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Is it too early to overseed
I've got 10 acres of chewed down fields (thanks to the horses and cattle last year) I'm in NJ and I was thinking of frost seeding in March. Well, its been kinda warm here this winter and Ive spoken with a couple of big time commercial landscapers, and they're throwing down seed now!
Is it too early for me to overseed my fields??? And how much seed /acre would be reccommended? I'll be using a pasture mix. Thanks!
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Is it too early to overseed
SOB1,
I am not a farmer, but I know a bit about grass. I have had great luck with putting seed down in January and February thaws, just waiting for days when the bare areas crack from thawing in the morning this makes thousands of places for the seed to fall in, making for a high germanation rate.
I have worked as a landscaper and pros start putting seed down in March all the time.
As far as this year goes the grass in NJ has not turned brown yet and may not at all this year, heck things are so weird if I loose the snow I might even have to mow it in Feruary ;o). I think this year you will want to go out as early as your machine can be used.
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Is it too early to overseed
Right now we've got a flock of around 60 Redpols that hang around the yard. These birds are ground feeders, and I'm sure they would gobble up anything that resembled grass seed. I'm not sure it's an issue, but if you've got winter birds that are ground feeders and still around, then seeding now might provide more bird food than grass in the spring. There’s probably a time between when winter birds leave and seed eating summer birds arrive that would provide more grass and less food. I don't know how grass seed could be disguised as anything other than food until thaw when it could be rolled in or something.
It is a strange year. Redpols are normally tundra birds that barely go south in the winter. We're within their year round range, but we've never seen them in such numbers. It's been a long time since seen snow has been seen in such short supply as well
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Is it too early to overseed
When best to seed is based on locality and the resultant soil temperature. You may successfully sed in NJ a month or six weeks before we can in Maine. The real criteria are soil temperature and germination %. As a landscaper, I shoot for soil temp above 55* which is about the time the forsythia bloom. Colder than that and some seed will be wasted that would come forth in warmer soil. Also contractors may be anxious to finish off a project to get paid and be willing to waste seed. They may use more cheap annual rye to get a quick greenup. When you are buying pasture mix, you'll pay quite a bit more than a contractor mix per pound and "extra seeding" at too early a time probably isn't the best use of youre time and money. Also, if your crop is intended for horses, I'd recommend staying away from Aslike Clover as it causes digestive problems in horses.
As with many things in life, patience is a well rewarded virtue.
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Is it too early to overseed
Sob,
Just wondering if you seeded early or not and what kind of results you got?
Dennis
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Is it too early to overseed
if you have a choice of when to seed, you should seed in fall as far as our region goes, i am just across the river in pa. in spring in a worst case scenario you are lucky if 33% of the new grass will survive the summer recess, unless you have and are aloud to use an irrigation system.
the plant in spring develops as fast as possible a leaf and the root system is very rudimentary, if now we have another dry summer like last year, that plant will have a hard time to survive.
fall seeding of grass is much better, the plant now has time all winter to develop a good root system. if ever possible keep all traffic of the new seedlings during the winter. the grass may look dead to you but it will get injured and slow down the winter growth.
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