New lawn planted .... hay Issues????

mrships380

New member
We planted 10,000 sq. feet of grass in April, 2012. Soil, seed, hay and plastic netting. Seed wasn’t growing in many areas and believe it’s because there’s too much/or clumps of hay. Did the plastic which held the hay tight to the soil kill the seed or is it something else?
Appreciate your thoughts. God bless
 

Doc

Admin
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
I'll guess it was the clumps or that the soil was to tough and not roughed up enough for the grass to germinate and take hold. the plastic should have done a great job of holding the straw in place, which would then help with holding water for the grass.

One member here puts a thin layer of plastic over his seeded area (much smaller area no doubt) ...and then lets the sun heat it up like a terrarium. he would lift up the plastic to water and put it back in place after watering. he had great success with this method. Pics of his yard looked great. Maybe he'll chime in here if he see's this post.
 

bczoom

Senior Member
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
One member here puts a thin layer of plastic over his seeded area (much smaller area no doubt) ...and then lets the sun heat it up like a terrarium. he would lift up the plastic to water and put it back in place after watering. he had great success with this method. Pics of his yard looked great. Maybe he'll chime in here if he see's this post.
Hey, I think that's me. :)

You said plastic netting. Is it netting or a plastic sheet?

Yes, any clumps of hay/straw will cause issues. When you spread it around, in general, you should be able to almost see through the hay to the ground. The purpose is just to hold moisture.

How long was the cover (hay and plastic) on the new seed? Depending on climate, I pull the plastic after no longer then 2 weeks. At that point, I water with hose or sprinkler as needed. The hay/straw is normally left in place and I just mow it under or it biodegrades.

BTW, if you used hay instead of straw, you picked up some seed from it. Plan on eventually having to kill that off.

Now before you think you messed it up, spots with lack of seed are somewhat normal in a new area. It's common to have to over-seed the area for a couple years to get it to fill in fully.
 

bordercollie

Gold Site Supporter
Gold Site Supporter
Hi and welcome. We have used a good product for erosion control that has worked real well. It is biodegradable and made with 2 pieces of netting and hay pieces thinly sandwiched in between the 2. What we did was smooth out the lumps in the dirt and then broadcast the seed. In our case it was rye grass on sloped areas that went to a creek or pond. Then we rolled this mesh netting out and pinned it to the earth using long "staples" similar to strong coat hanger pieces (5 or 6 inches long) . Once the soil had enough moisture, the grass grew through the netting and took over . The netting will rot . It has done an excellent job and we had great grass growing. The hay that was dispersed in between the netting only blocked out like a fraction of the light so maybe 50%. It still held in moisture though. To apply and hammer in those staples, you need a pair of knee pads and a 2lb hammer in hard soil.
I think thick hay will smother out grass seed to some degree that is why we went with this method. The hay on this netting we used- you could "almost" read a newspaper through. bordercollie
 
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