Luke from MO asks,
Hi Bill, I have a 1/4 acre plot that was originally part of the back corner of a hay field. The farmer had just cut the hay before I sprayed and broadcasted Big-N-Beasty on August 19th. I also spread 13-13-13 fertilizer the day of broadcasting and drove over it a bunch with ATV to try and get good seed to soil contact. However, it sat in mid 80° temps without rain for a week and a half or so. Since then though, we have had some decent rain every 5-8 days. So it's been about 2 weeks since the first rain on it and I am still seeing minimal germination in the plot. Should I give it some more time and spread urea to try and give it a boost? Or you think I should go ahead and overseed with some wheat and clover to try and salvage the plot for this fall?
Bill responds,
Topic: Germination of Broadcast Seeds:
It is always better to create some kind of significant disturbance to the topsoil if you plan to only broadcast your seeds and not plant them directly into the ground. Creating this disturbance (tilling is the most obvious way) gives the seeds places to go to assure that they make good contact with the soil and will settle into a spot where they can stay moist long enough to germinate and start to grow.
Luke,
It is always a bit dicey when broadcasting seeds, even the small seeds in the Big N Beasty blend, onto dry ground. Even though you drove over it, the seeds were just sitting on top of the ground. It takes a pretty good soaker, or back to back soakers, to get them to germinate in this challenging environment. If the ground is loose, the seeds can find a home and even if there is some dying grass that is overlaying the seeds they can stay moist for a while.
But when put out on dry, hard ground, with minimal cover they will really struggle to germinate. As soon as they start to break open, they dry out again before they have time to put a root down. I would probably throw a bit of winter wheat or winter rye seed out on that spot too, but I am kind of skeptical that those larger seeds will show much germination.
Like I said, if you get a prolonged rain or a couple of them back to back you have some hope, otherwise, this may be a spot with limited food.
Ideally, you break up the soil in some way before broadcasting. The poor man method calls for a garden tiller, or even scraping the ground with a landscape rake (hand tool). With a tractor a bit of simple tillage is a great starting point.
Anything to get the ground broken up enough that the seed can find a place to settle where it can stay moist for just a bit longer.
The very best situation is to drill the seed into the ground using a no-till drill so you are sure they will be have good seed to soil moisture and hold onto that moisture long enough to germinate and start to grow. Good luck. (9/13/22)
