It depends on the type of grass. Kentucky
If you just want to keep your fescue thick and healthy, you should seed this fall. Fescue doesn't spread like Bermuda with runners across the top of the soil. Fescue spreads through tillering through the soil and putting up new vertical shoots.
Grass variety: Cool-season grasses like fescues and bluegrasses are more likely to reseed themselves in temperate regions, while warm-season grasses like Bermuda rely more on spreading through stolons and rhizomes.
When it comes to tall fescue, does grass naturally fill in bare spots? It can but it's not in a rush, especially if your spots resulted from dog urine or lawn disease or even an accident with the mower. Weeds, though, will jump in at a frustratingly fast speed.
It grows in clumps and spreads primarily through vertical shoots called "tillers," which grow from the base of the grass plant itself. This growth habit makes tall fescue easy to contain and keep out of flower beds, but it limits its capacity to repair itself when lawn damage occurs.
Cons of Choosing 90-10 Tall Fescue Sod. While it can tolerate partial shade, it won't do well in full shade. Additionally, it's not as tolerant of diseases and insects as some other types of sod, so you'll need to be extra diligent about pest control.
Tall Fescue is one of the grass types that can compete with Bermuda grass and potentially choke it out in certain conditions. However, it requires proper management and maintenance to suppress Bermuda grass effectively.
Very Small Patchy Areas: For tiny bare spots (think a few inches in diameter), throwing a small amount of seed and keeping the area moist might suffice. However, even in these cases, lightly raking the soil to create some seed-to-soil contact can significantly improve results.
For example, a larger seed such as turf type fescue will be seeded at 10 lbs per 1,000 square feet. A smaller seed such as Kentucky Bluegrass may be seeded as low a 2 lbs per 1,000 square feet.
Fescue seed usually takes 7-14 days to germinate. Begin by raking the area to provide as smooth a soil surface as possible.
Overseeding can help you get back to the thick, lush, green lawn you're looking to achieve. By spreading grass seed over your existing lawn, you can thicken up the thin areas and get your lawn looking terrific again. (This is different from reseeding, which is when you start over and plant a completely new lawn.)
Bermuda does, it spreads underground and above, and has the fastest growth rate of any commonly used turf grass.
In general, plant tall fescue at least 45 days before your region's typical first fall frost date. This allows time for the 7- to 21-day germination period for turf-type tall fescue plus adequate time for roots to establish before winter comes. For Upper Midwest lawns, mid-August may bring ideal conditions.
Mowing actually helps make your grass grow thicker because the tip of each blade contains hormones that suppress horizontal growth. When you cut the lawn, you remove these tips allowing the grass to spread and grow thicker near the roots.
In order to maintain a healthy fescue lawn year round, it's important to aerate and seed once per year, and now is the time. Because fescue is a cool season grass, September and October are perfect months to core aerate and overseed your lawn.
It depends on the type of grass. Kentucky bluegrass has runners that help it spread on its own. But many northern grasses are bunch-type grasses which don't spread, so seeding is needed to fill in bare spots. Perennial ryegrass and fescue are among the non-spreaders.
In many cases, the turf recovers on its own after a couple of weeks, especially after a change in the weather, like starting in early September when the nighttime temperatures start to cool off.
Remember, lawn grass seeds only need to be lightly raked into the soil, or even just scattered directly on the soil surface. Any seeds buried more than the length of the seed will have a hard time germinating successfully.
Does Putting Grass Clippings on Bare Spots Help Grass Grow? While leaving grass clippings on the lawn during mowing (grasscycling) can offer benefits like nutrient recycling and improved soil health, it's not the most effective method for directly promoting grass growth in bare spots.
The answer is that you can overseed effectively without aerating. As we've just mentioned, it's all about seed-to-soil contact.
Quality grass seed labels include guidance on optimal seeding rates to maximize your results. Don't overdo or cut corners. Too much grass seed causes undue competition for resources such as light, water and nutrients, and grass seedlings struggle as a result. Too little seed leaves lawns thin or bare.
Rhizomes are small underground lateral shoots that allow a plant to spread laterally. This enables the turf area to self repair itself. This self healing trait has been limited to bluegrass. Fescue, which is classified as a "clump grass" has never had this ability.
The most effective time to apply herbicides to control tall fescue is in the fall before the first frost. Spray the weedy patches as well as a few inches beyond these areas to ensure their complete destruction. A second application is necessary if the treated areas are not dead in 2 to 4 weeks.