New grass much darker/nicer than existing grass

Kentucky bluegrass, Fescue, Rye and Bent, etc
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southern-ct-4
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New grass much darker/nicer than existing grass

Post by southern-ct-4 » July 14th, 2020, 9:20 am

Hi all. Some spot seeding that I did in a few spots this spring (yes, not the best time to do it...) have finally just about finished filling in.

Question; why do they look so much better than the existing lawn? I thought I've read many posts about new grass taking a season or two to turn to its nicer/darker color?

Lawn is a nomix, the circles are PR/KGB (it's possible it's only PR as the KBG may not have germinated, though I did try to water consistently for 3-4 weeks, but I may have put too much PR which crowded out/impeded the KBG).

In any case, time will tell if the circles stay that nice (and I don't really care that they look different as you can only see it from above), but I wish my whole lawn looked like those spots!


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turf_toes
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Grass Type: 77% Blueberry/23% Midnight Star KBG in front. Bewitched KBG monostand in back.
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Re: New grass much darker/nicer than existing grass

Post by turf_toes » July 14th, 2020, 9:27 am

If you have a no mix, it may be very old, unimproved cultivars.

Most newer Rye and KBG Cultivars will be darker than a typical no mix.

Even if your nomix is relatively new, it all comes down to the cultivars you plant.

southern-ct-4
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Re: New grass much darker/nicer than existing grass

Post by southern-ct-4 » July 14th, 2020, 10:01 am

Ok that makes sense. I'm certain my lawn is mostly old/unimproved (aside from the parts here and there that I've been slowly renovating). The circles are all in the old areas, not a part I renovated.

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andy10917
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Re: New grass much darker/nicer than existing grass

Post by andy10917 » July 14th, 2020, 10:04 am

A couple of points:

(1) the idea that new grass will get darker with a couple of years of maturity is much truer for KBG than PR, which looks pretty damned good after 30 days.

(2) Did you do anything different when seeding,like apply starter fertilizer, or add topsoil to the spots?

southern-ct-4
Posts: 645
Joined: May 7th, 2018, 3:31 pm
Location: Southern CT (6b)
Grass Type: PR/FF/KBG
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Re: New grass much darker/nicer than existing grass

Post by southern-ct-4 » July 14th, 2020, 10:40 am

Understood on point 1, and given that it's likely mostly PR that makes sense.

I might have used a minimal amount of topsoil, but I honestly don't recall. I definitely used peat moss. And yes, I used starter fert with mesotrione (on the whole front yard actually (including the circles), as I wanted to light up any triv).


Green
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Re: New grass much darker/nicer than existing grass

Post by Green » July 14th, 2020, 3:00 pm

As already mentioned, the two reasons I've seen this happen are:
-darker cultivars used
-topsoil used

Sometimes the color will lighten up in a year or so after the nutrients are depleted (like if a dusting of compost was used. But if lots of good soil was used or it's due to the grass, it will stay darker and you'll want everything to match. Overseeding can often help a little, but often not enough to really make things match. Been there, done that. However in my case, the area where this happened is in a lawn that has a big Triv issue, so as I keep killing more patches and reseeding, everything matches better and better because it's all newer, darker grass in those areas.

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