Spring lawn seeding/fertilizer.?

Question

Current condition of the lawn is spotty rye grass covering about 80 percent of the surface with other patches of no coverage at all that was cut to about an inch last fall by my idiot landlord. I'm planning on dethatching and raking with a steel rake to increase aeration and germination of the 50/50 rye/blue I'm going to put down. My question is primarily what is the dangers or benefits of fertilizing right now. Should I fertilize water in then lay seed? Will fertilizer damage fresh seed? Can I seed too much? I'm familiar with proper levels of fertilization but should I half the ammount since the grass is so short and cant process it all? Thanks ahead of time to all the turf lovers out there. It pains me to look at it I need to do something. P.S. 10 day forecast looks like rain half the days with partial sun and temps from 50-78

Answer 1

Whenever you seed, you should always use a fertilizer that is low in Nitrogen with higher amounts of Phosphorous and Potassium. Higher rates of Nitrogen may burn the young seedlings.

I happened to use a Ryegrass/Kentucky Blue seed mixture for both of my lawns and spread a 6-20-20 fertilizer on the area just prior to broadcasting the grass seed. (Organic based fertilizers will work as well). Most fertilizers will include amounts to use per 1,000 square feet during new seeding.

If you haven't done so, try spreading some compost (at least 1 inch in depth) into the topsoil and rake it into the soil and level it as best as possible. You can then broadcast your grass seed followed by using a roller filled with water (you can rent these) so that the grass seeds will make contact with the soil and not wash away or be wind-blown.

Make sure you irrigate and keep the soil/seeds moist throughout the day for a couple of weeks....this may require at least 3 waterings a day. Try not to irrigate after 4 or 5PM otherwise you can promote the introduction of water-molds such as "PYTHIUM" and they will attack your new seedlings as well as your established turf.

The fact that you'll be having some overcast weather is good since it's conducive to seedling germination.

Hope this answers your question. Good luck!