Things To Consider Before Planting Grass Seed In Spring
Planting grass in spring time is a tricky situation. Seriously guys, if you are going to plant grass seed in the spring, you really need to read this entire article first.
Planting Grass Seed, Growing Grass Seed In Spring
Before I tell you how to plant grass seed, I need to have you consider your situation. First off, is it early spring right now or later spring? The reason I need you to answer that is because before we worry about grass seed, we need to prepare for crab grass. Yep, that’s right, good ole annoying destructive crab grass.
What Is CrabGrass?
Crab grass is an annual weedy grass that germinates in lawns beginning in the mid-spring. The seeds of crab grass will begin their lifecycle underground when the soil temps touch the low to mid-50s. Once grab grass germinates and begins to grow in the later spring and early summer, it is a tough kill at best. I have seen it completely destroy entire lawns when left unchecked.
The good news is, however, that you can stop crab grass before it germinates by putting down a pre-emergent herbicide that basically forms a burrier at the soil line that halts the crab grass germination process. The issue is, that you have to get this pre-emergent down PRIOR to the actual germination. In most cases, I recommend you apply crab grass preventer in April. Can you see how this can effect our good grass seed we want to plant? yeah, because the same preemergent that stops crab grass seeds from germinating will also stop out Kentucky Bluegrass or other seed.
Why Is Crab Grass A Concern When Planting Spring Grass Seed?
Most lawn grasses grown from seed take anywhere from 7 days to 3 weeks to germinate and establish themselves. During the the young seedling stage, the new plants are highly susceptible to extreme temperatures, as well as pesticide applications. As mentioned above, preemergent for crab grass also kills/stops young and new grass seedlings.
So How Do We Plant Grass Seed AND Stop Crab Grass?
There are grab grass post emergent controls made just for those of you who want to seed in the spring time. These special formulations are designed to kill young but already germinated crab grass. This means that you will NOT use a pre-emergent for crab grass, rather, use these product to kill crab grass AFTER it pops up… This way you can seed in early spring. See below:
Now you need to be careful here, timing is everything. If you are going to seed the lawn, make sure you seed in later March so you can kill crabgrass safely in later May. This gives your young grass seed time to germinate and it will be able to resist the chemical you use above to kill the crab grass.
Some of you might be wondering why I am not talking about the natural way to kill/prevent crabgrass, and I have not forgotten about you. There are natural crabgrass preemergents, and we will talk about those in a future lawn tips article.