K31 Germination and Growth

[ultravista]

I seeded an entirely bare backyard with approximately 70 pounds of K31 and a application of starter fertilizer nearly 4 weeks ago. The Pennington seed tag states 85% germination and approximately 50% of the weight is seed coating. Therefore I dropped about 35 pounds of seed.

The seed germinated quickly, and within a week, I could see green. At two weeks, it was a few inches tall. In weeks 3 & 4, I have been reseeding areas that were somewhat sparse or altogether bare. Dropping seed by hand, covering with soil, and watering.

The sparse and bare spots are filling in slowly. The temperature has dropped quite a bit here and I presume that ground temps are are slowing things down a bit.

By week 3, the new seedlings were approximately 4-5 inches tall and were not entirely upright. Walking on the grass to seed the bare spots matted some of it down, as well as a heavy rain, a crap-ton of leaves, and me walking on the area blowing the leaves off.

After clearing the leaves last week (week 3), I mowed at 3 inches with a Honda HRX 217, bagging the clippings.

Today is approaching week 4 and the seedlings growth has appeared to slow down. It germinated and started growing pretty fast, and it now seems to have stalled a little. The 4 week old growth is still floppy and not growing straight-up as I expected it to. The ground is full of leaves again. I'll remove the leaves again today or tomorrow.

The seedlings look great. No failure that I can see from being matted/floppy. They are all still very thin and wispy.

Does K31 have an odd growth cycle, germinate, grow like crazy for a week or two, then slow down? Perhaps it is putting energy into building roots vs. top growth.

Is a second dose of starter fertilizer, or ? required now that there is a good amount of growth?

[turf_toes]

It’s fall - even in Atlanta (tonight’s low there is forecast in the 30s according to the National Weather Service).

Grass growth just slows down in the cooler weather.

[bolson32]

Can I ask, why K31?