# Dormant Seeding vs Spring Seeding



## sowmyans (Jul 27, 2018)

Are there any advantages on dormant seeding over spring seeding ? Any cons / pros ?. Of Couse, early fall seeding is the best , but wondering about why would someone need to consider dormant seeding. Thank you !


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## ForsheeMS (May 21, 2018)

The idea of dormant seeding is to spread the seed when temps are still cold. With the ground freezing at night and thawing out during the day the expanding and contracting works the seed into the soil. Once the soil hits the correct temp the seed will germinate. That's the idea anyway. Fall seeding is definitely best.


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## FuzzeWuzze (Aug 25, 2017)

I believe its origin stems from sports field maintenance, winter and early spring being the only time a field is not in use means they need to ensure some regrowth as early in the growing season as possible.

I think that also applies in general to lawns, at least in area's that are cold/wet for the entire winter. The seed just sits there in the soil until it gets warm enough to germinate.  I can see it working well in certain area's especially here in Oregon where our soil will be super soggy basically from November to May. Area's that have warm ups that may cause pre-mature germination that will just die off when temps get cold again probably wont have much luck.

As i understand it, it just lets you have a better success at spring seeding. But honestly no spring seeding mantra is a bit overblown i think personally unless you have no irrigation or extremely hot summers which most of us in the North shouldnt encounter.


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## JustGW (Sep 21, 2018)

I have been thinking about doing some dormant seeding for some of the bare areas that I have not been able to get to this fall due to taking out a tree stump. I have read some articles and it appears to be a much higher chance then Spring seeding as you don't have the competition from weeds and can get the good seed to soil contact. However, it seems important to put more seed (about 50% more) than normal.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.cce...verseeding_and_Dormant_Seeding.pdf?1413561386- Cornell advice on Dormant Seeding

https://turf.purdue.edu/tips/2007/10_25seed.html - Purdue stats on effectiveness of dormant seeding


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## sowmyans (Jul 27, 2018)

Goo to know , thanks guys. @FuzzeWuzze make sense from the sports field perspective. Thank you.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I miss those post from Zac Reicher.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

I typically dormant seed in early Spring. So, dormant Spring seeding. Or sometimes late Winter. But too early and I'm afraid it decomposes.


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## FuzzeWuzze (Aug 25, 2017)

Green said:


> I typically dormant seed in early Spring. So, dormant Spring seeding. Or sometimes late Winter. But too early and I'm afraid it decomposes.


I mean Poa can survive in my yard for years, and crabgrass has no problems, so i assume turf seeds can as well as long as they dont germinate too early and die.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

FuzzeWuzze said:


> Green said:
> 
> 
> > I typically dormant seed in early Spring. So, dormant Spring seeding. Or sometimes late Winter. But too early and I'm afraid it decomposes.
> ...


No. There was a discussion here recently on that, I believe. Apparently they are treated with something that speeds up gerimination and also makes them last less time in the soil before decomposing. 6 months is supposed to be about the max turf seeds last in the soil...if that.

Something like that...don't remember the exact details.


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## NJ-lawn (Jun 25, 2018)

I've been successful dormant seeding before a snow storm in Feb.
Between the melting of the snow and freeze/ thaw it makes good seed to soil contact. 
I do it just to thicken up some areas. Usually when I need to use pre emergent in fall to battle poa annua following year.


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## vettetrm (Apr 7, 2018)

This is just my experience in the transition zone with TTTF and no irrigation. 
I have done both late fall seeding and dormant seeding. I am in the transition zone so I wouldn't try what I call late fall seeding too far north but it works well for me. What I mean by late fall seeding is seeding around the first frost or so. I also wouldn't do a Reno this way but for bare spots here and there or just a light overseeding I have good results. I throw out the seed before a rain and that is it. It's late enough in the year that it doesn't really dry out so no watering, only light frosts in the morning once in a while until grown in a little won't really hurt it as much as people think, and if you get a week or two of warmer weather it gets established pretty well. This is how I used to seed before all the water hoses blah, blah. I got better results doing this than just throwing out seed any other time. You will use more seed. Seems like about twice as much. I have never tried it actually watering it, you may be able to get away with less seed that way , I don't know. There is the issue of freezing hoses or irrigation though. 
Dormant seeding works better than spring seeding because it is ready as soon as ground temperatures get right but still not very good for me. It just takes so long for ground temperature to get high enough in the spring to germinate. Seems like by the time it germinates we are not very far from hot weather and it dies in summer. Weed pressure is very high also.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

vettetrm said:


> This is just my experience in the transition zone with TTTF and no irrigation.
> I have done both late fall seeding and dormant seeding. I am in the transition zone so I wouldn't try what I call late fall seeding too far north but it works well for me. What I mean by late fall seeding is seeding around the first frost or so.


Correct. In a late October like we're apparently having this year (5-10 degrees below normal at times), it would not work in the Northeast. Heck, some seed I put down a week ago is barely showing any germination now.

However, if it was like last year (warmer than it normally is) it would work. I did some seeding in I think early December last year, and it germinated. A bit of it even made it through to this year.

It's a crapshoot sometimes.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

One other thing I keep telling myself I'm going to (and I'm really going to do it next Spring) is start some sod trays for transplanting large plugs or small sections of sod during the Spring. This would be to fill bare areas, or replace glyphosated spots.

Regarding dormant seeding, as mentioned earlier, I'm a fan of putting it down the very last minute...when soil temps are say around 40-50, which might be late March or even April here.


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