Over seeding lawn. Various strains of Fescue.
Slowly increasing the grass to weed content of my 4 acre. . Shade is the biggest hinderance to my grass but I am slowly selectively working on that. It's perfect weather now for sewing fescue here and I thought I might pick up a couple hundred pounds to scatter.

Anyway...
I have always bought the uncoated seed because I thought the thin coating was probably not worth the ~50% cut in actual seed along with a bit of added cost.

With 100# of uncoated seed you get 100# of seed. With the coated you get roughly only 50# of seed and 50# of organic coating.

Water pressure and lawn size doesn't allow for watering.

So, any thoughts?

I buy uncoated seed from a lawn seed supplier that the pros use.

You do know that this is actually NOT the ideal time to put down seed?

I’ve found out the hard way twice now that the fall is the best time, I planted a section last April/May and it looked great at first but by August was 80% dead.

Plant in late September and the grass gets established then gets through the winter then has good roots for the summer heat.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

You do know that this is actually NOT the ideal time to put down seed?

Yes... My bad I guess.
I did put out 100# last fall and it is noticeable now so I wish I had done a lot more then.
Fescue germinates best at about 70 degrees and we are there now so hopefully we have enough rainy weather still to go this spring to benefit.

I've only used a couple of lb of coated. It floats.... On my sand, the seed needs to get into the ground or it will A) die or B) run straight off. THere's 1 low spot that has a slightly different color of grass, I assume that's where all the coated seed ended up.

I've been using Tuff Turf & had good luck with sand/full sun. I have 12 pallets of bluegrass/fescue sod that is in my only barely-shade spot (covered the walkout hill we made, shop on east, house on west). Crossing my fingers I can keep enough water on it to not die in Jul/Aug.

Uncle already!...

I know it's best in fall and having plenty of other irons in the fire and not getting my seed bought yet I think now I will wait till fall again.

Thanks guys...

But if anyone has any input on my question please chime in...

Minimal temp is 45 degrees, so don't plant/seed if you expect those temps through germination. Anything below that could hinder germination if it's begun.
From what I understand the coated seed is a plus selling point. You don't need to pay for it. My neighbor is a grass seed broker. I live in the grass seed capital valley.

We use coated on a golf course I do some work for, but the purpose is to get fast germination. We want the grass to come in as quick as possible for repairs and such. The style of coated seed we use has a coating that basically absorbs water and keeps the seed moist for longer after watering. Even though we water regularly, it still makes a noticeable difference in how fast the seed sprouts. The coating doesn’t really figure into our fertilization plans much. We can add fert if we want it. Doesn’t really matter if it is pre-applied to the seed or spread separately.

- Bret