How often do you re-apply peat moss?

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northeastlawn
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How often do you re-apply peat moss?

Post by northeastlawn » August 17th, 2017, 9:38 am

I am not sure if it is the impact sprinklers or that I put too thin a coat off peat moss. But am finding a lot of spots keep coming up bare and I can see seed. I have had to reapply in spots..

Should I grab another bag and keep reapplying, or should I just leave well enough alone?

I have a temp. water setup on a timer; so keeping things moist will happen either way, the annoying birds is another matter :-)

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Re: How often do you re-apply peat moss?

Post by DevilDawg81 » August 17th, 2017, 9:48 am

I'm having this same issue, and I'm just reapplying the peat as I can. I imagine there has to be a point in time (10 days or so) that if I'm seeing seed, it's more than likely dried out and won't germinate? So I'd sprinkle more seed and then apply an adequate amount of peat moss.

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Re: How often do you re-apply peat moss?

Post by edenl01 » August 17th, 2017, 10:03 am

I usually wait 4-6 days to re-evaluate. Or, after the first heavy rain. You will end up with some spots with no peat, it happens. Any higher spots it will run to the lower spots.

There's no exact answer to your question, you just have to feel it out and keep an eye on it. If your doing a good job keeping the seed bed moist I wouldn't loose any sleep over it. However, the spots with peat usually pop sprouts faster.

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probasesteal
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Re: How often do you re-apply peat moss?

Post by probasesteal » August 17th, 2017, 10:16 am

I wouldn't worry too much if you can keep the soil moist

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ken-n-nancy
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Re: How often do you re-apply peat moss?

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 17th, 2017, 10:28 am

As others are mentioning, the objective is to keep the soil moist at the surface where the seed is located. The peat moss is just an aid to keeping the soil moist.

The peat moss is not strictly necessary - if you can keep the soil moist without it, then there is no benefit to the peat moss. (A number of folks here don't use the peat moss in renovations; I haven't done so, and I think turf_toes has always skipped peat moss, too.)

However, in areas that dry out fast, whether due to full sun, soil that doesn't retain water well, low humidity, high airflow, poor irrigation coverage, etc., peat moss (or another moisture retention mechanism, whether paper pellets, old grass stubble, etc.) can help significantly. If you're keeping the soil moist without the peat moss, you have no need to worry.

If the soil isn't staying moist, then you need to fix that, whether by watering more frequently (for germination, I'm a fan of very frequent, very light watering, but that's easy to set up with an irrigation system and may be much more difficult if you aren't in that situation), or doing something else to limit the loss of moisture from the soil surface, at least until the seed has germinated.


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andy10917
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Re: How often do you re-apply peat moss?

Post by andy10917 » August 17th, 2017, 11:20 pm

+1 K&N. Don't invent magical properties for Peat Moss. It keeps things moist - period.

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Re: How often do you re-apply peat moss?

Post by DevilDawg81 » August 18th, 2017, 6:44 am

Keeping the seed bed moist is key. Last night while watering I noticed this guy in the middle sprouted with no cover...


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