# Pre-Germinating Seed



## beneb

Does anyone have any experience pre-germinating grass seed? I've read a bit about it online. Milorganite's website even had a short post about it. Was wondering if anyone has done it and might have some tips or things to look out for. I'm hoping to overseed in the next week or 2 with a KBG blend to fill in some bare spots I made by spot killing some fescue clumps and to thicken up the lawn. I know that is often challenging due to the slow germination time, but it seems like pre-germinating might be a helpful method to increase my chances of success. From my quick research it seems the method goes something like:
1. Put the seed into a permeable container--burlap sack or something similar
2. Fill a bucket or some other type of container with clean, room temp water and put the seed into the bucket and let soak.
3. Pull the seed out and let it drain. Replace the water in the bucket with fresh clean water. Do this at least daily, if not every 12 hours. Also watch out for mold and rot--can help prevent this with a diluted hydrogen peroxide rinse.
4. Repeat this process for about 5 days (for bluegrass)
5. Take the seed out and let it drain well and dry a bit. 
6. Mix it with some sort of dry substrate (I've seen compost, sand, milorganite, peat moss all suggested)
7. Broadcast spread (can it be done in a slit seeder???) in a properly prepared location and rake it in. 
8. Follow standard recommendations for continued care of new grass seed.

I want to try it, but don't want to destroy a bunch of nice seed.


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## Green

I tried it with a handful of Fescue seed for the first time a few weeks ago, and it worked. I soaked for about a day. I don't know if you could get away with soaking KBG as long as you mention (5 days). You might have to experiment. I will probably try it with KBG seed soon, too. I'm only going to do it for seed I could spread by hand, though. That takes care of the spreading issue somewhat.


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## Clifford

I mix the seed with peat moss then add enough water to make the peat moist. I cover it and let it sit for about 5 days, though in the future I think I will only give it four. On the fourth or fifth day spread the seed and cover it with more peat and water. You will usually see sprouts within twenty four hours. Water multiple times a day as you would if you had not pre-germinated. I will continue multiple daily watering for a full month as I have seen new blades of grass emerge. 
I started this process with Bewitched KBG in late July and put the seed down on August 2. I have quite a bit of coverage and think I will probably be giving the area it's first cut on labor day.


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## Movingshrub

Following. What's the benefit/application for this? Hilly area/avoiding runoff? Easier control inside?


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## Clifford

I like to do it because I can start the process in the garage and five days later put seed down. Instead of waiting a week or two to see germination and sprouting in the yard, and worrying about the seed drying, I see the sprouting in about 24 hours. Kind of just speeds up the process!


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## Green

Movingshrub said:


> Following. What's the benefit/application for this? Hilly area/avoiding runoff? Easier control inside?


If you don't have time to wait for the standard germination time, you can start it ahead of time, so you're that much closer to germination when you plant it. Watering restrictions, for example.


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## beneb

Green said:


> I tried it with a handful of Fescue seed for the first time a few weeks ago, and it worked. I soaked for about a day. I don't know if you could get away with soaking KBG as long as you mention (5 days). You might have to experiment. I will probably try it with KBG seed soon, too. I'm only going to do it for seed I could spread by hand, though. That takes care of the spreading issue somewhat.


As I've read a little more about it, I have found there are 2 similar but distinct processes here: pre-germinating and priming. Here's a couple articles I found helpful. 
http://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/stnew/article/1996jun9.pdf
http://sturf.lib.msu.edu/article/1992sep18.pdf

After reading through those, it seems like I'm more interested in the priming method. Seems to be a little simpler with decent results. I'm still not convinced total time to the process is much different, but I think the key is that time to germinate and grow once the seed hits the ground is reduced. That would be a major plus when putting bluegrass seed down into existing turf. 
I emailed back and forth a bit with the folks at super seed store, and they said just a short mow and a slit seeder would be ok. Part of me wants to accept that, but another part of me wants to do everything (within reasonable time & $) to increase chances of success. If priming the seed will increase the likelihood that new seed will establish before getting choked out by already established grass, I may go that route.


