Early Spring Seeding Practices and Selecting Turfgrasses

Spring Seeding:

Spring seeding techniques can vary depending on which month your spring seeding occurs. The old remedy of seeding prior to a snowfall does have some credibility if done at the right time in the late winter or early spring. This procedure will work from late January through February if there is an excellent chance of getting the seed down to the soil surface. Melting snow will mud-in the seed just enough to achieve germination. This is not necessarily the best procedure, however, germination rates should be sufficient to improve a thinned stand of turfgrass.

A second option is to broadcast seed on mostly bare soil that may have been tilled or loosened the previous fall. This can be done through the month of February when weather conditions will still bring forth a series of freezing and thawing periods. Freezing and thawing of bare soil produce small ice-forming peaks and ridges in the surface of the soil, creating cracks and crevices for seed to fall into and eventually cover with soil. Germination rates for this type of seeding are very good and allow seed to establish very early, offering some competition against summer annual grasses and broadleaves.

Normal spring seeding practices after the final thaw can involve two procedures. The first includes complete tillage of the area being seeded; however, this requires drier conditions for the soil to work. Over-seeding on freshly tilled, graded soil offers a perfect seedbed and only requires minor raking or dragging to work the seed into the soil. Germination should be as complete as the seed label specifies. Straw may be needed to help hold the soil and serve as a little mulch until germination takes off. One bale of straw per 1,000 square feet is recommended on freshly tilled soil.

Spring seeding with a power-seeder or slit-seeder will plant turfgrass seed without the need for complete tillage. These can be rented at most rental or hardware stores for a nominal fee. They can be used for complete renovation jobs as well as partial renovations on thinned out areas of your lawn. They simply plant seed into a powder seedbed or actually plant the seed into shallow furrows on 3-inch centers. Achieving good seed to soil contact is the most effective way to get complete germination of your seed, as these two techniques perform. These procedures generally do not require the use of straw.

Keep in mind that spring seeding may not allow the use of many pre-emergent herbicides (crabgrass preventers) for annual grass control; however, there are two that are available. Tupersan (siduron) can be applied at any time seed is planted, but is best with applications during the last week of March through the first two weeks of April. Dimension is a product that can be used for annual grass control (crabgrass, foxtails, etc.) after a new stand of grass has had two mowings. Grass seed planted very early (March 1) could possibly receive two mowings by mid-April, therefore allowing for an application of Dimension. Many other pre-emergent products require the grass to be well established.

Seed Selection:

A quality lawn containing the recommended mixtures of species or blends of turfgrass varieties can be the result of a difficult decision and process. Selecting turfgrasses is dependent on how you manage your lawn and what you expect of your lawn. Considerations include frequency of mowing, how often you fertilize, whether you will water your lawn or not and whether you will use crabgrass preventers and/or products to control turfgrass diseases and insects. Once you know the answers to these questions, you can then decide which specie blend or mixture of species you wish to establish.

All seed bags will have a seed label printed, pasted or sown on the bag. There are several pieces of information on a seed label that need consideration prior to purchasing the product.

Species name, name of variety, purity, germination, weed seed and noxious weeds should be noted when looking at a seed label. Species name and name of variety will obviously tell you if it is the seed you want. Purity of the seed should be greater than 90%. Germination of the seed should be greater than 85% with a test date no longer than 12 months ago. Two other key pieces of information include the weed seed content and noxious weed percentages. Avoid products containing large amounts of weed seeds such as annual bluegrass or common bluegrass and others, as well as products containing noxious weeds.

Specie Selection:

Blends of Kentucky bluegrass look very rich with dark blue-green colors and have pretty good resistance to brown patch disease; however, they do require more inputs of fertilizer and water to maintain that rich cover through the summer months. They are also more susceptible to dollar spot, leaf spot and summer patch diseases. Selecting bluegrass varieties that offer some resistance to some of these diseases is a practical first step in lawn establishment. Bluegrasses do develop tillers and small rhizomes which allow bluegrasses to recover from thinning or other problems.

Blends of turf-type tall fescues can give deep emerald green appearances with a slightly coarser texture than the bluegrass. They tend to be a deeper rooting plant, therefore requiring less water than the bluegrass. They are not as susceptible to dollar spot and summer patch, but generally will require fungicides for the control of brown patch. There are several varieties of turf-type tall fescues that offer better resistance to brown patch than other varieties; therefore, selecting the more resistant varieties will improve turf quality. Tall fescues will tiller to help with recovery, but tend to be clumpy with severe thinning.

Mixtures, such as turf-type tall fescue with bluegrass (90% fescue, 10% bluegrass), combine the advantages of each species to mask the weaknesses of the other. Mixtures with perennial ryegrass should not exceed 20% perennial ryegrass as it is very susceptible to most of the diseases listed above. Ryegrass is not very heat or drought tolerant and does not recover from thinning of cover.

Variety Selection:

So, which varieties do you select once you decide on a blend or mixture? There are many resources available that list turfgrass varieties for Missouri. State turfgrass specialists, MU guide sheets, garden centers and other lawn care experts are good sources for information about turfgrass selections and varieties.

The difficulty for most individuals is trying to find the varieties suggested. Lowe’s, Home Depot, hardware stores and other garden centers cannot carry all of the premium varieties. Sometimes the easiest approach is to list what they have and then cross reference to the varieties listed for our area. MU’s guide sheet, Cool-Season Grass Cultivars For Athletic Fields, has excellent, good and fair listings for Kentucky bluegrasses, tall fescues and perennial ryegrasses. While the guide sheet is written for athletic fields, the listings are excellent for home lawns as well.

Information for selecting varieties can also be found through the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP) web site @ http://ntep.org for those who are comfortable searching the web. NTEP provides data tables for all turfgrass species for a number of different characteristics (quality, density, color, disease resistance, wear resistance, etc.) from best to worst, averaged for the transition zone, nationally and by location, specifically Missouri (MO 1).

Therefore, selecting varieties that will grow best in Missouri can be determined through a number of reliable resources.

The key to a quality lawn is to select turfgrass species and varieties that will grow best in Missouri. Finding those varieties that will offer good quality, color, density and disease resistance will make your task of lawn care a little easier. Hopefully, the selection process will become less difficult as you search the shelves of your local garden centers and nurseries.

Brad Fresenburg, UMC Extension/Research Associate, Turfgrass Research Center, (573) 443-4893