Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Kentucky bluegrass, Fescue, Rye and Bent, etc
mobiledynamics
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Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Post by mobiledynamics » January 22nd, 2020, 11:59 am

Patching bare spots for me worked best with established pot plugs. Seeded in pots/grew throughout summer, transplanted plugs in fall to bare spots.
Overseeding bare spots in early fall does work - between the germination time with KBG, roots, establishment, etc, the pot plugs seemed to work out better.


I've read about. Never have tried it. Does dormant seeding work. I don't intend to do a early dormant seeding but I'd say somewhere along the mid-late February . Just putting down seed and topping with peat. Will this help in germination time....before, well, you know , the summer heat..

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Re: Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Post by PSU4ME » January 22nd, 2020, 11:24 pm

I’ve done it and have been happy with what I got. You need to have the right expectations in terms of how much germinates and how much lasts through the summer. No reason to do it too early. The big benefit as I see it is that you’ll get a freeze/thaw action that pulls the seed into the top layer of soil. The seed husk loosens from being weathered so I “think” it speeds up germination and lastly the seed is down so as soon as Mother Nature lets it sprout, it’ll sprout.

Just my $.02

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Re: Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Post by Masbustelo » January 22nd, 2020, 11:55 pm

I had good luck last year with it. I'll let you know later. Today I planted 18 million bluegrass seeds on top of six inches of snow.

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Re: Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Post by Green » January 23rd, 2020, 5:29 pm

I've had success too and am planning on doing a few spots again this year. I agree with the mid Feb. to early March timeframe for our area generally.

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Re: Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Post by bpgreen » January 23rd, 2020, 5:43 pm

I've had fairly good luck with it, but my approach has always been to get the seed down before a good snow.

I'm also mostly planting native grasses and they benefit from going through freeze/ thaw cycles.


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Re: Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Post by mobiledynamics » January 26th, 2020, 8:55 am

I've been considering buying a Garden Weasel just for this task - could always just hand cultivate once seed down (but I'm getting old and bending over ain't fun) Ha.

I can't correlate the possibility however, that the timing of dormant seeding and the a-typical winds/seed getting displaced/scattered due to this as well.

Like last spring which was very WET, it's been a fairly mild Winter this year. I would think maybe I should put down seed before a known upcoming forecast which will frost heave cycle the dirt, so that I know the ---seed--- will be semi in the turf ?

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Re: Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Post by BobL » January 27th, 2020, 1:22 am

I'll probably be out on February 3 raking the ground and laying down seed in bare spots and then overseeding the rest of the lawn. We have about 3 days of above freezing weather, so I can do a bit of prep, then a day of rain turning to snow to water it down into the thawed soil, cover it up, and start the freeze cycles.

Research in Kansas tried dormant seeding on the 5th of each month during the winter and February had the best results, so I'm going with that in lieu of other data.

From what I've read, it's not as good as fall seeding, but seems to be better than waiting until Spring. I put down Pre-M in late Spring and another does in early Fall, so fall work was a no-go. I'm hoping/assuming the effectiveness is gone by now.

I'll try to remember to post next summer on how it went.

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Re: Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Post by mobiledynamics » January 27th, 2020, 9:40 am

While I have notobserved if there is -actual- movement in the soil when freeze/thaw occurs, I definitely do see said effects in all areas where there is mulch. Onc can observe pockets/displacement/breaks in the mulch - but then again, mulch is fairly light compared to soil that also has knitted turf holding it together. Hence, my correlation like a tool to rake it in, versus really leaving Mother Nature to do its thing...

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Re: Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Post by mobiledynamics » January 27th, 2020, 11:47 am

Is it plausible to also dormant seed to early. I see the post on putting seed on snow - in the recent replies in this thread
If it remains too wet for too long before germination, any concerns about rot ?

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Re: Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Post by Masbustelo » January 27th, 2020, 6:06 pm

I've read that dormant seeding has the greatest success with a February seeding. The germination rate for dormant seeding is supposed to be 50% . Who knows what happens to the 50% that doesn't make it? The seed doesn't know if you throw it on snow or frozen ground. It won't swell and break germinancy until certain soil temps are reached.

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Re: Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Post by mobiledynamics » January 27th, 2020, 7:16 pm

Yes, on soil temps

Are we concluding then dormant seeding is

- beneficial for S2S contact, due to frost heavinging substrate
- potential faster germination / establishment with (slower germinating cultivars)

I kinda wanna say the germination time of KBG isn't too shabby in late fall. A week -10 days at most. Its the -pause- , then the young blades, etc.

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Re: Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Post by mobiledynamics » January 28th, 2020, 10:23 pm

I put down seed today on a couple of bare patches. With this fairly mild winter, I was not sure if going into Feb, I would be seeing some dipping temps. I can't picture the soil freezing to the point where it -draws- the seed in for better S2S contact, but I know there are lotsa posts on it. Will be interesting to compare the dormant seeded vs. seeded at germ. temps to see if there is a difference in germination/establishment.

