Rolling Soil Flat

wpoveromo – posted 16 November 2004 15:12

I recently tilled up my yard and planted new Tall Fescue (Pennington Rebel) seeds. After I tilled it, I used a metal rake to flatten the soil out, however it never really seemed “flat” Now the grass is grown, in most areas (some need reseeding), but I did the first round of cutting, and noticed the entire yard is clumpy and not flat. What could I do? I installed a irrigation system and was thinking about letting the roots settle, then soaking the yard. After the soil was very wet, almost muddy, then getting a heavy roller and trying to flatten the yard???

Ross Page – posted 17 November 2004 10:50

Rolling your lawn when muddy will lead to problems later down the line. You will cause surface compaction and depending on soil type will eliminate the majority of macro pores in soil surface. This will cause roots to struggle to survive in teh soil, leading to minimum water and nutrient uptake; which eventually be detrimental to the turf visual and functional characteristics.There are some choices that you can do:1:Level off all low lying areas with indigenoous soil, then reseed these areas ensuring they stay moist for first 2 weeks.2:Go over the turf with scarifyer which will aid in leveling off turf surface but will need to be done in conjunction with 1.3:start over again and ensure you cultivate soi properly and rake up any excess soil clumps