Unfortunately, it sounds like the crabgrass preventer stopped your rye and bluegrass seeds from germinating like it stopped the crabgrass seeds from germinating. It's also possible the sudden turn to colder weather played a part. "1 Step" is an expensive product because, percentage-wise, you get much more mulch in the bottle than seed. Even at Walmart, "1 Step" works out to be roughly $20 per pound of seed, and the "EZ Seed" product is roughly $22 per pound of seed. The label on the bottle will show the percentage of seed contained in the bottle :-) If I recall correctly, you get far under a pound of seed in the 3 pound bottle of "1 Step." The same is true for the 3.75 pound bottle of "EZ Seed." Umm, you mentioned "Scotts 1 Step," but I think the "1 Step" product is from Pennington. "EZ Seed" is the name Scotts gives their product. Both products are loaded with mulch and, if I remember right, a little fertilizer (maybe it was 1 percent nitrogen). I guess their logic for charging extra is the "convenience" of the products--all in one. The two companies can be nasty about their advertising too. A week ago I saw on CNBC a tv commercial for Scotts "EZ Seed" that showed a homeowner using Pennington "1 Step" on his lawn. (The words "1 Step" were clearly visible on the bottle in this Scotts TV commercial). The homeowner's friend chastized him for using the product, saying the product was mostly [quote] "ground up paper." I'm not kidding. "Ground up paper" are the actual words used in the Scotts commercial to refer to the Pennington "1 Seed" product. It surprised me that the companies would be so mean to each other on national TV. Both these products must be high-margin products for their companies, hence the extreme competition. Good luck with your rye and bluegrass!

It's PennMulch after it's absorbed some water. It's starting to break down. I know spring is a rough time to try to establish a lawn, but do I have any hope here? Any recommendations to try to get rid of this stuff while keeping the grass alive?

I work with grass for sports turf and agriculture and pre germinating seed is of real value. Most seed is treated with something which soon breaks down in the soil. However, if you wet the bulk seed and leave it to stew it can be of such concentration as to damage the seed therefore the seed, once wetted, needs to be flushed clean. Soaking and flushing should be complete in one hour as the air breathing seed will suffocate if immersed any longer. Only pre germinate half the seed you intend to spread. Once the seed is wet I put it in a cement mixer and rotate it for two minutes every hour for the first day. On the second and subsequent days it is tipped onto a clean floor about half an inch deep and kept damp with a sprayer until day five. It is then scooped up and mixed with the rest of the dry seed to help it to flow well. This also spreads the preterm effect. Application rates should be as low as possible as high rates encourage damping off.

That's the radicle, the embryonic root, breaking out of the seed and entering the ground. It's nothing to worry about. Very shortly, it'll grab the soil and turn the seed a bit, burying itself as the cotyledon (embryonic leaves) emerge.