When to seed bluegrass in the spring?

Kentucky bluegrass, Fescue, Rye and Bent, etc
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john5246
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When to seed bluegrass in the spring?

Post by john5246 » February 3rd, 2019, 2:11 pm

Around the chicago land area (I was just looking at temp record data) we still get frost after mother's day sometimes (middle of May). June 1st is a very safe approach to seed Kentucky Bluegrass however you will get hit with high heat in July just as the seedlings are getting started.

Is it worth the risk? I really want to appreciate my new grass early and not near the end of the year by seeding in the fall. What do you guys suggest?

Green
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Re: When to seed bluegrass in the spring?

Post by Green » February 3rd, 2019, 3:03 pm

When I do it, I seed in March. Or even this month. It starts germinating in late April.
It's worth the risk for small areas, imho.

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turf_toes
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Re: When to seed bluegrass in the spring?

Post by turf_toes » February 3rd, 2019, 6:05 pm

The best time to do it is the end of the growing season. That gives the grass the time to get established before facing heat/drought stress.

That advice is based on what’s best for the grass.

I know you would rather seed sooner because it’s best for your enjoyment of the new lawn. I understand that too.

But for me, that’s never the way to go. Plenty of folks seed early as you suggest. Sometimes it even works out.

But it’s not something I would advise. (Even though I agreed to help a buddy do it last spring. His lawn looked great until August...).

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PSU4ME
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Re: When to seed bluegrass in the spring?

Post by PSU4ME » February 3rd, 2019, 7:08 pm

Agree with TT.

If you’re going to do a full reno then def wait till the end of August. If you’re trying to oversees it in then you’ll get some to stick from a spring seed and then you can decide if you wanted to do more in the fall.

If done it before with what most would call mild success. I’m dormant seeding now in one area so we shall see.

john5246
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Re: When to seed bluegrass in the spring?

Post by john5246 » February 4th, 2019, 1:27 am

No, this will be a full reno and I knew that's what you guys would say. So same as last year I guess...I will have to nuke everything sometime in July, water it to kill anything remaining and seed by Sept 1st. There were some brutal 90 deg days in Sept last year for us and it really had me worried for my seed.


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Re: When to seed bluegrass in the spring?

Post by Green » February 4th, 2019, 3:23 pm

john5246 wrote:
February 4th, 2019, 1:27 am
No, this will be a full reno and I knew that's what you guys would say. So same as last year I guess...I will have to nuke everything sometime in July, water it to kill anything remaining and seed by Sept 1st. There were some brutal 90 deg days in Sept last year for us and it really had me worried for my seed.
Sept. 1st can be a bit on the late side some years. Hopefully you won't have all 90s the second half of August. Or if you do, hopefully you could find a way to keep the seed from drying out. I'd rather seed a bit earlier. Every week (preferably 2) helps.

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Re: When to seed bluegrass in the spring?

Post by spectrum1c » March 4th, 2019, 7:05 pm

If you are going ahead with a spring reno, definitely use tenacity (I believe scotts starter fertilizer with weed preventer has tenacity in it, which may possibly be as effective as spraying separately). It works wonders. Last year I did a spring reno with a Preferred Seed "drought mix" without tenacity and by summer had at least 50% weeds. It was very disappointing and I had pretty much thrown in the the towel, with the plan being full reno again in the fall. Based on reading this site, I then sprayed tenacity. Within a few weeks, the weeds were dead and rotting away. My yard was literally infested with fruit flies from all the rotting weeds. It was miserable because the fruit flies kept coming into the house and there was nothing we could do stop them because they would climb through the mesh window screens. When I was lawn mowing, it was impossible not to inhale/eat a few of them too. By fall, I had predominantly good grass left and simply overseeded most of it(and used tenacity this time from the start). I only ended up doing a full reno on a portion in the front yard which I changed over to pure KBG. My grass was looking pretty good before the snow season. Needless to say, this experience made me a big believer in the effectiveness of tenacity.

john5246
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Re: When to seed bluegrass in the spring?

Post by john5246 » March 5th, 2019, 7:09 pm

spectrum1c wrote:
March 4th, 2019, 7:05 pm
If you are going ahead with a spring reno, definitely use tenacity (I believe scotts starter fertilizer with weed preventer has tenacity in it, which may possibly be as effective as spraying separately). It works wonders. Last year I did a spring reno with a Preferred Seed "drought mix" without tenacity and by summer had at least 50% weeds. It was very disappointing and I had pretty much thrown in the the towel, with the plan being full reno again in the fall. Based on reading this site, I then sprayed tenacity. Within a few weeks, the weeds were dead and rotting away. My yard was literally infested with fruit flies from all the rotting weeds. It was miserable because the fruit flies kept coming into the house and there was nothing we could do stop them because they would climb through the mesh window screens. When I was lawn mowing, it was impossible not to inhale/eat a few of them too. By fall, I had predominantly good grass left and simply overseeded most of it(and used tenacity this time from the start). I only ended up doing a full reno on a portion in the front yard which I changed over to pure KBG. My grass was looking pretty good before the snow season. Needless to say, this experience made me a big believer in the effectiveness of tenacity.
One way to help prevent this is to apply glyphosate and wait...you must wait a couple weeks while watering to let the weeds grow then spray glyphosate again to kill the rest. You would still apply tenacity but this helps kill a lot of them beforehand

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HoosierLawnGnome
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Re: When to seed bluegrass in the spring?

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » March 6th, 2019, 2:11 pm

Dittos on fall as best timing.

I've had to seed in the spring, and I had best luck a little after greenup when the threat of frost was lesser. Too soon while it's still dormant and that last winter blast will kill those babies.

greedi
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Re: When to seed bluegrass in the spring?

Post by greedi » March 30th, 2019, 12:59 pm

where did you your seed?

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