Overseed? Re-Seed?

[JLoaf]

About 10 years ago I was living at a different house, I tilled an area of my yard and seeded with burmuda and centipede grass. The burmuda came up the 1st year and the next year centipede took over.
In my experience, centipede is better turf grass. It's seems to choke out weeds better, does well in sun or shade, and is more drought tolerant.

My lawn now is burmuda and I would like to have centipede grass.
I would rather not re-sod or till the yard.
Is there an attachment that will allow me to get centipede seed into my existing lawn without tearing it up?

 

[Farmwithjunk]

It's called a "slit seeder". (power seeder) I believe Landpride sells one, but I may be all wrong there. Toro makes one that's popular with the golf course people. It uses a series of "saw blade" looking wheels to make a slight cut in the turf, then drops seed in the cut. A press wheel firms soil over the seeded cut.

There are also smaller walk-behind models. In this area, Home Depot rents them.

 

[Billy_S]

As FWJ said, a slit-seeder is what you want, but I would do it in the fall.

 

[JLoaf]

Thanks for the info. I think a "slit-seeder" is exactly what I need.

 

[LoneCowboy]

It's not going to be cheap

Look into renting one.

 

[redlevel]

I'm surprised that anything would choke out common bermuda. Around here, just the opposite is true. People will have a nice centipede yard, and before they know it, it will be choked out by bermuda.

 

[JLoaf]

I've talked to several people that have seeded a combination of bermuda and centipede. Bermuda comes up faster and stabilizes the soil to allow the centipede seed to slowly germinate and take root.
I don't know if it is a good idea for every location? I do know it worked well in south Arkansas - at least once.

I do intend to rent (not buy)the slit-seeder. I have too many toys already.

 

[AndyMA]

I wondered why I had never hear of Centipede Grass so I looked it up. It appears to be a low quality grass that is only suitable for some of the warmest areas of the US. According to this report about it it is not suitable for high traffic areas. It appears to be a very coarse grass.

Centipedegrass

Andy

 

[andrewj]

I wondered why I had never hear of Centipede Grass so I looked it up. It appears to be a low quality grass that is only suitable for some of the warmest areas of the US. According to this report about it it is not suitable for high traffic areas. It appears to be a very coarse grass.

Centipedegrass

Andy

I'm surprised you've never heard of centipede: in the south, it reigns supreme as a lawngrass. Wears VERY well under heavy traffic. Creeps along and fills in bare spots. It is not as course as St. Augustine, and is only slightly more coarse than KY 31 grows here. Up in Connecticut maybe you see a lot of red fescue or creeping fescue? Those grow ok here if you plant them in the fall.

In order to overseed centipede over bermuda, take every other tine off your landscape rake, and scarify your bermuda ground. The disturbed soil will catch the centipede seeds in the next rain. There they will germinate and the following year compete wiht your other grasses.

The advice about planting centipede in the fall is a gross error. Fescue in the fall, centiped and bermuda in the spring.

 

[AndyMA]

The reason we've never heard of Centipede grass up north is that it doesn't grow here. The grasses we grow around here become dormant in the winter and van be frozen. According to what I've read, centipede grass does not go dormant and hence is killed by freezing. Hey we can't grow citrus fruits here either.

Andy

 

[andrewj]

The reason we've never heard of Centipede grass up north is that it doesn't grow here. The grasses we grow around here become dormant in the winter and van be frozen. According to what I've read, centipede grass does not go dormant and hence is killed by freezing. Hey we can't grow citrus fruits here either.

Andy

I understand Andy! Actually Centipede does go dormant, which is why in my lawn and surrounding pasture I plant KY 31 fescue! yep, as crazy as it sounds, and it does require more mowing, but it stays green all winter, unlike the summer grasses such as centipede, bermuda, which turn brown over winter. While many have brown grass in winter, mine stays green but does not generally grow enough to require mowing.

There is another aspect of grass selection that is important to me: the building of topsoil. The fescues and wheat send roots down upto 18 inches. when these roots die, the biomass adds to the topsoil down to that depth, and also allows water to penetrate down the channel where the root used to be. Centipede and bermuda creep laterally, and don't penetrate as deep and therefore don't build topsoil as well. I have red clay so this is important to me. Take care.

 

[chrisjbell]

At work (a golf course) we have a bunch of slit seeders, and they work great. One does happen to be a Toro. All they really do is cut through to dirt and then drop seed. You'll probably get nearly as good results with the landscape rake trick described in another post. Grass seed germinates best when it is very close to the surface. It does need to be in contact with the soil (not in thatch) to put good roots down, though.

I don't know if centipede grass can compete with bermuda. Our course has both bermuda and rye, but during the summer the bermuda chokes the rye out. We overseed bermuda with rye during the fall to give the course some green during the winter, as the bermuda goes dormant.

 

[Nuru]

I gotta get off of my butt and reseed my grass.