Sowing ryegrass in early winter, will it grow?
I’m in Chch and the temp is weirdly warm for a week. Is it too late to reseed rye ? I’ve managed to get rid of the moss and some weeds and hoping to sneak some seed back down…
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Soil temps here are sitting around 10°C right now, warmer than usual for this time of year, and they'll keep dropping over the next few weeks (next week looks very cold overnight). Soil temps for sowing lawn seed are taken at 6am at 10cm deep. The NZLA app daily temperatures gives the reading at that time and depth.
Perennial rye is the most cold-tolerant for germination, but below about 5°C it basically stops, and even at 7-10°C you're looking at 3-4 weeks to germinate instead of the 7-10 days you'd get in spring or autumn.
Germination is only half the story though. Root development really needs soil temps above 10°C and drops off fast below that, At 5°C root development is near zero. So even if you get shoots coming through the roots won't develop fast enough to anchor the plant or thicken it up before winter properly sets in. You could end up with seedlings that just sit there with no root system underneath, and the first hard frost could wipe them out.
If you're going to go for it anyway and see what happens, I'd suggest pre-germinating the seed in the garage, there's a category on this if you search through them using the filters and see the post I put up a few weeks ago.
https://www.newzealandlawnaddicts.com/lawn-tips/sowing-seed-soil-temps-irrigation/