No questions . Few notes here as I've done this a few times and continue to experimemt incase anyone finds this useful. Again, this is purely my scenario.
TLDR: Knowing the size of your lawn and being able to track that you're putting stuff down evenly is awesome/makes it easier. Germination time appears most influenced by water followed by soil temps. If you're going to spend money on any machine to assist in seeding, a vertical cutter seems to be the one. Everything else appears to be way less important than youtubers make it, meaning I've been able to save a lot of time.
For reference: Native soil is a sandy mix, majority of this yard has only see about 0.1 inch of new native top soil (I did amend the native soil to 5.5 ph, macros and Micros still very low).
Ill try to keep this in order of steps:
Lawn flags have high ROI. Knowing total sq ft for materials needed is great. This also comes up post soil prep as you can also mark off 1k sq ft areas with markers on where to run your spreader.
Scalping has low ROI. Lower means more material off turf, more bags, and imo more watering due to no canopy. This round was mowing down to 2 inches and the new grass came in fine.
Aeration is low ROI for me, however, I don't have a riding lawn mower and my soil is generally not compacted. Infact the two spots that were compacted were not resolved with this machine and I simply dug it up and replaced with new soil the following year. I've seen no difference in germination result when I aerate vs skipping. Hard, mainly due to getting/returning equipment.
Vertical cutting has high ROI. It losens the dirt and material blocking the soil. For me with TTTF multiple pass are not needed and removing all materials to expose 100% bare dirt is unnecessary. I've seen no difference in germination rates between running it 1 pass vs x passes to remove 100% of material for me. Easy difficulty. I have seen lower and no germination when not doing this, especially is there is moss or layers of dead grass/clippings.
Seed sower is low ROI for me, but if you can get it easily and don't have a vertical cutter like the sunjoe, it'll do a better job of basically dethatching and getting your seed down. It's very fast. Hard, mainly due to getting/returning equipment.
Seeding rates appear to be suggestions. After year 1 I've always gone heavier. Note: i always use a lower rate and do multiple passes for everything. Walking the yard 3x for example isn't that much more work…
Seeding at 78F soil temp consistently has resulted in seeing germination as early as day 3.
Daily air temps don't seem to matter. Example: Hit 88F direct sun on uncovered seed in the middle of early germination and my watering zone was off for 36hrs due to user error…
Seed to soil contact is overstated and to me has a low ROI. I've worked seed in, aerated it, seed sowed it, vertical cut it, top dressed it, and throw it down on bare dirt post sunjoe uncovered without even wallikg on it… and it all grows.
Top dressing has low ROI.
Top soil can handle moderate to shorter heavier rains unlike Pete moss and prevent wash out (more work); germinatiin rates mirror pete moss,however, unless leveling or comabting washout, basically no ROI as seed still germinates with the amended native soil. Tons of work and difficult.
Pete moss appears to be very niche in use case and ROI. Germination was always fast with enough water in direct sunlight. Its easy to spread compared to soil. It did not out compete areas will full shade and no dressing and germination rates are the same. Areas using existing soil with no dressing in sun germinated closer to day 7 with basically 100% by day 14 for full sun. You might think you're saving water and money but here, it's expensive… time wise, takes time but not hard.
Pre emergent works. It isn't going to be 100% but you can see my result with scotts starter with meso. I've also sprayed with tenacity in the past. Imo the granual is way lower effort and you get feet down at same time.
Fertilizer: I've fertilizer every time using basic starter ferts from scotts the same day I put seed down.
Water appears to be king above all else. Get a timer and check moisture.
Inside germination. Suggest taking about 2 cups and per germinating inside after the above going into day 7. You should be able to throw down on any spots that may have been impact from things like wash out.
by shadowedradiance
2 Comments
Above ground sprinkler recommendations? Time and frequency when watering?
Looks great, will focus on high roi next year or maybe risk a spring seed
So when you say vertical cutting do you mean using the sacrifier function on the sunjoe ? What soil temp have you noticed optimal results ?