Grass reseed

[biggles]

At home I reseed about 5-10acres a year, currently plough with 2 furrow conventional plough then work down with seed harrows, this is due to most fields being less than 5 acres and being undulating and triangular, it can be very time consuming and I’ll like to speed the job up to do more, I’m fancying using a set of trailed discs straight into turf, this will follow better and hopefully level things a bit over time. I’ll then use the grass box and roll as per usual. What’s peoples thoughts on this and what sort of cheap discs would people recommend as there seems to be various strength outfits about. Cheers

 

[ford 7810]

It would not work here the plough would burst the pan . Discs would make one but very heavy land

 

[Derrick Hughes]

You will need to spray first if you do that
Also the scalloped discs work better on turf

 

[crashbox]

Not a direct answer but could try a contractor's tool for a year, to see if that works any better.
Also look up Dynadrive, will do nothing for compaction but can create a good tilth on the top to sow onto, assuming you have sprayed off the old sward well in advance.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

At home I reseed about 5-10acres a year, currently plough with 2 furrow conventional plough then work down with seed harrows, this is due to most fields being less than 5 acres and being undulating and triangular, it can be very time consuming and I’ll like to speed the job up to do more, I’m fancying using a set of trailed discs straight into turf, this will follow better and hopefully level things a bit over time. I’ll then use the grass box and roll as per usual. What’s peoples thoughts on this and what sort of cheap discs would people recommend as there seems to be various strength outfits about. Cheers

You have said nothing about compaction so assume you don't have any , main thing with grass seed is to get soil contact , a fine firm seedbed. A power harrow works well after a disc then roll it well

 

[Sheep]

I'm also in the same situation, I'm looking for tilth on the top 2-3 inches but reluctant to plough it as I feel it just isn't needed. We currently have a set of discs but its taking far too much work to get it worked to a reasonable level. Perhaps tines would work better but I'm not sure there are any that would work without blocking on a grass field?

 

[puppet]

You will need some serious discs to chop up the sward which will not be cheap and 2 passes so a contractor may be cheaper and you can then tidy up for seeding.

That took 3 passes with big discs before the harrows to get an even surface

 

[Derrick Hughes]

You are both spraying off first i expect ?

 

[Sheep]

You are both spraying off first i expect ?

Yes, we always spray off, its a cheap assurance that you're getting a (mostly) weed free start.

 

[neilo]

Discs are fast and cheap to run, so several passes are a good, cheap way to make a fine seedbed.

I drilled grass seed in several fields on Saturday (as many others did I suspect) which I had worked down with several passes with a Shortdisc. A couple of the fields were only 2ac, so each pass was less than 30 minutes with my 4m Shortdisc. 3 passes and it was almost dust.

Be aware though, that those discs will move a good bit of soil about if working more than 2” deep. That’s great for levelling low spots, etc, but it will also move soil out of field corners, more noticeably in small fields.

 

[DB67]

We have sprayed off and direct drilled last few years with good success. See how this years goes.

 

[biggles]

Yes we always spray off, it’s just for the smaller fields, have 5furrow plough and power Harrow but the fields don’t suit a large plough, have used the bomford chisel plough and then power Harrow before but still think it’s to deep an operation for what I need, hence thinking of discing just the top few inches

 

[Derrick Hughes]

You could borrow mine if you weren't so far away

 

[Sheep]

How have people got on with just going straight in with a powerharrow running shallow?

 

[guernseydonkey]

If you are spraying off first, 2 passes of a rotavator or power harrow should give a decent seedbed, the slower the better, to chop the turf in to small lumps.

 

[milkloss]

Jumping in seeing as we have the seeding men on board!

I have some over seeded grass and some winter sheep fodder sprayed off and combi drilled ground. Just got and inch, inch and a half of shoots showing albeit a bit sporadic. All ground has had approx 10t acre of fym and was wondering when and how much I should perk them up with bagged nitrogen?

Advice appreciated.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

How have people got on with just going straight in with a powerharrow running shallow?

Its all to do with how much thatch on top .
I've just been to a field that I sprayed 3 weeks ago , given it my best shot with a tine harrow. But its just no use so ploughs going in . My own fault. Should have taken a cut from it first to clear it out

 

[ShooTa]

Jumping in seeing as we have the seeding men on board!

I have some over seeded grass and some winter sheep fodder sprayed off and combi drilled ground. Just got and inch, inch and a half of shoots showing albeit a bit sporadic. All ground has had approx 10t acre of fym and was wondering when and how much I should perk them up with bagged nitrogen?

Advice appreciated.

id hazard a guess that you'd be pushing the wee ones too hard to put o leaf - when you want them putting down roots first.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Bagged N would be the last thing I would put on at this stage . My choice for seedbed is 5-24 -24 to encourage legumes

 

[milkloss]

Bagged N would be the last thing I would put on at this stage . My choice for seedbed is 5-24 -24 to encourage legumes

I’ve got some 8-24-24 squirrelled away but won’t the washed in fym replace that or isn’t it available enough?