gooner wrote:

[....]

(I followed the recommended application rate for the seed - and even
went a bit over)


the process of seed germination in and of itself produces
heat. when two or more seeds are touching one another during
the germination the heat is usually sufficient to kill both
seeds and therefore produce nothing.

recommended application rates are the result of years of
testing done by people who are knowledgeable, skilled,
willing to follow instruction and patient enough not to
skew the results by interfering with the process.