Grass seed germination

We had a patio poured last fall and they didn’t get done in time for me to plant grass. What a mess over the winter with 2 dogs!  About 3 weeks ago I tilled a good portion on my back lawn where the trucks had been, sowed seed, put on starter fertilzer, covered with straw, watered, and waited. And waited. And then waited some more. Very sparse germination and what did sprout was thin and spindly.  This is not typical for my usually very green thumb.  What made it more disturbing was that my neighbor 2 doors down had this lush new law in about 3 days!  What thuh?!

For some reason it never occurred to me that seed has a ‘best before’ date on it just like my beer.  And that date is only about 6-12 months… TOPS.  After that storage time, grass seed loses about 10-25% of its germination potential every year.  Given that my seed was closely approaching driving age- OHHHHHH, that explains it.

So I chalked up that first go-round as practice and yesterday raked off the straw, loosened the soil with a garden rake, re-sowed new seed, etc. Now the waiting happens again and if thing go right, my dogs will have new grass to tear up in about a month.

May 18th, 2009 Filed Under Steve's Thoughts | No Comments »