Knowledgebase
Patchy Germination #811671
Asked September 21, 2022, 12:49 PM EDT
St. Mary's County Maryland
Expert Response
It can take up to four weeks to know if your seeding is successful, so you need to wait another 2-3 weeks to know your results.
We agree that your tilling did not mix the soil in a uniform way. Perhaps the lighter areas are sandy? Clay is not a bad thing as it holds water well and can be enriched with compost additions.
Since the soil didn't mix uniformly, it can lead to some areas having a more moist and rich soil bed, which will cause the seed to germinate faster.
That doesn't mean that the other areas won't sprout, as long as the seed is kept moist for the entire germination period. Once seed is moistened, it needs to stay that way or it will die.
Germination doesn't rely on sunlight so that is not a factor.
In the future, we wouldn't recommend top- dressing with peat moss. Peat moss comes out of the package very dry and is (or can become over dry periods) hydrophobic where it repels water and is difficult to re-wet again.
Christine
Ok thanks! So just to be clear, the same cultivar of seed can take 1-4 weeks to germinate, depending on various conditions?
Also, I was wondering, because I was only tilling the first 2" of soil and adding only about a 1/4" of compost/manure, would it have been better to not till in the compost/manure so it could be distributed evenly? Maybe even just use it as a top dressing after putting the seeds down if peat moss peat moss is not recommended?
Thanks!
Eddie
No, the tilling was a good thing to mix in the amendments. We are not sure why it didn't mix it evenly, unless the peat addition later affected things.
Christine
Thanks Christine! I had another area of grass I was renovating and didn't want to make the same mistakes twice. This time I tilled it in better and raked in the seeds better since I didn't use Peat Moss. Fingers crossed it goes better!
Thanks again for all the advice!
Eddie