If you are about to begin your fall or spring overseeding ritual and want the darkest, greenest rye grass possible, then look no further than Fireball grass seed.
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When it comes to Fireball rye grass, here’s all of the things you should know before overseeding it into your existing lawn.
How Dark Is Fireball Perennial Ryegrass?
Fireball rye grass is a perennial ryegrass that is ranked 1st in the 2017 NTEP trials as the darkest perennial grass seed. This makes Fireball rye grass the darkest grass seed you can find on the market right now.
If you are unable to find any available Fireball grass seed, Hattrick is another popular ryegrass cultivar that ranked as the 3rd darkest rye grass seed in the 2017 NTEP trials.
Since Fireball can be difficult to find at certain times of the year, many people buy a grass seed blend that is 50/50 Fireball and Hattrick grass seed. You can’t go wrong with a blend like this.
👉Buy Fireball/Hattrick Blend Rye Grass Seed
Fireball Ryegrass Benefits
Not only does Fireball ryegrass produce a dark green turf, but it has excellent cold tolerance. This helps it to green up quickly in the spring and to blend well with other grass species making it the perfect seed to use when overseeding your existing lawn turf.
Fireball is also endophyte enhanced, which means it has the increased ability to resist insect damage and disease damage.
Since Fireball is a perennial ryegrass, it germinates extremely quickly. In fact, once planted, it can germinate in as soon as 5-7 days! The ability to quickly establish makes it a great choice to reduce weed pressure.
How to Overseed With Fireball Rye Grass
Here are the steps to follow when overseeding your lawn with Fireball grass:
- Scalp Your Lawn – set your mower to the lowest setting and cut and bag your grass. This will help to remove dead organic material, and will shock your grass to temporarily slow down growth.
- Dethatch/Scarify Your Lawn – Scarifying your lawn helps to remove dead thatch as well as aerates the soil, making the perfect place for new Fireball grass seed to drop into. We recommend using a lawn scarifier machine such as the Sun Joe dethatcher which is inexpensive and does a great job.
- Pre-germinate Grass Seed – Pre-germinate your Fireball/Hattrick grass seed by pouring seed into a paint strainer. Then place the paint strainer bag full of seed into a 5 gallon bucket and submerge it in the water for 48 hours. Make sure to replace the water every 12 hours.
- Spread Grass Seed – Using a push spreader or a hand spreader, spread the Fireball seed at a rate of 4lbs/1000 square feet. If you pre-germinate the seed like we recommend above, mix the grass seed with an organic fertilizer like Milorganite to help it spread more easily.
- Seed To Soil Contact – Lightly rake over the area where you are overseeding to help the grass seed fall into the soil pockets created by scarifying your lawn. It’s also a good idea to use a lawn roller to help push the seed into the soil.
- Top Dressing – To ensure that birds leave your seed alone, and to further increase seed-to-soil contact, we recommend spreading a layer of peat moss over the overseeding area. Using a peat moss spreader is the easiest way to do this. 🤔Having a hard time finding peat moss? 👉Get peat moss here.
Once you have followed these steps, the key is to keep the area moist by watering for 5-10 minutes 2-3 times a day until you see little baby blades pop up. Once the grass establishes, you can start to gradually back off on the frequency of watering.
Pro Tip: Wait at least 3-4 weeks from the time of overseeding to mow. Mowing too soon can damage your new baby grass. Overseeding and then doing a fall nitrogen blitz yields best results.
Fireball Rye Grass Is Awesome
If your goal is have a dark green, lush lawn using a seed that is drought and disease resistant, then Fireball perennial rye grass is for you! With its ability to establish quickly and to blend in with many different grass species, Fireball grass seed is a no-brainer when overseeding your lawn in the fall or spring.