# lawn Renovation, Seed coming in thin and Sparatic



## jhunt256 (Sep 27, 2018)

Hi all, new to the lawn care life. My previous lawn was a disaster so i started a lawn care renovation. Below is where I am at.

Edit I should mention my yard was a new construction sod job that never took. They laid sod directly on hard clay soil and by the time I took ownership it was dead or full of weeds. That is why I chose to use compost and till it in.

[*]Round Up Kill everything
[*]Apply 2" thick layer of compost across the entire yard, and till that into the top few inches of soil
[*]Drag matted that to level and then rolled it to flatten.
[*]Threw down United Seed Onlines Super Turf II at the recommended rate along with scotts fertilizer with weed control for new grass
[*]Rolled the seed into the soil and covered with a very very thin layer of peat moss. (1/8")

All the work above was done on the weekend of 9/15 with seeding happen 9/16. I did not have any thing grow until a few days ago, and now it starting to sprout up all over but very very inconsistently. I have areas that are going well and large areas that are basically barren and cant figure out what is going on.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I would think 11 days in would have better coverage then what I am seeing.

I have had no rain until last night so nothing should have washed away.

Pictures with what I am looking at.


http://imgur.com/QYKnFaV


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## GMM (Jul 18, 2018)

11 days isn't a long time, don't think it's quite time to start panicking yet.

What's your watering schedule like?


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

As long as you've kept the soil moist and the seed was fresh, you should be be fine.
TTTF does germinate quicker than KBG, I would panic for another week, after that I would certainly seed the thin areas. 
I'm in NC, but we really have had ideal growing temps until this week. 
Good luck.


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## jhunt256 (Sep 27, 2018)

GMM said:


> 11 days isn't a long time, don't think it's quite time to start panicking yet.
> 
> What's your watering schedule like?


I water roughly at 9 or 10 AM once the area is fully out of shade, for 10 mins each zone (zones over lap some). And then again around 3 or 4 in the evening for 10 or so minutes as well.

I get pooling in 2 small areas if i stretch it out to 15 mins per zone.


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## jhunt256 (Sep 27, 2018)

probasestealer said:


> As long as you've kept the soil moist and the seed was fresh, you should be be fine.
> TTTF does germinate quicker than KBG, I would panic for another week, after that I would certainly seed the thin areas.
> I'm in NC, but we really have had ideal growing temps until this week.
> Good luck.


Yeah it was in the mid 90s until this past weekend. So the temps were pretty terrible the first week.


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## jhunt256 (Sep 27, 2018)

Would adding an application of milorganite help?


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

jhunt256 said:


> Would adding an application of milorganite help?


It got the starter. I would try to avoid walking on it right now. But an app of vitamin M won't hurt the grass, you might though. Plus with the compost and tilling it's likely pretty soggy.

Hopefully you'll see mass germination in the next 3-4 days and it will be smooth sailing from there... I have a few overseeded areas that have been dreadful this fall, I've never had so much trouble, what has germinated hasn't grown more than 0.5" and is just staring at me (that's both TTTF and KBG).


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## outdoorsmen (Jul 23, 2018)

probasestealer said:


> jhunt256 said:
> 
> 
> > Would adding an application of milorganite help?
> ...


Same here. about 6 weeks and an inch tall is all i get. I dont understand. Maybe i bought turf type dwarf fescue ttdf


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## bunjamins (Aug 15, 2018)

mine's doing something very similar to yours, and my reno was very similar. my problem initially was one of my sprinklers was angled downward a little too much and the force of the water was sweeping the grass seed and peat away from it, this caused a half circle of dense seed germination about 12' away from the sprinkler head, I'll post some pics later.

The rest of the lawn that is not in the same boat just is coming up at different rates because of shade mostly, the soil temp in shade is colder and also colder where the sprinklers overlap more, and i assume the constant watering is bringing soil temp down.

I'm at day about 20 and the more bare spots are starting to fill in very slowly.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

@jhunt256 welcome to TLF.

For seed to grow it needs seed to soil contact and 24/7 moist soil. I watered every 1-2hrs for 3min each. This avoid pooling water and keeps the soil moist.


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## krusej23 (May 8, 2018)

The spots that are growing, are they the spots where the sprinklers are overlapping a lot or are they spots that may not be getting as much water as other areas. I found a spot in my yard that wasn't germinating as fast as the other parts of the yard and it was because one sprinkler wasn't overlapping as much as it should.


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## jhunt256 (Sep 27, 2018)

g-man said:


> @jhunt256 welcome to TLF.
> 
> For seed to grow it needs seed to soil contact and 24/7 moist soil. I watered every 1-2hrs for 3min each. This avoid pooling water and keeps the soil moist.


Man that will be tough to manage but After this weekend much easier as install a better irrigation controller.


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## jhunt256 (Sep 27, 2018)

krusej23 said:


> The spots that are growing, are they the spots where the sprinklers are overlapping a lot or are they spots that may not be getting as much water as other areas. I found a spot in my yard that wasn't germinating as fast as the other parts of the yard and it was because one sprinkler wasn't overlapping as much as it should.


