When To Plant Fescue in Alpharetta GA

[ultravista]

Looking for advice on when to plant Fescue in Alpharetta, GA.

Earlier this year, mid-May, I tilled my shaded back yard, fertilized, planted Fescue, and covered the area with wheat straw. The seeds germinated and the yard looked great - until the heat rolled in. Now it's entirely dead, not a blade of Fescue to be found. I raked out the wheat straw. While the grass was growing, it retained too much moisture and heat. I believe the straw was a major contributor to the fast decline.

Now it's September 18th and around the time to plant Fescue again.

I plan on tilling again to have a softer bed for the seeds to germinate.

Should I plant this weekend, wait a week, two weeks, until October? Still use starter fertilizer? I don't plan on laying wheat straw out, I learned my lesson ...

[MorpheusPA]

Now to next week sounds about right for Alpharetta (my parents used to live there, actually). Evenings should be just a bit cool, as they are, with days not scorchingly hot, as they are. Your current highs of about 80 are fine.

Topdressing is best done with peat moss or a good compost, up to a quarter inch, but you really don't need anything, strictly speaking. In any case, you will need to water three times per day for very short periods to keep the seed damp.

You don't need to till, and I'd advise against it. You can scratch the surface if you want, but even that's not completely necessary. Tilling will give you an uneven surface, which is going to cause problems when you mow. Ask me how I know...

Skip the starter. You probably don't need it, and the nitrogen in it will be long gone by the time the grass grows in enough to want feeding. In a month or so, feed with Milorganite. That'll get the grass started off gently and properly.

[ultravista]

Not only will I till but rake and smooth, not chunks or hills. The tiller depth is only a few inches and it give me another opportunity to pull out rocks, till under weeds, and make for a nice smooth bed for seeds.

[turf_toes]

Lol. So it seems you didn’t want advice on your plan. You wanted someone to bless it.

Good luck.

Tilling isn’t necessary.

[ultravista]

Why do you not recommend tilling if the dirt is compacted? I did till in May but it has compacted quite a lot since then.

[PW405]

I suppose the question is... what do you believe is the cause of the extreme soil compaction? Did you host a convention for steam rollers? Was the lawn a practice range for cannon ball fire? Point being - true soil compaction isn't easy to achieve in just a few months. If you tilled the entire lawn in May, you would have needed to work pretty hard to compact the soil to the point you need to completely shred the top few inches and start over.

I would venture to GUESS that the compaction you're seeing is more than likely the result of soil with a poor % of organic matter, incorrect soil nutrient levels, etc. Have you taken soil samples to have analyzed by Logan labs so that you can begin to a soil correction plan? See the pinned post for how to do that: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=9339

I once thought my soil had compaction problems. It did not. It was just too dry & hard. You can easily whip up a batch of soil conditioner - this will help water penetrate more evenly & slowly begin to help the soil texture. See the guide here: https://aroundtheyard.com/index.php?opt ... Itemid=117

Tilling is a very destructive process, and generally not done on lawns. If you truly have compaction, performing a core aeration is much preferred to tilling the entire yard. Many local companies can perform the service. Even then, you'll find many members of this board do not suggest spending the time/money on this process. Some have had horrible experiences with weeds after core aeration.

Personally, I just run a light dethatching pass before I overseed. Just to pull debris off the soil, and loosen up the very very tip-top layer: about 1/8" deep. Some would say this isn't needed, but in my experience, I've observed more successful germination. I bought a little plug-in electric dethatcher from Amazon (See Greenwork or Sun Joe). They aren't real heavy duty, but for a tool I use once every 365 days, gets the job done. I just view this as an alternative to raking the surface before spreading fescue seed. Much easier on the back & wrists.

[ultravista]

PW405, thank you for the detailed feedback. I thought since the area has no grass growing that tilling would be a good idea to loosen the soil. No steam roller conventions

Are you dethatching over an existing grass bed?

[flyin-lowe]

How big is the area? I assume you don't have a way to water it since it died this summer? If you can't water it I would watch the weather and wait for a forecast that is calling for rain. I overseeded two acres yesterday because they are calling for rain the next three days in my area. When you can't water you have to rely on mother nature to set you schedule.

[ultravista]

flyin-lowe - it is an iregularly shaped yard, about 45 feet wide, 12 deep on one side and 40 on the other side. I can water, and did water earlier. It was too hot for the not yet established seedlings. There was plenty of water.

[ultravista]

I seeded last week, a mix of Pennington and Scotts, both fescue mixes. I added the Scotts since it is white coated and easier to see during distribution and on the ground. I have a heck of a time seeing the dark green Pennington seed on the ground.

There is already a blanket of sprouted seed everywhere. Tomorrow is 7 days.

[ultravista]

Today is two weeks since seeding. There is a lot of germination, but it is spotty. Several areas look as-if I missed the area, no seed, but I did not. I was very thorough in seeding and hand seeded where I thought the broadcast spreader may have seeded lightly.

The gaps are in a row, but random throughout. We have had rain but this isn't due to washout. No birds or other critters either. Not sure what happened.

At two weeks, the seed that germinated is ~3 inches tall and very fine. The Pennington blend includes 6% Rye. Not sure if it is the Rye that germinated or a mix of all of the grasses.

So ... to fill-in the gaps, should I gently hand rake the affected areas, drop more seed, and cross my fingers?

[MorpheusPA]

We'd need closeup (or very good telephoto long-distance) photos to be sure; you probably have more germination than you think, and slow areas are completely normal. That's why pushing the end of the season isn't a good idea. With bluegrasses, areas that can take a month (or a bit more) are completely normal.

It's really, really, REALLY late. You could drop a little more seed (raking is unnecessary) and hope, but there's a reason those areas didn't sprout. They probably weren't damp enough, but there are other issues possible, too--too wet being one of them...