Is overseeding cool-season grass practical for improved turf, w/o full renovation?

All,

Is it practical to overseed a cool-season lawn with an improved turf type in an effort to get a better stand of grass, without doing a full renovation (killing it off, scalping it, and slit seeding)?

My lawn is a mix of mostly rye, with some Kentucky bluegrass, and fescues. While it looks great for 1/2 the season, it gets affected by drought very quickly by going dormant/browning out, even with irrigation, which I attribute primarily to the rye. It always recovers months later, but I'd like to add something drought tolerant to the stand to help it keep its appearance during the hottest months.

I've had great success with full renovation in the past, planted a tall fescue lawn this way that looked amazing because it was one consistent grass type. This was on a 1/4 acre property and took a significant amount of time and effort to accomplish. My current property is 1 1/2 acres and I don't want to consider it.

But I've never had luck overseeding without a full renovation. Last year I rented a core aerator, ran over the whole lawn in a weekend, and put down around 100 lbs of quality turf-type tall fescue seed. Within a week the lawn was back up to cutting height and I would venture to guess I didn't get more than a couple % of germination. Definitely not enough to make a difference in appearance.

Any procedures or tips I can try this year to avoid wasting money on seed?

Thanks!

Leave the grass tall in the late fall. Go in and seed it, then cover it a bit with grass clippings, ground leaves, even a little dirt if you have it. Mulch all the tall grass down to winter height right before winter. Early spring put on a starter fertilizer at half rate right after the grass begins to make a stand. You will need to keep it watered a lot the first year.

possum said:

Leave the grass tall in the late fall. Go in and seed it, then cover it a bit with grass clippings, ground leaves, even a little dirt if you have it. Mulch all the tall grass down to winter height right before winter. Early spring put on a starter fertilizer at half rate right after the grass begins to make a stand. You will need to keep it watered a lot the first year.

Click to expand...

This is kind of what I did last year, though the lawn has usually recovered and is growing like gangbusters when it's the right time to seed. I think the long grass crowds any seeds from germinating.

I was hoping to find a way to take a 60/30/10 rye/Kentucky bluegrass/tall fescue lawn to more of a 30/30/40 mix by overseeding. I think having more tall fescue would make it less likely to brown out quickly in the warmer months. That's why I put down 100 lb of tall fescue seed last year in the fall (after core aeration), but I would venture to say very little germinated because of the crowding.