Reseeding lawn and pre soak grass seed

[piscean]

I am planning on reseeding this fall I have seen an article from milorganite where you presoak grass seed for five days change water every day and clean the bucket so mildew doesn’t grow and spread the seed mixing with milo. What do you recommend is it too much effort to spread wet seed and risk involved with this approach?

[andy10917]

There are a lot of questions we need to ask in order to offer opinions:

(1) what do you mean by "reseed"? Are you completely redoing the yard, or just reseeding bare spots? It matters as it takes 6-8 lbs per 1000 sq fr for Tall fescue if you're doing full areas from scratch. That's 33' x 33'.

(2) How big is the lawn in sq ft?

(3) Do you have an irrigation system?

(4) Do you have any idea what wet Milorganite smells like?

[piscean]

1. I see my lawn is a bit thinned out in the backyard.
2. The whole lawn is 12000sqft.
3. No irrigation system but have few hoses and a timer.
4. Yes I read it stinks. But trying to see what gives better option for my lawn to survive. Since my reseeding in thin areas it a bit hard to put soil on top. Thought if I soak and get germination they have better chance to survive

[Green]

Regarding the pre-germination itself:

Ideally, you don't want the seed container submerged in the water the entire time. More like a few hours in water, then out of water for a longer period...rewetting for short periods every so often so it doesn't dry out. Grass is not an aquatic plant, after all.

One recommendation I've seen from pro sports field people was using paint strainer bags in a double bucket. Sorry, I don't remember the exact details but you should be able to find them.

It would be a pain to spread seed that's still damp, even with a solid as a carrier. You probably want to let it partly dry before trying to spread, so any external wetness is gone but the seed itself still has internal moisture.

And of course wetting duration would depend on your seed type and goal. Usually, people are just trying to prime the seed to get the germination process rolling...not to fully germinate it. You know how much of a pain it would be to try to spread already germinated seed...let alone without damaging it?

[northeastlawn]

I have seen youtube videos of guys spreading germinated seed in a spreader. I guess somehow it just finds it way to the ground and establishes roots :-)

Miloganite even has a section of it on its website....

https://www.milorganite.com/professiona ... ating-seed

I always wanted to try it, just not on a lawn I cared about :-)

[andy10917]

I guess I just don't get it...

With pre-soaking the grass will germinate in 5 days. Seeding into the lawn germinates in 5-8 days for TF. And 5 lbs of TF won't even cover 1000 sq ft.
Changing water twice a day in how many buckets? I don't see the value or time saved.

[northeastlawn]

I think the big draw is with KBG that has a longer germination time, you can save some watering.

Even if this worked, it doesn't get you past the "sprout and pout" phase.

It would be interesting to see what the percentage of seed that makes it with this method.

[Smolenski7]

I'm curious about this technique. I've never even considered it before. However, there seems to be some merit to it, especially for larger lawns without sprinkling systems. Is the germination rate increased? I'd be especially curious about it when over seeding.

[northeastlawn]

I have seen the method suggested in other places, its never got much traction here. I think it's more of a warm season lawn technique.

I wonder how easy it is for the pre-germinated seedlings to take right themselves and take root.

I know last year i did a small over-seed and went too heavy on the peat moss. I had a lot of seedlings seem to die because they could not get past the thick peat moss. The seedlings just turned white and died, but suddenly a week later I had tons of seedlings coming up from the same place.

Not sure if the sealing righted themselves and rooted or different seed finally got through the peat moss. I guess you could test this by pre-germinating some grass seed, then throwing them on the surface of a pot and seeing if any of them take root in a small controlled area.