Is it too risky to do my renovation with no straw or peat moss?

Reasons:

• I have full irrigation -- I can keep soil most all day easily
• More money spent
• More time wasted
• Straw might have weeds
• Peat moss might make a mess of my new concrete

Have some of you done renovations and rolled in the seed with no cover?

Well you said “more time wasted?” so why ask ? You have already decided that it is a waste of time.
Play on.

 

I'm asking to find out if others have had successful renovations without using any soil cover.

 

I did. You can check out the reno in my signature.

 

I am also considering / researching this due to the cost of the peat moss.

 

Is it too risky to do my renovation with no straw or peat moss?

Reasons:

• I have full irrigation -- I can keep soil most all day easily
• More money spent
• More time wasted
• Straw might have weeds
• Peat moss might make a mess of my new concrete

Have some of you done renovations and rolled in the seed with no cover?

Why do you think you need peatmoss or straw cover?
If you want the seeds slightly covered why not some compost or loam . Drop your seed and tyen

 

You must have missed the part when he said more time spend and more money were reasons. Are you suggesting to that compost and loam are free and take no extra time to lay? How about making a mess on the driveway? Will it not do that?

 

Correct! I'm trying to determine if I can have a reasonably successful renovation without investing more time and money into cover. Keeping the soil moist is easy because I have full irrigation.

 

Could I use this instead of peat moss?

https://www.siteone.com/en/lfhcts-lesco-hydrocover-triplestart-mulch-pellets-40-lb/p/336327

Looks a lot cleaner. Can be spread by hand. And one bag covers almost 1,000 square feet -- so I would only need about 8-bags for entire lawn.

 

This product looks interesting but can't find any info on how to use? Is it for large bare areas only when hydro seeding? Does it add a bio base for seed germination or just to prevent wash-outs? I'm planning to overseed in the fall and and address some bare areas on a slope, wondering if it would help

 

I thought you weren’t wanting to spend more money?

 

What seed you dropping? PRG not necessary quick aggressive germination. KBG it's a long test your patience germination. I think if you can seed and rake in good so it's covered in topsoil about a 1/4 inch maybe a little less highly doable if you can run the irrigation on a timely matter to keep it moist.

 

100% KBG

The mess and time required is the most troubling.
Cost is of less importance.

 

Save yourself the headache and wasted money from a heavy downpour washout. 99% weed free EZ straw from lowes is the ticket. Affordable large bag with a water activated tackifier added to hold everything together in hard rain and wind. I've never had any weeds from it and it has saved my a$$ more than once. Learn from the rest of us and cover the seed. I've made that mistake before and I'm sure others here as well.

 

I noticed that EZ Straw is $18 - and you need two for 1,000 sq. ft. (So $36 per $1,000 sq. ft).

This means that this product is lower cost than EZ Straw (With my discount $28 per 1,000 sq ft) :

https://www.siteone.com/en/lfhcts-lesco-hydrocover-triplestart-mulch-pellets-40-lb/p/336327

It seems just as easy to apply, less messy, and probably 100% weed free?

Do you guys think this Hydrocover Triplestart would work?

 

Downpours from storms will be your biggest threat as you have the ability to keep everything moist with an irrigation system. A heavy downpour will create a lot of headaches and scrambling.

 

Since my biggest risk will be downpours and storms, what material is the absolute best for washouts, but no weeds?

 

I remember a youtube video of Ryan Knorr I think using something similar and it smothered the seed in a bunch of spots. I've used the straw blankets as well with just as much success. Just pull them up before the grass gets too long.

 

Ez straw or straw blankets. I don't mean to keep pushing the Ez straw but it really works. I had downpours on a steep slope with it and nothing budged at all.

 

The tackifier locks it all together and to the ground

 

How big of an area are you doing? Are you bringing in any soil or just killing off old grass?

I killed off old grass but there was still plenty of it to keep the new seed in place. Didn't use anything to cover. We ended up with 5" of rain in a 2 hour period,too.

Check my reno journal in signature.

 

Two years ago my KBG got washed out from torrential rain 10 days after seeding. It was very disheartening to put in all the reno work to then get washed away because I was lazy about covering. It can be done without covering, but it's all just a gamble in the end.

 

I did my renovation last fall by only rolling down the seed at first, but then with heavy down pours in the forecast I ended up spreading some Pennington slopemaster without seed. I think it helped a little. You can look up some tackifiers. I found the slopemaster was one of the cheaper options.

 

I did 44k of PV KBG with no cover. Whatever cover I would have used would have been washed away in two early rainstorms. I slit seeded the whole lawn and she turned out perfect. My journal shows the process and the rain scares with the overall success.
ND 4A Provista Bare Dirt

 

Has anyone had considerable wash out after slit seeding? I can see the broadcasting and light raking floating and washing out. I have some steep grade in my ditches and the only bad spots were the main water outlets that I had to fill soil in again.

 

I have never used a cover for a full renovation of an existing lawn, only for small totally bare patches. I did rent a verticutter both times though. The first renovation was tall fescue and the second was KBG. Both were a complete success (but I do have automatic irrigation systems).