Scotts Turf Builder Grass Seed Heat-Tolerant Blue Mix for Tall Fescue Lawns for Heat, Drought & Disease Resistance, 20 lbs.

First off, I purchased a Scotts 76565 Turf Builder drop spreader to control the seed droppings. I filled the spreader, set the correct spreader setting and checked to see if the seeds were dropping on my driveway. They were, so I proceeded to overseer my lawn that was mowed a a short length. Thatched and plug aerated. My first pass was fine but when I started my return overlapping pass, I noticed nothing coming out of the spreader. I moved the spreader on the sidewalk and found no seed dropping. I check the spreader setting and they remained at the original correct setting. I emptied the spreader into my Scott’s rotors spreader and found the the blue powder coating on the seeds had clogged to spreader openings. Spreader is not worth using with coated seed! I finished up the overseeding with my Edge Guard rotors spreader and put down Scott’s Starter Fertilizer. That was 2 1/2 weeks ago. After watering the lawn 2x a day, every day with my underground sprinkler system, about 30% of the seed germinated. I have blue seeds all over the soil surface that will probably never germinate! Meanwhile my existing lawn is now 4 inches high and in need of mowing. If I mow, then all the undermining seed will be picked up and the 1” seedlings will be crushed by my mower. Stay clear of coated grass seed and mostly stay clear of Scott’s! Waste of money! Should have stayed with Jonathon Green Black Beauty Ultra. 10 years without a problem!!!

I live in Northern California where our temperatures range from occasional lows of 24F in the winter to many triple digit summer days up to 115F and this grass performs well here. I planted it in October of 2020 and had what appeared to be 100% germination within 10 days. The grass came in very green and strong. I did not add fertilizer as the soil had a lot of manure in it. Oddly the grass turned a bit brown and patchy by December and I thought I might have to reseed in the spring. I was a bit disappointed at that point. However I fertilized the grass in the spring and it came to life as a thick green carpet and has remained so ever since, including all of last summer and winter. I couldn't be happier with the results. Everyone who sees my new lawn can't believe it is not sod. In fact it looks better than the sod lawn in front of my home! One thing to point out about fescue grass seed is that it usually does not germinate well in temperatures above 90F. Perhaps that is why some reviewers had poor success with this grass seed?

Buying a house in North Texas in the winter, I didn’t know what I was up against come spring. The weeds were awful because Bermuda goes dormant in the winter which allows weed seeds to plant themselves and then grow in the spring. To prevent this, I searched for a seed that would stay green in the winter, but also be able to survive the hot summer days. I came across this heat tolerant blue mix and so far it has been great! Deep green color and resistant to cold and drought. The difficult part is actually getting it to grow. I paired this with Scott’s “Turf Builder Triple Action Built for Seeding” starter food. Not only does it help the grass start to grow, but it prevents and kills off weeds while the seed is growing. All I did was overseed my lawn in fall last year as well as this spring and it has been taking over the Bermuda. Would highly recommend if you’re tired of looking at brown grass in the winter!

Tis the season to be seeding, therefore, I am going to write my review early to give some tips of advice.So, I live in a very interesting climate. I’m in a transition zone of 5b, 7000 ft in elevation, high desert. Relative humidity usually around 15% this time of year.Please excuse my progress as my yard is in landscape mode for the 2021 upcoming season. So, I decided to do half of my yard (thus starting the process a tad earlier, seeded Aug 15th) and then will complete the second half beginning Labor Day weekend. I did this for a few reasons.1. I only had enough chicken wire to rope off half the yard to keep my dogs off of it2. I only had enough row cloth to cover half of the area at a time. (I’ll get to that later)3. I try to conserve water (less area to concentrate on at a time)So, my advice for people who live in climates like mine:First off, it was hotter than it was suppose to be. Highs were about 85 when I started and then we had several 90-93 degrees day (lows in the 50’s)! That made me nervous but just had to water more than I wanted to.Prep, prep prep!!First, though all I had was weeds, I killed them all off about a week before seeding (only had to wait 3 days but planned it out so did it way earlier).Second, raked up all the thatch and dead weeds.Third, put down about 12 bags of good top soil for the first half. (Peet and sheep is a great choice too!) raked it of for good cover on my desert dirt.Fourth, well, spread the seed for new lawn.Fifth, gave a light raking to gently cover the seed, not bury it!Sixth, covered with a row cloth. You can buy them at your local nursery by the foot or here very reasonably on Amazon! I bought mine on amazon and have reused it for several seeding projects. The row cloth lets the light in and the moisture through when you water. It keeps those beautiful blue seeds moist after watering and safe from the birds. Pin that cloth down! Also, if you can’t find row cloth you can also purchase rolls of burlap. Burlap works well too, just make sure not to pull out the seedlings when you remove it.Then I put chicken wire up (cause I already had it) just to keep the pups off until the seedlings are strong.Then water. I watered once in the morning, once about noon and once more in the evening. The pic I posted (of actual grass) is from day 17 after planting. I uncovered to see my progress and then went ahead and pinned down the row cloth for another week (I’ll uncover again Labor Day weekend) until I start the process again on the other half of my lawn.Day 19 today, it thickening up nicely! By this next spring I should have a nice lush stand of grass! Remember, patience......So basically, if you put the work into it, you’ll have grass too!!! If you want an instant lawn, perhaps you should look at sod instead. Seeding is so rewarding but it definitely requires patience. Hopefully this review helps someone. As you can see I literally started from nothing! If I can do it, so can you!Good luck and happy seeding season!*****Update 10/1/20*****Seeded second half 21 days ago. The seedlings haven’t germinated as quickly as the first half. Only thing I did differently is used peat n sheep instead of top soil because my local Ace was out of top soil. The temps have been cooler and I think the seed has been more moist with the cooler temps and the different dressing. I uncovered, added some seeds to the bare spots and will continue watering uncovered. Looks promising just taking longer than the other side did. Patience. Daytime highs around 80 lows in upper 30’s to 40’s. No rain in sight.

Update: changed to 3 stars… i planted these again in spring 2024 in a bare section and it cMe out very good but also had the weedy wide leaf grass that I was able to pull as it came in a 2x 1 ft section there were about 5 of those weeds, after I removed them it looks good nowPlanted in fall 2023 and is growing now This is not TTTFIt may be tall fescue but very bad quality it looks like weedy lime green thick and tall.Will wait to see heat tolerance this summer.