing.


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## CrispyLawn (Jul 27, 2021)

These posts are making me jealous... I don't think an overseed is in the cards for me this year. We are on city water restrictions to 1 day / week. Unless I see rain in the forecast for like a whole week I'll probably just have to wait till next year... unless I just throw seed down and hope for the best!


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## lawn-wolverine (Aug 15, 2021)

CrispyLawn said:


> These posts are making me jealous... I don't think an overseed is in the cards for me this year. We are on city water restrictions to 1 day / week. Unless I see rain in the forecast for like a whole week I'll probably just have to wait till next year... unless I just throw seed down and hope for the best!


Don't do it, sir ! Water is critical. We have all learned that.


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## BigBlue (Aug 27, 2021)

Rolling Hills said:


> BigBlue said:
> 
> 
> > I aspire to have a lawn thick enough to have your problems lol 😆.
> ...


Yeah, you're point is well taken. Hmmm... maybe I'll cut the delivery to 5 yards and concentrate on bare spots.


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Rolling Hills said:


> spaceman_spiff said:
> 
> 
> > Oh, I just overseeded last week and went from 3.75" to 1.5" in one pass. Didn't even think about lowering it incrementally :lol:
> ...


Oh it filled up every couple swipes for sure. No stalls though!


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## Old Hickory (Aug 19, 2019)

I do a daily workout at my YMCA in the early AM so getting up even earlier in order to wet the seed is my most dreaded step.


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## situman (Nov 3, 2020)

Rolling Hills said:


> I'm embarking on my annual fall overseed prep and I totally forgot how much it sucks incrementally lowering your HOC leading up to it. I usually cut my predominantly TTTF blend around 4" during the summer and around early to mid August start dropping the HOC a half inch each week so that I can scalp to under 2" by time of seed down.
> 
> Surprisingly, a half inch is a friggin lot because I have such a high volume of clippings I need to go over again to pick up. My bagger gets full very quickly, so I'm having to empty it every 2-3 passes. I have an Agri-Fab lawn sweeper attachment for my lawn tractor, but it's definitely not the panacea I thought it would be as I have to make multiple passes to get the bulk of the clippings up.
> 
> ...


Definitely the dethatching. If you think cutting and bagging is a lot of stuff, wait til you see what you pull up from dethatching.


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## nemesis256 (Mar 27, 2021)

Rolling Hills said:


> spaceman_spiff said:
> 
> 
> > Oh, I just overseeded last week and went from 3.75" to 1.5" in one pass. Didn't even think about lowering it incrementally :lol:
> ...


I did the same and it does fill up quickly. I ended up with 4 trash bags full of clippings. The motor does struggle in some places so I go slow.


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## vipersbyms (Aug 22, 2020)

BigBlue said:


> I aspire to have a lawn thick enough to have your problems lol 😆.
> 
> And I still find the cutdown stressful because although intellectually I know it'll be ok, I still feel anxious shocking the poor grass.
> 
> ...


Get a compost spreader. I started hand spreading peat moss last year until I decided I had enough of that and just focused on the bare spots.

This year I'm renovating and bought the Landzie spreader.


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## Rolling Hills (Jul 21, 2021)

vipersbyms said:


> BigBlue said:
> 
> 
> > I aspire to have a lawn thick enough to have your problems lol 😆.
> ...


I'd sooner rather build my own pull behind spreader than give Landzie $600 for something they probably make a 90% profit margin on.

But if you have some disposable income, why not? Save yourself a boatload of time and effort with those things.


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## vipersbyms (Aug 22, 2020)

Get a compost spreader. I started hand spreading peat moss last year until I decided I had enough of that and just focused on the bare spots.

This year I'm renovating and bought the Landzie spreader.
[/quote]

I'd sooner rather build my own pull behind spreader than give Landzie $600 for something they probably make a 90% profit margin on.

But if you have some disposable income, why not? Save yourself a boatload of time and effort with those things.
[/quote]

I bought the 24" spreader from Landzie for $250. Yes, definitely seems overpriced for what it is, but I'm unaware of an alternative. Couldn't find a place that rents them and couldn't find a used one.

I do know it will be worth it when I'm not spreading peat moss but hand this weekend.


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## JERSEY (Sep 9, 2018)

paying for seed.


