On Tuesday, June 3, 2014 1:10:46 PM UTC-4, SteveB wrote:
On 6/2/2014 6:49 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:

Last fall they dug up a section of our front lawn to replace the gas

service. This winter the town plow did its usual fine job of tearing up the

front 6 feet of our lawn near the road. A contractor for the utility came

by a few weeks ago, raked it all out, added some top soil and hydroseeded

the area. We're talking about roughly 1000 sq ft. Everything was done to my

satisfaction - other than the hydroseeding.



After about 10 days of twice-a-day watering, it is readily apparent that

they applied the hydroseed very unevenly. There are bare spots and thin

spots all across the area they "fixed". I now have to add seed to fill it

in. The new grass is about 3" tall, almost ready to be mowed, but I now

have to over seed most of the same area.



What's the best way to fix this? Seed and keep watering twice a day even

though I won't be able to mow? Can I use starter fertilizer or will that

hurt the grass that has already come in? Should I care about the existing

new grass or should I just seed and fertilize as if it was bare?



Since the roots can't be too deep I guess I could just rake it all under

and start over, letting the existing thin grass feed the new seed. Good

idea, bad idea or waste of time?





Mow it all. Have them spray more where it is thin. Avoid overwatering,

particularly now when the roots aren't that long.

It's when you're trying to establish a lawn and it
has little or no roots that you need to water it the
most. If it's 80F out, probably 3 times a day to keep it
constantly wet. Around noon, then 3PM, then 10PM is what
I typically do. It doesn't have to be watered deeply, but
you need to keep the top 1/2" or so wet. He said they
seeded it 3 weeks ago and it takes a week for fescue, 3 weeks,
maybe more for bluegrass to germinate. After that you can
start to back off the watering frequency, but water longer
each time.



I had to cut a plug

out of a newly laid sod yard for a bird bath. It was less than a month

old. Roots were already down 12 - 18 inches!

There is a big difference in sod, which is a mature grass plant
and starting a lawn from seed. I've never seen turf grass with roots
12 - 18 deep, but I guess it's possible.

Another problem he's likely up against is that when the town does
the seeding after a repair, they typically use cheap, contractor
type grass seed that isn't what you'd want for a nice lawn. They
are more concerned about cost, how fast it grows, can it establish
with min water from just rain, etc, as opposed to what kind of
quality lawn it makes.



I would put a light

application of fertilizer on it. Talk to the geek at the nursery (I

usually ask for the owner) and explain your situation. He can recommend

the proper 0-0-0 (fill in the numbers) fertilizer for your lawn at this

stage. If you have to, get in there with your weed wacker, and thin out

the tall stuff. Rake up the cuttings so it won't cause patterns on the

underlying grass.



They did it, they should fix it.



Steve