[Stegs]

Doing a lawn renovation in my front yard

I used a sod cutter, removed all the sod, brought it 10 yards of compost/topsoil blend and spread that out last night.

I raked everything by hand 2 times to get it ready for seed.

This week thursday im renting a toro hydro walk behind slit seeder.

my question is how deep to i set the tines to drop the seed in? I read if you go any deeper than 1/8 inch it wont germinate

When i did commercial lawn care for a living years ago,. we would rake it in 1/4 inch or deeper, or dropped it in 3" core aeration holes with good luck.

Seed i will be slit seeding is TTTF, Perennial Rye, KBG

I know id feel more comfortable going a touch deeper....atleast 1/4 inch down, if not a touch more

suggestions?

 

[g-man]

What are your soil temps right now?above 50f? I woukd not go too deep to get some sun.

 

[sicride]

You seem to be overly prepared and as you already know, it will germinate at 1/4 and further. Why not run 2 directions with the slit seeder, one direction go a 1/4 inch, the other do an 1/8th inch and see what happens. It won't make much of a difference if you are watering several times a day. The shallower the quicker it will germinate probably but it won't be a huge difference. If you're worried about it washing away then you need to be more worried about how loose the soil is anyways. Roll it afterward to compact it enough to not wash away.

 

[Stegs]

soil temps right now are around 55 degrees. Im a little worried about washing away with loose soil (but i will run a roller over afterwords)

Im ok with a little wait on germination as long as i dont loose hundred of dollars in seed

Ill play around with it.....great idea on seeding at different depths. I plan on putting alot of seed in at all different angles

 

[SNOWBOB11]

Personally I think the biggest risk of loosing you're money on seed is that your doing a reno in the early spring. I see you have 35,000 sq ft of lawn. That's a big area. If it we're me I would have waited until the late summer to do this.

If you do go ahead with it, I would go less than a 1/4" for sure. I think going too deep with the seeds can lead to germination issues.

 

[Ridgerunner]

On depth, my experience is that it is a compromise. I modify depth based on observation and try to find a tine height that cuts 1/8" into the low spots, but no deeper than 1/2" into the high spots. (the height/depth I settle on depends on how many low or high spots there are). I have always, always had great results with KBG (corn row germination), but the one time I did fescue I had no corn row effect (maybe the tine damaged the larger fesuce seed? Others say they haven't had a problem with fescue).

 

[Stegs]

im only doing my front yard, not the entire thing

total square footage is around 2k

 

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Just put it straight on the ground and top dress lightly with peat moss - just enough to cover it. Press it in as firmly as you can by rolling. I've had success with no top dressing at all, but good contact.

My bigger concern in your situation is how to stop the summer heat from killing month old seedlings with shallow roots. Best way to do that is wait until the later summer / fall

 

[ABC123]

If I absolutely needed to seed in the spring I'd include rye, if you only do bluegrass it will be thin.