What is the best grass seed for Wichita KS?

GardNWise Kansas Premium Fescue is a blend of fescue grass seed certified to grow best in our area. Our grass seed supplier asked the best local experts at the Kansas State University Horticulture Department. They run exhaustive grass trials at Manhattan, Wichita, and Olathe, Ks, as well as sharing information from other university test programs. A list of top performing varieties is published annually, and our supplier blends the Gard’N-Wise Premium Fescue blend from the best available fescues on this list. We feel that this blend is the best combination of fine bladed fescues, selected for disease resistance, winter hardiness, consistent dark green color and texture, ability to fill in minor damaged spots, and are A-List approved for low water requirements. Kansas Premium Fescue Blend Is Also Certified To Use Less Water Than The Average Fescue Seed. It Is Weed Seed Free, Meaning That When You Plant It, You Can Be Sure You Are Working Toward A Beautiful Lawn, & Not Planting & Growing Weeds!

Overseed or start over?

If 75 percent or more of the yard has green grass, you’ll just need to overseed the brown and bare parts. If only half the lawn or less looks good, till the whole thing up and reseed. Seeding should be done by mid-October. Bermuda should have been killed out by now.

You’ll need to prepare the soil in some way so that the seed and soil make solid contact for germination, even if it’s just raking at the soil to roughen it up.

You may need some equipment to do the job – a spreader, a core aerator, a verticutter, a tiller, depending on how you decide to proceed. Rent it if you don’t own it or can’t borrow it.

To start out, mow existing grass to about 1 1/2 inches high. Make sure the soil is moist but not saturated. Apply a lawn starter fertilizer or one without any weed killer. Then follow one of these steps:
▪ If you’re seeding only small areas, toss it down by hand as if you were seasoning a steak. Use a hard-tined rake or hoe to scratch up the soil and settle the seed. There’s no need to remove dead Bermuda or crabgrass.
▪ For larger areas, a slit seeder or verticutter with a seed box slices into the soil and spreads the the seed at the same time. If a verticutter does not have a seed box, use a spreader afterward to put down the seed. Hand-seed small areas you may have missed or that are between the tracks of the verticutter if you don’t overlap your rows slightly.
▪ If you aerate as described above, use a spreader to drop the grass seed and then gently rake it in.
For the best over seeding results with core aeration, rake the cores to the point where the holes are filled one-half to three-quarters with soil before applying the seed blend or mixture. Next spread a starter-type fertilizer that is higher in phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) than nitrogen (N). Then rake the remaining cores back into the soil. With this procedure, the seed should be covered enough to allow germination. If you decide to pickup the cores, spread a light topdressing to partially pre-fill the aeration holes before seeding. Then lightly cover the seed and fertilizer with additional topdressing. Proper watering is the major key to success. Like establishment of a new lawn, renovated or over seeded lawns need to be kept moist, but not soaked, until the new seeds begin to develop and grow a new root system. In 4 to 6 weeks, a normal watering program can be resumed. With more than 50% of the lawns in North America more than 10 years old, most could benefit from aeration and the planting of new lawn seed varieties to produce a healthier, denser lawn.

▪ A tiller can be used to work dead vegetation under the soil, which will improve soil texture and water retention. At the same time, you can work in organic matter such as peat moss, compost or dehydrated manure, 6 to 12 inches deep, before seeding. You don’t want to pulverize the soil; 1-inch clods are fine. Rake the soil before planting the seed.

Be sure you buy good grass seed that doesn’t introduce weeds into your lawn. Look at the label and look for the “other crop” to be 0 to 0.01 percent. The blue-tag-certified seed sold at garden centers is guaranteed to contain the varieties listed on the bag.

Err on the side of putting down less seed rather than too much and apply the seed uniformly. Spread half of the seed in one direction and then half at right angles to the first for better and more even coverage.

The application rate on bare ground in full sun or part shade is 6 to 8 pounds of seed per 1,000 square feet. If there is less than four hours of sun a day or less than 50 percent open sunlight in the planting area or if you are overseeding patches, seed at half that rate.

Ferti-lome New Lawn Starter

When you’re planting a new lawn, don’t leave your grass growing success to chance – trust ferti-lome New Lawn Starter Fertilizer 9-13-7 to help! This balanced fertilizer is specially formulated to help new lawns grow faster and stronger, to encourage grass seed to develop healthy roots and stems before beginning rapid growth. It’s also formulated to fertilize sod, and can be used when sprigging new grass, as well.

A must for new lawns.

• Can be applied with grass seed or immediately after seed is sown.
• A must for new lawns.
• Coverage: 40lb per 10,000 sq. ft.

Follow-up care

Keep the soil moist using a gentle spray until some seeds start to germinate. You may have to water morning and afternoon, and maybe more often, depending on the weather. When the seed is up, water about once a day, then gradually every other day, until the plants can take more of a routine of an established lawn.

Get your lawnmower blade sharpened. When new grass reaches 3 inches, cut it to a height of 2 inches. Continue to mow at that height for the remainder of the season, never removing more than one-third of the blade at one time.

Four weeks after planting, fertilize again with 1 pound of high-nitrogen quick-release fertilizer per 1,000 square feet. Then repeat with another pound in another three to four weeks, at the end of October or in November. Fertilizing in the fall puts more nutrients in the ground than fertilizing in the spring, when most of the benefits come off in mowing.

For an established lawn, fertilize in September if you fertilize at no other time of the year, and then again in November if you are able.

Be careful treating weeds if you’re reseeding. Broadleaf weed killers such as 2,4-D, MCCP and dicamba (the ingredients in Trimec) cannot be used any closer to seeding than one month before and can’t be used afterward until the new grass has grown enough to be mowed three times. Trimec is your best defense against dandelions when applied in late October or early November.

Plan to apply a crabgrass preventer in April. Putting in a lawn usually brings up some crabgrass even if there wasn’t any there before.