I have a buffalo grass lawn, which is a warm season grass. For the most part I love it. It greens up in mid May, and goes dormant in October typically. Other than natural precipitation I usually only irrigate it once every two weeks, with one fertilization in July. Weed incursion is its biggest issue, and I use a pre emergent when soil temps hit the mid 50s. . I'm in zone 5b. To clarify, this is American buffalo grass, not Australian, which is actually st, Augustine.
All that being said,The rabbits had a banner year this year and created a ton of thin spots, and I need to thicken it up. I would like to overseed it with a more modern turf like variant of buffalo grass, something like sundancer or uc Verde.
Anybody have advice or experience on timing for overseeding and methods? I was thinking slit seeder this fall, since I have already put pre emergent down. Recommended varieties? There's a wealth of info on regular turf grasses, but not much on native turf. Any thing helps thanks.
https://imgur.com/a/VeAab2x here it is in June last year.
by stung80
4 Comments
Apply spring pre-emergents when the 5 day average soil temps are in the 50-55F range. Or use [this tracker](https://gddtracker.msu.edu/).
If you have a question about pre-emergents, read the entire label. If you still have a question, read the entire label again.
Pre-emergents are used to prevent the germination of specific weed seeds. They don’t kill existing weeds.
Most broadleaf weeds you see in the spring can’t be prevented with normal pre emergents. You’d need to apply a specialty broadleaf pre emergent in the FALL.
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Check out the [Cool Season Starter Guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/lawncare/s/FetSGi0hFi).
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Late summer/early fall is the best time to seed cool season lawns.
Regardless, if you are you looking for information about how to overseed a cool season lawn. You can find a comprehensive guide [in this post here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/lawncare/s/pUsKCxyvwQ)
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Try both ends of the growing season. My first reaction is to try to mimic the natural seed cycle and focus on the fall, but there’s a greater than zero chance that there’s some natural germination in the spring as well. I’d scratch up the bare spots to get good seed to soil contact and cover slightly. You’re on the very tail end of getting rain so you’re going to need some supplementary irrigation. It sounds like you have a good handle on the situation. Good luck and have fun with the experiment!