Germination!

It's always with such great joy that I anticipate and finally get to see those little tiny grasslings making their entrance into the world - it's truly amazing!

Looks like I put a bit too much seed here :)

Coming up amidst what's left of the creeping bentgrass.

I planted on 9/2 and I actually saw a few seeds that had germinated yesterday, so that is only 6 days!

It probably helps that I've been watering. My schedule has been 3 times a day for 5 minutes each time (at 7am, 11:30am, and 3pm). This has probably been a bit too much for some areas of the lawn, and I think I'll cut back on it soon, perhaps down to 3-4 minutes each time, and/or down to twice day, especially as the days get cooler.

This makes for my 5th grass seed planting project since 2010 (fall 2010, fall 2011, spring 2012, fall 2012) - a very small project compared to some of those. You might think I have some sort of addition... but really I just don't have a clue what I'm doing. It's fun trying to learn, though (most of the time).

Backyard Lawn Update

I covered the front lawn in my previous post, now on to the backyard. Considering how the lawn looked after last year, I had no idea what to expect this spring, but my expectations where low. Well, I must say that I'm impressed! Still far from perfect, it's at least somewhat beginning to look like a lawn again!

I think this area will need some love this fall.

Another sparse area.

Kinda looks lawnish!

Utter barefoot bliss. This patch is the best!

Another area that needs some love.

I transplanted this patch by the brick in order to help
prevent erosion in this area during heavy rain. Need to
transplant some more.

And this is my favorite surprise. I noticed these little grasslings coming up in some of the bare areas throughout the lawn. While I'm not certain (yet), I think that these were actually from seed heads of the grass from when I mowed it last. It was seeding at the time and I wondered it it might be possible for those seeds to survive and germinate. I think some did!

New grasslings sprouting in a bare area!

Now that I'm aware I'm going to try to keep the lawn well watered and hope these little guys can survive the summer! I'll note that not all bare areas had so many sprouting, but I did see some in other areas of the lawn. It'll be interesting to see how things progress; perhaps there are more seeds that haven't germinated yet.

Germination!

I looked today and sure enough I saw many young little grasslings sprouting in most of the areas that I put down seed. Sorry, no photos (not much to see anyway unless you're really close)! So that means it took about 1 week since I planted - not bad!

We have germination

With the extraordinarily warm weather we've been having, I'm not at all surprised to see my "dormant" seeding quickly germinate. I saw the first evidence as early as March 16th (11 days after planting):

And, even more so on the 18th:

And a lot more so today:

This is pretty impressive considering that last year I planted on this date and germination didn't occur until April 9th. The weather has been very unusual this year with record-setting early warmth, so I'm very much hoping that we don't have a late hard freeze.

What else am I growing??

I have noticed this other "grass" growing in some of the newly seeded areas. In fact, there was some in the picture I posted the other day.

Up until now I have assumed that it was just leftover grass that I missed when I sprayed with RoundUp. But there is quite a bit of it and I couldn't believe that much could have survived what looked so utterly dead. Frankly, I'm a bit upset about it since it looks similar to the grass I was trying to kill in the first place - could it possibly have survived RoundUp?? I wondered. So today I took a closer look to see if perhaps I could ID it and what I found was rather peculiar. Look closely:

See it? How about in this photo of some I pulled up?

That's right, it's the straw. I am also growing straw. It's only growing in the areas where I put down straw.

So what is it really? I'm not total sure. I'm waiting for a call back from the place I purchased it, but it sure looks to me like wheat.

As long as it's not perennial and doesn't produce any more seeds, I don't think it'll be a problem. The odd thing is that I used straw from the same place earlier this year and I don't recall this happening, but perhaps conditions weren't good for germination at that time of the year. Though, I do remember noticing that the seedheads appeared to be void of seeds.

I guess I'll need to find a new source for my future straw needs.

Well that didn't take long

I couldn't believe my eyes yesterday when I looked closely at the ground in the backyard and found that little blades of young grasslings were sprouting from the soil! Not knowing how long it takes for supina bluegrass to germinate, I just assumed that germinates quickly. However, to my further surprise I discovered that the Kentucky bluegrass in the front yard was germinating as well! It took seven days and perhaps even less than that since I didn't look closely until yesterday. I was expecting a 2-3 week wait!

Curious, I emailed seedsuperstore.com to ask if that was normal and I got this reply back within an hour:

The legal germination time for bluegrass is 28 days. This is the amount of time a seed analyst will wait before taking a germination count.
For spring planting in relatively cold soil, bluegrass can take 3-4 weeks to sprout.
This time of year, with warm soils and warm nights, it is not unusual to see bluegrass sprout in 7-10 days.

Very interesting!

Grass is germinating

The grass seed that I planted in the backyard on March 20th is finally beginning to germinate - after about 18 days. I was thinking that it might happen later due to the cooler weather we experienced until about the end of March, but apparently that didn't make much difference.

Baby grass.

I never did get around to fertilizing it. I considered doing it today, but decided against it since I was afraid that it might be too much. I fertilized it in the fall and that should be enough Nitrogen for the whole year, but there was no Phosphorus in it. Perhaps I'll do it, but in a smaller dose than the recommended 1.5 lbs per 1000 sq ft. I'm just not sure what to do.

I also mowed today for the first time this year. In the backyard I mowed low at approximately 1.5" to allow the newly planted grass to get more sunlight. I mowed the front yard at about 3". The new grass in the front yard is still looking thin, but I think there has been some improvement. I've been wondering if it might be a good idea to fertilize it with some starter fertilizer since it didn't get much phosphorus last year.

Today, I sprayed Ortho Weed B Gon all over the weeds that have been competing with the new grass in the front yard. The weeds have grown quite happily since I last posted about it. This is my first attempt at addressing them; I think I shouldn't have waited, but we'll see if this works.

Additionally, it is getting to be time to apply a preemergent herbicide for crabgrass; in fact, it is time. According to the Control of Crabgrass in Homelawns Purdue Turfgrass Program publication, the average crabgrass germination date is April 21st in central Indiana and preemergent herbicide should be applied at least 2 weeks before this date. This will be going on my "to do" list for tomorrow. A note to remember for next year from the publication:

Purdue research has shown that these herbicides can be applied as early as March 1 and still be effective all season.

Hopefully I haven't missed the opportunity!