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## Scagfreedom48z+ (Oct 6, 2018)

Most dreaded by far is sucking up 26k sq ft worth of thatch with a double bag lawn tractor. Takes forever, bags fill up quickly and it's never ending. The time consuming part is having to go over it slowly so the mower doesn't clog. Absolutely hate that part of it. Everything else isn't bad


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## macattack (Nov 2, 2020)

Definitely the bagging part after lowering HOC and running my Earthwise dethatcher. I had 18 bags this year, and yard waste pickup didn't happen. Ugh. Think i should haver gone lower than 2.1", and gone lower with the dethatcher. Lots of dead grass as part of lifecycle. I might have last year but it was already looking ragged after two passes. I broke out the dethatch rake for those areas the machine couldn't get to. Now it rained and i didn't get the seed/fertilizer down right away, three days late. Going out of town in 2 weeks, should be sprouting by then, kids better water the lawn or pray for rain. Next year will be full renovation. This bermuda needs to go.


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## Cluelessone (Sep 23, 2020)

Dethatching, by far. Making your way across half an acre, 14" at a pass is... fun.

Second is spreading peat moss. I use the 5 gallon bucket method. Why is it that the second that stuff is airborne the wind direction changes to send it straight back in your face??


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## spaceman_spiff (Feb 5, 2021)

Cluelessone said:


> Second is spreading peat moss. I use the 5 gallon bucket method. Why is it that the second that stuff is airborne the wind direction changes to send it straight back in your face??


Just LOL'ed because it happened to me last week. I've got twin toddlers and one was 'helping' me spread it, which was semi-helpful. And the other picking up handfuls of dirt/peat moss from the lawn and putting it back in the moss bag :lol:

All 3 of us were dirty as hell afterwards since it was a partially windy day.


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## eric_hanus (Aug 17, 2021)

PEAT MOSS!


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## JP900++ (Aug 24, 2018)

Watering. Even with irrigation it sucks. This year I went in early because I'm travelling. The soil temps were in mid to upper 80s trying for a couple minutes every 3 hours or so. But we were also getting pop up T-storms each afternoon. I'm at 8 days and not really seeing any termination. Temps are dropping to the upper 70s so I'm hoping it'll come around.


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## Slkching28 (Sep 5, 2021)

Topdress 30 yd of compost on 50k sq ft lawn (6k on a slope). Using riding mower to tow the gorilla cart, but all those shoveling to the cart killed my arms


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## FreestateFescue (Aug 5, 2021)

Tsmith said:


> The raking is always the worst part of any overseed or renovation.
> 
> On the hand top dressing with Peat Moss is usually the best since it's so easy to spread and is the last step before finally sitting back and relaxing.


I couldn't agree more, the raking is the worst. Trying to get good seed to soil contact is always daunting for me. Even with the greenworks dethatcher I find myself still raking many areas by hand .


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## jpsrules (Feb 26, 2021)

For me the hardest part is topdressing and it's not even in the same category as anything else in the fall overseeding process. Just got a landzie this year so hopefully easier but I think those are mostly designed for peat moss. But yeah god bless its hard topdressing an acre of almost all grass with a wheel barrow and shovel!


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## BigBlue (Aug 27, 2021)

I cheated a little and had a local contractor aerate and chuck the 12 yards of compost for me. I still ended up going over the whole 10K lawn raking in the compost but my arms thanked me for not humping the 12 yards by myself (landscaper had a crew of 6 and was done in 2 hours, I'd probably still have a pile in my driveway). But I will bite the bullet and buy a compost spreader next year if I decide to put more compost down.

I also now agree with those mentioning the raking, wow how I underestimated how much that would get tedious. I did find the double mows after dethatching to bag the thatch therapeutic though, like a long hike (push mower).

One zen observation (as corny as it may sound): I really do feel that I've gotten to understand every square inch of my lawn now. I know where the positives and negatives are and have such a good mental map of areas I will be addressing going forward. I wouldn't have that if I hadn't walked the same ground, staring at grass, through cuts, thatching, bagging, raking, raking, raking, seeding, rolling, spraying, etc. Good stuff!


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## outdoorsmen (Jul 23, 2018)

The raking is the worst. I used to borrow a pull behind lawn sweeper but it got so many holes in the hopper that I don't want to use it anymore and break it worse. Nobody I know of rents a rider/bagger. I can't justify buying a bagger for my scag to only use once a year.


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## Factor (Oct 10, 2019)

Trying to talk my neighbors in to letting me kill their bermuda. :roll:

Removing Lawn Debris.


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## Lust4Lawn (Aug 4, 2020)

The water bill!


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