Fescue versus rye

legend99

Hi,
Just wondering if anyone knows enough to be able to tell me why rye grass seed isn't considered good for a "luxury" lawn? The fescue/bent no. 1 mix didn't take very well last summer and I have rye seed here but I was told not to overseed with it? Anyone, by any chance, know enough to offer advice on it?!

Thanks

The Continental Op

Its to do with growth habit, size of leaf and speed of growth and ability to withstand cutting and wear and tear.

Basically even the finest Rye grasses are much more course the the Fescues.

To be brutally honest you are probably wasting your time spending too much money on any grass mix that does not contain mostly rye grass simply because we don't treat our lawns well enough in Ireland. If however you want a lawn that you can and will cut to half an inch twice a week then a 80/20 Fescue/Bent mix would be fine - thats traditional golf green type of mix. Kids playing football on that would do it any good.

Rye grass mixes on the other hand withstand a lot of wear and tear along with poor management and will still exist if you only cut your grass every couple of weeks to 2-3 inches.

Once you have mainly Rye grass you can't really overseed it successfully with finer grasses because the Rye grass will out compete them making the effort a waste of time.

legend99

Thanks for that info. The one I used last year was:
- 45% Creeping Red Fescue
- 45% Chewings Fescue
- 10% Highland Browntop Bentgrass

Even got myself a Qualcast 35S in my enthusiasm last year! I'm trying to decide if I'll pour another forty euro into another 5kg of that no. 1 seed mix. Or whether I'll use the 5kg of seed I have here already (62% rye and 38% fescue). First world problem obviously. Can a lawn look well and be good if has rye in it?

Tks

The Continental Op

OK you can get a decent lawn with Rye grass BUT it will never be as good as one with just Fescues and Bents.

Its a long time since I regularly used a cylinder mower and worked on fine lawns but iirc Fescues and Bents do take a lot longer to get a good cover. They just aren't as vigorous as Rye grasses. If you must use Rye grass research which one you are going to use as there are big differences in them. There are some modern varieties that are very dwarf compared to some of the traditional farming varieties.

Personally I would preserver with the Fescues and Bents at least for another season. The other problem you will have with Rye grass is that your cylinder mower won't cope with it unless you are cutting more often than you probably want to.

I'd also let your Fescues and Bent mix grow a little taller than you are perhaps at the moment. One inch would be as close as I'd go and probably a little higher.

legend99

The Continental Op wrote: »

OK you can get a decent lawn with Rye grass BUT it will never be as good as one with just Fescues and Bents.

Its a long time since I regularly used a cylinder mower and worked on fine lawns but iirc Fescues and Bents do take a lot longer to get a good cover. They just aren't as vigorous as Rye grasses. If you must use Rye grass research which one you are going to use as there are big differences in them. There are some modern varieties that are very dwarf compared to some of the traditional farming varieties.

Personally I would preserver with the Fescues and Bents at least for another season. The other problem you will have with Rye grass is that your cylinder mower won't cope with it unless you are cutting more often than you probably want to.

I'd also let your Fescues and Bent mix grow a little taller than you are perhaps at the moment. One inch would be as close as I'd go and probably a little higher.

Thanks a million for that. Beginning to make more sense now. Right now, it's so thin, that there is no cutting it. It's mostly earth - which on the other hand I suppose makes it easier to seed now. I think I'll compromise and try one more seeding of the fescue/bent mix in the front - but I'll overseed the back with the rye mix as the dog uses the back with the consequent obvious output from himself.

Looking online, they seem to say that soil temp needs to be around 10 for fescue and a can be a little lower for rye. I'm in Cork but the met eireann 7 day average at the airport and roches point are about 6. In fact we had a flurry of snow yesterday morning. So I'll be holding off another week or two to seed anything. I have those shoes that spike so I'll do that just before I seed to give the seed s chance to fall into the aerated holes from it. I know as well that the downside of seeding in spring is that the seed is competing with weeds - even more so here as with so much earth open the weed seeds will be flying in. But I'll have to try something....

If you have any tips or thoughts on any of the above I'd be delighted to hear them....!

Thanks

The Continental Op

Don't use the spiked shoes - unless you really want to look a prat ?

They are next to useless and will damage the grass if there isn't good coverage. There's a good chance that soil will stick to the spikes and damage the soil surface.

legend99

The Continental Op wrote: »

Don't use the spiked shoes - unless you really want to look a prat ?

They are next to useless and will damage the grass if there isn't good coverage. There's a good chance that soil will stick to the spikes and damage the soil surface.

Well I was going to do it in the dark....! All joking aside, I hadn't realised that. Is there any point doing any aeration at all so - say even using a fork and rocking it back and forth to open holes - or will that cause damage as well?

P.S. Note to self - stop buying stuff in the middle aisles of Lidl and Aldi for no reason other than it is being sold!

The Continental Op

legend99 wrote: »

Well I was going to do it in the dark....! All joking aside, I hadn't realised that. Is there any point doing any aeration at all so - say even using a fork and rocking it back and forth to open holes - or will that cause damage as well?

P.S. Note to self - stop buying stuff in the middle aisles of Lidl and Aldi for no reason other than it is being sold!

By all means try the spiky shoes but I've never known anyone use them twice

All you want is someway of covering your seed when you oversow it. A very small amount of compost would do the trick.

If you did good preparation do you really need aeration at this stage?

legend99

The Continental Op wrote: »

By all means try the spiky shoes but I've never known anyone use them twice

All you want is someway of covering your seed when you oversow it. A very small amount of compost would do the trick.

If you did good preparation do you really need aeration at this stage?

I actually did a full rotavation last April - not surprisingly, I bought the rotavator in Aldi too lol! I was thinking of the aeration as I had read that the seeds can use the holes as a little hideaway to germinate in. Although that was in the context of the classic hollow tine aeration, scarify and overseed.