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## GardenBoots

One benefit is water savings. It's much cheaper to keep a bucket wet for 5 days, than it is watering a whole lawn 2X-3X a day for 5 days, waiting for germination.

Sports field managers also use this technique to speed up recovery of the fields. No need to wait after the game to get the seed started. Have it pre-germinated and waiting to that it can go down the day after the game, and get growing right away.


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## Movingshrub

You guys totally blew my mind with this. I've only planted Bermuda via sprigs. You guys are making me consider this pre germ approach for my rye grass. Unsure if there is much value considering how quickly it germinates anyways.


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## Delmarva Keith

One thing I've always wondered about is how to spread wet seeds. What is the technique or trick?


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## beneb

Clifford said:


> I mix the seed with peat moss then add enough water to make the peat moist. I cover it and let it sit for about 5 days, though in the future I think I will only give it four. On the fourth or fifth day spread the seed and cover it with more peat and water. You will usually see sprouts within twenty four hours. Water multiple times a day as you would if you had not pre-germinated. I will continue multiple daily watering for a full month as I have seen new blades of grass emerge.
> I started this process with Bewitched KBG in late July and put the seed down on August 2. I have quite a bit of coverage and think I will probably be giving the area it's first cut on labor day.


How do go about spreading the seed? Your technique sounds similar to one of the articles I posted, but they didn't use peat. Does your mix get sun exposure? The way I read the article was they got the seed wet and kept it closed up in the bag with some optional air circulation and then let it dry out before spreading it. I'm still kind of wondering if I could apply the seed with a slit seeder but I imagine the soaked seed might be a little tender and could be easily damaged.


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## GoPre

Delmarva Keith said:


> One thing I've always wondered about is how to spread wet seeds. What is the technique or trick?


I've done it, not too bad. Carefully mix the wet seed with Milorganite and run it through a broadcast spreader. You don't want to wait too long between removing from water and getting in on the ground and covered/watered.


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## thebmrust

What's the largest batch you have done (or know about) for either method? I have a 1.5 acre lawn that I'm getting ready to seed in a few weeks. I'll be putting down 50lb of pasture grass.
From the distributor:
20% orchard 
30% forage tall fescue
50% tetraploid perennial ryegrass


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## HoosierLawnGnome

The challenge with overseeding isn't getting the seed to germinate, its about new seedlings' ability to compete with healthy, existing plants.

In the OP, you mentioned filling in bare spots and thickening up the KBG lawn as your goals.

If that is your goal, reseed or plug the bare spots. fertilize the lawn with light, frequent doses of Nitrogen and take good care of it this fall. It will thicken up on its own.

You need to do that anyways or you'll have thst problem again.

So, i guess my point is there are a lot easier, more reliable ways to achieving your goal than a more complicated pre germination strategy for an overseed that still requires proper fertilization and cultivation that would soread K G anyways.

A lot less work.


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## alt-brian

Delmarva Keith said:


> One thing I've always wondered about is how to spread wet seeds. What is the technique or trick?


I did it last year with KBG. I put the seeds in an old pillow case. I soaked them in a 5 gallon bucket for 4.5 days. I would drain the bucket in the morning and refill. Then drain and refill again after dinner.

It had an interesting smell to it...like an earthy tea. Honestly, I kinda liked it.

The seeds clumped together so much after the final draining that I did not think they would go through the spreader well at all. I opted for spreading by hand.

The best way I found was to simply grab very small clumps of wet seeds and fling it really hard parallel to the ground. It seemed to disperse the seeds decently.
I then spread starter fert and lightly covered it with peat moss.

If/when I do it again, I will add some peat moss after the final drain to hopefully discourage some of the clumping to make spreading easier.

On the plus side, I saw a fair amount of the new KBG poking through on the fourth day after spreading. By the next weekend, it was almost an inch high.


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## jimmythegreek

Its alot easier to use growth regulator on an overseed with a short cut. Gives the seed time to sprout and get sun


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