Watering Your Newly Seeded Lawn

Newly seeded lawns (including hydroseeding) need special care.  Following seeding, it is important that you keep the seed area evenly moist until most of the seed has germinated (approximately 14-21 days, depending on the type of seed.  Over-watering will cause soil erosion and may drown the seedlings; whereas, drying out between watering may cause the seedlings to die.

Watering your new seed/hydroseeded and sod lawn in three easy steps:

  1. The first couple of weeks after seeding, until germination occurs, water 2-3 times per day on short running times (15-20 min durations).
  2. Once the new grass is up, the watering may be reduced.  Water daily, once per day, after germination occurs.
  3. When all the grass is tall enough to mow (3”), watering can be reduced to 2-3 times per week for periods of 15-20 minutes.

Mowing Your New Lawn

Your new lawn can be mowed between three and four weeks (2-3 weeks for sod) after the seeding has taken place.  Mow once the grass is 3″+ tall. Be sure to let your lawn dry out for at least half a day before you mow, in order to fight compaction, rutting, or laying the grass blades over against the soil.  Mow in alternate directions without catching clippings for the first several mows.  After this period, you may begin to catch your clippings if you choose to do so. 

Always mow according to the one-third rule. This rule implies that it is always best to mow when you are cutting off no more than one-third of the entire grass blade.  Our suggested mowing height for most lawns is 3 ¼ inches.

Fertilizing

Follow-up applications of fertilizer are made as part of a regular maintenance program and are essential to establishing a good stand of turf. If you are not already a BVL fertilization customer please visit our Fertilization page to learn more.