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enigma7_gw

Fall seeded....new grass in spring?

18 years ago

Hello everyone. As a test for my current fall plans I core aerated, dethatched, scalped, and reseeded a section of my zoysia lawn with fescue. Everything went extremely well and that portion of the lawn is still green to this day (with some patches of zoysia). I plan to do exactly the same with the main lawn this coming fall but had a quick question about the patch I reseeded.

I did this early enough in the fall (and we had a warm pre-winter) that I'm assuming any grass seed that was to germinate did correct? I'm hearing all about winter seeding and understand how it works but I'm wondering if there is the possibility that existing seed didn't germinate in the fall and will come up in the spring?

The reason why is I plan (I promise only this once! as I've switched to an organic program) to put down a synthetic Pre-M on the lawn and had assumed this wouldn't cause any issues since there should be no seed left.

Am I safe in assuming this or should I skip the Pre-M in that spot? It was technically an "overseed" so there aren't any bare spots, just wondering if there will be a sudden sprout of dormant fescue.

Thanks in advance.

Also if anyone could recommend a good Pre-M for the lawn that would be great (knowing I have a mix of fescue and zosyia).

Comments (4)

  • 18 years ago

    If you seeded in the early fall, it's unlikely that you'd see any more seeds from that seeding germinate in the spring. If I remember correctly, fescue germinates pretty quickly, so it's especially true with fescue.

    Dormant seeding involves spreading seed down in winter after it is too cold for the seeds to germinate.

  • 18 years ago

    Enigma7,

    You sound apologetic for wanting to put down a Synthetic Pre-M. There's no need to be. Not everyone on this forum is organic. My local Agway sells Halts (Scott's). I don't like a lot of Scott's products but I can get this without the fertilizer component. It works well for me. Below is a link to the product. I'm sure you can order it from your local garden center.

    http://www.scotts.com/index.cfm/event/ProductGuide.product/documentId/33e2d83866482d0db566879669585160

    Also, my local HD sells a Lesco fertilizer with Dimesion Pre-M in it. That should work if you are planning to fertilize at the same time.

  • 18 years ago

    I am a bit apologetic because I did want to make the complete conversion from synthetic to organic. I posted this in the general forum as opposed to the organic forum since I was looking for synthetic pre-M products and knew I'd probably get some heat in the organic forum.

    Unfortunately there is a lot of debate on the effectiveness of CGM as a pre-M. I've heard it works great, takes several years to effectively work, acts as a fertilizer for the weeds, and everything in between. I have the added problem of needing a pre-M that doesn't fertilize because having zoysia this far north means there is quite a bit of time between weed germination and when the zoysia actually starts to grow. This lag time I believe is what has caused all of my problems over the years (where I would put down a chemical fertilizer too early and the weeds would get a nice boost).

    I think the CGM I put down last spring and this past fall compounded the issue because while it may have had some pre-M properties, it also gave a nice dose of fertilizer to the soil; fertilizer that the actual lawn was not able to use until much later. By that time the weeds had gained a foothold and thanked me for the feeding.

    Thanks everyone for the comments. I had thought my hunch was true (about not having any seed left), but didn't want to kill off the seeds if it was common knowledge that X% of seed will germinate in the spring after the hard frost even if they didn't come up in the fall seeding.

    I think I'll go along with a pre-M application without fertilizer, then wait until shortly before the zoysia comes out of dormancy to go back to my organic approach.

  • 18 years ago

    Good luck with the reseeded area. Zoysia is a pretty tough grass, so you might end up with way more than you expected come summer.

    As for the fescue, the vast majority of it should have germinated in fall if you were watering it. If you were under watering restrictions, like many of us farther south, and were just letting nature take its course, you may have a significant number of seeds laying dormant waiting for some spring rain. If it looks anything like a lawn though, you probably got most of the seeds up and going in fall.