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Newly seeded lawn coming up weak & thin

15 years ago

Hi all...

I live on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Five weeks ago I seeded 12,000 sq.ft of lawn at my home. I have an irrigation system and used the following products: Jonathan Green Black Beauty fescue seed, JG New seedling fertilizer w/ crab grass preventitive, and lime. The soil was mostly sandy loam. I used a Bobcat machine to spread and level the area. Because of this the soil was extremely compact. The day of seeding I rototilled the entire yard and re-raked. Using a broadcast spreader, I applied about 80lbs of seed followed by the fert and lime (I've since thrown down about another 20lbs by hand in bare or thin areas). We had a good deal of heavy rain the first week the new seed was down. After 8 days I had my first germination. It increased slowly from that day. I am now at 5 weeks and I have new seedlings in all areas, but it is extreemly thin. For the most part there isn't any blades of grass longer than 2". The new seedlings also seem to be pretty weak as I can easily pull them out of the ground. I was watering each zone up to 6 times a day for about 8 minutes per zone. I have cut that back in the past week to see if that helped. I am at a loss for what to do now. The grass that has come up it is mostly pale green. I am still not walking on it as I am afraid I will kill whatever I step on. Please help!!! Re-seed? Same type of seed? Try a split seeder this time? Apply more fertilizer? Change watering schedule? Thanks to anyone for reading my rambling ....

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Comments (3)

fourstringdrums
15 years ago
Patience is what is needed here. It's only been 5 weeks and with that we've had (though it's probably cooler on the cape), new grass is going to grow a bit slower. Just keep watering it properly and mow it when it gets to be about 3.5-4 inches and keep it mowed high (as high as you can). By the fall it will thicken up and you'll be amazed at the difference.
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capewillard
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for replying. I am hoping my only problem is lack of patience. I am just nervous as I have seen other newly seeded lawns being mowed after 4 weeks. Mine seems far from being ready to mow.
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The right time for pre-m is when the first blooms appear in anyone's garden in your neighborhood. Forsythia blooms are usually used as the trigger. If you are on an organic program, then you can apply your choice of organic fertilizers at 10-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet any time within three weeks of YOUR "last frost" date. For me that was back in mid Feb. For your thin areas, it makes a difference what your turf is. If you have KBG or bentgrass in it, then simply put some compost on top of the soil in the bare spots to try and prevent weeds from popping up. Those grasses are carpet forming types of grasses and will fill in the weak spots. If you don't have KBG or bent, then you probably have fescue. Fescue is a bunch grass which only spreads at glacially slow speeds. You would need to seed in those spots to fill with fescue. Unfortunately you will also get crabgrass sprouting at the same time. Oh and you cannot seed with anything and use a pre-m; the pre-m will suppress your seed along with the crabgrass. If you reseed the areas, just expose the soil, moisten it to an inch deep, scatter the seed, step on it to ensure good seed-to-soil contact, and dampen it. Don't cover it with anything. Water it like you did last summer for your new seed and you should be good to go. Really your best bet for controlling crabgrass is to water deeply and infrequently and to mow at your mower's highest setting. Next fall don't cut it short. The only reason to cut it short is IF you are reseeding. If you are not, there is never a reason to cut it short.
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First of all, that is a decent amount to have tilled. I wouldn't worry about it. 1.) You have uneven germination which can be attributed to many factors including uneven irrigation, not spreading enough seed, not having good soil contact there and more shade. 2.) I don't know, never had this problem 3.) Same. 4.) Fine fescue usually takes a real long time to establish. It's still October! Give it time. Give it Months. In spring it will be growing much more vigorously. You could expect first mowing in about 2 weeks. 5.) I like Bills answer for this. For what it's worth, we are under a complete watering ban here and since germination the grass hasn't been watered much at all and so far so good. It isn't getting daily water. 6.) I've found large sycamore leaves laying in places in my lawn and when I pick up the leaves the grass is taller greener and healthier looking. But I wouldn't want it to stay there too long. Leaf blowers are good. You should be able to walk on it by now.
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I don't know what would make the soil crust over like that. Since you now have grass growing, I would imagine that future seeding will be overseeding, so you won't be spreading more topsoil anyway, will you? The grass is growing at angles now because it has been forced that way by the soil. Now that it is free from the soil, it will start to straighten up due to positive phototropism and negative geotropism. Those are fancy words for saying that the grass will grow toward the light and away from the soil.
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I'm no lawn expert, but I'd say that you could go ahead and do it. Perhaps only sprinkle it at half the rate you did before to minimize the chance of overcrowding?
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soccer_dad
15 years ago
Why did you put the lime down? Per soil test and what was your Ph? The way I read your starter fertilizer is that it was intended for new seeding so I'll rule out the herbicide. But, if I read the label correct on the website it was only 10-15-10. What was the fertilizer rate? Can you inject fertilizer through your irrigation system? I suspect there may be some N starvation with the light green color. Can you still see seeds in the lawn?

Spring seedings can be difficult. I think you are at the plateau where you aren't seeing a lot of top growth, but there is lots happening below the surface. I'm a little concerned that at a seeding rate of 6.5#'s/1000 you are saying it is thin. If you can still see seeds, then continue to keep the soil moist - not soaking, but moist for another week or 10 days. If you get another 1" of growth in that time I'd recommend a 1/2# of nitrogen and then start to reduce your watering to only a couple times a week for longer periods. After your first couple of mowings I'd add another 1/2# of nitrogen. Cut high and water as needed. I would not reseed again now - save it for the fall.
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