Hydroseeding / Lawn Establishment

Hydroseeding is a fast, cost-effective way to have a new lawn that will turn your neighbors green with envy.  Hydroseeding in MN costs only pennies more than the old-fashioned method of using dry grass seed.  There is no messy straw mulch blowing around along with no competition of weed seeds.  Hydroseeding is significantly less cost wise overall than laying sod and is healthier for the root as it takes root in the soil instead of being transplanted.  Healthy roots automatically do better and stand to be harder.  

Some advantages of Hydroseeding:

• The lawns come up faster.  The contact of the seed with water will trigger the germination cycle.  We often hear of grass up in 3-7 days depending on weather and when it was planted.
• Hydroseeded areas have a green appearance that looks better than lawns covered in the straw mulch.
• Hydroseeding has no weed seeds as it is mixed with a paper/wood mulch, not straw. Straw comes from farm fields containing weeds.  This creates weed seeds.
• Hydroseeding allows for custom tailoring of the proper seed in the proper areas.  It’s not uncommon to use a combination of grass seed on any job.  One seed for high traffic areas, one for shady and one for sunny areas depending on your yard.
• Depending on when you have your area hydro seeded will depend greatly on when your lawn will fill in.  Sometimes it can take 3-10days other times it can take 3-4 weeks if the ground and air are cooler.  Talk to a Sunshine professional when the best time to hydroseed is.
• Hydro seeded areas generally come out of dormancy earlier than sod.

When your lawn needs to be watered your hydro seeded area will turn a whitish color.  This will help to remind you that it’s time to water if you don’t have it on a watering schedule.  It will be a darkish green color when properly moist.  Also please remember that you cannot apply a weed killer on a newly hydro seeded area and until the area is up and growing.  The treated area will not need any fertilizer at first as there is a starter fertilizer mixed in with the seed and mulch.  Talk to your Sunshine professional about when it is time to apply another application of fertilizer to your lawn.

Advantages of Hydroseeding over Sod

• Sod is a fast solution if you need a new lawn today.  But it is expensive with material and the labor to lay it.  Sod generally costs 2-3 times more than hydroseeding.  Hydroseeding with the proper care will produce turf as nice looking as sod or better with a short period of time along with huge savings.
• Where Hydroseeding seeds are grown on your soil Sod can have problems establishing well with the soil that it is growing on.  Sometimes sod just “doesn’t take”
• Hydroseeding has a better root base as it grows right on the ground that it was planted where sod is cut at the roots resulting in a less healthy plant.
• There are no shrinkage areas with hydroseed.  With sod, if it isn’t placed close enough together it can shrink and pull apart leaving gaps in between each section that wasn’t laid properly.  That leaves room for weeds to come up through the gaps or just plain leave you with a lumpy yard.
• Sod also requires a lot of care.  It isn’t as tough as a seed based lawn, like hydroseeding. Sod dries out faster and takes more watering.

Now that you know some of the advantages/disadvantages of Hydroseeding vs sod we hope that you will talk with the trained professionals at Sunshine and let them look at what would be best for you.  Also, you can talk with them about the watering and fertilizing steps that should be taken to keep your new lawn looking the best that it can look for a long long time.