Slit Seeding
An Excellent Way to Introduce New Robust Cultivars of Grass to Your Lawn!
Slit seeding is accomplished with a machine that slices rows into your lawn and drops seed into the slits. The knives are designed to slice into the lawn rather than rip out thatch. This reduces the damage to the lawn, leaving the lawn relatively undamaged. There is still a small amount of thatch torn up during the process.
Required After Care for Slit Seeding
Grass seed requires moist soil to germinate into grass plants. It can take up to a month for new seed to germinate and get established. A newly seeded lawn needs to be watered daily in order to ensure good establishment. The newly germinated seeds have tiny, shallow roots and will die quickly if the water supply runs out. Light irrigation (1 cm of water) daily is required especially in our dry climate. Avoid heavy irrigation as this can result in pooling of the water, erosion, and leaching of valuable nutrients below the root zone.
Important Note:
Seeding a lawn can take up to a full season to show a significant difference in density as it can take that long for the new grass plants to develop rhizomes and spread into sparse areas.
Here are a few things to know about our professional slit seeding service.
- We only use premium certified grass seed.
- The seed is customized to your requirements in order to address problems like disease, insects or poor color.
- We strongly recommend aeration prior to the slit seeding. This helps break up the thatch layer, reduce soil compaction and allow for better seed-to-soil contact.
- Starter fertilizers will be applied to ensure fast root establishment of the newly germinated seeds.
- We also recommend our Organics Plus Topdressing to further enhance seed establishment. The topdressing supplies a broad range of micronutrients and also acts as a mulch.
- We offer slit seeding, topdressing, and aeration together as a Lawn Rejuvenation package.
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What is Overseeding?
Overseeding is very similar to slit seeding. The difference is that over seeding involves broadcasting the seed with a rotary spreader instead of dropping it with a slit seeder. Overseeding alone is not as effective as slit seeding, but it can be a significant benefit for lawns that are not heavily damaged as a maintenance practice rather than to repair a significantly damaged lawn. It introduces young grass plants helping the lawn to become more insect and disease resistant. Overseeding also helps replace grass plants that have died off from summer drought or insect damage and helps thicken up the lawn over the course of two or three seasons.
What to Do To Ensure Good Seed Establishment
Maintain good soil moisture for the first four weeks. It is important to keep the soil moist because the tiny roots of the newly germinated grass seeds are shallow and they can quickly dry out and die. This means watering the newly seeded areas lightly each morning for four weeks. After four weeks the lawn can be watered like a mature lawn. For more information on watering click here.Wait until the lawn is to 4-4 ½ inches high before cutting. Ensure that your mower blade is sharp and only mow when the lawn is dry. Be gentle for the first few mowings. Take corners carefully and mow before watering (when the soil is relatively dry). Mowing a lawn that has wet soil can compact the soil and inhibit proper root establishment. Walking a mower over a soft wet soil can also rip roots and rut the soil.
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