Lawn Growth
I live in Northern NJ and I aerated, overseeded, raked my entire lawn and applied starter fertilizer all on April 12 and have been watering twice a day for 5 minutes per zone. How long should it take for the seeds to germinate and get a full lawn? Should I mow the lawn even though some sections are not fully grown? When should I change my watering to once per day with a longer time per zone?
What’s your temperature up there? Seeds don’t germinate until soil warms up–over 65 degrees. We’ve had some days over 65 here in southern Ohio, but I don’t think the soil temperature is anywhere near that yet. Neighbors have been mowing existing lawns.
You need to keep the seeds moist. The idea is to keep seeds damp. Overwatering can cause seeds to decay. New grass should be 2-3 inches before you mow. After seeds germinate and grass looks like it is getting established, cut back watering to once a day and gradually wean the watering off until you are watering deep once weekly unless it rains.
Our temps have been in the 60s and 70s occasionally.
One per week? If one zone takes 30 – 45 minutes to get about 1 inch of water in the ground, is that what I need to set my sprinkler system once a week?
Once established, lawns typically need 1-2″ of water per week. If that falls from the sky, you don’t need to water at all.
