Rolling Lawns and Pasture after seeding

[HappyCPE]

I'm planning my spring projects already. I would like to redo some lawn and pasture areas with grass seed and wildflowers. All instructions I read require the earth to be rolled for good seed contact. I'm looking at multi-acre areas.... Can you folks provide a source for rollers in the 72" and up range? I have seen a roller from Agri-Fab that is 48" wide, about $150. Can they be "ganged" together in pairs to tow behind the tractor? Thanks for your help.

 

[jim_wilson]

The Agri-Fab rollers are pretty light duty - but if you don't intend on using one a lot it would be a good buy. I suppose if you came up with some sort of custom tow setup you could gang them together.

There are a number of other places I have found for heavy duty rollers that you also get in wider widths.

I bought a 48" roller from General Welding and Fabrication that I am very happy with - it is very heavy duty and has stood up to me rolling a driveway, filling it with sand, etc.
http://www.gwfab.com/

Here are a couple of other places I found that also make heavy duty rollers:

http://www.totalpatchers.com/smooth_drum_roller.htm

http://www.hoelscherinc.com/prod_ptroller.htm

 

[pilonidal]

You really don't need a roller to plant grass seed. I've planted 2 acres with another acre to go this fall by just running a spring harrow over the area then running a rock/landscape rake over it and throwing the grass seed down with nothing on it. It grew fine. I would recommend dragging a section of fence or something over it after the seed is down to help keep it in place in case of heavy rains. Grass grows like weeds, just depends what you want more of!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[keeney]

For lawn planting:

1. Spray the existing weeds/grass with Roundup to kill everything. Wait a week or so and then till it under with a tiller, light disc or something designed for turf prepping.

2. Wait two weeks and repeat the spray on anything that starts growing again.

3. Smooth and losen the top of the soil with a spring harrow or landscape rake.

4. Broadcast the seed as evenly as you can by hand or with whatever spreader you can adopt. Use the coverage rates recommended. Too much grass seed concentration can be just as bad as not enough - the dense initial growth of sprouts will choke themselves out and not last very long.

5. Drag the area with a harrow lightly to mix the seed into the top 1/2" of soil. A landscape rake is probably too course for this.

6. Drive over the area in a pattern with the tractor such that the wheels eventually cover the whole area (assuming hard enough soil or turf tires such that no large ruts or marks are made). This will press the seed into good soil contact and seal the surface slightly preventing the seed from washing out.

7. Water every day. An irrigation system is best. The critical time is when the grass first becomes visible after about two weeks. Its real easy to dry it out at that point.


Quick and dirty method:

Skip steps 1,2,3, 5, and 6. Do only steps 4, 5, and 7. Spread seed on top of whatever is already there (mow short first if you like), rake in, and water.


Really lazy method:

Repeatedly spread grass seed over what is already there. Keep it mowed. Years of doing this will produce a nice lawn.