Seed contact in overseed

Interesting, that suggests to aerate or dethatch AFTER dropping the seed. Not sure I've heard that before.

yup. It kinda makes sense for aerating. The plugs will cover the seed with soil. It would be interesting to read the actual research.

I think if you are using a power rake, you'd probably want to dethatch before seeding so you can rake up the thatch...and then seed and then power rake again. That way you aren't raking up seed that gets stuck in the thatch. Otherwise, it makes a lot of sense. Still a lot of work, though, and not necessary (based on the success of others overseeding/renovations).

I was hoping for some numbers (e.g. 20% better establishment with good seed to soil contact). Then you could assess whether it would be more cost/time effective to just increase your seeding rate.

I gotta say, it looks so weird when the grass looks like tiny little trees growing in perfect rows. I'm referring to the two pictures in g-man's linked article showing seed pressed in with an aerator and the other one with a slit seeder.

Shouldn't there be a control here where the seed was just thrown down and no machine was used afterwards? The stated results of "all 3 methods were equally as effective" would also be the case if all 3 methods had no effect.

ryeguy said:

Shouldn't there be a control here where the seed was just thrown down and no machine was used afterwards? The stated results of "all 3 methods were equally as effective" would also be the case if all 3 methods had no effect.

Click to expand...

I wasn't able to read the actual study design, but purely in terms of methodological reasoning, I think that is a great point.

I tried to search for the actual study but I had to go to a meeting and stopped.

Zac Reicher name is tied to this short article. He is a very knowledge professor and I'm sure there is a control group. I would like to read the actual research too since I have some questions too.