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| Has anybody bought plug trays and made their own plugs from seed?
By way of explanation, a plug tray is like one of those black plastic trays of tomato, pepper, etc plants that you buy, but instead of being a few inches across and deep, they're less than an inch across and maybe an inch deep. There are 512 plugs per tray (about 10.5" x 20.5"). I'm thinking of starting a few seeds per plug and using a turf hound to make holes in the lawn to plant the plugs. I'm planting into an existing lawn, trying to get native grasses to take over from KBG/fescue. I've got a couple of sections where the natives are dominating (especially areas where broken sprinkler heads weren't discovered in a timely manner). In the areas where the traditional turf grasses haven't died, they do well enough that it's tough to get the natives seeded using a normal seeding approach. I know that I should have killed the existing lawn first, but that's past. Does it make any sense to try to make my own plugs? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by morpheuspa 6 (E PA) (My Page) on Thu, Mar 27, 08 at 7:25
| I used a standard planter to make plugs when I redid the lawn (not many, just 144 for known problem areas). I've never used a plug tray, but when I removed the plugs they weren't more than an inch deep anyway and that was all I planted. Most sprouted and grew and were eventually transplanted successfully into the new lawn where they're happily spreading out. |
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| Thanks. I think I'll give it a try. |
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| Morpheus, I thought of some more questions, since you've done this successfully. How did you determine when to plant your plugs? Did you let the grass get to a certain height first? wait until the roots started going out the bottom? Wait until the grass was looking fairly healthy? |
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- Posted by texas-weed 7A (My Page) on Sat, Mar 29, 08 at 9:27
| Just curious here; but how many of the cool season grasses spread? |
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| Just curious here; but how many of the cool season grasses spread? KBG and creeping bentgrass spread. |
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| The grasses I'm using are natives. I've used streambank and western wheatgrass, both of which spread via rhizomes and have also recently been adding in sheep fescue. The sheep fescue is a bunch grass, but it does spread via tillers. I was told by somebody at a company that specializes in native seeds that if the sheep fescue is mowed regularly, it will tiller more aggressively, and may even outcompete the wheatgrasses. The original lawn was mostly KBG and some fescue (I think K31). The KBG spreads, the fescue doesn't. As a result, it's a little tough to get the natives to do well if I provide enough water to keep the KBG healthy. I'm hoping that if I can get enough natives in the lawn to keep it somewhat green I can cut way back on the water and let the KBG die so the natives will take over. |
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- Posted by texas-weed 7A (My Page) on Sat, Mar 29, 08 at 15:01
| Actually I was asking an educated question for which I knew somewhat the answer too. BP gave the answer I was looking for. The point of asking was to make sure he did not intend to put someting like TTF or Rye and expect it to spread. |
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- Posted by morpheuspa 6 (E PA) (My Page) on Sat, Mar 29, 08 at 15:05
| How did you determine when to plant your plugs? Did you let the grass get to a certain height first? wait until the roots started going out the bottom? Wait until the grass was looking fairly healthy? I winged it. I planted them in June, which is a bit of an odd story in and of itself. I did it early because I was up that night with a tooth that was rapidly abscessing and really, anything that took my mind off the pain was a positive. It (the tooth, not the plugs) got pulled the next day. They were planted at the very end of August, so I gave them two months to grow. Without the surprise planting, I would have waited until they'd attained 2" in height and I'd "mowed" them at least once with a scissors. In a controlled, damp, well-fed environment that probably would have been four weeks after sprout, which took a while anyway. Just curious here; but how many of the cool season grasses spread? I was using KBG (Midnight II, Moonlight, and Bedazzled) which spread rapidly. It wouldn't have worked with fescue or rye, though. |
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