newly seeded lawn with many bare spots

Kentucky bluegrass, Fescue, Rye and Bent, etc
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anthony21078
Posts: 6
Joined: April 15th, 2019, 6:55 pm
Location: New York
Grass Type: I dont know
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

newly seeded lawn with many bare spots

Post by anthony21078 » June 12th, 2019, 10:09 am

After having my rear patio built, the front lawn got destroyed by the bulldozer going back and forth. I knew it was late in the spring season to re-seed here in New York but the lawn looked so bad that something had to be done. The front lawn was already in bad shape before the bulldozer with a lot of bare spots, weeds and crabgrass. In late April I sprayed the entire front lawn with "Roundup kills weeds not lawns" and several weeks later I ripped out the dead stuff.

Fast forward to June 1st. I raked the yard to remove anything loose/dead, cut the existing grass real low and had 10 yards of screened topsoil delivered that covered the entire lawn by a little more then 1 inch. I already had 50lbs of seed mix that a friend gave me (check the pic for the mix). After spreading the soil, the seed was laid out followed by scotts starter fertilizer. The front lawn is roughly 5000 square feet and 25lbs of the seed mix I had was enough to cover that much area according to the company. However, I wound up using about 35lbs of seed. I lightly turned the soil with a rake after the seed and fertilizer was down followed by a roller. I have been watering 3x a day for roughly 6-8 minutes.

Here we are 12 days later and the grass is growing but there many areas that are still bare. I know for a fact that the seed/fertizler was evenly spread and the entire area was covered. Can I do anything at this point? Add more seed? Wait it out a little longer to see if it fills in?


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john5246
Posts: 227
Joined: August 24th, 2018, 8:44 pm
Location: Chicago
Grass Type: KBG
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: newly seeded lawn with many bare spots

Post by john5246 » June 12th, 2019, 11:00 am

Let it fill in for now, you can repair the spots that are too sparse in late august or September.

northeastlawn
Posts: 1259
Joined: June 1st, 2015, 3:10 pm
Location: S.E. Mass.
Grass Type: KBG
Lawn Size: 1000-3000
Level: Experienced

Re: newly seeded lawn with many bare spots

Post by northeastlawn » June 12th, 2019, 1:41 pm

At some point in any reno, you just have to live with what came up for a while and be patient to see how it works out. the patience is the tough part.

Spring is a bad time to seed, I never was able to get 100% satisfactory coverage with PR or a northern mix.

It wasn't until I did a KBG reno that things finally worked out, and even then I had bare spots. The difference now is 3 years later the KBG lawn finally spreads like crazy. Having a random bare spot or worm casting pop up, isn't a big deal because the lawn spreads into it. No more reseeding.

Take care of what came up and then just plan on trying again in August/Sept.

anthony21078
Posts: 6
Joined: April 15th, 2019, 6:55 pm
Location: New York
Grass Type: I dont know
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: newly seeded lawn with many bare spots

Post by anthony21078 » June 13th, 2019, 2:00 am

Ill give it a little more time and see what grows...Some more pics

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bpgreen
Posts: 3871
Joined: January 3rd, 2009, 2:28 am
Location: Utah (Wasatch Front)
Grass Type: Western, Streambank, Crested wheatgrass in front (with blue grama added in the heckstrips), sheep fescue in back; strawberry clovetr in both
Lawn Size: 3000-5000
Level: Experienced

Re: newly seeded lawn with many bare spots

Post by bpgreen » June 14th, 2019, 1:18 am

I don't know what your hopes are for your lawn, but that seed mix doesn't look great.

Chewing fescue is a fine fescue. I know nothing about that variety, but fine rescues are bunch grasses, so that won't spread (just so you know that I'm not completely against fine fescues, I have them in my mutt lawn).

Creeping red fescue spreads a little. Improved varieties spread a bit better than older varieties, Boreal may look like a named variety, but bu oreal basically means it's wild/unimproved.

I googled the kbg variety and from what I found, it's included because it's cheap.

I don't know much about rye, so I didn't look into those.

The weed and crop seed percentages may seem low, but depending on the weeds and crops, you may end up with a lot of weeds.

Since the kbg is a small amount of the mix and the crf is an unproved variety, you won't get a lot of self repair from this mix.

If you're looking for a showcase learn, this won't give you that. If you're just looking for a lawn that is mostly grass and may need to be overseeded every once in a while, you'll be ok. But I wouldn't hold out a loo of hope on filling in those bare spots without more seed.


Masbustelo
Posts: 488
Joined: September 14th, 2018, 10:56 pm
Location: Western Illinois, parallel to tip o Lake Michigan.
Grass Type: Mazama KBG
Lawn Size: 20000-1 acre
Level: Some Experience

Re: newly seeded lawn with many bare spots

Post by Masbustelo » June 14th, 2019, 5:19 am

For what it's worth, I had 1000 square feet that had been eaten down to nothing by my six chickens last fall. Starting in early April I reseeded each week with perennial rye. I also used milorganite weekly, applied peat moss and compost. I have an impressive area now. If someone had a sprinkler system, this maybe would work in the summer. But much easier in the spring. I was trying to replicate what is done on athletic fields. The perennial rye is the trick.

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