It is definitely growing the most where the puddles would form from the better overlapping areas. So maybe I should be watering a little more. I also have a natural low spot you can se e in the pictures, and that is where the green is.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

You dont have to do it that way. I could because the controller I have (Rachio).

Use the manual feature in your controller to trigger one before going to work. Try to have the controller come on during the day and then manual trigger one when you get home and before bed. Whatever it takes to keep it moist.

Do you have more seed? With two weeks since seed down, i would be concern with the little germination in your picture.


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## probasestealer (Apr 19, 2018)

@outdoorsmen sorry you're having the same trouble. Several lawns on my street have been aerated and overseeded, they look worse, the same or only slightly better. It's cooling down, so that should help. Unfortunately we are loosing day light hours...

I've got a predominant KBG stand, so I'm left focusing on aggressive N and spread.


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## JDgreen18 (Jun 14, 2018)

For tttf you should have pretty decent growth at 11 days This is my tttf kbg reno Im doing at day 8....and to be honest its a lot thicker today at day 10 sorry I dont have a pic of today's. If this was kbg I'd say you would be ok. Did you cover with peat...this helps keep it most longer between watering.


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## jhunt256 (Sep 27, 2018)

JDgreen18 said:


> For tttf you should have pretty decent growth at 11 days This is my tttf kbg reno Im doing at day 8....and to be honest its a lot thicker today at day 10 sorry I dont have a pic of today's. If this was kbg I'd say you would be ok. Did you cover with peat...this helps keep it most longer between watering.


Yes i covered with peat moss using a roller. I will up date with a new picture today. At this point is it worth it to order the same stuff, or should I try a different cultivator?


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## jhunt256 (Sep 27, 2018)

New Pictures from today. I am on day 12 in this picture.





So am I screwed?


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## samjonester (May 13, 2018)

+1 for too dry. At 90+ degrees in a spot without shade, it probably needed 5-10 minutes every hour or two from 10a-4p.

Was the peat dry and light brown before your 3-4p watering?


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## iowa jim (Jan 22, 2018)

How many lbs per k did you seed?
Also you could have a batch of expired or just bad seed.


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## jhunt256 (Sep 27, 2018)

iowa jim said:


> How many lbs per k did you seed?
> Also you could have a batch of expired or just bad seed.


I used 40lbs for my 3800 sqft, so over the 10/lb per 1k sqft they recommended.


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## jhunt256 (Sep 27, 2018)

samjonester said:


> +1 for too dry. At 90+ degrees in a spot without shade, it probably needed 5-10 minutes every hour or two from 10a-4p.
> 
> Was the peat dry and light brown before your 3-4p watering?


It didnt look particularly dry but wasnt soaked either before my last watering. The sun doesnt hit it untill 840 or so and it was quite wet out of the sun. Water came on just after I took this picture.

Also its been in the 70's this past week so temperature finally broke.


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## JDgreen18 (Jun 14, 2018)

samjonester said:


> +1 for too dry. At 90+ degrees in a spot without shade, it probably needed 5-10 minutes every hour or two from 10a-4p.
> 
> Was the peat dry and light brown before your 3-4p watering?


When I did my reno this summer I was watering 5 times a day 9,11,1,3,&5. It would dry out very quick in the hot sun. Im still waiting to see my water bill lol
@jhunt256 I would consider throwing down more seed at this point IMO


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## jhunt256 (Sep 27, 2018)

JDgreen18 said:


> samjonester said:
> 
> 
> > +1 for too dry. At 90+ degrees in a spot without shade, it probably needed 5-10 minutes every hour or two from 10a-4p.
> ...


Should i used the same cultivators? or should I go with a different set?


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## JDgreen18 (Jun 14, 2018)

Do you still have more of the same seed...if so maybe throw it down an see what happens? IDK kind of a decision you have to make Did you test your seed in pots before planting? Is so did you get good germination? Maybe that can help you decide. 
Wirh tttf you should see some decent growth after 7-10 days. 
This all being said I dont have near the experience of some of the folks on here maybe they can help you more


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## jhunt256 (Sep 27, 2018)

JDgreen18 said:


> Do you still have more of the same seed...if so maybe throw it down an see what happens? IDK kind of a decision you have to make Did you test your seed in pots before planting? Is so did you get good germination? Maybe that can help you decide.
> Wirh tttf you should see some decent growth after 7-10 days.
> This all being said I dont have near the experience of some of the folks on here maybe they can help you more


Yeah I guess i will throw more down tomorrow. Surprisingly the areas where the peat moss is gone or extremely light came in the best. I plan to lay down some milorganite and seed at the same rate as before and rake that into the top part of the soil. I am going to avoid using a roller and recovering with peat moss.

Will use a 4 to 5 times per day watering schedule and see if it improves.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I'm not a huge fan of peat moss. It makes it hard to see if the soil is moist. If the seeds got wet and then dry, it could kill them. The two things you need for a reno, seed to soil contact and a constantly moist soil.


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