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Re: Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Post by Pway » January 29th, 2020, 1:04 pm

So for those doing dormant seeding, what do you do with your Spring pre-emergent (skip it, delay until when, just go ahead, use Mesotrione and then a stronger pre emergent later, other?) thanks.

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Re: Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Post by mobiledynamics » January 29th, 2020, 3:12 pm

I am debating that depending on when germination happens...which is going to be when it's calling Pre-M....

Thread Here

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=25554

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Re: Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Post by agn015 » February 6th, 2020, 12:50 am

I had great success in 2018 dormant seeding. Dropped seed on February 20. Sprayed tenacity April 3 and again on May 12 (I wanted to spray closer to May 3) before switching to Dimension 2EW on May 26.

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Re: Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Post by Pway » February 7th, 2020, 9:33 am

agn015 wrote:
February 6th, 2020, 12:50 am
I had great success in 2018 dormant seeding. Dropped seed on February 20. Sprayed tenacity April 3 and again on May 12 (I wanted to spray closer to May 3) before switching to Dimension 2EW on May 26.
Thanks. I have not done dormant seeding or spring seeding before but I am going to try it for three patches that are a bit thin. I don’t want to nuke them, just want to thicken them a bit quicker than what fertilization and watering will do. I think I’ll approximate your schedule/intervals.

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Re: Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Post by mobiledynamics » February 7th, 2020, 9:55 am

I see we're all roughly in the same area....

I dropped seed last week. Since it's been so mild, I wanted to drop seed so that it could see some thaw cycles as I don't see much freezing going into March and it's Feb. already

I am concerned about potential seed rot.......typical wet winters/early spring.

I though part of the primary -role- of dormant seeding is better S2S contact due to freeze thaw/heave and how the seed interacts on the subsurface due to it.....

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Re: Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Post by northeastlawn » February 7th, 2020, 1:28 pm

I was reading through this post and have some grass seed for the hell strip I could throw down, but the question keeps coming up in my mind. What am i getting out of it. Especially if its targeting a small focused area?

As an example; I have hell strips in my front, that get more sun during the spring and a lot less in the fall. Through trial and error, I realize throwing seed down the spring is the best bet for this area as I usually loose some grass from the snow anyway. The last two year I usually just spring over-seed and it has been working OK. Every year it gets thicker where I need it to.

I can throw down seed mid February and hope it comes up, or wait until the Forsethia blooms in April when I know the soil temps are right and start watering.

Before that I have no idea what's happening with the seed. I won't know if it dries out from lack of moisture, because I will never know if it ever got warm enough in the first place.

At least with spring seeding I know to keep it moist once I put it down, even if I throw it down too early. I could throw down some seed in February, but I would tempted to throw more seed when it gets warm just to be sure.

I have gone through this decision a few winters, it seems dormant seeding might be worth it if you don't plan on seeding in the spring anyway and you have a large area, but if the intent is actually fill things in, why not store some seed in the freezer for a month, then seed in April when the soil reaches 70degrees and your not wasting water for worthing that might now work well?

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Re: Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Post by bpgreen » February 8th, 2020, 2:58 pm

northeastlawn wrote:
February 7th, 2020, 1:28 pm
I was reading through this post and have some grass seed for the hell strip I could throw down, but the question keeps coming up in my mind. What am i getting out of it. Especially if its targeting a small focused area?

As an example; I have hell strips in my front, that get more sun during the spring and a lot less in the fall. Through trial and error, I realize throwing seed down the spring is the best bet for this area as I usually loose some grass from the snow anyway. The last two year I usually just spring over-seed and it has been working OK. Every year it gets thicker where I need it to.

I can throw down seed mid February and hope it comes up, or wait until the Forsethia blooms in April when I know the soil temps are right and start watering.

Before that I have no idea what's happening with the seed. I won't know if it dries out from lack of moisture, because I will never know if it ever got warm enough in the first place.

At least with spring seeding I know to keep it moist once I put it down, even if I throw it down too early. I could throw down some seed in February, but I would tempted to throw more seed when it gets warm just to be sure.

I have gone through this decision a few winters, it seems dormant seeding might be worth it if you don't plan on seeding in the spring anyway and you have a large area, but if the intent is actually fill things in, why not store some seed in the freezer for a month, then seed in April when the soil reaches 70degrees and your not wasting water for worthing that might now work well?
I think you're missing the point of dormant seeding. When you dormant seed, you don't water at all. You let there natural water from snow melt and early spring rains take care of it for you.

It'll start germinating as soon as it's warm enough, so you get a bit of a jump on things compared with "normal" spring seeding, so the grass has a better chance of making it through the summer heat.

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Re: Dormant Seeding Work for you.

Post by mobiledynamics » February 19th, 2020, 3:55 pm

for all you dormant seeders out there
what camp do you fall in once dormant seeded

- do you check germination once temps are in the right temps
- do you do another round of -dormant seeding- just in case seeds got windblown, washed out
- do you do another drop of seed once soil is up to temp just for --good measure-

Or nothing at all once dormant seeded and whatever comes up, comes up.

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