Transition from Summer Seeding to Fall Seeding

 Summer Field Growth

Here you can see the new grass from what was planted in August. There are 2 separate plots shown here. By planting smaller areas in the Summer I am able to apply water in order to speed the growth of the grass.

Fall Seeding- September 20

There is no difference in the process in transitioning from Summer to Fall Seeding. I still use the CDPR, or Cultivate, Disc, Plant, Roll Process to seed the property. The tractor is shown here with the one cultivator. 

The goal of cultivation is to break the surface of the ground down to about 2 or 3 inches. You can see here that cultivation will result in large clumps.

The clumps are then broken up using discs. Keep in mind that my property is rather small, and the tractor was here on site when I bought the farm. So this is what I have and it is adequate to do everything I need. That being said, I would love to have a 30HP tractor, but don't want to spend the money. If you have over 10 acres, you would need the additional Horse Power. Again the disc set which I use is rather small, but it works for me and It gets the job done.

The discs are used to break the clumps into fine powder and mostly pea sized clumps. Some larger clumps will remain, but you want the field to be mostly finely broken. Once this is done I spread the seed and a light layer of fertilizer. At this point I want to be careful to not over fertilize, or you could 'burn' the seed. 

For the final step in this process the seed is packed. I use this old lawn roller to pack the seed into the finely broken soil. This sets the seed into the ground for quick germination and rooting.

You can see the tractor loaded here with all of the gear to get the job done. I have found that the chest mount spreader works best on my property. Again, I don't want to spend $600 on a 3 point cone spreader. If I were working larger plots of ground the cone spreader would be a necessity.

Finally shown here is the packed ground. Some looser furrows still remain where the teeth of the cultivator ran through the ground. These are usually the first areas to sprout grass. Filling in the packed areas later.

The main difference in the Fall process over Summer seeding is that I will not be applying water in the fall. The reasoning behind this is that the cooler nighttime temperatures will slow the germination process, so it will be better to allow the seed to germinate naturally, some remaining dormant in the ground for a longer time.