Starting a lawn from scratch with fescue seed (Georgia, back section is slopped). After extensive prep work, seeding and light hay dusting, a heavy rain became forecasted. From fear of losing the seed after all that work, I bought more hay and put a heavy layer of hay down (in retrospect probably a mistake).

After the heavy rain (and it was heavy) tried to go back a few days later and thin the hay by using my blower. 3 weeks later, I'm seeing decent germination, but definitely spotty and not full.

Where do I go from here? Tonight I raked 1/4 of the yard, lightly at first and then harder. There's a good bit of hay all mushed into the soil, even where there is grass. Raking obviously pulled up some of the germinating grass, but not all. The thinking was I'll see if removing hay will allow more seed to pop through.

Will give an update in a couple days (once I see if the raked area gets more full) but I'm running out of time and am curious if yall think ultimately I need to redo ( "hard rake", completely reseed) or if more grass is still gonna appear and I will be able to spot reseed.

My main question is about hay being mushed into the soil and if this is a red flag, expected, or not a big deal.

Thanks and sorry so long winded.

In my personal case of overseeding last year with a fescue blend I had great results with freezing and thawing my seed prior to putting on the lawn. I'd have to dig up my old thread but I think I had germination in something like 3-4 days.

Whatever you do, get new seed down ASAP. I'd love to be in your situation right now. I'm in the same situation (spotty due to all the rain), but I'm planting KGB, and I just don't have the 2-3 weeks to wait JUST for germination.

Goodluck.

#1- In your opinnion, when raking like you suggest, should I be sure to rake up even the hay that has kinda become part of the soil at this point? What I mean is, there's kind of two layers of hay. One on the surface that a light rake can get, and another that's embedded in the soil. Raking the second layer (which isn't ridiculously thick btw) would allow complete soil contact for the new seed, but requires more elbow grease and comes at the expense of removing some of the already germinating grass (but not all).

#2- I've heard of this freezing/thawing process before. Just freeze the seed overnight, thaw for 5 hours and disperse seed? Or do I throw it down frozen and let it thaw on the ground?

Finally, I have a roller. Would you suggest using that in my situation? Perhaps if I only rake the top layer of hay and not the second, I could roll? Anyhow, thanks so much for your response. Very helpful!

#2, Freeze for a couple hours (or overnight), let thaw to room temperature in the seed bag (or other closed bag), and then apply as you normally would. It is very important to thaw keeping the seed away from constant air flow as moisture will build up and make the seed hard to spred (think of a cold glass of water on a warm day). If you can get away with not walking much on the lawn that would be preferrable, but I know it's difficult depending on the dimensions. They sell small broadcast spreaders that you operate by hand that would be perfect if you have a narrow lawn. If just patchy in a couple places you could seed by hand.

Again because of your situation a roller would not be advisable. You have to sacrifice great seed/soil contact for the good of the existing grass. I would at the minimum water the area well a couple times to at least get the seed somewhat in contact with the soil, and if it's feasable to maybe put a VERY thin layer of something like peat moss down before watering in (which is extremely fine and easy to spread thinly when dry).

Goodluck

BTW, I went back and read about your KBG situation. There was a long thread on that which had some helpful things in there. How did that turn out?

Thanks again!

So I'm going to try to weather the winter using a combination of anti-rain/frost dance and if needed use some form of erosion-retainer (straw/netting) if it doesn't fill in a bit.

Good news for me is KGB will creep and fill in, but I think it's a bit much to ask a single blade to fill in a foot section over the winter. :)

Good luck and thanks for your help.

Our 10 day forecast still shows no risk of a frost which is really good. I was able to successfully rake the vast majority of the hay while still retaining most of the grass. After a moderate seeding and light watering, I spread some peat moss like you suggested.

Last night and basically all day today we've had this wonderful misting rain that is probably exactly what the seed wants. Your last couple a posts were a good reminder that germinating seed doesn't like to be walked on, which I needed to hear again. Thanks so much for your help. I was kinda freaking myself out and all your advice got me back on track.