FAQ After Seeding

Question: What can I do about the leaves on my yard and the new seedlings?
Answer: A blower is your best option. If it is a backpack style do at an idle or low RPM. Now some of the Battery powered ones typically do not have enough power to blow the seedlings out. Just watch and use best judgment.

DO NOT USE A RAKE AS IT WILL DAMAGE AN UPROOT THE NEW SEEDLINGS

Question: What about the weeds coming up in my new grass?
Answer: This is normal. When you disturb the soil you will disturb weed seed. It will germinate and get started.  YOU WILL NOT STOP ALL WEEDS. This will drive you to insanity if you try to believe you can. This is why it is called WEED CONTROL and not weed elimination.

Question: When Can I cut my grass?
Answer: Once the seedlings are 3-4 inches tall you can cut. For you guys with a zero turn try to turn at the end of the yard where you are not turning on the young grass. The first cut or two would be best with a push mower for the smaller yards. Cut as high as you can. ALSO now is a good time to put NEW BLADES on the mower or make sure they are crisp and sharp.Try not to run over the same area repeatedly with the tires.

If your turf is very thick and tall by the time you get that mow in then I advise you to bag your clippings so that they don't suffocate the seedlings and cause them to die off. After this leave the clippings (assuming they aren't big clumps - if they are use a blower and blow them out)

Here's a great video my friend Pete put out on this very subject. He's my guru when it comes to grass.

WATCH PETE'S VIDEO ON WHEN TO CUT, SPOTS THAT ARE SLOW TO COME IN, WHEN WILL MY TURF THICKEN UP..

Question: Can will you start treating the weeds. 
Answer: This is a very loaded question. Some herbicide labels say I can do it in 7-14 days. My take on this is I don't like to put any chemical on the yards before 6 weeks or 3-4 mowings. Whichever is longer. Here is another thing to consider. Most of the weeds will be dormant and gone in the next month once the frost hits them. So treating them chemically has no real advantage as it will take that long for it to work on some of them. The caveat is I am seeing Henbit already germinating and that sticks through winter. However weeds such as crab grass will be gone by mid November naturally since it is an annual. Why chance chemical burns or stressing the grass right now when it will be gone anyway? Just my way of thinking.

Question: Should I bag the clippings?
Answer: I answered this above. However, if you are cutting the proper way there should not be a lot of clippings. Give it back and let the nutrients return to the ground.

Question: Should fungicides be applied on my new grass?
Answer: There are some that are labeled for new grass, but I go back to the stress thing. This is the time of year we are trying to prep the grass for summer. It is doing all its root growth and energy storage now. Unless the pressure is real high or the conditions are there (Temps and humidity) I would forego this. This has been a tough year and hard to call. I admit that one. The best advice I can give is follow the recommendations on mowing height and mowing frequency (mow down to 4", cut when it gets to 6-7") to the T. Preventive treatment is better than curative any time. But there are times where the weather conditions are prolonged and the yards still have an outbreak. If it gets to the point where the turf cannot take it then I recommend you have me out to do an additional fungicide application at an increased rate to cure disease (versus) the lower preventative rates.

Question: all my grass has not come up. Should i reseed?
Answer: This is one of those things each yard will be different. If you still seed seed then I would say no. The blend we used has a very high germination rate (90%). It just may require time and patience. Typically fescue has a 7-21 day germ time. Not all of it will do it in 5-7 days like we see some yards. Now given the hard rains most have experienced and you don't see seed then a little over seeding may be necessary. You can work in with a weasel (garden cultivator as named at Home Depot)

Let me know if you need to purchase a small bag of seed to have on hand to overseed some patches that look like they need it. It's always good to use the same blend of seed so your lawn doesn't come out in the spring looking like 50 shades of green. Each variety has slight color differences. 

Another thing that many people don't realize is that the new grass won't thicken up and mature until it grows high enough AND until it's mowed a few times. In the fall the grass doesn't always thicken up and grow as fast as it does in the spring, but know that you should see a big difference in the spring from all the many hundreds of thousands of new grass seeds that were recently planted in your lawn. 

Question: what is a reasonable time to wait for the seed to come up?

Answer: See above. Honestly though don't stress, if your lawn needs some over seeding in the early spring to help that is something we can do. I've done this to a few spots last year with great results. The key is to do it in the early spring (like early March). Really, be patient and give it TIME.

Question: If I still have bare areas after all of this what can I do to fill them in?

Answer: I recently did a video on this very subject and put it on our YouTube page. Here's a link to it CLICK HERE TO WATCH. Using this technique I've always been able to fill in my personal bare spots in the lawn perfectly. 

Question: What does my (Thomas') lawn look like 2 weeks after seeding? 

Answer: See pictures below. Some areas are thick but most of the bare spots are filling in slowly as you can see.