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Sat, Oct 22, 11 at 11:35
| We get a lot of snow over winter as well as plenty of rain come spring. A friend is planning to seed their lawn this week with the thought it will come up nicely in spring.
I'm sure it is possible, but is just something I wouldn't do- and will likely need plenty of patch ups (from both water erosion, birds and voles/mice). We have had a few hard freezes but back to mild for another 1-2 weeks... Any thoughts, tips or recommendations? Thanks! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Putting seed down in late fall or winter is known as dormant seeding. From what I have read, it is a very good way to seed a lawn, and you save water since the spring rains do most of the work. When you dormant seed you put down the seed when there is no chance is will germinate, too early can be a problem as you run the risk of getting the seed to germinate too soon. Before the first snowfall is a good time as this will prevent seed from blowing away, being swept away by rains, and as the snow melts it will work the seed into the soil. It's a bit early to dormant seed now in most of the USA, I would wait till the day before the first snow. |
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| To know whether this will work or not, we need more than zone 5/6. The zone only tells us how cold it gets at the coldest in the winter and tells us nothing about when it gets cold. Where does your friend live? |
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- Posted by gardenfanatic MO zone5b (My Page) on Sun, Oct 23, 11 at 15:02
| It depends on your soil temps. As long as the soil temp is above 50, the seed will germinate now. I'm including a link to a soil temp map. Deanna |
Here is a link that might be useful: Soil Temp Map of US
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| For a fall seeding to succeed, it's not enough that the temperature is warm enough now. It also needs to stay warm for the germination period and you want to make sure that you have 6 weeks or so before first frost so the roots can establish well enough that they don't get disturbed by frost heave with the first few frosts. I think Philadelphia is zone 6 and I'm also zone 6 (I know I put 5 in my profile, but that's because so many people think the zone means something that it doesn't). It might be possible to do a fall seeding in Philly, but we're only a week or so from dormant seeding here. |
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