MA
How to use frost cloth when seeding tall fescue (ETF) and how much topsoil do I need?
Hi team,
Two questions:
– Firstly, I am sowing ETF this week, and have noted that people reckon I should use a frost cloth. How does this work? Do I take off in the morning each day?
– Secondly, I have 80sqm of lawn, I am unsure how much top soil I need (5mm or 10mm etc), what is the best way to tell.
Frost cloth helps with moisture retention and keeps the soil surface slightly warmer. You don’t need to lift it each morning. Leave it down continuously until you’re seeing decent germination across the lawn. Water will still penetrate through it.
It’s definitely worth reading through this irrigation guide before you get started:
https://www.newzealandlawnaddicts.com/lawn-tips/sowing-seed-soil-temps-irrigation/
Hopefully you’re using Starter Fertilser, Etho and Meso at the time of seeding? If not I’d suggest having a read up on those products.
Once shoots are pushing up and you’ve got reasonable coverage, pull the cloth off. Leave it on too long it can cause issues. Humidity builds underneath and disease risk goes up. In Auckland conditions at this time of year, you’re probably looking at 10 to 14 days before you’re making that call. Tall fescue germinates a bit slower than rye and you’re on the tailish end of ideal soil temps (15c @ 10cm @ 6am).
On the topsoil question, it depends on what’s underneath. If the existing soil is reasonable, 50mm is usually enough to give the seed a good bed to establish into. If it’s poor, compacted, or you’re levelling out significant low spots, go deeper in those areas. A quick way to check: push a screwdriver into the soil. If it goes in easily to around 100mm, your base is workable. If it hits resistance early, you’ve got compaction to sort before topsoil goes down. To be fair from that photo it looks like you’re not going to have an issue.
There’s a top-dressing calculator in the tools section of the app if you need help with quantities.
@Jonny Hicks Hey Jonny, thanks for the reply. I will get a frost cloth.
Regarding the topsoil. It has just rained so I have some quite significant low patches. I think compaction is fine though as I used a rotary hoe to prepare the soil.
@masemows jeepers, that drainage is looking like a problem, how much rain was it? Have you got no spouting off that roof?
Ive got 79m2 and used 2m3 of Daltons lawn mix. Needed another 12x30L bags of Daltons Premium lawn soil to cover the seed. I sifted it on to get rid of any sticks and ended up with a full bag of chips from the 13 bags. Really good soil mix apart from that.
Dalton‘s yard do free trailers but will only let you put two cubes on the trailer at a time.
The only other comment I would make is getting down some Grub+ when you sow the seed because I ended up with dead patches from grub that I didn’t know I had.
@Phil.P Was thinking of getting maybe 1m3 as don’t think I need too much. How deep did you cover the seed with top soil?
@masemows general rule of thumb...1m3 = 10mm topsoil thickness over 100m2.
Regarding covering the seed with topsoil; it's best to do more of a dusting, so 2-3mm topsoil covering the seed. Buried too deep and the shoots will struggle to reach the surface. I use a steel narrow tine rake and rake farrows into the topsoil surface, spread the seed (seed falls into these farrows) and then gently rake to "mix" the seed with the soil. This does a few things...it gives you good seed-to-soil contact, helps hold moisture around the seed, helps protect the seed from birds and the wind.
@masemows it seemed like only a few mm but Bens comment below sounds good. I used a roller to get good contact.
Also my base was pretty awful Auckland clay and while I’d prepared it well I wanted to give the seed the best chance.
@Ben Wilton that sounds solid, thanks.
@Ben Wilton did you use a roller to improve the seed to soil contact? I definitely need one.