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#1
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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? |
#2
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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. |
#3
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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. |
#4
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"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? |
#5
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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? |
#6
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Winston Smith wrote:
If I remember correctly it's a mixture of rye, fescue, and some other seeds. pasture... |
#7
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"Winston Smith" wrote in message news:KFkme.9379$tv3.2535@trnddc06... Has anybody else ever done this? Last year, I repaired a large portion of my lawn after extensive excavation work was done on my property. A friend told me to brew a strong tea from 10 teabags and combine it in a five gallon bucket with grass seed and enough tap water to make it mushy. I filled the bucket up with this mixture and let it sit overnight in the garage. The next mooring I could see that some the seeds had already sprouted. I spread the seed by hand, breaking up the clumps of wet seed as I went. I over seeded this with a little dry seed and raked it over. I watered it faithfully. In less than a week I had grass growing! According to my buddy, the tannic acid in the tea breaks down the hulls of the seed and allows the germination to begin at a faster rate. I was very surprised to see how well it actually worked. I was just wondering if this is common knowledge or am I onto something new here? I've never used the tea but I have soaked the seed to get it started. I did it at work with ~ 40# of athletic turf seed. Soaked it and left it in the sack, draining, at the end of a work day to get started the next morning. Supervisor took me off that task to do something else. Returned to the task the next day and the seed was uselessly entangled with roots. Once nature gets going there's no stopping it. -- Tom |
#8
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And what's your point?
"G Henslee" wrote in message ... Winston Smith wrote: If I remember correctly it's a mixture of rye, fescue, and some other seeds. pasture... |
#9
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I was suspecting that any liquid, nontoxic, of course, would get germination
going. But as Tom points out, it needs to be planted once it starts to sprout! Suzy, Zone 5, Wisconsin "- Tom -" wrote in message news:Hiqme.5211$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 |
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