Kirby’s Tips for Planting Grass
Square Footage- Determine how much area you need to seed (length x width), then come to SCN to get all your supplies.
Grass Seed – The best grass seed for this area is Kansas Premium Fescue blend. It has 5 different types of fescue varieties, recommended by K-State, blended together in one bag. Certain varieties may do better in different conditions therefore planting Kansas Premium Blend will assure successful planting. There are hundreds of different kinds of seed on the market. Read the tag – make sure it is blue tagged and has no weed seed. Kansas Premium has no weed seed. Seeding rate for a new lawn is 8-10lbs. per 1000 sq. ft. and for over-seeding the rate is 4-5 lbs. per 1000 sq. ft.
Seed to Soil Contact – For grass seed to germinate it needs to make contact with soil so the plant can root into the soil. There are many different ways to accomplish this. One way is to use a verti-cut machine. Another way is by loosening the soil with a stiff tined rake.
Ferti-lome New Lawn Starter – Use Ferti-lome New Lawn Starter. It has the right combination of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium along with the trace nutrients needed for new grass seedlings.
Soil Activator – Grass seed can’t take in nutrients from the soil if the nutrients are all tied up. Soil Activator helps make those nutrients more readily available to the plant.
Watering – After you have seeded, making sure you have soil-to-seed contact and applied ferti-lome New Lawn Starter and Soil Activator, it’s time to start watering. New seed must be kept moist until it has germinated and grown enough to develop a root system. After you have mowed once, begin watering less often, but longer to force the grass roots to grow down to find moisture. If you continue to water too frequently and/or for too short a period of time your grass will not develop a good root system.
Mowing – As soon as your grass reaches a height of 2 ½”, sharpen your mower blade and mow. It may not seem like you are cutting anything, but the sooner you cut off the tip of the new grass blade, the sooner grass will begin to thicken up.
Ferti-lome Winterizer – After you have mowed twice, use ferti-lome Winterizer. This will help keep your new grass healthy. Apply a second application of ferti-lome Winterizer in 30 days. Even though the grass may not be growing very much on the top by the time you make the second application, the root system is still developing and needs the extra nitrogen to help it through the winter.
