Best grass seed: nursery or box store?

13 years ago

Can I get high-quality, dependable grass seed as Lowes or HD? Or do they sell stuff that's old and inert by the time they get it?

Lowe's carries Pennington which has a pretty good reputation.

For the record, I'm reseeding a big chunk of lawn that gets nearly full day sun(and burned to a crisp this summer). Am looking at using a fescue mix only.

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Comments (7)

bpgreen
13 years ago
What you get from the big box stores won't be out of date, but it won't be the best seed, either. If you buy something like Pennington or Scott from the big box or the nursery, you'll probably be getting the same seed (although the nursery may take better care at keeping it temperature controlled).

But to get the best seed, you'll need to get sod quality seed. For that, you may be able to get it at a nursery, or you may need to go online.

If you've got KBG in most of your lawn and you seed one patch with fescue, it may stick out like a sore thumb. You may get the same thing if you seed it with elite KBG, too.

Before overseeding, you may want to see if it snaps back once it cools down.

KBG can go dormant for extended periods without dying. In fact, in some ways, it handles drought better than tall fescue. Tall fescue will stay green longer than KBG, but if it goes dormant, it's a short hop from dormant to dead. KBG goes dormant faster, but is more likely to snap back even if it is dormant for a long time.

Another thing to consider is that if a small patch of KBG dies, it will fill in from the surrounding grass. If a small patch of tall fescue dies, it will stay bare dirt until some other seed sprouts (if you overseed it will be the grass you want, otherwise, it will be crabgrass, dandelions, plaintain, etc).
tiemco
13 years ago
I am not familiar with Lowes seed, but I check out HD's every year. Out of all the tall fescue mixes they carry, I feel the Pennington's is the best. It is weed free, and the three culitvars they use are good, proven ones, although they are not newer ones (usually Justice, Penn 1901, Greystone, Rebel Exeda). You can get much newer tall fescue cultivars, at lower prices online. These newer tall fescues are darker, finer bladed, and some have better spreading ability. Also if your grass was burnt to a crisp, then you need to water more often, especially when you establish it this fall. Hope this helps.
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It is too late to overseed this fall. Next year you can seed in mid to late August. It is difficult to overseed KBG into an existing lawn as KBG takes 2-3 weeks or more to germinate and the existing grass tends to shade and outcompete the seedlings. If you want KBG, you might consider as renovation (kill everything first) instead of an overseeding. If you want good seed, you should do some research and order it from a vendor instead of just using whatever big box stores are selling. Coated seed is a lot more expensive (you're overpaying for the coating and get much less seed). If you want a coating, you can use Soil Moist Seed Coat inexpensively. There are many cultivars of KBG and you might check into which do best in your area with your local conditions. The other kinds of cool season grasses are turf type tall fescue, fine fescue, and perennial rye.
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valtorrez
13 years ago
How can you tell if it is a newer cultivator? What is the site that tells you the best cutivators for your area so that when you go to store you could compare?
andy10917
13 years ago
The big-box stores use suppliers that mix older cultivars that existed before the plant-patent laws, because they can keep their costs low by not paying royalties. Cheaper, but you sacrifice the breeding programs that have improved grasses over the past 35 years. Scott's tried the MLB-series grasses this year in the big-box stores (which contain newer cultivars), but it was a failure. Most big-box shoppers just don't realize that all grass seed is not the same. If the big-box stores can't get high-volume sales, they are not going to repeat the experiment. It's looking more and more like the choices will become big-box cheap seed, and online or specialty garden centers for the good stuff. And we'll see lots of people that buy the cheap seed and wonder why they don't get the results of the neighbor that spends to get the more-expensive, named cultivar stuff.
stevecapecod
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks to feedback on this site I've decided to go online for my next batch of grass seed. What is considered the best site for high-quality seed? Kinda tough weeding through Google matches(no pun intended). Thanks in advance.
linda8818
13 years ago
I'm in NJ and I would also like to know of a good online seed source if anyone has some recent experience.
john_in_sc
13 years ago
Box store stuff tends to be lower quality seed... Frequently full of weed seed... but also frequently poor performers or older/unimproved grasses as well....

Always look on the 'Tag' on the bag to see what's in it....

One thing to do is to check out the National Turfgrass Trials program - NTEP.org.

They have 5 year trials at major universities all over the USA... and are constantly reviewing the newest and greatest seed releases coming out of the turfgrass companies.....

Since they cooperate with State Universities -- you can check results from nearby Universities to get an idea of what performs well in your area.....

Thanks

John

Here is a link that might be useful: NTEP turfgrass tests

Best grass seed: nursery or box store?

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bpgreen

tiemco

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Best grass seed: nursery or box store?

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