[Stonehenge]

Before my CDL driving test this week I was chatting with the instructor who does lawn seedings on the side. ( ) Anyway, he said he's a former farmer, and was putting that knowledge to work in the way he seeds lawns. He doesn't use hydromulch, hay or straw; along with the grass seed he also "sows his oats", so to speak. He says the oats work well because they come up quick, hold down the soil, and hold some moisture for the grass seed.

I even had a client last year had their septic mound seeded that way and it came in great.

Anyone else heard of this or tried it?

[HardDaysKnight]

I have never heard of or tried this but, it is interesting.
If you consider the properties of oats, it makes sense.
It will retain moisture, act as a nursing agent and it will
also help ease soil compaction to a degree.
Again, the demographic issue crops up (no pun intended).
In the Midwest and northwest this method may be
abundantly cheaper than in my northeast. A box of cheerios
sells for $4 and change. Just out of curiosity, what are the
numbers for this method?

[Stonehenge]

Hard to say what the numbers are - this guy can charge far less than we can for a lawn seeding because he doesn't have insurance, worker's comp, etc - just a guy and his tractor. Not sure of the price of oat seed. He says when it comes up it looks like turf coming up.

[Paul]

A bag of Gamma oats costs around $6 per bushel. It's used here mostly as a cover crop for prairie and wildflower seeding. We have also used it for temporary seeding of stock piles to prevent erosion. Depending on the amount of coverage needed figure on a rate of 50 lbs per acre.

[Stonehenge]

Wow - pretty reasonable.

[HardDaysKnight]

It seems to me that whatever turf seed you would employ would
have a heck of a time competing with it. If it's used for erosion
wouldn't it have an overpowering root structure. I am not a
turfologist. I'm just intrigued.

[Rex Mann]

When we lived back East, we built a house on 3-plus acres. All the soil was disturbed. My father, an old-school farmer, had me throw down oats to help prevent erosion. They came up very quick and they looked lush and green. And, they helped prevent weeds.

Peace,

Rex

PaversInstalled.Com

[Paul]

You get it growing then cut it. As far as it's life span it will last until early fall. After about August 15 you can treat it like annual grass seed.

[Pelican]

I've used what is called rye seed to start a late lawn. It resembles oats to the eye but is a different plant. It's green in 3 days, puts roots in the soil and stabilizes it. 2 weeks later the good stuff starts and the rye shades it. It's an annual grain so in the Spring nearly all of it is gone. It doesn't respond well to being cut short so the residual just fades away. I learned this from my Dad, an old farmer.

[Neal]

Annual Rye is the seed of choice here in South east for all reasons listed above, including the reasons for oats. I guess it just depends on what you can find easily. Ive found if you want to get rid of the rye just whack it down with a weedwacker when its tall and it dies. And it leaves you a nice residual mulch.

[tchilds]

I am not sure what is available down south - but we seed with a mixture of Bluegrass, Fescues and Turf type Perennial Ryegrass. The Rye will germinate in 2-5 days under optimal conditions and gives shade and cover for the soil - helping to keep weed seeds shaded and not germinate - The KBG and Fescues take 20 - 30 days to germinate but with Perennial Rye we are nurturing turfgrass as it develops and not Oats, the nutrients taken out of the soil are less an so is the moistuer - an even greater advantage is the Rye is enhanced with Endophytes so we have less of a problem with Chinch bugs and other leaf sucking insects.
All of our seeding jobs are sprayed with Kelp to speed up germination

[VoodooChile]

An excellent book on nurse crops is Managing Cover Crops Profitably, available from the Sustainable Agriculture Network, www.sare.org .

It's written for farmers but much of the information is applicable to landscaping as well. The book includes very useful charts of each cover crops advantages/disadvantages, as well as maps of which regions to use particular cover crops in.


Innovative stuff.