I am not in NC but I don't know how much your climate can differ from N.E. Georgia so here goes. I didn't think it was possible to seed after mid oct or nov but as it turns out you can. There is a lawn buff down the street rebahibbing with tall fescue . A whole bunch of real cold weather came (lows in the 20's) last year following a warm start. Then along came december and it sort of normalized and that's when he chose to seed. and the grass came in really nice. So I wouldn't rule out at least a fair amount of germination even into Decemeber. But what you might do is possibly investigate hydroseeding if you haven't got the means of watering.

I guess it depends on what your expectations are. If you are thinking - seed, water, grass in 1 week..... then you should be seeding before the temps drop - generally mid october. If you are content to let nature work its magic, I've seen people seed into December in Raleigh. Germination is considerably slower and much less consistent, but it seems to all come up eventually.

From NC State Turf Files Web site:

Western region: August 15 to Sept. 15 is optimal
Piedmont region: Sept. 1st (labor day) till October 1st.
Costal plains: Setp. 15 till Oct. 15.

However, I agree with quirky about his neighbor. I too have a crazy neighbor that seeded his front lawn last year a week before Thanksgiving and it came in nicely. It took a while, but it came in. We also had a very mild winter, so I'm sure that played a big role.

I'm near Raleigh, and I usually do my seeding on Labor Day weekend, but this year I decided to wait 2 more weeks due to the reacent parade of heat waves...

I'm in Raleigh and I do the deed the last of September / first of October. Why, three reasons: State Fair, Hurricane Season, lack of in-ground irrigation. During the NC State Fair is when the first cold snap usually hits. For those local, you know there is one night that is clear and cold. And the State fair starts Oct 12th. I know that's a funny way to gauge the schedule but it works for me. Also, I don't have in-ground irrigation so I have to delay to get away from the last heat blast of September and let the cooler weather preserve what water I do put down. Plus, there is usually one good tropical storm that rolls through in September and I don't want any washouts. This year looks like the tropical storm part of it isn't going to pan out though.

Yep, I'm in the Raleigh area and in a little dilemma myself. I'm ready to aerate and seed, but given the water restrictions and the lack of rain once again, this might be a tricky proposition this fall...but I'm probably gonna go ahead and seed anyway and see what happens.

I think I'll also wait for a couple of more weeks and see if I can squeeze out some more rain and soften up the soil so I can get a decent aeration.

I seeded on Sunday. Since sunday it has been above 90 degrees every day and today is supposed to be over 90 too. I am able to water every couple of hours and I have a straw blanket over most of it. I really wasn't expecting this heat this late in the season and of course we aren't getting any rain so I should know by next sunday if it was a failure because bent germinates quickly. The rest of what I have seeded so far have been slow ones, kbg and fine fescue.
I planted the winter annuals this morning which was strange because I normally do that on a crisp, pleasant day but it was hot and terribly humid and it just felt all wrong.

If you want to check in with me maybe it will give you some encouragement. Or not.

I seeded a few weeks back and I am sorry I did. The time management to water is more than what I planned for. I've needed to keep it damp far more often because of the heat and the blazing sun. It has germinated but only time will tell how good it did -- BUT when you do it you want to succeed so what got thrown my way I had to deal with. I am tired of this heat at or above 90 everyday and so is my grass! I'm planning on overseeding the rest when I can see a good long break in this miserable weather pattern. I'd definately wait out some more time till the weather cools off more consistently than it has.

That's a good point. It's hard to stick to a 'rule of thumb' kind of calendar when the weather has been anything BUT rule-of-thumb.

Only thing is I know what's going to happen. It'll just skip right over the nice weather and go right to deep freeze and then all there is poa annua so I'm taking the chance.

Thanks for the good info. Mecklenburg county just south of me is on stage 3 and a "lawn expert" on the local news advised people to go ahead and seed and just let nature work its magic. I will likely go this route soon...

This is too funny...

"Only thing is I know what's going to happen. It'll just skip right over the nice weather and go right to deep freeze and then all there is poa annua so I'm taking the chance.
"

Sounds like our weather... LOL...

I seeded my yard on Sept. 16, and I mowed today for the first time! Of course, I seeded TTPRG:-) The seedlings have already seen a share of 90 degree temperatures which wasn't supposed to happen until next summer!!!

My bluegrass seed germinated on day 7, but they look so tiny. I probably won't be mowing those for at least 2 months or so, oh well - that's bluegrass for you.

I'm in Wake County, just outside of Raleigh. We have a private water company and our water restrictions are such that we can only water twice a week, between midnight and 3AM. I don't have an irrigation system, so I'm kind of stuck unless I want to get up at midnight and start moving sprinklers around. I like sleep more than grass, so I guess I'll wait until after the restrictions are lifted. I've seeded as late as mid-november with good results.

I think I'm just gonna work on my bermuda problems since it seems to still be active. I'll at least aerate and throw some some compost down to condition once we get some rain. Rumors are we won't see restrictions lifted until November at the earliest so not sure if I'll get to seed this year.

tgrebe - you can buy you one of those Melnor Electronic Water Timer for $40 at Home Depot. It works pretty well as long as you set it correctly, and you don't have to get up to turn it on and off. Works for me.

I'm thinking October will be the time to seed here in NC this year. Soil and air temps will be cooler than Sept. so the water we can lay down twice a week will last longer and the seed should be up before the leaves come down in Nov.

I've found that weather and water restrictions permitting mid-Sep is the ideal time but October is really good as well.

Once you get into November you're at the mercy of the weather but as long as it isn't unusually cold you should be okay. Late Nov. and into Dec. will likely cause your seed to germinate too late to get good roots down before the heat hits in May.