Don't Get Burned on Lawn Seed
by
Dawn West, All About Lawns Columnist
Just because your grass seed package said 'tall fescue' doesn't necessarily mean that, once planted, your lawn will look like a healthy field of tall fescue. Not all seeds are created the same way and not all seed manufacturers sell high-quality grass seed. If you're planning a new lawn, or over-seeding a lawn to repair it, you might want to read the seed package label just as carefully as you might inspect the ingredients on a box of breakfast cereal. First, the basics: If you automatically assume your lawn will look like the picture of the grass on the box, you're in over your head. Hamburgers at the fast-food place never look like those advertised on television. By law, every bag, box, or packet of seed sold in the country has to have a label of ingredients. Start there.
Reading a Lawn Seed LabelFollowing is the list of ingredients/information you might find on a package of lawn seed, whether it claims to be pure, improved, blended, or mixed:
- Pure seed: This is a number, in weight, of the percentage of actual crop-tested seed by name that is advertised (for example, Fescue, Ryegrass, or Kentucky Bluegrass). This should comprise the greatest percentage of all ingredients.
- Weed seed: This is a number, in weight, of the percentage in weed seeds in your mixture. Because it's too expensive to eliminate all weed seed, acceptable limits range from 0.3 to 0.5%.
- Inert Matter: This is a number, in weight, of the percentage of anything that is in the box that won't sprout (includes dust, dirt, dead, or non-organic matter). A reasonable percentage is 0.09%.
- Germination: The true percentage of live seed in the box that is capable of sprouting into grass.
- Other Crop Seeds: Accept the smallest percentage possible of these when comparing brands. These seeds are not identified and probably will not look good in your lawn.
If you want that beautiful green lawn, you need to choose wisely.
SourceBetter Lawn and Turf Institute
About the Author
Dawn West B.A. holds a B.A. in English from Harvard University and teaches writing at Oregon State University.
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