Seeding a New Lawn - Neat Trick
 

Has anybody else ever done this?

Last year, I repaired a large portion of my lawn after extensive excavation
work was done on my property. A friend told me to brew a strong tea from 10
teabags and combine it in a five gallon bucket with grass seed and enough
tap water to make it mushy. I filled the bucket up with this mixture and
let it sit overnight in the garage. The next mooring I could see that some
the seeds had already sprouted. I spread the seed by hand, breaking up the
clumps of wet seed as I went. I over seeded this with a little dry seed and
raked it over. I watered it faithfully. In less than a week I had grass
growing!

According to my buddy, the tannic acid in the tea breaks down the hulls of
the seed and allows the germination to begin at a faster rate. I was very
surprised to see how well it actually worked. I was just wondering if this
is common knowledge or am I onto something new here?

On 29/05/2005 10:51 AM Winston Smith wrote:
Has anybody else ever done this?

Last year, I repaired a large portion of my lawn after extensive excavation
work was done on my property. A friend told me to brew a strong tea from 10
teabags and combine it in a five gallon bucket with grass seed and enough
tap water to make it mushy. I filled the bucket up with this mixture and
let it sit overnight in the garage. The next mooring I could see that some
the seeds had already sprouted. I spread the seed by hand, breaking up the
clumps of wet seed as I went. I over seeded this with a little dry seed and
raked it over. I watered it faithfully. In less than a week I had grass
growing!

According to my buddy, the tannic acid in the tea breaks down the hulls of
the seed and allows the germination to begin at a faster rate. I was very
surprised to see how well it actually worked. I was just wondering if this
is common knowledge or am I onto something new here?



What kind of tea did you use? I may give this a try.

Just plain old tea like Lipton or Red Rose tea. Oh, I forgot to mention I
used a "starter seed" also raked in some "starter fertilizer" along with it.

What kind of tea did you use? I may give this a try.

"Winston Smith" wrote:
Just plain old tea like Lipton or Red Rose tea. Oh, I forgot to mention
I used a "starter seed" also

What's a starter seed?

If I remember correctly it's a mixture of rye, fescue, and some other seeds.
Maybe it's called "landscape mixture". I really can't remember. The bag
is out in my shed. I'll take a look the next time I'm working outside. I'm
obviously not a pro at this. I'm just thankful that I was able to grow some
grass. The tea helped speed up the process and insure some measure of
success. I need all the help I can get.

"Steveo" wrote in message
...
"Winston Smith" wrote:
Just plain old tea like Lipton or Red Rose tea. Oh, I forgot to mention
I used a "starter seed" also

What's a starter seed?

Winston Smith wrote:
If I remember correctly it's a mixture of rye, fescue, and some other seeds.


pasture...

"Winston Smith" wrote in message
news:KFkme.9379$tv3.2535@trnddc06...
Has anybody else ever done this?

Last year, I repaired a large portion of my lawn after extensive
excavation work was done on my property. A friend told me to brew a
strong tea from 10 teabags and combine it in a five gallon bucket with
grass seed and enough tap water to make it mushy. I filled the bucket up
with this mixture and let it sit overnight in the garage. The next
mooring I could see that some the seeds had already sprouted. I spread
the seed by hand, breaking up the clumps of wet seed as I went. I over
seeded this with a little dry seed and raked it over. I watered it
faithfully. In less than a week I had grass growing!

According to my buddy, the tannic acid in the tea breaks down the hulls of
the seed and allows the germination to begin at a faster rate. I was very
surprised to see how well it actually worked. I was just wondering if
this is common knowledge or am I onto something new here?



I've never used the tea but I have soaked the seed to get it started. I
did it at work with ~ 40# of athletic turf seed. Soaked it and left it in
the sack, draining, at the end of a work day to get started the next
morning. Supervisor took me off that task to do something else. Returned to
the task the next day and the seed was uselessly entangled with roots.
Once nature gets going there's no stopping it.

--
Tom

And what's your point?

"G Henslee" wrote in message
...
Winston Smith wrote:
If I remember correctly it's a mixture of rye, fescue, and some other
seeds.


pasture...

I was suspecting that any liquid, nontoxic, of course, would get germination
going. But as Tom points out, it needs to be planted once it starts to
sprout!

Suzy, Zone 5, Wisconsin
"- Tom -" wrote in message
news:Hiqme.5211$Ub.1962@trndny09...

"Winston Smith" wrote in message
news:KFkme.9379$tv3.2535@trnddc06...
Has anybody else ever done this?

Last year, I repaired a large portion of my lawn after extensive
excavation work was done on my property. A friend told me to brew a
strong tea from 10 teabags and combine it in a five gallon bucket with
grass seed and enough tap water to make it mushy. I filled the bucket up
with this mixture and let it sit overnight in the garage. The next
mooring I could see that some the seeds had already sprouted. I spread
the seed by hand, breaking up the clumps of wet seed as I went. I over
seeded this with a little dry seed and raked it over. I watered it
faithfully. In less than a week I had grass growing!

According to my buddy, the tannic acid in the tea breaks down the hulls
of
the seed and allows the germination to begin at a faster rate. I was
very
surprised to see how well it actually worked. I was just wondering if
this is common knowledge or am I onto something new here?



I've never used the tea but I have soaked the seed to get it started. I
did it at work with ~ 40# of athletic turf seed. Soaked it and left it in
the sack, draining, at the end of a work day to get started the next
morning. Supervisor took me off that task to do something else. Returned
to
the task the next day and the seed was uselessly entangled with roots.
Once nature gets going there's no stopping it.

--
Tom