Dormant reseeding or spring reseeding ?

[piscean]

I am in Indiana. I recently killed patches of my lawn and reseeded and I still see few patches where the grass is thin and don't have seedlings. I was looking for best time to reseed in Indiana during spring and I found this article on Purdue website. Anyone did this ? What is your expirence with this ? G-man , HoosierLawnGnome ?

https://turf.purdue.edu/tips/2011/03042 ... gseed.html

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[01redcrew]

What part of Indiana?

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[piscean]

Carmel, in north of Indianapolis.

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[mgarnto1]

General consensus is the dormant seeding is not really a good option. Most see utilizing tenacity and spring seeding as the better option.

[northeastlawn]

I went through this last year. The thing is with dormant seeding; when does the seed germinate and the clock start?

With spring seeding you know you have to start watering. You also know when the seedlings germinated and when you can put fertilizer down.

With dormant seeding its all a crap shoot. Is the grass coming up your dormant seed or POA?

Unless you have a huge yard and you can't water it, I think your better off reseeding in the spring. Just be ready to loose some new grass over the summer. Its also tough to know when the soil really warms up enough for germination, plan on more time for germination.

[g-man]

Piscean:

As other have explained, dormant seeding thru winter is just not practical. Too many unknowns to ensure it is successful.

The Purdue site has two good articles 1) about seeding and 2) spring seeding. Have the seeds ready for March. I would recommend either scott starter with weed control or tenacity (more complex) to control the crabgrass at seed down.

https://turf.purdue.edu/homeowner.html

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[Billybob]

I've had luck dormant seeding. As long as u don't do it too soon. I've waited til Jan -Feb and right b4 snow.

The freeze thaw really gets the seed down into soil.

I think it's better than spring seeding because u get a head start and normally you get plenty of rain in spring

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[1977212]

I might dormant 2 acres next year, not really happy with my no mix this fall

[piscean]

Thank northeastlawn, g-man, mgarnto1,Billybob. I will do it in spring. Since there seems to be mixed reviews with dormant seeding.

[piscean]

I've had luck dormant seeding. As long as u don't do it too soon. I've waited til Jan -Feb and right b4 snow.

The freeze thaw really gets the seed down into soil.

I think it's better than spring seeding because u get a head start and normally you get plenty of rain in spring

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This explains why the purdue university in indiana has suggested this as well.


If a spring seeding is necessary, consider
doing it before the frost comes out of the
ground. This is defined as “dormant seeding”
because the seed will lie dormant until the
soil temperatures warm in April or May.
Depending on your location in Indiana,
dormant seeding can be done as early as
Thanksgiving and as late as March.

I will do do probably first week of march.

[piscean]

The big question is how to deal with weeds ? If do it in march dont think the weeds will come out at that and I need to give at least 5 weeks time for the new grass before I can put something for weed control ?

[1977212]

The big question is how to deal with weeds ? If do it in march dont think the weeds will come out at that and I need to give at least 5 weeks time for the new grass before I can put something for weed control ?

Tenacity can be done at 4 weeks if you already done two mowings.

[northeastlawn]

Its also depends on what weeds you are concerned with.

It seems like your referring to tenacity as a pre-m. If your problem is crab grass, dimension can also be used as a post emergent if its put down early enough.

I'd have to check with the label, but you can put dimension down when the crab grass first comes out. If your lucky that could be 4-5 weeks after germination and a few cuttings.

That said, I did a spring reseeding on my sisters lawn, then applied dimension the the crab grass started popping up and did have some of the new grass die off. But it did control the crab grass somewhat.

[g-man]

Piscean:

The purdue article "Seeding a Turf Area in the Spring (AY-20-W)" talks a little bit about how to deal with weeds.

One thing It doesn't discuss the use of tenacity, since it was published in Jul of 1998. If you use the Scott Starter with weed control (it has tenacity), you will get weed control for ~6 weeks. At that point a second application of tenacity could be done and/or wait for the grass to be a bit more mature and apply another weed control product or for crabgrass that has germinated, quinclorac.

Spring seeding has some challenges with the control of weeds, but it is doable. Since you are planting TTTF, it should be easier than KB. The second problem is to keep the new seeds alive thru the summer heat/drought. Since it is young and doesnt have deep roots, its best not to let it go dormant (and die); so ensure you have hoses/sprinkler/timers ready to keep watering thru the summer.

Scott info about their starter http://www.scotts.com/smg/goprod/scotts ... prod100048

[piscean]

Thanks g-man. I dont have sprinklers. I manually water using tripod sprinklers. I move them around I think it is a good time to few timers and hook the tripod sprinklers than moving them around.

[OldGlory]

I did both this year. I had some extra seed so I threw it down in late December. Not all of it germinated but I did get about a 35% patchy success rate. It only helped my spring reno efforts. Used granular Starter/Tenacity at seed down in the spring with no noticeable negative effects on the dormant seedlings.

My thoughts are it certainly doesn't hurt to try, and in my case I had extra seed so I didn't have anything to lose. It definitely worked in some areas and filled in much much faster than the areas I started from scratch in Spring.