[SuziQ]

I brew some strong tea, and only dilute it about half as much as I usually do. For example, I brew 8 teabags in about a quart of water, then add enough water to make 1/2 or 3/4 of a gallon. I let it cool to room temp, put it in a bucket or large enough container and put grass seed in it. I didn't fill it so full of seed that the seed was jammed in. There was still plenty of tea to be soaked up, and you could move the grass seed with a long handled spoon through the liquid. Let it sit in the tea overnight, or as I did, two nights, then drain it, and spread it out on a concrete floor in a thin layer so that the floor can soak up the moisture. I scooped it out of the bucket with a strainer, and let the tea go back into the bucket. Then when most of the grass seed had been strained, I took the bucket outside, poured the remaining tea through the strainer and got the rest of the seed.

The floor WILL get stained from the tea, by the way, as the seed dries. I let it dry for a couple of days, stirring it from time to time so that it would dry evenly. Then it's ready to throw down! The way the writer of the book from which I got this idea, "The Impatient Gardener" put it, "when you put this grass seed down you'd better run like hell because that's about how fast it's going to grow." He was right, too. It too less than a week for this seed to sprout! I think it must be the tannic acid in the tea that helps loosen the husk and lets the sprout have an easier time coming through.

I watered the area I was seeding very thoroughly, but remember not to over water, after the seed is down, or it will end up floating on the water in clumps, and when the water is absorbed into the ground, the seed will remain in those clumps. If you can just dampen the seed with the sprayer attachment a couple of times a day, it will be up in a week! We'll have to wait until its about an inch and a half high before we can mow again, but I had had Joseph mow just before I put the seed down, so the rest of the yard is not ungainly, yet.

One thing I did with the overseeding after the first batch had clumped up, was, after I sprinkled the seed, I walked on it to tamp it down into the soil. That combined with VEY light watering should solve the clumping problem.

[HairOfTheDog]

We end up having to reseed our front every spring just because it gets traffic and wear all winter when it's dormant and it can't hold up... I'd love to speed it up. The watering and clumping routine I'm familiar with, we will try the tea next spring!

[osagebowman]

Thanks very much for info, we'll give it a try next time. LSA

[Ramius]

That tea-soaking seed business is really interesting. I've never heard of that before.