How-to Plant a New Tall Fescue Lawn from Grass Seed
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Each year we handpick the best Tall Fescue varieties for the Southeast creating our own special blend for planting new lawns and overseeding existing ones. This blend of three first-quality Tall Fescue varieties is specifically chosen for it’s dark color, disease resistance, and drought and wear tolerance. Today we are going to be looking at necessary steps for successfully planting a new Tall Fescue lawn.
1. The first step in preparing our site for planting our new lawn will be to eliminate any existing vegetation. One of the best ways to do this is by spraying the area with a concentrated weed killer containing glyphosate, something like Roundup. You want to make sure you do this about two weeks prior to seeding to give the glyphosate plenty of time to act on the existing vegetation. Remember safety always comes first. Make sure you wear the necessary protective eyewear and gloves when handling any chemicals.
2. Two weeks after spraying concentrated glyphosate, we use a tiller to remove the vegetation from the site. After we finish tilling the site, we want to look around to see if there are any sticks, stones, or other debris that have been left behind. You also want to try to use a rake to examine for any low spots, depressions, or possibly even high spots. This will help with irrigation and the water flow throughout the seedbed as you prepare.
3. Now that we have removed any existing vegetation along with any sticks or stones that may have been left behind, we are going to add an organic humus compost known as Soil3. Soil3 will actually add beneficial bacteria and nutrients to the soil, which will help promote a healthier and stronger fescue lawn. One thing you will want to do before this point is have a soil test done on your actual soil. A soil test will help identify whether or not you need any additional amendments added to the soil to help prepare the best seed bed possible. You may find that you don’t need anything. However, when testing our site, we found that we needed to add 50 pounds of lime per 1000 sq. ft. and in addition a 5-10-15 starter fertilizer.
4. After spreading Soil3 and any other necessary amendments to the soil, now it is time to plant the seed. A handheld spreader will help you control exactly where and how much seed you are actually putting out. The first thing you want to do is make sure the spreader is calibrated correctly, which means you have it set properly. Different spreaders have different types of calibration so you will want to follow the instructions for your particular spreader. We suggest and prefer that you take about half of the seed and walk in a North-South pattern then take the remaining half of the seed and criss-cross in a East-West pattern to make sure you have adequate and complete coverage over the entire seedbed area.
5. After spreading Tall Fescue seed across the seedbed area you want to make sure there is good seed contact. You may have heard that spreading wheat straw lightly over the Tall Fescue seed is one option for making sure that your seed are covered. We actually advise against that. Remember, we only sell blue tag certified Tall Fescue seed, which is 100% weed free, as is our Soil3 compost. Any time you introduce another element, such as wheat straw into the area, it’s possible that you will introduce foreign weed seed into the site. One possible solution to achieve good seed contact is to lightly rake over the area. When you do that the seed will end up just slightly under the surface. You don’t want to plant them too deep., about ¼ inch is about as deep as they should go. Another option is to use a soil compost spreader. This is really the best option. By using a soil compost spreader you accomplish two things, by rolling back over the entire area it presses the seed lightly into the soil making sure there is good contact. Also, by adding another light layer of compost, the seed will be just under the soil surface and ready for proper germination.
6. We are down to just the last few steps of planting our new Tall Fescue lawn. One of these steps involves using a roller to eliminate any air pockets you may have or smooth out any uneven areas that may have been left lingering behind.
7. The final step is to make sure you are prepared to water. We have said this in all of our other videos but we can’t stress it enough. One of the most essential ingredients for establishing your new Tall Fescue lawn from seed will be to make sure you have the proper amount of water. Water immediately after seeding. Then keep the area moist until germination occurs. Once the seedlings start to appear you can gradually decrease the water amount to 1-2 inches per week.
Thanks for watching and for other helpful hints and tips on how to establish your new Tall Fescue lawn as well as maintaining it please visit our website at www.supersod.com