HydroSeeding Is Not Seasonal.

   When I first started HydroSeeding, I heard of a seldom used "dormant seeding" technique.  Hiding un-hulled Bermudagrass seed under a temporary rye-grass lawn allowed planting commercial lawns out of season.  I was also warned it didn't actually work very often.

   In the Fall of 1993 I had an opportunity to try the technique in the Phoenix area.  We moved our Company to Arizona the following Spring, and because of that first year success, we used it to plant many lawns over the next Winter.  It took several years to make it work everytime.

   We can plant a beautiful, permanent new lawn no matter what time of year you're ready to have it installed.  When the night time temperatures fall below 70 degrees we switch to un-hulled seed.  (It's protective skin is intact so it will remain dormant until the the soil warms up. 

   You'll have a nice Winter lawn because we add a controlled amount of a special "intermediate ryegrass" to the HydroSeeding mix. Intermediate (or transitional) ryegrass will germinate even when the soil temperature drops below 40 degrees. It doesn't usually get that cold in the Phoenix area. 

   Even though it can take longer to establish a lawn in Winter, the watering isn't nearly as critical.  (If we plant it in December or January, you'll only water once or twice a day for the first 3 weeks.)  The following June, when it's hot enough to burn-out the ryegrass, a change in mowing height and watering will cause it to transition into a permanant lawn.

   How well does it work?  We've been ignoring the Seasons since we moved our company here in 1994.  And we've planted well over a thousand with this technique.  Winter, Spring Summer and Fall, our call-back ratio remains right around 1 out of every 100 lawns we plant!
 

I really debated including this...

   Why Don't Other HydroSeeders Do "Dormant Seeding"?  Sometimes customers want to know why do my competitors tell them "it's too cold to hydroseed."  And I avctually get a lot of calls from hydroseeders in other parts of the Country wanting to know how I do it.  So here goes:

   We'll start with climate.  In the Phoenix area we don't get much humidity in the Spring and early Summer when temperatures are warm enough to germinate the bermuda Family of grasses.  I moved here from a Southern California Desert community.  The Southwest is unique.  What I do might also work there because they have a similar (almost as) hot / dry climate...  I doubt if what I do would work in more humid parts of the Country like Texas or Georgia... 

   Except for plants in the Native Desert, nothing we want grows here without sprinklers.  (I hate to throw this in here, but that has a lot to do with the damage we cause to the soil / environment with chemical fertilizers - that's why we've gone organic...)  It's all about infrequent, deep watering.

   By controlling the mowing height and watering schedule, we can get the ryegrass incredibly deep rooted / heat tolerant without keeping the bermuda seed underneath it damp enough / long enough to try to germinate.  Then we can burn-out the ryegrass easily when it's time to germinate the bermudagrass under it by simply scalping it to less than 1/2" tall.  By the way, that's when the daytime temperatures are around 105 to 108 degrees. You just can't do that in a humid climate.

   What about cool season grasses?  In Southern Californa's "High Desert" and Mountain communities we often planted grasses like Tall Fescue in the middle of winter when it was too cold to germinate the seed. Funny thing is, seed has an "internal thermostat."  It doesn't have to be warm enough to germinate it to put it there.  It can easily sit there for months until it's time to start watering it.  Wait a minute, in the Northeast where they depend on Nature to germinate the seed, they often plant lawns in the middle of Winter.  It really all boils down to experience - knowing what to do when...  I don't really like to admit this but my first couple of years, like every other hydroseeder, I got my experience at the expense of my customers...

   It took years of testing to make what I do work everytime. If you don't do it right the first time, the callbacks could put you out of business.  There's no way that I can keep our watering instructions secret.  But I don't have to tell anyone how much of what seed I put in the mix (and it changes month to month depending on how cold it is when I plant it).

   If my competitor says "it's too cold to hydroseed," most likely he's a "part timer" who didn't take the time to figure out how to make it work like I did.  Ask questions and go with who you think knows what he's doing.  Personally, I wouldn't want to be part of a new guy's learning curve.  Would you?

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Queen Creek, AZ 85242
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