Lawn books, information

[theglassguy]

I’m about to overseed a Northern Lawn (perennial ryegrass) over my Bermuda summer grass. Both “The Lawn Bible” and “Lawn Care for Dummies” suggest I scalp, aerate, cover with topsoil, then water daily.

Several of these are in conflict with information here. Namely, aerating and topsoil covering.

Are these books crap or are there more than one way to grow a winter grass?

[lVlrBoJang1es]

I'm out of my realm when it comes to warm season grass or growing "winter grass" in warm season regions, but i'd imagine the practices in the "Steps to overseeding. Steps to new establishment" FAQ article won't steer you wrong - from the ATY home page, click the "FAQ" button on the right side of the top bar below the banner.

Mind the above disclaimer that i don't know warm season practices, but:

I (and i'd think most people here) particularly don't like the idea of "scalping" (mentioned in one of the screenshots above). Scalping can destroy your existing stand at which point you might just be better off doing a full renovation. The general opinion (from what i've read, and also experienced first hand) is that gradually mowing lower and lower prior to overseeding is much prefered to scalping.

Additionally, I would think that if you do significant damage to your existing turf (from scalping) and throw down some "winter" seed, that when the scorching heat returns next year your winter grass will die off and you'll be left with the original, now severely damaged, warm-season grass.

[theglassguy]

So, in other words, the greatest value of the books is as fire kindling?

You’d think with a name like “The Lawn Bible” they would have done some research. The author is the groundskeeper of Fenway Park (or at least he was). I’m Not sure what qualifications that actually gives him. I think I might rather a scientist or somebody at the national turf institute wrote this book rather than a guy who simply has learned from creating grass for sports fields, which is very different than grass for your front yard. That is unless your front yard is a football field

[ken-n-nancy]

Personally, if I were going to try what you're considering, from what I've read (mind you, I have zero first-hand experience in winter overseeding of cool-season grass into a warm-season lawn; I only know what I've read in experiences of others from sites like this one) I'd suggest you apply a plant growth regulator (PGR), scalp, verticut/dethatch, sow perennial ryegrass seed at a high rate, then lightly rake to get seed to drop a bit into the bermuda canopy, then roll the entire oveseeded area, then water lightly 2-3 times a day to keep the soil moist through germination (probably 4-7 days). After germination, you can start to reduce the frequency of irrigation to once a day, but a little heavier than the watering pre-germination. After about 2-4 weeks, apply a quick-release nitrogen fertilizer.

Personally, assuming that your soil is in good condition, I would neither aerate or cover with topsoil. Where did you see these recommendations? Of the two books you showed excerpts in your initial posting, the first mentions aeration and using a thin mulch to top dress (not use of topsoil), and the second mentions only to topdress with "a thin layer of organic matter" (does not mention aeration or the use of topsoil). So, neither of those mentions adding topsoil, and only one of the two mentions aeration.

The topdressing should not be required for an overseed into an established bermuda lawn; the bermuda canopy will do a great job of helping the soil to retain moisture.

[lVlrBoJang1es]

So, in other words, the greatest value of the books is as fire kindling?

You’d think with a name like “The Lawn Bible” they would have done some research. The author is the groundskeeper of Fenway Park (or at least he was). I’m Not sure what qualifications that actually gives him. I think I might rather a scientist or somebody at the national turf institute wrote this book rather than a guy who simply has learned from creating grass for sports fields, which is very different than grass for your front yard. That is unless your front yard is a football field

Right on!

On the idea of play-field grass growing strategies vs home lawn; I had a funny experience last year that I don't think I've admitted to until now...

A grounds keeper friend from a local golf course had a look at my lawn last fall when he heard I was planning an overseed. I showed him an area that was struggling to grow anything.

He came back a week later (right around when I threw my seed down) with a bag of "premium seed" from the course he maintained And "GUARANTEED that the seed [would] grow in my trouble spot". Not knowing any better, I threw the seed down mixed with my own and it filled the area in nicely - I now know that what sprouted that fall was MY seed and most of his lay dormant (keep reading to see why).

Next year as spring rolled around, I watched this section go from beautiful lush dark green grass to an explosion of nasty yellow-green grassy-weed material. No matter how much milorganite I threw at it, the area grew more and more yellow-green. It was also growing like the dickens - literally 2x to 3x faster than the rest of my turf. As I started to learn more about lawn care It was too late by the time I realized that the patch where this golf course quality seed lay from the previous fall was now... 99% poa annua! Come to find out, poa annua is very commonly used on the putting surfaces.

The area has since then been round-up nuked, and poorly re-seeded. I think my re-seeding efforts were poor due to an early-spring granular pre-m application which oddly seemed to have little effect on the poa sprouting.

It's now on my list of things to take care of next spring... I expect this mistake to take several years to correct as I'm sure a boat load of the poa seeded in the late spring before I nuked it...