# Planting grass seed this time of year.



## jpollman

Hi all!

I know that fall is a good time to plant grass seed. But it's been pretty cool at night lately and I'm wondering if it's too late to throw some seed down now. 

My next door neighbor just had a lot of trees removed from his woods and they cleared out the majority of the woods because it was mostly dead wood. They graded and smoothed it all out. The soil there is extremely rich and I'm sure grass will grow very well in there. But would it be a waste to throw some seed down now? Two years ago I planted some grass seed in mid October in my front yard and it did great. By Spring you could hardly tell that there had been a tree where I planted it. I just talked to Tractor Supply in Romeo and they have a 50 lb bag of seed for about $62 and I'm thinking about picking it up and giving it a try. I think it's worth a try as opposed to waiting until Spring. What do you think?

Thanks for any input.

John


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## jjc155

from working in the lawn/garden line for a while while in college we always recommended planting in early to mid september. days were warm enough and nights cool enough and the seed had enough time to germinate, root and grow alittle before it went dormant. 

I think that the sod farm that we used to get our pallets of sod from always seeded on like 9/20 of every year, based on 50 years of their experience.

J-


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## Nascar31Fan

From what I've read I think cold or frost will just slow the growth rate. I think we've got a great week of weather for planting grass seed, off and on rain for like 4 days! Should be perfect.


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## Fishcapades

Plant it! John you will be fine.... last year my father put down some seed in late october early november and he now has a beautiful lawn...

The rain this weekend will be perferct.

Carl


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## jpollman

Thanks guys. 

It's been planted! 

I went up to Tractor Supply in Romeo only to find that they were out of grass seed for the season. So on the way home I stopped at Rocks 'N Roots just a mile or so south of TSC and picked up a 50 lb bag. The guy there said that yes it is getting to be the tail end of the planting season but it is still fine to put down now. I've been hearing about several days of wet cool weather so I figured it would be ideal for planting grass seed. I got back and ran a landscape rake over a few areas that were a little rough and then spread the seed. It should start coming in pretty nice this spring I'm sure.

Take care

John


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## Fishndude

Now is a fine time to seed a lawn. Some of the seeds will sprout this Fall, and will be on their way to being a lawn by Spring. More seeds will sprout in Spring, and by June you should have nice grass. 

I put down Scotts Turf Builder with HALTS every Spring. It coats seeds, and keeps them from sprouting - designed to keep crabgrass and other annual weeds from growing. BUT, I am careful not to put HALTS down (because it has to be applied in Spring, the 3rd or 4th week of March to be effective) where I sowed grass the previous Spring - or it will keep any un-sprouted seeds from sprouting. Learned that the hard way.

After you seed, see if you can get some grass clippings or straw down to kind of cover the seeds. It helps keep them moist until they sprout, and helps insulate the young grass over the winter. Not 2" of clippings, but enough to lightly cover the ground about .25 inch thick. Also, put down an application of fertilizer. Don't bother with expensive stuff - get the generic 10/10/10 formula from Home Depot. I always give my lawn a nice shot right around Halloween, and when it warms up in Spring, my grass just shoots right up, and is thick and green from about late April til snow covers it. I do a couple more applications througout the growing season - with generic 10/10/10. Cheap, easy, and effective. But I get Scotts with HALTS for that first application in Spring.


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