Top Things You Need to Know About Grass Seed Prior to Renovations

13 Top Things you need to Know About Grass Seed, is a blog is based on our live Q+A on TurfChat with Sam Horner of Limagrain seed uk. Sam answered an hour of questions from our community and below is a summary of the questions answered.

1-Seed sowing depth (rye) is 10 – 15 mm.

2-Only need a pre seed fertiliser if the area seeded is bare, and without existing grass. (This is a rule of thumb). If fertiliser is applied to an existing sward, the established plant will out compete the seedling as it will be quicker to take advantage of the nutrition)

3-The key to seed success is temperature and moisture. (These are the two factors that determine germination)

4-Any seed rate over 100 gram a square metre can out compete itself, without thinning.

5-Prior to buying seed ensure the year is last year’s harvest, so 2019.

6-A bag of seed can lose up to 20% in germination per year, so use it while it’s a fresh batch.  Seed should only be sold if it has passed minimum germination requirements

7-Perennial ryegrass is the best seed to out compete Poa (annual meadow grass)

8-Don’t mix bags/cultivars of seed too much or you can damage/weaken the sward ability to fight disease, speak to your seed salesman if you’re looking to do this regularly.  More cultivars could mean you are introducing cultivars with weaker disease resistance – more isn’t necessarily better

9-During end of season renovations less likely to need germination sheets, as moisture and temperatures more idea.

10-Not sure if your bag of seed is still viable and will germinate? try using some seed and soil in a small plant pot to test.

11-Coated seed creates a better environment to out compete weed seeds and establishes quicker.

12-Seed germination temperature range is 6 degrees or above. Consistent soil temperature

13-First two weeks after seeding are key to gaining good results.

Bonus- Purity is key when selecting a grass seed supplier, ensuring it’s a minimum of 96% in purity, ideally 98% which good seed company adhere to.

Thanks to Sam for answering the above questions and if you have any more just leave below in the comments box, and l will pass them onto Sam for answering.

If you found things to know about grass seed blog informative, then check out another blog l did with Sam on grass seed- https://turfcareblog.com/your-grass-seed-questions-answered/

Questions included are, do you get poa (annual meadow grass) in bags of grass seed? and how much does price factors into a bag of grass seed?

Brian