Grass Seed

[stevehaigh]

i wanted to share my grass seed progress with anyone interested. as readers of the phuket forum know, i recently (2 months ago) ordered some Bermuda grass seed on ebay. it arrived at customs in Phuket pretty quick but it took me a month to get it out of customs, getting all the paper work together and talking to the right guy.

anyhow, with that behind me and a 277 baht import fee, i have 2kg of grass seed.

next problem, its as dry as a nuns private parts around here at the moment, so i waited for a few weeks for the weather to cool down a bit and some cloudy skies. well, that didnt last long, its 100% sun every day now but i've covered the ground with shade cloth and water 3-5 times a day.

i planted the seed 5 days ago and as you can see from the pic its starting to grow nicely. i'll post another pic in another 5 days.

when i planed it, i put down a thin layer of potting soil first (about 1 bag/5m2) then threw down the seed, then another thin layer of potting soil on top. that was pretty much it. maybe i should throw a bit of firtilizer down too?

[Foreverford]

Careful with the fertilizers right now unless something like Issan Aussie's worm casting tea or the castings themselves. Prefeered way to plant would be to completely ammend your soil first before planting and then ammend and fertilize when growing vigorously. Ideally you may have got a drought resistant strain and you can weventually starve and dry out your area so that you can control all the invasive stuff before you let your bermuda flourish. If it will take a low cut then that will also be a way of controlling invasive plants by mowing it down low. rememberr every time you cut the crash you are wounding it and makeing it suseptible to disease so there are always tradeoffs in care. In the future you might be intersted in using Zoysia grass (usually and easiwet to acquire here by getting cuttings instead of seed stock) as it is indigenous to Thailand and I have noticed that it is must stronger and prolific to invasives and doesn't seem to get the diseases like fusarium and other funguses that are highly prevalent around here in this humuidity. It looks very good from your photo and it would be good to see if you can get your cuttings to grow in the future. Choke Dee Fusarium Phosphorous and Fords Forever PS Zoysia is extremely drought resistant

[IsaanAussie]

Steve,

The seedlings will do OK until the root system develops enough to try to penetrate the Thai pancaked soil under your added potting mix. You havent got a gradient in the soil just an abrupt change. IMHO if you keep the water up to it all the time you may mange to keep the grass growing. Stop watering and it is dead. The potting mix may act as a mulch and hold the moisture in thereby allowing the soil to moisture and loosen up to let the grass roots penetrate. Try adding more good soil on top in thin layers to build up the volume for the grass roots. Once you get to the point that the grass is not wilting without watering you should be able to stop.

[stevehaigh]

Steve,

The seedlings will do OK until the root system develops enough to try to penetrate the Thai pancaked soil under your added potting mix. You havent got a gradient in the soil just an abrupt change. IMHO if you keep the water up to it all the time you may mange to keep the grass growing. Stop watering and it is dead. The potting mix may act as a mulch and hold the moisture in thereby allowing the soil to moisture and loosen up to let the grass roots penetrate. Try adding more good soil on top in thin layers to build up the volume for the grass roots. Once you get to the point that the grass is not wilting without watering you should be able to stop.

i am a bit worried about the roots getting established in the original soil, we'll see. i do plan to build up a bit more potting soil as it gets longer because there are quite a few bare patches i've had to add more seed to

[David48]

Steve,

The seedlings will do OK until the root system develops enough to try to penetrate the Thai pancaked soil under your added potting mix. You havent got a gradient in the soil just an abrupt change. IMHO if you keep the water up to it all the time you may mange to keep the grass growing. Stop watering and it is dead. The potting mix may act as a mulch and hold the moisture in thereby allowing the soil to moisture and loosen up to let the grass roots penetrate. Try adding more good soil on top in thin layers to build up the volume for the grass roots. Once you get to the point that the grass is not wilting without watering you should be able to stop.

i am a bit worried about the roots getting established in the original soil, we'll see. i do plan to build up a bit more potting soil as it gets longer because there are quite a few bare patches i've had to add more seed to

Depending on the area planted, once the lawn is estabilished a little more, wouldn't an easy answer to the (now) sub soil penetration simply fixed by driving a fork into the grass, penetrating the Thai clay, and some gentle lateral movement with the fork.

Maybe repeating the above technique then adding some gypsum or a commercially prepared clay breaker if the above technique proves less then successful.

[thaiIand]

where would you recommend someone get Zoysia grass

[taoman]

where can i buy Zoysia grass seeds?

[stevehaigh]

i wanted to give my final update on the Bermuda grass seed. i have about 20m2 growing in my garden right now and it grows ok but i don't really like it compared to the Japanese grass turf we get here. its kind of thin, not very full ground covering and grows tall so needs cutting all the time. Japanese grass grows sideways mostly so fills in bare spots nicely and doesn't need cutting much.

i wouldn't use Bermuda grass again, i think the locally available turf is better

[IsaanAussie]

i wanted to give my final update on the Bermuda grass seed. i have about 20m2 growing in my garden right now and it grows ok but i don't really like it compared to the Japanese grass turf we get here. its kind of thin, not very full ground covering and grows tall so needs cutting all the time. Japanese grass grows sideways mostly so fills in bare spots nicely and doesn't need cutting much.

i wouldn't use Bermuda grass again, i think the locally available turf is better

Going back to the root penetration issue of some months ago. how did you go? As a suggestion you may want to get a bag of rock phosphate and give the roots a boost. It is cheap enough at 160 baht for 50 kgs. Theory being the subsoil isnt going to get much more permeable than now.