Grass Seed Not Germinating in NC after 9 Days

[tcromer7]

Hi all! This is my first post on this site, but y'all seem to know a lot about lawns, so I thought I'd describe my situation to see what y'all think. My wife and I bought a house in the Durham/Chapel Hill, NC area last March (2020) and we knew the lawn could use some TLC. From November through late February the backyard was a sopping wet mess due to a combination of record rainfall, no vegetation, and a pretty steep slope that directs my neighbor's runoff right into our yard. I knew that would need fixing before we could make any significant renovations, so over the winter I installed a pretty sophisticated french drain/sump basin system that collects most of the surface and subsurface water in the backyard and pumps it out to the driveway. Lots of hard work digging, but the results have been fantastic; things dry out quickly even after heavy rain now. The sun angle is also working in our favor this time of year; the yard gets a solid 6-8 hours of afternoon sun from March to early November, but much less in the winter.

With the french drain behind us, we decided we couldn't stand to look at a barren/sporadically weedy/clovery lawn all spring and summer, so we went against the advice of many and bought 25 pounds of GCI Cool Blue (85 TTTF/15 KBG blend) to try some spring seeding. I've heard great things about Pete's product and since he's trialing these seeds two counties over from us, I figured they'd be a safe bet. During a warm stretch a few weeks back, I sprayed some glyphosate to kill off most of the actively growing weeds and raked up the mess before aerating (multiple passes... I'd guess the lawn hadn't been aerated in a long time, if ever?) and liming (didn't get a soil test, but with all the rain we've had the past few years and the tendency for acidic soils in this area, I thought it couldn't hurt). Several days after that, we added about a half inch of leaf/vegetation compost from a local landscape supplier and applied a Scott's seed starter fertilizer with mesotrione. One day later (March 22nd) with soil temps upper 50s-low 60s, we seeded the Cool Blue at a rate of 8 pounds per thousand, gently raked it into the compost and aeration plug mixture, rolled it carefully with a half-filled lawn roller, covered lightly with purportedly seed-free straw , and said a prayer. Oh, we also set up a system of WiFi-controlled sprinklers to water the entire lawn for alternating 8-minute intervals twice per day, adjusting for rain of course.

That was 9 days ago, and I see absolutely zero signs of germination... there really hasn't been any heavy rain to wash seeds away, but I see very few seeds on the surface. I'm hoping that means they're working hard under the surface, but I'm getting a little nervous. On top of that, we have our annual spring freeze coming Friday and Saturday morning (28-30 degrees); but despite full knowledge of NC climatology, I assumed two weeks of 70 degree weather meant winter was over... how naive of me.

So some questions:

1. Am I just being way too impatient with the seed? The soil's pretty warm this week (mid-60s now), and we've really been on top of the watering, so I'm very surprised that NOTHING has come up.

2. Was the preparation/seeding process reasonable to get halfway decent stand of grass before NC summer heat and humidity sets in? I knew from the beginning that summer would be difficult for newly germinated cool season grass, so I plan to heavily seed again in the fall. But we're willing to keep up with the watering to save most of it. We only seeded about 2500 sq ft.

3. What, if anything, should I do about the impending freezes? Days will be sunny and up to 50 degrees, so I plan to water heavily before the sun goes down each evening, but is there anything else I should know about? I suppose if the seeds don't germinate in the next few days, I won't have to worry about that, since the seeds can take the cold just fine?

4. Any other advice for the lawn novice? I'm pretty motivated and learning a lot, so any tips would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

[MorpheusPA]

1) Give it some time yet. The surface temperature is what matters here, and nights are still pretty cool. March is awfully early for seed.

2) Yes, but...and it's a big but...you are going to have to coddle that over the summer. Spring seedings are never fully established by the time heat hits. Never. So water it over summer and plan on a boatload of weeds to keep after because of that.

3) Don't worry about it, the grass doesn't care one way or the other, in seed form, sprout form, or grass form. It's very tolerant of a few freezes, frosts, or cold nights, but it'll slow down or stop germination until temperatures rebound. That's normal and expected.

4) I might step the watering up to 3 times per day for 8 minutes--or 10 minutes--at 9 AM, 1 PM, and 7 PM or so to keep it damp overnight, damp it in the morning, and redamp in the early afternoon.

[tcromer7]

Thought I should follow-up on this since “a few” seeds ended up germinating. Pics are March 23rd to April 22nd; one mow down. Hopefully, I’ll have lots to keep me busy over the summer.

[Masbustelo]

wow! What a difference one month can make.

[MorpheusPA]

Gee, it's too bad the cold weather slowed that down so much. Congrats!