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Posted by on April 7, 2008, 4:16 pm
Ok, year #2 in the beautiful newly built house in the NE with the
crappy lawn. Builder half-assed it and the lawn is sparse with a lot
of crabgrass. I don't need a "home and garden" lawn but I'd like some
grass !
Questions:
1. My thought is to use a slit-seeder rented from home depot since
previous attempts by just chucking down seed and watering has failed.
Make sense? Other ideas?
2. Is now a good time to seed or should I wait 2 weeks or a month?
Thanks for your guidance!
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Posted by Colbyt on April 7, 2008, 4:47 pm
> Ok, year #2 in the beautiful newly built house in the NE with the
> crappy lawn. Builder half-assed it and the lawn is sparse with a lot
> of crabgrass. I don't need a "home and garden" lawn but I'd like some
> grass !
> Questions:
>
> 1. My thought is to use a slit-seeder rented from home depot since
> previous attempts by just chucking down seed and watering has failed.
> Make sense? Other ideas?
>
> 2. Is now a good time to seed or should I wait 2 weeks or a month?
>
> Thanks for your guidance!
Early Fall late Summer is the proper time to plant so that the grass grows
roots not top growth. If you seed now you can not use a crabicide.
If I were in your place I would treat for crabgrass, feed it well and hope
it fills in some, kill weeds all summer a seed heavy in the fall. You need
8-10 weeks of growing before the heavy frost to get established.
--
Colbyt
Please come visit www.househomerepair.com
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Posted by Norminn on April 7, 2008, 4:53 pm
timnels@gmail.com wrote:
>Ok, year #2 in the beautiful newly built house in the NE with the
>crappy lawn. Builder half-assed it and the lawn is sparse with a lot
>of crabgrass. I don't need a "home and garden" lawn but I'd like some
>grass !
>Questions:
>
>1. My thought is to use a slit-seeder rented from home depot since
>previous attempts by just chucking down seed and watering has failed.
>Make sense? Other ideas?
>
>2. Is now a good time to seed or should I wait 2 weeks or a month?
>
>Thanks for your guidance!
>
>
The best resource I have found for my Florida lawn/gardening questions
is through the U. of
Florida extension service. Your county or, at least, your state,
probably have the same. You
might save yourself a lot of grief, some money and considerable effort
by using extension
service.
Early April in the north is likely too early you don't want a freeze
after new seelings emerge. Fall seeding, or later in the spring, is
better. Depending
on what your builder left for you, you might want to look at either
scraping away the whole mess or
putting down sod. Did you get topsoil with sufficient depth? Any sod?
Got a plan for the whole
plot? How much area? Planting islands of something other than grass
might be more attractive and less work.
Crabgrass, unless you remove it by hand, should be treated with
pre-emergent herbicide. The
timing is crucial and the products are not enviro-friendly. It is
probably the toughest weed to get
rid of, but it can be done. With a lot of bare soil, you are inviting
weed seed to germinate, so
be prepared to treat other weeds later.....broadleaf herbicides
generally are effective used one
time, assuming there is grass to fill in. Spot treating later, along
with some hand weeding, after
all-over treatment, can often keep them down to manageable levels.
Proper mowing and
watering also help a good deal in keeping weeds down.
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Posted by beecrofter on April 7, 2008, 6:21 pm
First thing is a soil test.
You especially want to adjust the pH towards neutral as soils tend
towards acid in the northeast.
Look in your phone book government pages for a cooperative extension
service, most will test your soil for a nominal fee.
As for seeding, seed tends to rot in the spring as the soil temps are
low.
Adjust your pH and fertility issues first and in the interim set your
mower to cut as high as you can, the existing turfgrass can choke out
the weeds if you let it grow a bit higher.
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Posted by on April 7, 2008, 7:35 pm
> First thing is a soil test.
> You especially want to adjust the pH towards neutral as soils tend
> towards acid in the northeast.
> Look in your phone book government pages for a cooperative extension
> service, most will test your soil for a nominal fee.
>
> As for seeding, seed tends to rot in the spring as the soil temps are
> low.
> Adjust your pH and fertility issues first and in the interim set your
> mower to cut as high as you can, the existing turfgrass can choke out
> the weeds if you let it grow a bit higher.
You can seed in Spring and the seed isn't going to rot. If seed
rotted that easy, grass wouldn't survive on it's own. It takes soil
temps in the 50s to germinate, which roughly translates into daytime
temps in the 60's. But as another poster pointed out, Sept is the
optimum time to seed. Then you have cooler weather, it's usually
rainy, competition from weeds is greatly reduced, and you have 10
months for the grass to get established before it gets hit with the
high temps and stress of Summer, which is particularly important if
you have limited ability to water.
If you seed in Spring, you need to be able to apply a lot of water to
keep it wet to germinate and also during the hot summer months if
there is no rain. You also can't use a conventional pre-emergent
crabgrass control. There are others available, like Tupersan, but
they do cost more.
I'd probably do with the advice to apply pre-emergent and fertilizer
now, then follow up with weed conrol. Usually spot treatment with a
tank sprayer minimizes the use of herbicide and delivers it on
target.
Then, in Sept, you can use the slice seeder, Depending on how much
good grass there is, you may also want to just kill the whole thing
then with Roundup and re-seed with a quality grass of the appropriate
type. If the lawn is a wreck, that approach can be more effective,
than trying to salvage a lawn with some half-ass grass that may be of
pure texture, color, disease prone, etc.
Also, as suggested, check and adjust the PH as needed. And make sure
you have 6+" of decent topsoil.
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