# New grass seed germinates, but doesn't seem to grow.



## grngrs (Apr 27, 2019)

I seeded a bunch of bare patches recently and I can see the grass germinate and the small baby grass coming up, but then it seems to stop in a lot of places. This is seed I bought at the local nursery (20% TeeLee PRG, 20% Private PRG, 20% Elf PRG, 15% Seducer Chewings Fescue, 15% Boreal Creeping Red Fescue, 10% Shamrock KBG). I dug up the areas a couple inches and put in new topsoil, laid down some starter fert, and have been watering consistently. The weather has been in the mid 70's to 80's.

In about 7 days I saw the baby grass there, but 14 days after that, a lot of it hasn't really grown much taller than a couple centimeters to half an inch. Some of it has died off too, although there is grass right next to it in many areas that seems to have survived. Only a few strands of grass have grown to a couple inches.

Any thoughts on what might be going on or what I might be doing wrong? Or do I just need to wait longer? I've read and seen videos where PRG fills in and grows nicely at least a couple inches within 14-21 days, but I'm not having much luck. If most of the grass didn't grow I'd assume something was wrong, but the fact that it germinates and then is really small and doesn't seem to be growing after that has got me confused.

Thanks for any help.


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## Stuofsci02 (Sep 9, 2018)

What do you mean by water consistently? How many times per day and for how long? Can you post pics?


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## Shindoman (Apr 22, 2018)

Grass seed has enough food inside to germinate. But once it sprouts it needs food. Try giving it some more food. Preferably in a liquid form so it acts fast. 
Laying down starter fert when you drop seed is too early. Next time give it starter fert once you see it starting to sprout. That's quite a complicated seed mix they sold you.


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## grngrs (Apr 27, 2019)

Stuofsci02 said:


> What do you mean by water consistently? How many times per day and for how long? Can you post pics?


I water it enough to keep the top layer moist and not dried out. In the past few weeks, that's about twice a day for 3-5 min, but a few days when it got hotter I had to do 3 times and a few days when it wasn't so hot that was only once. I'll get some pics tomorrow.


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## grngrs (Apr 27, 2019)

Shindoman said:


> Grass seed has enough food inside to germinate. But once it sprouts it needs food. Try giving it some more food. Preferably in a liquid form so it acts fast.
> Laying down starter fert when you drop seed is too early. Next time give it starter fert once you see it starting to sprout. That's quite a complicated seed mix they sold you.


Thanks. I was planning on hitting it with some liquid tomorrow. I only have this on me right now in liquid form which I hope should be good https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Lawn-Solutions-Concentrated-Fertilizer/dp/B01CKK1CPO/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=simple+lawn+solution+booster&qid=1567312983&s=gateway&sr=8-1. It's high in P and has fulvic, humic, and sea kelp.

Yeah I'm wondering if I should switch to a different seed. It's from one of the better nurseries in my area and it's their own mix, so I assumed it would be good, but maybe I'll just order from superseedstore instead.


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## ksturfguy (Sep 25, 2018)

Shindoman said:


> Grass seed has enough food inside to germinate. But once it sprouts it needs food. Try giving it some more food. Preferably in a liquid form so it acts fast.
> *Laying down starter fert when you drop seed is too early.* Next time give it starter fert once you see it starting to sprout. That's quite a complicated seed mix they sold you.


I wouldn't say this is 100% correct. The starter fert applied at seed down will last a good 3 to 4 weeks. He has a lot of PRG which germinates usually in 3-5 days so that starter fert will feed that new grass for a couple weeks still. At about the 4 to 5 week mark then you can apply some more fert.

Maybe if your dealing with 100% KBG that can be a little slower to germinate then wait a few more days to a week to apply it but I'd say normally starter fert at seed down is good. Most university publications I've read about establishing lawns from seed all say apply starter fert at seed down. I don't think they would all say that if it was wrong.

I think it's one of those things where there more then 1 way to do it. Certainly not wrong or bad to apply at seed down and it will continue to feed for the firs couple weeks after germination. But you can also apply right around germination and probably won't see a difference either way.

Personally I'm a little concerned if he has a PRG and it's struggling to grow more then 1/2 inch over 21 days in. This seems very slow for PRG. I think now that he has germination he needs to switch his watering to less frequent and deeper instead of just enough to keep top layer moist. It could use some fert but I suspect under water at this point.


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## grngrs (Apr 27, 2019)

I added some pics to the original post. It's a little hard to see since it was difficult to take a good picture up close of the smaller baby grass.


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## Stuofsci02 (Sep 9, 2018)

Ok... at least part of the issue is the surrounding grass is so long it is shading out your new sprouts.. I world take a trimmers and carefully cut the grass around the seed patches


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## grngrs (Apr 27, 2019)

Stuofsci02 said:


> Ok... at least part of the issue is the surrounding grass is so long it is shading out your new sprouts.. I world take a trimmers and carefully cut the grass around the seed patches


Yeah I did that this past weekend too to try and get more sunlight down. Thanks!


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