Reseeding a Patch of Lawn

Fall is a good time to reseed bald spots in your lawn planted with tall fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, or perennial ryegrass. However, new grass requires extra care until it becomes established.

Produced by the Department of Communications at Kansas State University. For more information, visit our website at: http://www.kansasgreenyards.org

Transcript:
Reseeding a Patch of Lawn

Fall is the time to reseed and add some seed to our cool season yards. Yards such as tall fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass are the type of yards we want to reseed in the fall.

We need to have seed-to-soil contact, so we want to take our garden rake and rake it up. Just get the top half inch or so, nice and loose, and then we can sprinkle our seed on top of that. And then rake it back in.

Usually, it works pretty good if the soil is dry. However, if the soil is too dry and too hard and we can’t work it up with this garden rake, we’re going to want to add just a little bit of moisture. Then, let it dry out just so that we can work up the soil. If the soil is too hard, like concrete, we’re not going to have any fun.

And, we don’t want to put a whole bunch of seed on the ground. We want to put just enough. So think of it as spreading cheese on a pizza. Sprinkle it enough to evenly cover the whole area, but not too much, and not too little.

You don’t need to rake it in very deep. You just need to get it into the top quarter to half inch of the soil. Evenly spread it all out, and that’s it.

So, after we’ve got the seed in, we can put some starter fertilizer on. That starter fertilizer should have a fair amount of phosperous, so it’s high in the middle number, and then we can go ahead and turn the water on.

We really want to keep this patch moist. And sometimes that’s going to mean a real light, frequent irrigation. You might need to water it a couple of times a day. We don’t want it sloppy, squishy, muddy, or very saturated. We just want it to keep it moist. So, light, frequent irrigation is going to help keep this patch moist.

The second most important thing is that once this grass grows, and starts to get mature, and once it gets to its recommended height, we want to get out there and get that grass mowed. We don’t want to let it grow real tall. A lot of people would let this patch grow real tall, thinking that they’re helping that grass to grow and survive. In reality, they’re making one plant grow real tall, and we want to cut that grass. Then, it will develop sister plants and daughter plants beside itself and spread out across the patch rather than growing real tall.

Fall is the time to reseed and add some seed to our cool season yards. Yards such as tall fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass are the type of yards we want to reseed in the fall.

We need to have seed-to-soil contact, so we want to take our garden rake and rake it up. Just get the top half inch or so, nice and loose, and then we can sprinkle our seed on top of that. And then rake it back in.

Usually, it works pretty good if the soil is dry. However, if the soil is too dry and too hard and we can’t work it up with this garden rake, we’re going to want to add just a little bit of moisture. Then, let it dry out just so that we can work up the soil. If the soil is too hard, like concrete, we’re not going to have any fun.

And, we don’t want to put a whole bunch of seed on the ground. We want to put just enough. So think of it as spreading cheese on a pizza. Sprinkle it enough to evenly cover the whole area, but not too much, and not too little.

You don’t need to rake it in very deep. You just need to get it into the top quarter to half inch of the soil. Evenly spread it all out, and that’s it.

So, after we’ve got the seed in, we can put some starter fertilizer on. That starter fertilizer should have a fair amount of phosperous, so it’s high in the middle number, and then we can go ahead and turn the water on.

We really want to keep this patch moist. And sometimes that’s going to mean a real light, frequent irrigation. You might need to water it a couple of times a day. We don’t want it sloppy, squishy, muddy, or very saturated. We just want it to keep it moist. So, light, frequent irrigation is going to help keep this patch moist.

The second most important thing is that once this grass grows, and starts to get mature, and once it gets to its recommended height, we want to get out there and get that grass mowed. We don’t want to let it grow real tall. A lot of people would let this patch grow real tall, thinking that they’re helping that grass to grow and survive. In reality, they’re making one plant grow real tall, and we want to cut that grass. Then, it will develop sister plants and daughter plants beside itself and spread out across the patch rather than growing real tall.

This feature story prepared with Rodney St. John, former Kansas State University Research and Extension Turfgrass Specialist. For more information, visit your local county extension office or visit our website at KansasGreenYards.org.