Hydroseeding is a great alternative when your target is to transform vast lawns into a Lawn-landscape of your desire.
Into finer details, hydroseeding involves the preparation of a mixture composed of water, mulch, and the seeds of your desired type of grass. The ready mix is referred to as the slurry, which a unique sprayer sprays over the lawns you require to plant on.
You may have everything in place, but a little bit of effort will ensure that you get the best lawn through hydroseeding. What is the best time to hydroseed your lawns? Knowing the timing is a great way to help you get everything in order, leaving nothing to chances.
Best Time/Seasons to Hydroseed
The best times of the year to hydroseed are between the start of fall and all through spring. It’s best if done earlier-late into fall and early into spring.
Why are those times best?
Both seasons have a cooler temperature, and if your germination happens early into spring, your lawn-grass will experience fast growth. The seasons are also heavy on soil moisture, which is best for germination.
Summers would be terrible with the dryness and most probably require heavy watering
Hydroseeding suits the fall-spring schedule with an excellent duration of six-weeks temperature averaging 650F and 750F. Either way, winters, and summers present temperatures outside the band, and way too harsh for germination.
Watch out for the germination. 5-7 days into your hydroseeding, the germination should start. For a young lawn, you require more care than it would require for a fully grown lawn.
Preparation of Lawns before Hydroseeding
It is vital to prepare your soil adequately and ahead of time before you consider the actual planting by the hydroseeding method. Lawn soil preparation is a critical phase if you are to get the best results. Bear in mind that you are investing for the years, not months.
First, if your target land has vegetation, boulders, or other obstacles, plan to clear that up way ahead before considering the digging. The fundamental requirement is to break up the soil surface and allow it to aerate freely.
Digging helps mix up the topsoil while it also allows it to re-bond with the subsoil layers. Eventfully, that balances retention and drainage capabilities. More so, it also reduces the instances of soil erosion.
Small lawns are okay with you double-digging and using a hoe or mattock, and rake-off plants remain construction debris and rocks. A range of 5 inches beneath the soil’s surface is adequate while doing it manually.
Raking:
Small, medium or partial raking is easy to do manually. More extensive lawns may require you to bring in a power-rake to help you out. While raking, grade out the prospective lawn section evenly, resolving ditches, burrows, and rest of obstacles.
Similarly, for vast lawns plowing and harrowing would help a great deal to break up the soil particles.
Pro Tips:
- Lawn grass seeds are tiny, and any sizeable obstruction lowers critical factor: One is the evenness of seed distribution over the lawn, and second is the germination rate of the lawn grass seeds.
- Soil aeration is a critical factor to germination across all plants seedling, and lawn grass is no exception. The deep-digging and raking help aerate the top-crust, especially at the led times towards the germination of your lawn seeds.
- Human activities such as constructions may densely compact the soils on the exact grounds you plant to convert into lawns. Meaning, good soils have no debris, but unfortunately, too hard for adequate aeration and penetration of the rooting systems. The hard and poorly aerated soil layers could trigger other unfavorable conditions like water-logging and, eventually, reduced soil PH levels for your lawn grass growth.
- Some soils are naturally deficient, with thin or even non-existent quality topsoil’s. That should not hinder you from doing vast lawns. You can import better quality soils and spread them over the same areas. On a global scale, 6 inches of quality topsoil is adequate for lawn grass.
- Poor soils need improving ahead of planting the lawn grass by applying compost manures and even allowing then to lay idle for a season or two
Lawn Site Preparations- Before Hydroseeding
1. Soil Tests
Well, soil testing isn’t an activity with a limitation for food-crops. If you want a great lawn, take into consideration testing your soils. Agricultural and general laboratory practitioners can help carry out tests onsite. Better still, you can scoop samples from your prospective lawn locations and present them to the laboratories for testing.
Soil tests help you know the exact nutrient level there is in the soil. Tentatively helping you figure out if the land can support the nutritional requirements of the lawn-grass variety you are planning to grow.
Soil lab-test results also help you know the PH levels of your soil. The professionals can then help you by guiding you to improve the PH levels to suit the growth of the lawn-grass. Understanding the alkalinity or acidity levels of the soil upfront gives you an edge. You can start the gradual application of the agents to bring it to the desired PH level.
Pro Tips:
Whenever your spread of new soil exceeds 3,” compact the soil mildly using a lawn roller with 30% of the tank with water. You’ll notice any spots that require you to add more soil to make a very level for your seeding.
The mild compacting allows the seed distribution by hydroseeding to have the advantage of biding with the soil adequately.
Rule of the thumb with mild competition guides: you should be able to plug in your index finger into the soil- two knuckles comfortably.
2. Hydroseeding Equipment
There is a host of equipment to help you carry out hydroseeding effectively. For medium requirements, a portable one should be adequate, especially for a  moderate size lawn.
Golf courses and stadiums are the best hydroseeding by a special truck customized for the same task. Look out for local vendors hiring out the equipment and consider calling them right when you need their services most.
Reasons for Hydroseeding
These are the key reasons for you to consider hydroseeding:
- For one, if your planting area is large, consider hydroseeding. Your task of planting over a large area should complete in a record short time.
- Â Secondly, if your lawn is within sloping landscapes, tractors and other machinery won’t be effective enough. Hydroseeding achieves an even seeding, which will help you by minimizing activities that eventually cause soil erosion and degradation. The planting itself allows lawn owners to do it together with fertilizers.
-  Third, hydroseeding helps you cover vast areas with lesser but adequate seed distribution. It’s a feat that is challenging via machinery or hand planting.
Conclusion
Hydroseeding is an appropriate and technologically apt model for planting your seeds on lawns with broad coverage, and it works within a short time.
Hydroseeding achieves even germination with higher rates bolstered by the infusion of mulch, which helps hold moisture around the tiny and delicate seeds. Users witness germination after a record five days and tentatively start mowing within the 3rd or 4th week.
Enthusiastic gardeners should not stop at anything. Their best plan is to hydroseed their lawns in late fall or early spring as the best times for best germination rates for their lawn-grass.
